fluffy and stripe

So Jeff and I finally got to meet Sara's and Annie's new guinea pigs last night, Fluffy and Stripe. They were very small (and young).

I've never had a guinea pig as a pet before, so hadn't realized how placid they were. They genuinely seemed content to just be held. Sara showed me how to gently scratch Fluffy behind the ears ("she likes that a lot").

Sara and Annie are very gentle with their new pets. I shudder to think of what happens when their more rambunctious classmates come over to visit. I guess Fluffy and Stripe will just have to learn to adjust.





Sadly, both Fluffy and Stripe have distinctive markings, and Stripe definitely seems to know Annie's voice already. So much for my plan to find emergency replacements for either of them if tragedy strikes while they are in Jeff's and my babysitting care!

Both Sara and Annie have started guinea pig diaries. Sara's is elaborately annotated with daily events, drawings, and photos.





Before dinner, Sara and Annie put on a Mamma Mia mini-performance for me. Sara and I are going to see Mamma Mia at the Royal Alex in June; we are both VERY hyped about this. I gave Sara the CD soundtrack for her birthday, and she has already memorized the lyrics to six of the songs.

Sara is starting to ask me what some of the songs mean. Uh-oh.

I've been trying to find a good synopsis of the musical online. The official Mamma Mia site gives the following unhelpful information under their "Synopsis" page: "MAMMA MIA! is ABBA's greatest hits woven into 3 wonderful love stories: A young girl about to be married; her mother about to confront the past; and the best love story of all - the audience about to jump out of their seats with joy!"

Guess I should start listening to the CD soundtrack more myself, though I still think I'm going to have a hard time trying to explain why poor Sophie is trying to figure out who her Daddy is in the story...





Jeff and I put the girls to bed last night. Usually this consists of Jeff reading them a couple stories while I try desperately not to fall asleep on the bed beside them. Sara and Annie are so used to this by now that they bring their noisemakers with them to bed for the story reading, in case they see me dozing off.

Sometimes I can see their little faces eagerly watching me (instead of listening to Jeff's story), waiting for my eyelids to droop so they can start shaking their noisemakers and banging their plastic cups and pots together (from the kitchen set). They'll get impatient waiting sometimes, and Annie will lean over to me and whisper, "Auntie Debbie, you can fall asleep now."

Last night, Annie got distracted by the plastic cup she was holding, finding that she could make her voice sound funny if she talked while pressing the cup hard against her mouth.

"My Preciousssssssssssssssssss," she'd whisper over and over again while I tried not to giggle at her Gollum impression.

Jeff was very patient. :-)

---

Today's Blatherpics:

	Sara holding Fluffy.
	Annie holding Stripe.
	A page from Sara's diary (which Ruth says she started on her own). "Day 4 - Friday, April 14, 2002. Boo got eye sicknes. I cryed a lot. We had to returne her after dinner. But I got a new Guinea pig and named it Fluffy." Ruth said that Sara was crying when she wrote this entry.
	Another page from Sara's diary. This drawing is of Ruth trying to get one of the guinea pigs out of the cage so they can clean the cage.
	Sara's plasticine model of E.T. and the flowerpot.