Strolling through Chinatown with my daughters on Monday, the first day of February Break, I changed. I mutated. I metamorphasized. I became Fun Mom. Undaunted by our tight budget and our lack of vacation plans, I made our own adventure. I drove us through crowded streets with signs in Chinese and we shared a meal full of mysterious ingredients. After lunch, when we spotted the cute little turtles in the front of the souvenir shop, I knew we were in trouble, because I didn't have the heart to go back to being Drab Naysayer Mom.
When Bella started begging for the turtles, she did it half-heartedly, already gearing herself up for my resounding "No". You should have seen the look on her face when I said, "Sure! Why not? Let's get some turtles."
The old Chinese lady didn't wait for me to change my mind, she whisked a tiny aquarium cage filled with a little water and plopped two turtles in it. She didn't crack a smile as she held out a wrinkled hand and said, "twenty dollars." Bella couldn't believe her good fortune. She asked cautiously, "Are those turtles for us? Are you really buying turtles? Are we going to bring them home?"
I handed a twenty over and took the turtle box from the old lady. She didn't meet my eye, oblivious to her parody of Mastercard advertising as she added, "Food. Two dollars." I nodded and handed the cage over to Bella to fish out my wallet again. Bella held the box gingerly up to her face to get a closer look at her new babies. "Mom, can I hold them in the car? I promise I'll be careful."
The new Me answered breezily, "Of course! They're your turtles. Yours and Jack's and Juliette's. Just make sure you hold them carefully." And we paraded through Chinatown, with Bella leading our group back to our car, holding her precious cargo while everyone we passed commented on her adorable turtles.
Fast forward past the conversation with Steve "You bought what? Without talking to me???" ... Fast forward past reading that sales of tiny turtles is illegal because they often carry salmonella... Fast forward past the purchase of a much larger tank with heating lamp ($20 turtles now cost an extra $50) And you'll find our turtles moving less every day and me taking bets on how long they'll live.In one moment of misguided generosity, I opened my kids up to the heartbreak of watching these creatures die a slow death, and I saddled myself with the weekly cleaning of a tank. I questioned my sanity and worried about how I could prepare the kids for their impending passing. But amazingly, this morning when we came downstairs, the turtles had left their floating beach and were swimming energetically.
After we finished dancing around with relief that they might live through the weekend, I realized that I had something even worse than their death to worry about. What if the turles live? How big could they get?
No, these are not our turtles, yet. It's a photo from Go Pets Online.
Parent Bloggers Network is doing a blog blast this weekend partnered with Pledge Fabric Sweeper. The topic is pet stories.
1 comments:
We have a similar story involving goldfish. We were at the carnival and I let my 3yo play the game where you throw the ping pong balls and try to win a fish. How could a 3yo possibly win a fish? On the first ball, that's how.
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