Goings on

Jonah has been asking a lot lately about getting a pet. He knows we can't have a dog, even though he really wants one (Sunny is specifically allergic to dogs, in addition to the generally bad allergies the rest of us have). So he's asked about snakes, and fish, and similar things. It used to be a little comment here or there, like, "If we ever had a dog, maybe I could play with it.", or, "Maybe someday we'll get a fish in our room." Lately though it's become specific questions, like, "Do you think maybe we should get a [random pet here] sometime? That would probably be fun."

After dinner this evening, Jonah posed a question, "Daddy, what pet do you want that mommy won't let us have?"

It took me a brief moment to process the question, but as soon as I did, I couldn't help but laugh out loud (literally, not the cheesy web slang thing). I had to quickly control myself, both because Jonah would not understand why I was laughing, and if I laughed much longer Sunny would have hit me. Then I had to explain that it was not just mommy that wouldn't let us have a pet, I wouldn't let us have a pet either. I told him that pets make allergies worse, and we all have allergies.

"But, I don't have allergies!", he said. "Maybe I could just have a pet."

"Then you would be the only one who could pick up its poop everyday, and the only one that could feed it everyday, and the only one that could play with it...", I tried to explain.

"Not if it was a snake! You don't pick up snake poop, do you?"

I had to think about that one for a moment. Flashbacks of freezing pinkies and feeding them whole to our snake when I was a kid rushed through my mind, and I actually had to think about whether or not we cleaned out the snake poop. I finally answered, "Well, we can't have a snake because mommy is afraid of snakes." Which is true, by the way. I just left out the part where mommy also would not want us to keep baby mice in the freezer next to the waffles and ice tray.

"Oh," he said, with a goofy grin, "heh, just like Indiana Jones."

"Yep," I said, "Just without the whip." Got a dirty look for that one...