And then there were five....

Two nights ago, Cameron's little yellow beta fish, Sharky Goldstein (aka "Goldy"), lost his life. Brian and I decided not to divulge the details of Goldy's demise to Cam (toddler + fish), and waited until after school on Thursday to break the news. Here's how the conversation went...

Me: "Cameron, I need to talk to you about something."

Cam: "Am I in trouble?"

Me: "No honey, it's about.... your fish."

Cam (with tears welling up): "Is he dead?"

Me: "yes buddy, I'm sorry."

At this point he was in my lap, tears flowing. After much consoling and many kisses on the top of his sweaty-after-school head, he said: "I'm going to miss him mom, he was my friend."

Me: "I know sweetie, I'm so sorry."
Me in my head: "This is awful! Why didn't I just replace the fish and pretend it never happened?"

Cam: "We had a lot of good times together."

Me: "I know Cam, I'm so sorry."
Me in my head: "ok, don't laugh, this is so not funny, don't laugh."

Cam: "I was looking forward to seeing him today."

Me: "I know honey."
Me in my head: "well now you're just being ridiculous, you never even looked at that thing and probably wouldn't have noticed he was gone."

Cam: "I used to pretend that Goldy was helping me with my homework."

Me: "I'm sorry buddy."
Me in my head: "well, you can still pretend he's helping you with that."

Later that day:

Cam: "Mom, what do you think fish do in heaven?"

Me: "I think Goldy is swimming in a nice big pond, where he can never be sick or hurt again."
Me in my head: "A wonderful place with no two-year-olds."

Cam: "I think Goldy's in a better place."