Birthday Brothers

Today we celebrated Boone and Scout's second birthday. Joy decided that a piece of corn bread could substitute for their birthday cake. The boys certainly had no objections.
We thought it would be fun to light two candles on their piece of corn bread for the picture. We were fortunate to get this picture before Boone (left) ran off with the entire piece, lit candles and all! Joy quickly grabbed the piece before any damage was done. Maybe lit candles weren't such a good idea.

Scout enjoying some corn bread. Scout is now one pound, eight ounces.

Boone coming back for seconds. Boone is now two pounds even.

Rat Weights

We weighed the boys this week to see how big they have gotten. I thought for sure that Boone would be over two pounds. I was also surprised how much of a gap there was between Boone and Smoky, and that Scout was so close to Smoky. We always think of Boone and Smoky as the big boys, and Scout as the little guy.
Boone - 1lb 14oz
Smoky - 1lb 9oz
Scout - 1lb 6oz
I guess if we gave them equivalent weights in human terms, Boone would be 240lbs, Smoky would be 200lbs, and Scout would be 176lbs.
The rats have been very lovey lately, wanting to spend time on our laps. Above is a picture of Smoky enjoying being petted on Joy's lap. Usually they do not hold still for too long.

Rub a dub, dub, three rats in a tub!

We have been pretty blessed with a mild summer this season. On the really hot days, we have tried to find ways to keep the rats cool. When we had the our girl rats, they often liked to dip their tails in a bucket of water. Well, we tried that with the boys, and they didn't seem to like it much. So we thought we would try and see if they liked playing in some shallow water in the bath tub. They tolerated our little experiment, but pretty much wanted out asap. It was fun to watch their reactions. Here are some pictures of them in the tub.

Scout and Boone wondering how to get out of the tub.

Getting splashed with some water.

Scout jumping out of the tub... "Get me out of here!"

Smoky getting splashed

Smoky getting out asap!

We also weighed the boys this week. They haven't gained much in the last two months. Boone didn't gain any weight, while Scout gained 1 oz. and Smoky gained 1.5 oz. Below are their current weights:

Scout: 19 oz.
Smoky: 21.5 oz.
Boone: 24 oz.

Rat Weights

We gave the rats their monthly weigh-in. It is becoming more and more challenging to have them sit still on the scale. Boone is strong and big enough that he just bursts open the box we put him in to weigh him. It might not be too necessary any more, since Scout and Smoky didn't gain any weight in the last month. Boone, on the other hand, continues his upward trend, gaining two ounces. He already seems so big.

Smoky (20oz) playing with Joy. Smoky loves to spend time with you. Joy had just wrestled him to his back. Smoky then gave her a manicure. He is pretty gentle with us.

You can see a little bit of the bright brown patch on Smoky's chest.

Boone is now 1lb 8oz. How big will he get?

Scout (18oz) is the smallest of the boys. He definitely watches what he eats, and isn't just bullied out of food. He can still hold his own in a tussle, even being 6oz smaller than Boone.

Rat Weights

We haven't posted the boys' weights for awhile, so here they are:

Scout - 1 lb. 2 oz.
Smoky- 1 lb. 4 oz.
Boone- 1 lb. 6 oz.

They just keep getting bigger! It will be fun to see how big they end up getting. Here are some recent pictures of the boys.

An action shot of Scout.

Smoky cleaning Ben's shoes.

Boone posing for the camera.

Rat Weights

Recently we bought a kitchen scale so that we could continue to weigh the boys and report their growth progress. We had to throw the other older scale away because it was no longer giving us an accurate measurement. The boys are now 6 months old and here are their weights:

Scout: 1 lb. 1 oz.
Smoky: 1 lb. 2 oz.
Boone: 1 lb. 3 oz.

They are all in the 1 pound club now! Here are some fun pictures of the boys doing some of their favorite things around the apartment...

Here is Smoky under neath the Colts helmet. The helmet is on top of one of our bookcases and Smoky loves to climb all the way up the bookcase and sit under the helmet. If I can't find Smoky, this is one of the first places I look.


Another place the boys love to climb is up the coat rack. Here is Scout proudly posing after climbing up the coats.


Lastly, another thing the boys love to do is wrestle/fight with each other. Here is Boone about to pounce on Scout. It is really fun and humorous to watch them play.

Rat Weights

Boone, Smoky, and Scout

It's been fun seeing how much the boys gain in weight each month. I wish we would have kept track of the girls weights when we had them. It would be fun to compare their weights, since boys are a lot bigger than girls. Here are the weights for this month:

Scout: 14 oz.
Smoky: 1 lb.
Boone: 1 lb. 1 oz.

Two of our boys have hit the one pound mark already, and they are only 4 1/2 months old!

Aubrey still weighs 15.5 oz. As she is getting old in rat years (2 years and 5 months), we are doing our best to make sure she eats and gets plenty of rest.

Rat Weights

Scout is now up to 13.0 oz. This photo shows Scout being fairly well behaved. The normal Scout is clinging to the side of the cage, ready to jump on any passing person. He loves to go for a ride. His motto is "go, go, go!" He is the smallest, but he makes up for it in energy and attitude.

Boone has caught up with Aubrey in weight, at almost one pound (15.5 oz). He is a calm, sleek, happy rat. He is more active than Smoky, and plays with Scout a lot.

Smoky is 14.5 oz, but he looks about as fat as Boone. You can barely get your hand around Smoky's chest, but you can't touch thumb to forefinger around Boone's chest. Smoky is the most retiring of the boys. He plays hard when he does play, but he spends the most time relaxing of them all.

Aubrey has remained steady at 15.5 oz, which probably means that she is losing weight as her tumors grow. She is now an elderly lady.

Rat Weights

While they are growing so fast, I will try to have an update once a month. The little boys can't really be called "little" anymore. Two ounces in two weeks sounds like a lot to me. We are still using the old scale, which only measures to the nearest half ounce.

Scout - 10.0 oz
Boone - 11.5 oz
Smoky - 11.0 oz
Aubrey - 15.5 oz

Rat Weights

Today we used an old, one-arm balance scale to weigh the rats. The finest unit of measure is 1/2 an ounce, but that works. We have been amazed at how fast the three boys are growing. I wish we had been weighing them from the start. They are almost two months old and don't look small any more.

Smoky - 9.0 oz
Boone - 9.0 oz
Scout - 8.0 oz
Aubrey - 16.0 oz