Ziggy Stardust

I WANTED to take and post a picture of Zeke ridiculously dirty from eating a PB and J that daddy made him (daddy's always contains far too much PB if you ask ME), and also another of Ziggy sleeping in my colander in the sink. But alas my camera is busted. It's been working funny for almost 6 months (even though we've had it less than 2 years) and it is finally done for good. I was very angry and stressed and mad about this at first but my husband assures me that he will "figure something out". So now I'm just trying to be patient.

And anyways, I HAD promised a post devoted to Ziggy Stardust updates. Because, yes, this little guy is a pretty big part of our lives these days.

I'm actually a little amazed at what a big part of our lives that he is. While I always had pets as a child I was also, you know, a child at the time. So I didn't really have to bear (or even understand) the full responsibility of pet ownership. That's what parents are for, right? And while I've had pets as an adult even, aquarium pets are really a small commitment compared to little furry things that insist on sleeping in your bed and following you around everywhere. The turtles, after all, require feeding and monthly or so cleaning but that's about it. Ziggy requires feeding as well, but also litter box cleaning, behavior training, and at the very least a half hour of daily play time if I don't want to be kept up all night by an over-active kitten. And for the first time in my life, I'M the parent that is "for" this sort of thing.

And I can honestly even say that Ziggy has changed the dynamic of our family. He really has become another member of it. In fact, sometimes Josh and I feel that he must be as much work as another child will be. He wakes us up these days more often than Zeke does at least. And the relationship that Zeke and Ziggy have formed can be described as nothing but sibling rivalry. The only thing they do more than play is fight. Seriously. Every morning they wake up to laugh and hug and are sooo excited to see each other. Then the bickering begins. They fight over who gets to sit in the toy basket in the livingroom (a very coveted seat in this house, apparently). As soon as I start to play with one the other comes running in for some attention as well and then they are pushing and shoving eachother trying to get into my lap the fastest. They even fight over toys (Ziggy has actually gotten really smart and will hide toys he doesnt want Zeke playing with behind his food dish, as he knows that Zeke is not allowed to go into the corner where we keep the cat food). And to top it off, when I get tired of watching them fight and finally seperate them, they both CRY for eachother on opposite sides of the door until I reunite them, at which point they hug and giggle and are sooo happy to see eachother. Then the bickering begins again.

They are also getting each other into all sorts of trouble. Zeke learned how to climb onto the table and counters by watching Ziggy do it (And who knows how Ziggy manages it because the cat cant climb or jump worth anything. Every single morning he goes downstairs to Josh's office with him, climbs onto the top of the desk, and then cant get down until Josh helps him). Zeke has also trained Ziggy to hide in his lap in the highchair where I cant see him but Zeke can reach him to hand him bites of food.

But we DO love him. :) I remind Josh of that daily.

PS. The whole "Z" thing? Totally a coincidence. Although we may be stretching the cooincidence a little far these days considering that one of the turtles is named Zelda and our number 1 boy name at the moment is Ezra. Our number 1 girl name is Adva though so there's a point for the non-Z's...and our other turtle is Hadassah...but then again Elizabeth is also pretty high on the girl name list...

So maybe we do have some sort of strange "Z" thing going on. But its subconcious I swear.