I Loved Him

Mackenzie just wasn't having a good day yesterday. She was trying to do things right and to be helpful but things just kept falling apart. She carried her flower pot and her sister's flower pot of two week old seedlings, tripped and lost the dirt and helpless seedlings on the hot sunny deck. I did fortunately learn of this accident before the plants dried up and died. We were able to replant and water them. Later I discovered that my dish soap had lowered about four inches (I know I'm supposed to think in metric now) and there were lots and lots of bubbles in my kitchen sink, in my dish cloth, dish towel, and... inches away from the sink, in Kenzie's betta bowl. I looked closer and found the betta floating amongst the roots of the plant in his betta habitat. "Kenzie, why are there so many bubbles in your fish's bowl?" I anxiously asked. "I don't know," of course was her reply. I hurriedly changed the water while quizzing Kenzie as to what might have happened and explaining that soap is bad for fish. Once I realised the fish couldn't be saved and was likely suffocating in bubble water for more than two hours (since Kenzie emerged outdoors and smelled of a sweet sent I couldn't identify but thought it might be important), I calmed down and tried to explain a few things. I told Kenzie that it was nice of her to try to clean her fish but as I'm said while changing the bowl water that using soap makes the fish sick. She had been good to him and had fed him every day and had learned not to give him too much food and dirty his water. But the soap had made him die. Next time if she makes a mess or thinks something is wrong to tell me and we might be able to fix it; like we were able to replant the seedlings, we could have changed the fish's water. Kenzie was in a flood of tears and said, "I loved him and I took could care of him." When we picked up Taylor at school, Kenzie was in tears and sniffles again as she explained that her fish had died. Taylor was very consoling, gave her sister a hug, explained that she knew Kenzie was sad and missed her fish, and in the end Taylor even gave Mackenzie her betta fish. At supper, it was tears again. I actually remembered that amongst the pile of library books we had one about dealing with death, "The Berestain Bears lose a Friend." Taylor hurriedly found the book and Mackenzie wanted it read right away. In the book sister bear's fish dies and they make a tombstone from a rock and permanent marker. Kenzie soon disappeared after the story and reemerged with a dirty kid's shovel and the empty container her fish had been in. Taylor and I went outside with Kenzie, at Taylor's asking, to see where the fish had been buried. Kenzie had found a rock and scribbled her message on it. Taylor and I found another flatter rock and I wrote Mackenzie's dictated message onto it: "I loved him. He was the best fish in the whole world. I took good care of him. I miss him." Taylor drew a picture of a fish and a heart before we pushed the rock into the ground next to the expired fish. There were more sniffles the next day but also a request for a rabbit. A rabbit?! Mackenzie claims, "I know all the responsibilities for a rabbit." I don't want to find out.

Do You Think He's Handsome?

Jaime's 30th birthday was approaching so we had to come up with a cake design that would top last year's cauldron in the forest. It also had to be easy as I was working full hours prior to our weekly FCW meeting. Lately Jaime has discovered her fondness for Spock in Star Trek. So I went online looking for a cake design. They were all too complex or not Spock orientated enough. Then I thought I would just make a basic 8*8 square cake. Then I'd put green jello in the center (Vulcan blood is green) and top it with a photo of Spock. In my google images' search for Spock I found a cut and paste on body version that would do the trick; a naked from the groin up photo of Spock. I printed this off and glued it onto wax paper so that the ink wouldn't run. Initially our get together was to be a Jaime's apartment rather than my house. Jaime was worn out that week from finishing school for the year and beginning work and practicum. So the cake went into the freezer for a week and our meeting was at my place the following week with my girls to share in the eating of the cake. Mackenzie was quick to pipe up when the cake was set before Jaime (who had a good laugh about it when she first saw it). "Do you think he's handsome? Are you going to kiss him when you get married? (And without waiting for a reply) Yuck! Kissing is gross." Knowingly Jaime's response, "Oh, you'll change your mind someday."