Our Somewhat Annual Trek...

Some of you have been around here long enough to remember, this post recounting my trip to the fair with DS 4 just shy of one year ago. In that post, I confessed my sin of being a "goldfish killer" when I was a much younger mother. In an effort to put away my past, DS 4 and I bought the tank that is shown at the bottom of last year's post and began our quest to be good goldfish owners.

I'd say we succeeded. The first fish, Swimmy, died just after Christmas of this year. For those of you non-Math people, that's nine months after he came to live in our house. The second fish, Swimmy Joe, died just one week ago! That's almost exactly 12 months! A goldfish record for us.

DH recently purchased a "sucker fish" to add to the tank. Unfortunately, we lost that one this weekend.

Anyone who knows my DS 4 knows that he is an animal lover to the utmost. It doesn't matter what the animal is...he has a HUGE place in his heart for it. His fish were so important to him. When each one died, he cried big crocodile tears. And, trust me, there was no porcelain grave for our fish. No sirree!

Instead, his Dad (who is also an animal lover at heart) helped him bury each one ceremoniously at the side of our house. They even used a shovel to dig the holes...even though I'm pretty certain a garden trowel or a spoon would do.

Today, we went to the fair and DS 4 was laser focused on playing the ping pong game to get two new fish. It didn't matter that he was wearing a wrist band that allowed him to ride any ride all day. It didn't matter that they "might" die within a short time. It didn't matter that our fish from last year had longer than expected lives. Nope. None of that mattered to him.

I gave in. He played. We spent a whopping $2 and won two fish. DS 4 announced on the way home that he was going to name one "Swimmy the Second". I don't know what fish 2 is going to be called.

Regardless of their names, they are happily swimming in the tank tonight. And we are ready to be responsible goldfish owners once again. On our way home, DS 4 announced, "I just sleep better when I have a pet in my room with me." Well, alright then. At least we'll all sleep peacefully tonight.