Meet Sparkplug, my mom's Webkinz pet. My daughter, Emily, has been begging me to get her a real pet for a while now. I am not a pet fan. I had pets as a child. They are fun at first, then you either grow tired of them or cleaning up after them, or else they die, whether from natural causes or untimely accidents (which is how most of my childhood pets met their demise). I can handle taking care of small children, apparently, but I can't manage to keep pets and plants alive, so I don't have either (except for my yearly futile attempt at raising a garden). I don't know why Emily is so bent on getting a pet anyway. Two years ago I let her get a tadpole to raise with her birthday money, and I forgot to buy it frog food when it matured (hey, I had literally just had a baby like the week before), and it died. Emily buried the pathetic little corpse in a shallow grave in our garden and marked the spot with a homemade headstone. I'm sure the decomposing frog gave the soil some much needed nutrients....
Anyway, I was growing tired of the whole pet thing, and Emily mentioned her desperation for a pet to her "teacher," the teacher assigned to oversee my teaching of Emily for IDVA. Her teacher suggested I consider getting her a Webkinz. I had to rather sheepishly admit that I had no idea what a Webkinz was (I'm not as cool of a mom as I would like to think I am), and after she explained it to me I thought it sounded like a great idea. For those of you who don't know what a Webkinz is, it is a stuffed animal you buy that comes with a code so you can take care of it in an online environment. I mentioned the Webkinz pet idea to my mom, who said, "Hey, I just bought one of those and had JoDee {that's my big sister} set it up for me. It's a lamb named Sparkplug."
My mom sent my girls a photo of Sparkplug and her username and password so that they could help her take care of him. Yes, Sparkplug is a boy, however, he is very fond of dressing in pink ballet clothes and red shiny shoes since my girls have taken over his care. He also has a lovely pink flowered bathtub and matching toilet, as well as a recently added pink oven/stove combination. The girls play games to earn money so they can buy food and other things for Sparkplug. Really, my mom spends time earning money for them because my girls can spend money a lot faster than they can earn it, surprise, surprise. I hope I'm not teaching them bad habits for real life by letting them call Grandma and ask her to earn them some money to spend on their pet...
Shall I divulge the truly sad thing about this whole Webkinz thing? The depressing truth is that I find playing with Sparkplug to be quite addictive. I keep wanting to try the games, dress the lamb, and pick out furniture. I even took it to an exercise class today, online of course, and the girls and I had a great time watching Sparkplug jump on the trampoline that Grandma bought it, and swim in the pool that Grandma earned the money for so my girls could get the thrill of buying it. Emily even bought it swim goggles and a swimming suit. I think flippers are next on her list of purchases.
Webkinz are now up there on my list of favorite toys, along with my past favorites of Cabbage Patch Dolls, Glow-Bugs, My Little Ponies, and Furbies.... Oh yeah, and my mom found my Furby from high school and brought it to my house for the girls to play with the last time she visited. I now find it slightly annoying, and it is currently sleeping on top of my fridge. It needs new batteries, which I am not at all sure I am going to replace. If anyone knows of a good home for the Furby, I may be willing to let you adopt him. We might need to hurry, though. I think my husband might be plotting an "unfortunate accident" for his future demise....
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