Grunt

Published on February 12th, 2008 - 8:10 am - by Megan | Add a comment below

Category: News

We’d like to introduce you to the fifth member of our family. About a week ago, we ventured out to Wal-Mart, in a desperate attempt to spend more time together as a family. I’ve been convinced for the past month or so that Xavier thinks mommy and daddy aren’t allowed to be home at the same time. So, on Thursday evening, when Josh and I were both at home, the last thing I wanted to do was go get groceries and leave my sweet family. …So, we all went. We loaded up the Jeep, popped the kids into two seperate carts, and made our rounds at the grocery store.

I say that like our trip to Wally-Word was a quick one. It wasn’t. We strolled, we caused traffic jams, and oh yeah–we got a fish.

Since the kids were being so good, and we had (stupidly) dragged them out right around dinner time, Josh and I thought we should let them go see the fishies so they’d be entertained for awhile. We probably stood in front of the tanks with Xavier pointing and going “unhGRUISunnnnnnh!” for ten minutes before he spotted the betas. With my excited child trying to escape the cart’s restraints, I quickly wheeled him over to see the betas. Before I could stop him, Xavier had his hands around one of the little plastic containers, and was peering devilishly at the little creature inside. He looked up at me with his big, beautiful eyes and a slow smile creeped over his face as he turned around quickly and desided to drop the container into the cart.

It was decided. We were not leaving Wal-Mart without a fish. …Obviously not that fish. I do believe that particular fish suffered from shaken-fishy-syndrome and wouldn’t have been with us very long. So, we let Xave-o pick out a new fishy (this time mommy prevented any animal cruelty), Josh picked out an aquarium and we were set.

Once we got home, we set about the task of transferring Grunt into his fishy habitat. Xavier dragged his potty-chair (the one he’s now scared of… He stood up too fast, and WHOOPS, caught his pee-pee on the cup. Sorry, tangent.) out to the kitchen and stood on it, watching closely as Josh moved the fish into his new bowl.

“Xavey what do you want to name the fishy?” I asked, half expecting him to call the fish ball, cup, more, or aheee.

“Gwwwwwwwwuuuuuh,” my child practically growled.

“What?” was my stunned reply?

“Gwwwwwwwwwwwwwwuuuuuuuuuuuuaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnuuuuh!!!!!!” he said, now excited and pointed at the fish. I almost checked his pants to make sure the sound he was making wasn’t an indication that he’d filled his pants.

“Grunt?? You want to name the fishy Grunt.”

And with that, Grunt was named. You’ve never seen such an excited 21-month-old. He bounced up and down on his potty-chair, pointing at the fishy. He ran circles, he stared at the fish some more. And at the end of the evening, Xavier formally initiated Grunt.

“Give mommy and daddy hugs; it’s night-night time Xavey.” He did. Then he hugged Ali and ran over to the bowl where Grunt was just hanging out. Then he waved night-night to “Gwwwwwwwwwwwwuuuuuuu” and went to bed.

Fantastic huh? At least the fish doesn’t stink. Or poop (that I can see). Or need walked or otherwise taken care of at all really. Or make noise. For me, the non-animal person, Grunt is the perfect pet. Josh agreed to remember to change his water and feed him, so we’re golden. And, should Grunt meet that big toilet bowl in the sky too soon, I happen to know where we can find a wide array of betas to carry on the Grunt legacy.

(An update totally on Ali will follow soon. She’s awesome! She climbs on everything, doesn’t listen when Josh tells her no, and eats everything in her path. She’s the sweetest, funniest, cutest little girl ever. I’ll dedicate an entire post to her before this time next week and get some pictures to go with it. )

Tags: Ali, Pics, Xavier