Another One Bites The Dust

For Thomas's 9th birthday, I got him a pair of Chinese Dwarf hamsters, who subsequently died within 6 months. The first one was cannibalized, and then buried in a Godiva chocolate box. (It's actually a pretty funny story- if you haven't read it, click the link and laugh before rejoining the rest of us.) The second got sick and died following the power outage during last year's ice storm. My son was devastated, and vowed to NEVER AGAIN own a lil' critter.

Until this Christmas.
He asked for another hamster for Christmas- one that would live, by itself so that it couldn't eat the other one. I agreed, and we picked out the nicest, cutest lil' thing ever about a week before Christmas. His name? "Fuzzy Buttons" He was, indeed, fuzzy.

Was.

Key word there... "Was"

HE FREAKIN' DIED LAST WEEK.
I could NOT believe it! I discovered this around 8pm Thursday; the boys were scheduled to be back at my house on Saturday afternoon. Maybe I could replace it with a new one, and he'd never notice!!

WRONG.
He noticed right away. There is just no fooling a child sometimes.
And he didn't like the replacement hamster. Honestly, I didn't either- it was fine when I bought him but then he started biting EVERYTHING- even a Matchbox airplane! So we took him back and Thomas picked out another hamster.

It's SOOO CUTE. White, with a little grey around his face and a stripe down his back. I swear, he looks like a 3 inch long Bugs Bunny. On the way home, I asked Thomas what he was going to name the new lil' guy. My son, my oldest son, the son who lamely tries to tell jokes, the son who takes everything so seriously he actually held a baseball to his eye when told to "keep your eye on the ball'.... made a joke.

Without hesitation, he broke out into song:
HA
HA
HA
HA
STAYIN' ALIVE!
STAYIN' ALIVE!
HA
HA
HA
HA
STAYIN' ALIVE.. ALIVE... ALIVE...
"I think I'll call him STAYIN' ALIVE, just so he gets the hint."

*SNORT*