Gerbil Update

They are still alive.

That's probably the biggest piece of gerbil news we have. I'm really not sure how they are still alive and accounted for, but somehow they've made it through the first week.

The older two quickly mastered holding and catching them and the gerbils have grown accustomed to being handled far more than is healthy for any creature to be handled. Things were going fairly smoothly until Alidia got brave and started picking them up.....

Now to be fair, she's improved considerably. However, there are still a fair amount of situations where little gerbil eyeballs are on the verge of popping out due to over excited squeezing and fewer and fewer moments where I've had to remind her not to pick them up by the tails.  

Then there is the belief that the gerbils have been successfully "trained". The kids have far too much confidence in their dear little gerbils and believe that it's not possible for them to run away or get lost. Unfortunately, Cole's little trick of letting it sit on his chest did result in a small situation in which Blackie got under the couch and couldn't be drug coaxed out for about 5 minutes. Everyone thought it was hilarious, mom confined the gerbils to their cage until further notice.

This morning Cole decided to see how the gerbils enjoyed the pockets of his bathrobe. I'm not sure if the gerbils loved it, but Cole certainly did.

Now you'll notice one child is missing from all these pictures.

This is not because she doesn't like the gerbils. No, quite the opposite. She hasn't made it into any photos because I usually feel the need to be completely prepared for disaster where she is involved, no time for the camera. But if I had taken pictures of Aviana then you might see gerbils sitting on people's heads, "jumping" off of couches, riding around in Little People vehicles, or dipping their tails in water, to name a few.

Maybe next time.