Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Mommy, I Want A Pregnant Duck

By some stroke of genius, our school auctioned off a hamster at our annual school auction. The furry, little creature was brought to school and put on display in the hallway. At every minute of the day, even when the kids were supposed to be in class, there was at least one, tiny, hopeful face pressed against the bars of the cage just wishing...

That hamster and it's elaborate Habitrail became the talk of EVERY dinner conversation at our house between the onslaught of the display and the auction. It especially snagged the heart of our 6 year old third child. Our son has a dog and our middle daughter has a cat, so naturally, it was her birthright for us to be the high bidders on that hamster.

At the auction, my husband had a glimmer in his eye as they brought the hamster cage and all its trimmings to the bidding floor. We had said we absolutely WERE NOT bidding on a hamster, but how much trouble could a little hamster be? To my surprise (that old softie), he readied his bid number. As the bidding surged past $500 and topped out at $900, we were both in disbelief.

We broke the news to Birk the next day, and she took it pretty well. We had to explain a little bit about how an auction worked--what we didn't mention how much tequila you'd have to drink to spend that much on a hamster.

It seemed like that might be the end of it, but of course we weren't getting off that easy. That night at dinner, she wanted a turtle. Next night it was a bunny, then a rat. Lately, it's a pregnant duck, but she would take a chicken, if that's all we could get. Even with a boiled down explanation about the birds and the bees and local zoning(she said it would be fine with her if we moved to a farm), she is sticking with the duck.

Three kids, one dog, one cat and a pregnant duck? I'll keep you posted.

(this is a flashback post on last year's school auction...wish me luck this year!)

6 comments:

~Jamie said...

When my daughter was about 4 she begged me for a horse for nearly and entire year. She said it could live in her room in the closet. That same year she stole a kitten from the neighbors house and put it in a plastic backpack and hung it up in the closet. It took me the longest time to figure out where the meowing was coming from. I thought her heart would break when I made her return the kitten.

Terri said...

How funny!!! Let me know where might find a pregnant duck... you must post pictures!!
We decided to stay home for our anniversary. My sis in law kept the kids on Friday night and we grilled steaks and watched a movie... it was very relaxing!! Thanks for asking.

Anonymous said...

Now that is a new one. Good luck fulfilling that request.

I am Harriet said...

A hamster? Wow.

Jennifer said...

Pregnant duck... Pregnant. Duck. Your daughter sure does know what she wants! ;-)

Just got back from vacay the other day, still catching up with everything, but I want to thank you for the Lemonade award! It was very sweet of you! :-) I'll be posting it sometime this weekend!

Country Mouse, City Mouse said...

That is one pricey auction! So, did you get a pregnant duck? LOL

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