My perfect child

My son has allergies, as I've mentioned before. He wants a cat or dog so badly that  part of me does believe him when he tells me it actually HURTS his heart. But, as long as the doctor says its asthma inducing and snot nose causing, we're steering clear of the cats and dogs. We got the ok last fall to get him a hamster. I was excited because my parents didn't let hamsters in the house when I was six.

It was a glorious plan. We got him the biggest deluxe cage we could find. And I spent an entire Saturday afternoon "interviewing" potential hamsters at my local Petco. I'd like to give a shout-out to the associate who helped the crazy mom find the "right" hamster.

B is hooked on Humphrey the Hamster books...and I found a good imitation. I was sure he'd name him Humphrey. And when we lifted the GIANT box that was covering the cage under the Christmas tree last winter B's face lit up, the hamster was named Humphrey and they became best friends in two seconds. Humphrey moved into B's room - because he's a big boy now at six. And because they're best friends. B played with him, cleaned the cage, and read books to Humphrey daily.

He then became allergic to the hamster in the spring. Not "get rid of your best friend" bad. But "he can't be in your room and you can no longer clean his cage". He became the dad. And in most cases, mom became the one cleaning the cage while B chased the ball and played and had all the fun.

I've been cleaning this cage over the months and this week, we ran behind schedule for B to "help" so I did it after he was in bed tonight. I found myself talking to hamster and loving the fact that he sat there and looked at me and did not interrupt. He went right into the ball when I asked, so I could clean the cage while he played. And he did not go "under foot" while I was working. When I finished, I took him out of the ball and held him for a minute, petting him and loving that he just hung out and let me love him for a minute.

I realized two things: First, the hamster is the perfect child. Second, who the hell am I kidding - I'm a 32 year old woman with a pet hamster.

Six year old me would be impressed.