You know, I thought the week before Thanksgiving was supposed to be the hard one. Turns out to be more like the opening bell for weeks and weeks of unrelenting crazy. Thank goodness The Five-Year-Old remains effortlessly entertaining.

As you know, our family has been doing quite a bit of thinking lately about what sort of pet we would like to get next. This week, we got a bit closer to a decision. Here’s what happened.

Yesterday, when I picked The Five-Year-Old up from school, I noticed she seemed to be in unusually low spirits. Naturally, I asked how her day went.

The Five-Year-Old: “I almost cried after free choice time because no cats came.”

Mommyo: “Do you have cats at your school?”

The Five-Year-Old, in great disgust: “No. Just hermit crabs. They are so boring. They just sleep all day. Boring boring boring. Hermit crabs are too boring to be pets. I think they should live free and in the wild.”