Crickets and Clay

J pestered me for a pet. I tried to side-step him by saying that he does have pets - his soft toys. "I want a real pet," J clarified. I pointed out to him that he didn't help out with the cleaning of the pet cage when Hammy the hamster was alive. He promised that he would this time round. Again, I tried to distract him by telling him he has a pond of fishes outside. "I want it inside."

That afternoon, we went for a walk, looking for possible pet candidates. We could only find pillbugs and snails. Snails will have to do. Four snails holed up in a small clear plastic cage along with some leaves. They left a trail of slime and after an hour or two, Jin turned his nose up at the smell. The snails happily slunk away to freedom after that.

Next day, we dropped by at Petco to purchase a small container of "gut-load" crickets. $4.99 for 8 bugs?? What a rip-off. They ought to be grateful to escape from being lizard chow and instead be pets to a happy 5 year old. Let's hope the crickets survive the next few weeks to satiate his desire to be a pet-owner.

Bought a bucket of air-dry clay today. Three of us sat at the dining table concentrating on our creations. L came up with 2 crickety cups and some "beans." J created a bunch of er ... figurines. I made a small bowl and a human figurine that sits on an edge. A few hours into the drying, J's figurines started losing their arms. There was no instructions on the bucket so I searched online and found a video about the product. Turns out one has to wet the parts prior to attaching them. I wished they had put that on their label. Good thing I still have half of the clay left. We'll try more tomorrow. At the meantime, we'll have to use our trusty old glue to adhere the pieces together.