The fun of being mom

You know when you tell a child they can have  pet you always know in the back of your mind it somehow is your pet too even if you didn't want it.  The children all made promises to take care of their hamsters and they have done a great job.  The mother hamster died and we truly do not know why something to do with the birth is all we can figure.  The babies are so small it is too great a responsibility for my girls to take care of and be at school all day , also because they are scared they will hurt them.  So the job has fallen to me I remember vaguely doing this as a kid with my cousins hamsters and I hand-fed many a baby bird growing up (my mother use to raise birds to sell so it happened often I would have to feed some from the incubators).  But you know I just had not planned on this and the lack of sleep.  At the same time they are cute and have done nothing wrong.  Yesterday we figured that they truly had not had a good meal in a few days from mom as they were so so weak, sleepy, skinny and starving.  This morning after around the clock feedings they are active running and eat not near as much at one setting as they did yesterday, I would guess their little tummies are staying full.

My girls made a little pink coffin for the hamster and buried her in the yard yesterday and carved (scratched) into a little stone the name Midnight and said good bye to their hamster.  Children are so sweet and tender hearted  I feel bad that they have to go through this but at the same time it is part of the life cycle birth and death.  They learn so much in a matter of hours having pets.  I know most of my readers of this blog probably wonder why I am talking about the kids pets well.  This has been such a growing experience for them to learn where babies come from in detail trust me they understand it all, we have had in depth discussions as to exactly how babies arrive from start to finish, to why parents die when their children still need them and how to help those who can not help themselves.  It touched me and I wanted to share.  Plus hamsters are cute at this age you won't get me to say that when they are grown and cranky but for now they are cute.  Three of the hamsters love this pumpkin to sleep in their mama did for a little while too so it probably smells like her.  Every thing else in the cage is new and clean so they will not get sick.  But she wasn't in the pumpkin when she was sick so figured it was ok.