The story of Markus & Ella

One of our favorite places to visit is Petco - it's almost like an indoor zoo for the kids. They have really cool animals - lizards, snakes, fish, birds, ferrets, bunnies, turtles, etc. Every time we go, though, the kids want to get a pet. We have been talking for awhile about getting some fish for them, & yesterday seemed like as good a day as any to do that. After checking out all the animals, we asked the Petco experts what would be a good place to start: low maintenance, etc. He suggested beta fish, & they even sell a split aquarium (they have to live alone) so that you can put 2 beta fish in one tank. Kellen (blue) & Annika (red) each picked out their fish (Kaarin too, but I made her put it back for now - sorry, sweetie!). The fish come in a plastic bowl to start, & the kids carried their bowls carefully to the car & held them all the way home. On the way home we discussed what they were going to name their fish...Kellen decided to name his Frosty.:) Annika didn't want to name hers at first, so I started suggesting some random names (mostly from books we've read). She finally decided to name her fish Ella, which is her favorite friend at church.:) After that Kellen decided that he was going to name his fish Markus, after his favorite friend from school/church.:) O.k.!

Once we got home we went about setting up the aquarium, which required that the water get to room temperature. Kellen had taken his fish into his room (first mistake) & when I went in to tell him lunch was ready, he had both lids off the fish & was PETTING them (because, after all, they are his PETS). First lesson: fish do not like to be pet. And the word pets means that they live at our house. After lunch when it was time for books I went into his room & he again had the lid off but this time he had put a rock, candy, toy food, & a ball in the fish's bowl! Lesson 2: fish do not need toys & they don't like candy. This time I took the fish away...

But I let him have them back for nap after specifically telling him that the lids needed to stay ON the fish until we could put them intp their real bowl, & that he could LOOK at the fish with his eyes only. I thought I made myself clear...Lesson 3: 4 year olds have ideas of their own, & do not always listen to their mothers...

I had the monitor on during 'nap time' but I didn't really hear anything suspicious...I guess I should have listened more carefully. I went in to let them get up & they were in the bathroom, with Annika's fish in the sink & Kellen's fish...not there. Annika's fish was obviously dead, though they had not figured this out yet (Kellen told me later that the fish wasn't dead because his eyes were still open). I asked them where the other fish was, & they pointed to the PILE of books on the floor in front of the bookshelf & said, "Annika hid it in the books but we can't find it." What?! Oh really. Well, guess what: you're not leaving this room until you FIND THAT FISH! We put all the books back on the shelf, but no fish...so we started searching the room. Long story short (or is it too late for that?) I found the fish on the lower shelf on a book. We took the fish into the bathroom & gave them a proper flushing burial.

Apparently we weren't quite ready for fish yet. And apparently I needed to give a lot more instruction ahead of time on how we care for fish...lesson 4. Kellen keeps asking when we are going to get new fish, & I keep telling him we need to learn more about how to take care of them first.:) He says, "O.K., I will take better care of them next time." And, "But we were not trying to kill them."
And maybe we'll watch Finding Nemo again so we can remember what happens to fish out of water...