Reptiles...

[senoritafish]

The nature center near my house was having a native plant sale on Saturday, which I planned on going to, but I wound up taking all three of the kids to a birthday party of one of Angus's school friends; actually someone he was in kindergarten with, so it was very nice his mom invited us. I think the mom is one who talks to John after school while waiting to pick up the kids; thus the invite.

It was at Prehistoric Pets, a large reptile store in Fountain Valley. The last time I visited it was a singe storefront - it now takes up at least three. There's a large pond near the door filled with red-eared slider turtles, huge red-tail catfish, and the most enormous pacus I've ever seen in my life. For $3, you could get a little cup of mealworms and a pair of large forceps to feed them. Gareth, watching the turtles jostling each other for the beetle larvae, asked me, "Are those snapping turtles?" Well, they were snapping all right, but they probably weren't big enough to actually take your finger off. They were a bit overcrowded in my opinion.

The store provided a room with bamboo tables and two columns of terrariums inhabited by bearded dragons and blue-tongued skinks. Kids were running all over the store and totally ignoring the six-foot sandwich provided; I think only the adults were eating it. Finally, they got everyone into the very crowded room to sing Happy Birthday and distribute cake, then it was time for the show. They brought out animals from the back one at a time and let everyone pet them or draped them around people's necks; an albino corn snake, a ball python, a black Mexican king snake, a bearded dragon and a leopard gecko, even a couple of giant African millipedes (big enough to encircle my wrist like a bracelet), and an emperor scorpion. Most of the animals seemed calm, but there was a legless lizard that did not look happy from the way he was twisting in the handler's grasp. I think he peed on Angus. The finale was a very large monitor who lay quietly on the carpet while he was surrounded by a dozen kids patting him, and a good sized reticulated python; all the kids lined up in a row with their arms out with the snake lying across all of the arms.

Angus was a little nervous about the scorpion, but did pet it, and Avalon, despite being much girlier than I am, showed no signs of squickiness about reptiles, which is good because I really liked the leopard gecko. I kind of miss not having a reptile. I had Alex, my corn snake, from a couple weeks before I went to college to the weekend Angus was born - and I think the kids are probably old enough to be around them now.

Usually for birthday parties, we give a gift card to Barnes & Noble, usually about $10 because that's about all we can afford (especially when it's the last week of the month). I figure I don't really know what the kid likes, and he/she can pick out book of their own that their parents approve of - so I'm not going to get in trouble for giving something controversial. It usually looks like the parents appreciate it, anyway, but sometimes I wonder.

Gareth liked the idea of a party there but certainly not so soon. I looked up the price - I think he's going to have to make do with a costume party at the park...