Some Pigs

The boys are still very much enjoying the guinea pigs. There are sometimes grumbles and moans about cleaning out litter boxes or cages but mostly they do a good job. Gabe, especially, has taken to making sure they have everything their furry little hearts desire.
David John still loves them even though he does not enjoy the cleaning chores. He's decided to change his middle name to Guinea Pig and spends time reading guinea pig articles online. He even read a National Geographic about the very large ancient ancestors of guinea pigs and then drew pictures of them at school the next day. The teacher didn't even question him when he said they were guinea pig ancestors. She figured he knew what he was talking about. His computer log in is guineapig09. He might be a little obsessed.
Benjamin and Tobias also love the guineas. They love to pet and groom Calvin and Hobbes. Tobias gets discouraged that the piggies run away from his chubby little hands. Sometimes he tells me, dejectedly, "Calvin not want to pet me." He's getting better at being gentle but, unfortunately, he and Benjamin still need supervision to do those things. Recently, the little boys decided to play with the guinea pigs all by themselves. I was up in my office working on school-board related business when Benjamin came upstairs to deliver the following news.

"Mom! We are playing hide-and-seek with the guinea pigs and Hobbes is really good! We can't even find him!"

"You mean, he's hiding in his cage?"

"No, we let them out to play hide and seek."

"You're telling me that Hobbes is lost somewhere in our basement."

"Noooo, he's just hiding and we can't find him."

"I see."

Isn't it great how kids can rebrand things? No, he's not lost, he's just hiding and we haven't found him yet. It's a game! I wish I could tell you that I was completely calm and patient but I was a little freaked out about the idea of Hobbes climbing into the furnace or something so I panicked a little bit. I found him hiding under a couch and was able to coax him back into his cage. I told the boys that hide-and-seek was probably not the best game to play with guinea pigs, even if they are very good at it. Yep, they're some pigs.