Fish Funeral

I am blogging out of chronological order but I couldn't help it because Donald walking was so exciting. However, we did have other news from last week.

On Wednesday of last week Shari did "show and teach" for her class. She taught everyone "How to Feed a Baby." Donald was her prop and they did a wonderful job. She buckled him into his stroller and put his bibby on him then she showed everyone how to open the baby food and mix it with oatmeal. While she fed him she answered any questions about taking care of her baby. It was super. I was so proud.

I also registered Charlie for kindergarten. He is such a character. His assessment was so funny. I was sitting outside the room just listening and laughing. He started out getting all the answers right so he yelled out to me, "Hey, I'm really smart!" Then I heard him start giggling because he kept getting the answers wrong. The teacher said, "Are you teasing me?" and he started laughing. He said, "Yeah, I'm just teasing!" What a way to go. Try to trick the teacher and get all the wrong answers on purpose just for a laugh. Hopefully his test taking skills will improve. Then the teacher was having him pick out pictures that matched the sounds and one of the pictures was "jail" for J. Well, Charlie was fascinated by this and had to ask a dozen questions, "Why is that guy in jail? What did he do? Why is he so mad?..." It was hard to move onto the next letter. The greatest was when the teacher was complimenting him on what a good job he was doing. She said, "Your mom must teach you a lot." Charlie responded, "My mom doesn't teach me anything." The teacher was a little taken a back, she said, "Didn't she teach you all these things you know?" and he said, "No, I just know them."

On Thursday I was cleaning the fish tank and our fish, Sparkles, was floating around in a small bowl. When I went over to check on him he was no longer in the bowl! I was freaking out because I couldn't see him anywhere. Apparently his color really blends in well with our wood floors but I managed to find him laying on the floor right by where I was standing. I almost stepped on him. I grabbed him and put him back in the water and he immediately started swimming and seemed fine. I debated telling the girls about it but I decided to warn them because I wasn't sure if he would make it. He lasted another day but Friday evening we finally called it and decided to bury him. It was a sad occasion. The girls had a small service for him out underneath one of our bushes. I came out to check on them and Charlie was balling. It was the saddest thing. I told Charlie to sing a song for the fish and maybe it would make him feel better. Here is a happier rendition of the song he sang:

During the funeral he was crying through daddy fish, but when he got to whale fish we all started laughing and it made him feel so much better.
The girls have handled it well. They went out with their dad and bought a new betta fish, along with an aquatic snail and a frog. They seem to be doing well together. In remembrance of Sparkles they named their new fish...Sparkles.