This many days until Disneyland

Last week we started talking to Sophia about our upcoming trip to Disneyland. I should know better by now to mention that we are going to do something at a later date. She is relentless about asking a zillion times if it's that day yet. I've only heard about a billion times so far, "Are we leaving for Disneyland tomorrow?" So today I decided we'd make something to represent how many days until Disneyland, and cut each loop off until "the day" starting tonight. She totally got on board. Hopefully this will keep the questions to a minimum. I'm almost to the point of telling her I'll send her down there early and hand her a 1 way plane ticket. Just kidding. OK, I'll admit that I'm getting pretty excited about the trip, too.

So long Spotty

Not that this will come as a shock to anyone, but Spotty met her (his?) demise shorty after I posted the latest cannibalistic treatment from Cleo. Cleo seems pretty smug of him (her?) self and happily swims alone. Sophia had a brief outburst of tears when we told her Spotty was in heaven, quickly followed by, "Mommy, we need to get THREE more fish now." Sorry sweetie, Cleo is bad company.

There is a cannibal in the tank

And I thought Cleo and Spotty had become fast friends while stuck in their small baggy for hours. It turns out Cleo has a taste for goldfish fin soup. Spotty is currently missing a flipper, which as entertaining as it is to watch her wobble when she swims like a drunken sailor, it's quite disturbing as well. Sophia asked this morning, "Mommy, what's wrong with Spotty?" And here we go. Flush or wait till the float?

Cleo and Spotty

Sophia "won" two goldfish on Saturday. The game was a slam dunk, guarantee to win and I had been steering her clear of it from the moment I heard about the inevitable prizes we would acquire. I am less than thrilled to welcome our new inhabitants.

After Sophia went down from her sugar induced coma of a nap, I grudgingly made a trip to the pet store to look for the cheapest goldfish bowl I could find. As I started to add up the expense of a bowl, some gravel, a fake plastic plant, and the food, I realized that the all included kit was actually just as expensive AND you get a filter. The filter would save me a few tank cleanings a month--score. The pet store sales assistant happened by as I was contemplating the cheapest solution to our (I'm fairly certain sure short term) resident's luxury water condo. She asked if I needed help and I told her I just needed the cheapest setup they offered, explained my predicament, and of course I added how I felt about the whole thing. She replies, "Well goldfish can actually live up to 30 years and grow to be 3 feet long, so we would recommend starting out with a 29 gallon tank for the two goldfish you have. Also, you should let the tank cycle and build up the proper environment for at least 2 weeks before adding the fish." I laughed and told her she had to be kidding. She didn't find it too funny. Actually, she handed me a brochure full of goldfish facts, care and maintenance to back up her claim. Not heeding her advice, I grabbed the 1.77 gallon tank boasting "just add water and fish!" on the box, and marched on over to the checkout. The clerk was a little more amused with my laments on our new pets and sent me away with good luck wishes.

Setting up the tank proved to be a little more than "just add water and fish!" It turns out you need a chemist background, or at the very least the ability to deal with division and metric units. Neither which fall under my ability. After adding 5 cap fulls (the equivalent of 25 mL) of some environmental tank agent, I realized the smaller print of the already small print read that the dosage was for a 50 gallon tank. Again, math skills aren't great, but I assume that's just way too much for a 1.77 gallon tank. So I dumped out the water and refilled the tank, figuring whatever residual agent left in the tank would suffice. 2 hours later, the tank was humming along. The tank instructions recommended that the fish stay in their happy little baggy for at least 3 days. Sorry again, but at this point these little (insert profanity here) are literally going to sink or swim. I wasn't actually wishing them an immediate death sentence though, having gone through all this crap to get them a home. So we waited 3 hours and let them free into their new home.

I am happy to report that almost 48 hours later, they seem to be adjusting fine. I'm still nervously awaiting their demise and the sad reality of teaching Sophia the first lesson of life and death. Oh, and how thrilled is Sophia, you might wonder? Sorry, I guess it's not all about me. She really just wants to feed the fish. Rick suggested we put the tank in her room; let it be her responsibility. Actions speak louder than words, and shortly after making this comment we found Sophia trying to lift the tank and shake it. So if we do have 30 years of this, I'd say in maybe the next 5 years, I'd happily move the tank to Sophia room. But for now, Cleo and Spotty will reside in the family room under watchful eyes.

Sophia's first day at preschool

OK, I admit I was a little more nervous than I had expected about Sophia's first day at preschool. She was so nonchalant the night before, telling Rick and me to stop talking about her big day. I think she internalizes stressful or exciting things. It's another thing she inherited from Rick; I just don't understand internalizing any emotions.

The next morning, I made her a breakfast I thought she would want to eat--pancakes. She hardly touched them. And instead of getting ready for school, she did everything in vain to thwart all efforts. So I figured she must be a bit nervous. Or a typical three year old. When we finally got her ready, she was good to go and off we went. We were one of the first ones there, and waited outside until they opened the doors. Sophia immediately wandered into the play area to explore.

She was confident, curious and ready to start her first day. My hands shook a little as I signed her in. After about 10 minutes, I looked around to see if other parents were leaving and most were still there. I asked one of the teachers when we should leave and she said it was up to me, if Sophia felt comfortable. I asked Sophia if it was OK that I left and she said it was. I asked her if she had any questions and she asked, "Are you going to pick me up from school?" I told her I would. She seemed fine so I gave her a kiss and walked out the door.

I told the teachers to call if there were any problems. When I got home, I literally walked around in circles, trying to figure out what to do with the time I had left. I kept looking at the clock and time seemed to have slowed down. It didn't take long to direct my focus to cleaning up after our hectic holiday weekend, but I kept thinking how weird it was to have Sophia away with strangers for the first time ever.

When I picked her up from her school, she ran over with a big hug and a smile. She told me she wanted to go get a smoothie. She seemed completely unfazed by her big day. I got her in the car and asked her a ton of questions on the drive home. So many questions, that she told me at one point, "Mommy you are driving me nuts." So I stopped asking. What I gathered is that she played the whole time, sang some songs, had rainbow goldfish crackers for a snack, it was fun, and there were a few kids that cried the whole time and wanted to go home. But she didn't cry. We go for day two tomorrow. I will try to act cool and composed, just like my big girl.