Webkins Extravaganza and How it Reminded Me of My First Motherhood Fear

Recently there was a Webkins Extravaganza at four fine retailers near us. If you don't know what Webkins are, they are the hottest new thing in online pets and actually are a lot of fun. One of my first blog posts was about how I'm addicted to the Webkins website. You buy the pet, usually ranging from $10-15, but at the Extravaganza you could buy a $10 pet and get one free. After you buy the pet you go online and "adopt" the pet. You play with it, feed it, dress it, all kinds of stuff. There's an arcade with games, you can have a garden and get farm fresh food to feed your pet, you can buy all kinds of stuff to entertain the pet with, and decorate its room. You can even take your pet to "school" and get it a "job."

At these Extravaganza parties, two of the stores participating (both Hallmark stores, actually) had fun activities for kids to do. Both stores had a coloring contest, one had a "Gem Hunt," and plenty of candy. One store manager kept putting more and more candy in Megan's and Jeremy's hands. Both also had a guess-the-number-of-jelly beans-in-the-jar contest. Neither of the kids got anything out of the Gem Hunt: a big box with packing peanuts and a few rocks, a few of which said "winner" which meant a free Webkins.

But Hip-Hip-Hooray! Both kids won the coloring contest for their age groups at the Hallmark store in the mall. When the Candy-Pusher called and told me Jeremy won for his age group I laughed and said, "He was probably the only one in his age group!" He said I was right and half an hour later called to tell me that Megan won for her age group. They both got a free Webkins and we went to pick them out this morning. They both picked Persian cats. Jeremy's cat is named Woof-Woof and Megan's cat is Star Catcher. No, I didn't help them with their names, they came up with the names all on their own.

At the other Hallmark store they also had a Wheel of Wow, which is one of the games on the Webkins website. Megan won a package of fruit snacks and Jeremy won a small drawing pad and a zebra stamp. We just barely turned in their coloring contest entries for this Hallmark, so we don't know if they won there yet or not. If they have age groups I'm sure Jeremy will win again since most kids who play with Webkins are considerably older, even more so than Megan.

At the store in the mall I decided to take advantage of the sale, spending $10 and getting a free Webkins. I bought a small polar bear (the kids decided it would go to Emma when she is born) and then got a pig for free. The pig we decided would be Nathan's since I already have one (a dog named Zia, which Megan named). After we bought these and started talking about names for the Webkins, Megan and I frequently forgot the names we'd come up with. It reminded me of when I was a kid and would name my stuffed animals and dolls. I could never remember the names I'd given them. I had a stuffed dog I named Toto and I only remembered that one because of The Wizard of Oz. I just knew that when I grew up and became a mom I'd be a bad one because I'd never remember my kids' names. I even believed this as I got older. When I got pet fish I had to continuously give them new names because I continuously forgot the names I'd come up with.

I'm glad to know now that I can remember my kids' names and don't have to worry about forgetting what I named them. I don't have a chance to forget their names anyway. After all, I yell their names all day long! "Megan! Don't hit your brother!" "Jeremy! Don't hit your sister!" I'm actually saying this as I'm typing it.

I can't forget the next three kids' names (assuming there are two more after Emma) because Megan talks about them all the time. "Can we get this for Emma?" "One of these is for Lucy and one is for Lincoln."

Here is a picture of Megan and Jeremy with all the Webkins. Left to right is Star Catcher (cat), Swesty (dog), Frosty (polar bear), Grant (frog), Filbert (pig), and Woof-Woof (cat). Zia is somewhere in Megan's room, so she isn't in the picture.

Anyway, I've got to go use my kids' names now.