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1.
We are in the bed but not asleep. Wes is petting Lexie the whippet mix. We are pondering my chances of being pregnant. I am marveling over the fact that all of us – him, me, Lexie the whippet mix, the baby chicks newly hatched at school – we all looked basically the same at the beginning. Little blobs with eyes. Tadpole-like.

"So maybe you’ll give birth to a penguin instead of a baby," Wes said.

This is a frequent game, the one where Wes wishes he could have a penguin or a porcupine or a chimp instead of a baby human.

"You would really like that, wouldn’t you?"

"I would love that. So how about you make a penguin?"

"Love, I have to tell you that I sometimes fear that you will be disappointed if I ever manage to create a human baby."

"No, not disappointed."

"Yes. You would prefer a penguin. You’re going to be disappointed."

"No. I know it’s not really possible so I won’t be disappointed. Now, if that was the way things were – like, if you could have a boy or a girl or a penguin… then yes, I would be disappointed if we didn’t get a penguin."

"You are a total freak, love."

2.
The second grade was a bit crazed this morning. Sub-associate came in to find a quick 20 minute video to babysit the class before they take them to the park (second to last day – this is what happens). We have already packed all the fiction videos so all that is left is non-fiction. I spotted Koko’s Kitten, 17.5 minutes, perfect, sent her off.

The classroom teacher came in laughing but yelling 10 minutes later.

"Ms. S**** – are you in here?"

I emerged from behind the stacks of poetry books and crap I am getting rid of.

"Ms. S**** – the cat dies! My whole class is in tears!"

We were both laughing so hard we could barely catch our breath.

I am a horrible person and I am going to hell.

"But she gets another cat, doesn’t she? I could swear she gets another cat."

"I don’t know. All I know is that I came back in the room and my whole class was teary-eyed and
glaring at me."

After she left with a cheery Magic School Bus distractor, I found the book of Koko’s Kitten. She gets another fricking cat. I stormed over to Ms. H  and showed her. Vindicated.

But oh, heavens… I feel so, so guilty. I have probably permanently scarred a couple of those kids.
Children should learn. They should learn that cats die and sometimes you can just get another one.
Especially if you are a gorilla.

Ms. S**** – pushing the animal rights agenda by any means necessary. Including the tears of seven year olds.

3.
I don’t really understand this, but lazygal provided a link that does this fun graphing of your website thing and it’s really pretty. Have fun here.