Shirtless Boy

I don't know where he got it, but about two weeks ago #5 began taking off his shirt whenever we are at home. I began to notice the phenomenon when, every time we got ready to go somewhere, I not only had to track down his shoes, but also his shirt. No, Daddy does not tend to walk around the house without a shirt, and the big boys pretty much keep theirs on as well. If Luke starts out the day without a shirt, he would probably stay that way, but he doesn't take it off once he has one on. But #5, no matter how many times we come and go during the day, will remove his shirt when we are home.

Hmmm, kinda makes me remember #2 and his habit of running around shoeless when we lived in Okinawa. He once even climbed into the van without shoes when we left for a three day vacation to Oura Wan on the northern end of the island. If it had only been a beach trip it wouldn't have mattered much, but we had plans to go to the zoo too, so we had to make a stop at Jusco for some over-priced Japanese shoes. He still prefers to be shoeless, but our last three warm-weather assignments have allowed him to do that....I have just become better about checking him shoe situation before we leave the house!

Just as I was about to click "publish post", #5 came to me and asked, "Can you take this shirt off?" I asked him, "Why do you take your shirt off all the time?" and he said, "Because I get too hot, sweaty" Okay, you go for it dude, 'cause I can't afford to turn the air up any higher!

A sad day in our house

This morning, as he does most mornings, Luke woke and went straight to the guinea pigs' cage to tell his little buddies, Bugsie and Spike, good morning. The next thing I heard was crying...the poor little guy had discovered that Bugsie had died during the night, and he was heartbroken.

Bugsie has been Luke's constant companion since his birthday last year. They have had many

adventures together over the past year, and many games of hide-and-seek for the whole family (FYI guinea pigs love to hide, and 3-4yr olds are not very good at keeping track of them). The first thing that Luke does when company walks through the front door, is to get Bugsie out of his cage and bring him to say hello...whether the guest was an animal lover or not!

Before leaving for school, Luke told me "Now I know what I want to do with my birthday money. I don't want Spike to be lonely." Spencer then said that he thought all the kids should help to buy a new guinea pig. It's amazing how sweet they can be to eachother when they really need it. I love my sweet, tender-hearted boys! Even though they can be mean and nasty to eachother at times, they can be super sweet when the time is right.

It was hard to send him off to school, but I think he needed the distraction. I emailed his teacher to give her a heads-up. Hopefully his day goes well. Tonight we will have our first ever (unless you count the fish burials at sea) family pet burial. Wish us luck...oops, there goes Spike, running away from Brendan under the buffet UGH!! The guinea pig adventure continues...