Flowy

Trying to explain to a five year old that his birthday is Wednesday but we are celebrating it on Saturday just doesn't compute. No matter how I tried to attack it, he scrunched his face up, crossed his arms and reminded me that "today is MY birthday." So, with Nathan in New Jersey, I figured some small fun would be in order to keep the peace and pass the time.

After taking it easy for the morning, we headed out to the McDonald's with the big playland for lunch. He was thrilled to get a Happy Meal and play for almost as long as he wanted. There were some older kids preventing him from access to the space ship, which stirred my Harlan County roots (a.k.a. getting Harlan County on someone as in "I'm about to get Harlan County on him"). I hate to bring out the big guns on small children, but it was his birthday and I don't really care if 6 year olds, who I don't know, don't like me.

After wrapping up the McDonald's fun, we headed to the locally owned pet store. Carter received a coupon for a free goldfish at school and was eager to cash it in on his first pet. We had told him for his birthday we would go pick it out. Nathan was skeptical; he warned that this was a 99 cent fish that would cost 15 dollars in equipment. He was so wrong. It was a 25 cent fish and cost 23 dollars in equipment. But the pure joy on Carter's face was truly worth it.

When we first entered the pet store, the boys were so excited to see all the puppies, birds, bunnies, mice, rats, and fish. They had a great time just walking around and looking at them, but Carter was especially drawn to the aquarium room. We spotted most of the cast of "Finding Nemo" and even some interesting glowing fellows swimming around. Once I felt we had sufficiently explored the store, we wrangled a clerk to help us get Flowy - Carter's predesignated name for his fish. Jamie was so sweet. She knew just what to say to a 5 year old boy on his birthday and she gave us taught us how to take care of Flowy. As it turns out, Flowy wasn't going to be too much trouble at all. We went back to the tank and she asked Carte which one he wanted and he pointed to a generic looking gold fish. I asked if he was sure he didn't want one of the pretty ones with unusual markings. He shrugged and said "it didn't matter." I should have really gone with the generic gold one, but I have a thing for needing to be different, apparently even if it's my son's goldfish. Jamie pointed out a beautiful, white fish, with just some black and orange on the top of it's head and on it's tail fin. Flowy sure was a pretty fish. We came home and began preparation of Flowy's new watery home. I followed the instructions exactly. Flowy was released at last into her new bowl and I coudn't help but notice, Flowy didn't look too good. She stayed at the bottom of the bowl and seemed to languish. I was worried about her, but I had cupcakes and icing to make.

Once they were done, I packed the boys up to we drove down to Mimi and Doc's house to celebrate both Carter's and Mimi's birthday. I gently tappped Flowy's bowl and go little response. I hoped that she would be okay as I figured we would end up spending the night at Mimi and Doc's.

We had a great birthday time at Doc and Mimi's. We ate chocolate chip pancakes and bacon and fresh strawberries and many other good foods for supper. We blew out candles and ate cupcakes and Carter opened his huge present from Mimi and Doc. It was much too late and we ended up spending the night, just as I anticipated.

The next morning it was time to rush to the airport to pick up Nathan. While sitting by the baggage claim door, Rick Pitino walked out right in front of us. He was in town for a highly publicized funeral. I had a strong urge to open the door and speak to him, but since nothing witty came to mind, I just watched him step into a large SUV with UofL tags and stickers all over it and drive off.

We had a joyous reunion with Nathan and headed home. As we pulled in the driveway, I was worried about how we would find Flowy. Last night, she was not dealing well with her new surroundings. Sure enough, Flowy was not well. She was permanently hanging out on the bottom of the bowl. Carter stuck his face to the side of the bowl and spoke to her in the sweetest, most comforting voice, "Flowy, are you okay? Do you feel bad? It's okay. We're gonna take good care of you." I had tears rising in my eyes and figured that a quick trip to the "fish doctor" was in order. I think he may have been praying for her and that was more than this mother could handle. I collected Flowy and announced that she and I had to go to the doctor right away. Carter asked if he could also go and I told him that he needed to stay with his Daddy and help out with Will. He was watching "The Little Mermaid" (which will have to be a whole different blog subject) and so didn't fight it.

I drove the long drive to the "fish doctor" and returned home with Flowy doing much better. Carter and Nathan came over to look at her and Nathan asked "what did the doctor do?" I told them that the doctor gave Flowy some orange medicine that made her turn more orange than she used to be, which was good because that meant she was feeling better. As we re-prepared the bowl and then let her into the water, she swam around and seemed much better. Carter was elated. He talked to her for about five minutes telling her how happy he was that she was feeling better. He came over to me and said so sincerely "Thank you, Mama, for saving Flowy's life."

As I crossed the living room, I saw one of Carter's Brown Bucks sitting on the chair. He gets these for being helpful around the house. I asked him what he had done to get a Brown Buck. "Oh, I got that out for you to take to the Doctor for Flowy." It was his hard earned Brown Buck from his bank. So I guess two trips to the pet store on the other side of town and 23 dollars and some change for supplies gave me more joy than Carter will ever get from Flowy.

Before he went to bed, Carter got out his magnadoodle and wrote out "mama, i luv u xxx ooo" and drew some hearts. He sounded it out by himself. What a sweet kid.