The Joy of a Rat

The kids threw colored chalk paint at each other as part of the missionary lesson on India.  It was about 35F degrees outside- a warm day for Siberia this time of year (but still too cold to be out long without coats!)

  Every few months the youth in our church have put together a special missonary story (complete with learning about a country and group of people) for the kids in Sunday School.  It's been so special for the kids, and it's also been really encouraging to see people in our church growing and beginning to lead and serve.  This past missionary story took place in India.  One of the youth brought in a snake for all of the kids to pet.  The next day, Anneka asked to stop into the pet store just to look and see if they had snakes.  I knew, of course, that there was no way we were getting a snake, so I thought "what's the harm in stopping into the pet store?"  Leif and Ike decided to come with us, too, and on our way there was a lady begging.  I stopped and offered to take her grocery shopping and Leif didn't skip a beat and helped by going on ahead to the pet store with the kids.  But the time I caught up with them 20 minutes later, both kids had fallen hopelessly in love with a RAT.  (And we knew that if Ella had been with us, she would have been in love, too.)  Leif is much more low key about these things.  I honestly didn't know if I had energy for a rat.  But he was a baby rat (less than a month old) and very cute.  So how could I say no?  Within minutes we were toting home our new little pet.

 

     Ella was jumping-up-and-down-excited to come home from kindergarten to "A RAT!  A RAT!"
 

 So proud of her new little friend!

Superman, Batman, or Ratman?

     The thing I love most about having a rat is that he brings GIGGLES.  All. The. Time.  Ike really liked having the rat crawl around up and down his pant legs for awhile, but we put an end to that (he could get squished!).  But he loves to carry him around on his head.  We all have enjoyed putting up mazes for him and feeding him new foods.  The girls love to pet him and carry him on their shoulders.  His name is Midnight.  

     We didn't tell anyone about our rat right away, and Anneka got the great idea to play a joke on her teachers and classmates at school.  She told the story to my parents on this skype video message, and it was so cute (of all three kids), I thought I'd post it here, too.

     Within one week's time, the rat has gotten loose 3 times (and one of the times we found him in our bed!).  But thankfully he still continues to be cute and surprisingly not creepy.  I find myself concerned about our rat's social and physical needs.  Who would have guessed?  We read that rats are really smart and can be taught tricks.  This will probably be our next step with him.