My daughter has loved sea creatures practically since she was born.  Of course, I did the sea life and fish theme with all of her baby stuff, so that could have started things off, then add repeated exposure to all sorts of cool (and some icky) sea creatures every summer at Hood Canal, and you have the makings of a sea creature lover, or perhaps a future Mrs. Jacques Cousteau. 🙂

She has had a Beta fish pretty much all her life. Well, technically, more than one…..we have had a couple of casualties throughout the years.  Luckily, she seems to grasp the whole “circle of life” and “nothing lasts forever” concept (at least with fish). I guess you could call having a fish, a “staple” for her.  She’s getting a little older now, and thinks she needs more creatures. She FINALLY convinced me that she needed a hermit crab.  She gave me the cutest full page note asking me if I could please get her one.  It has lots of “please moms” and things like “I will take care of it myself”…..“I am old anuff”….. (Spelled like it sounds LOL).  It was so darn cute I couldn’t refuse.  She finds TINY ones on the beach at the canal all summer, and always wants to please please pleeeeeeeeease bring one home. Besides, I had one when I was little also, so it seemed fair.  We decided to go shopping for a hermit crab. 

Normally, getting though the pet store is a chore by itself with my daughter.  She wants to see ev-er-y-thi-ng. This time, we had a purpose.  She had her eye on the prize, so the side tracking was minimal, thankfully.

She LOVED that Petco has shopping carts made just for kids! She could shop like a grown up. 😉

Look at this itty bitty teeny weeny snake the size of Emma’s finger.  So cute.

It’s been close to 30 years since I have even looked at hermit crabs.  I was a little surprised to find an entire section with all kinds of “specialty” hermit crab “stuff”. 

And now, it’s apparently the “thing” to have a painted shell.  News to me.  We first looked at the tank with the non-painted ones….Emma said “Hmh, camo (camouflaged) ones.  Cool…” and then quickly turned to the painted ones and said “Mom LOOK at THESE!”.  There were shells painted like monsters, flowers, striped ones…just about anything.  I guess it did add color.  Anyway, so after inspecting just about every crab in the tank, she finally picked a green one.  She named it Lily Lime.  She’s always been creative with names.  She has a GIGANTIC stuffed shark that I got at Ikea, named “Nothing”.  Not like, it doesn’t have a name at all, it’s the word “Nothing”.  That’s the explanation that always follows the revealing of its name when people ask. 

Along with the purchase of the crab, you have to have a home.  Well….it just so happens that they sell hermit crab kits. Yep. Kits. They make it easy for us parents now.  The store clerk went on and on about how it’s sooooo much cheaper to buy the kit.  If you piece everything out separately, you would end up spending $60+ bucks.  I had to grab my shopping cart for stability.  WHAT?  Are you KIDDING me?  For a CRAB?  Well, shoot, give me that kit (it was $24).  We got the kit, some food, a dish for food, a little hiding spot log, and a $4 bottle of salt water, because ya know, they need both salt and fresh water, apparently.  When we got to the check-out, my total was about $62.  Um….hmmmm…something is wrong here.  I guess I can’t complain, I mean, the “kit” came complete with a palm tree, a starfish sponge, and a climby thing (that looks more like something for a hamster cage, but whatever). I guess crabs like to climb too, and sit under palm trees.  I suppose if it dies, replacing just the crab for $7 is not that bad.  And heck, if we don’t get another, I think I’ll take my next vacation in the crab habitat.  Looks like a place I could spend a week, easily!  😉

For some reason, even though, like I said, Emma finds hermit crabs at the Canal all the time, this one seems to creep me out.  I guess cuz it’s so BIG compared to the little ones that barely poke out of their shell.  This girl is OUT there when she comes out….legs and antennae waving all around…..ew.  Haha.