A few weeks ago while my husband was still away the phone rang. On the other end was my teenager. He excitedly announced he had something to show me and he couldnt wait. “You just wait Mom you wont believe it.” At that moment my mind went a million places. Oh man I thought a tattoo, or maybe a piercing. So I had to ask him. He then asked me to guess and it starts with an H. I rattled off tattoo right away, I know it doesnt start with a H, but I just had to clear that one off. No MOM that doesnt start with an H, he said. I couldnt guess and finally he told me – A HAMSTER. A WHAT!!! Yeah Mom, me and my friends were at the pet store today and I bought a hamster. It was just so cute and I couldnt leave it there he stated. At that moment I realized it had happend, the impulse sensor in his sweet brain had overfilled and he had lost his mind. A million things ran through my mind so I had to ask, you do remember that we are leaving in TWO months right? Of course he did and he had made arrangements…and then he reassured me that we could take it back to the pet store if I didnt fall in love with it for the next seven days. It is just in a box, take a look at it and you can decide he says.
This is when the fun began. Ok, I told myslef, we will go pick him up from his friends house and we are going to take that hamster back immediately and before we fall in love with it. It was hard for me to come to that decision knowing how excited my son was for the hamster – I have a strong hippie mom side that is all about free love and free will and it was battling with my common sense side that said we just cant do this. So I drove to pick him up with the mantra that we are going straight to the pet store…we are going straight to the pet store all the while the other side of me saying…it is just a hamster what will it hurt! No, we are going straight to the pet store!
So I go to pick up my son and the hamster had to spend the night at another friends house (the friend he was staying with, his Mom wouldnt let it sleepover too, cant say I blame her!). So we go to pick it up and the Mom walks out of the house with the hamster in a CAGE and a bin full of food and toys….and oh my goodness it was supposed to just be in a box – a box can go straight back to the STORE – but a cage and toys and food.
So that is when I try to bring my son back to the kindergarten lesson…do you remember those? There are four squares with a different series of events…so I tell him box one – has a boy on the phone to his mother. Box two has a boy looking at a hamster. Box three has a boy thinking about buying a hamster. Box four has a boy waving good-bye to a hamster or optionally buying a hamster. Now lets practice putiing them in order…we joked for a bit about the order and in the end I hope he got it.
I gave him seven days. Seven days to find a home for the hamster in two months – the hamster that was now named – or it was going back to the store. That is the best I could do. Especially after seeing his face and my youngest son. Oh my goodness they were infatuated with this little thing.
So it is scientificly proven. The impulse sensor between the ages of teenagerdom and 20 something is being fired into with a million little, parden the pun, impulses. They actually showed a brain scan and the impulse center was lit up like a christmas tree. And well I think I just witnessed the first, grand, exciting lighting of the tree right inside my own son.
A few weeks have passed and well we are still the proud owners of a beautiful little hamster and I have decided H is for hamster. No maybe H is for hippie. Or maybe H is for HELP as this is just the begininng to many more tree lightings.
Here is little Isabel Hamachi Rosemary –
Isnt she cute – dont answer that – wink!
SN
