With that many disappearing acts, we can call them Houdini indeed but I loved Harriet Houdini the most - both the name and the hamster :-)

Small pets are a lot of work too but they are an extremely good way to teach a lot of important things to the children. I remember my pet birds as a kid. Birds are so sensitive that even a minor changes in temperature can kill them. But having them was a great learning experience - of course I was only able to realize this fact in my adulthood.

Although I have never adopted any hamsters before but I have read and seen enough about them to know that if nothing else, they know how to take care of themselves. Thus I would say that its probably safer to have them as pets than birds because of their oversensitive biological makeup.