a tale of two fishies

My mom was kind enough to buy two little goldfishes for my son yesterday. Dylan has asked us for a pet, one of them being a fish. I know it would be a great way to teach him responsibility, but in the back of my mind I always think that I'll be the one who ends up feeding and taking care of a pet.


So, the fishies were there. In their little bowl. In our home.


I told him that he needed to feed them in the morning and at night and that it would be his job. After he went to bed last night, I said to my boyfriend, "I don't mind the fishies, but having goldfish makes me nervous. Every time I had one as a kid, they never lived for very long..." I probably had 5 goldfish before I decided that I shouldn't own them anymore.


This morning as I was getting ready for work, I noticed one of the fishies at the bottom of the bowl. I checked and sure enough, it was dead. I didn't have the heart to throw it out just yet. Dylan wasn't awake yet and we didn't know what to tell him.


Do we throw it out and tell him it actually died? Or do we replace it with another one?


He woke up a few minutes later and the first thing he did was run up to the fish bowl to say "Good morning fishies!!" I felt sad for him because he had no idea.


We came home this evening and I was prepared to tell him that one of his fishies had died. To my surprise, I looked inside the bowl and found BOTH fishies floating in the water. He ran up to the bowl and said, "Mommy, the fishies are dead!" We told him it would be okay and that we'd get him some new fishies. I said, "Okay, let's say goodbye and flush them down the toilet!" What did he say? 


"Ooh, I wanna do it!!!"

So long fishies, you will be missed!