Holiday Tragedy

1 Year, 33 Weeks.


I didn't mean to do it.  Honest.   It was unintentional;  I was just doing my job.  What is the punishment for negligence, anyway?  And it wasn't like I deliberately meant for it to happen, it just...happened.  Although...I might have had a hand in the process.  How was I supposed to know dish soap was fatal?  No, I admit it, it was all my fault.  I'll take full responsibility.  Ugh, I felt awful, guilty and ashamed.  And the worst part of it all was having to come forward and admit my guilt.  How was she going to take the news?  How was she going to feel towards me?  Would she ever forgive me of this horrific and tragic incident?

I accidentally killed Braelyn's pet Beta fish, Chloë. 

It was Friday evening, and we had just gotten back from Forest Lake Academy where we had attended OJA's Christmas concert, since Braelyn and her Pre-K class performed at the start of the program.  We were risking the time of the evening as the twins would soon get fussy for their bedtime, and sure enough, not halfway through the first song they started getting real antsy (although when they saw Braelyn up on stage, they cried out her name really loud), so we high-tailed and ran out of the auditorium to save the audience from any further distractions.  Once they were down I started to prepare to clean Chloë's bowl, as it hadn't been done in a few weeks...months...whatever.   Anyway, Brae wanted to help, and usually it's her job to hold Chloë in her hands while I washed and rinsed the bowl, before filling it back up and putting her back in. 

Mommy and the twins await the start of the Christmas program at the Schmidt Auditorium at Forest Lake Academy.



Braelyn remains focused before she performs.  At this point she could hear the twins screaming her name out from the audience.



The process went off without a hitch, save the fact that Chloë lost a couple feathery fins in Braelyn's grasp, which was discovered once she went back in the water.  It had happened before so I didn't give it a second thought.  We fed her and then went upstairs to change and get ready for bed.  Everything seemed fine, until I went back downstairs to get Braelyn a glass of milk and noticed that Chloë was at the bottom of the bowl, which is typically where she spends most of her time, only this time she wasn't moving and was upside down!  My heart froze.  Uh oh.  This was not good.  But then, she wiggled!  But it was just a big spasm, like the death throes of a gasping, drowning fish.  How does that work, anyway?  Do fish drown, since they live in water?  Whatever it is, it was horrible to watch.

My first thought and reaction was that I had to go to PetSmart and get a replacement fish.  She would never know, right?  Kind of like that scene with Ben Stiller and the cat Mr. Jinx from Meet The Parents.  I went upstairs and sought the advice of my wife, where it was decided I would tell Braelyn what happened and expose her to a life's lesson of experiencing the death of a pet.  She took it pretty well, actually, especially with the part of me emphasizing the fact that Chloë was indeed, a very old fish.  So she went downstairs to inspect the body, which sporadically continued to spasm and flail about until...nothing.  Tangie told her we could bury Chloë out in the backyard in the morning;  Braelyn wanted to make sure she had plenty of water in her grave.  She had this notion that Chloë still needed to be in water.  So I suggested that we flush her down the toilet to bury her, since there would be plenty of water there, to which Braelyn too eagerly agreed.  We sent her swirling down the watery depths and made a point to say we would see her in heaven.  What a way to go.   She then proceeded to ask for another pet...a dog?...we said no...a hamster?...we said hmmm...a guinea pig?...we quickly changed the subject.

Putting on my sad face.

The rest of the weekend and week were pretty low key.  We did attend a Christmas party over at the Bergherms for food and games with our usual big group of friends  (i.e. corn maze, camping) before we all went our separate ways for Christmas and New Year's, so that was nice.  We also participated in a bunch of holiday themed games hosted by Corey Grodack, which I was delighted to partake in, since I'm usually on the other side hosting the games during PumpkinFEST.   By coincidence or by a stroke of pure luck I was paired together with her husband, Duncan, and we finished in second because we lost in the tie-breaker for first place, in which we had to match the international names of Santa to the countries of origin.  I mean, COME ON!  Oh, by the way, did you know that Santa Claus' name in Dutch is "Kerstman"?  Yeah, well me neither!  No, it was a great time and we had lots of fun.  Braelyn enjoyed decorating and then eating her own cookie, and the twins had fun playing with all the "new" toys!

Maddy feeds Mommy at the Bergherm's Christmas party.

Braelyn and Calleigh in their smocks decorate their cookies.

Our family picture in black and white.

Sunday morning we had an appointment for a family portrait at JCPenny's at the West Oaks Mall for our holiday greeting card, like we did last year.  Tangie had purchased a Groupon for it so it was a good deal, since we only paid $40 and that's usually just the sitting fee.  Anyway, we arrived a few minutes earlier than our scheduled 11 o'clock time so that Tangie could dash into the boys' section to find Kohl some dressy black pants for the pictures, as he had outgrown his old ones.  We got to the portraits area and the two ladies there were just opening up the place and starting the computers, drinking their coffees.  Okay, the twins were in pretty good spirits, and were moving around, even dancing, while we waited and waited and WAITED for the employees to get their act together.  By the time they were ready to start shooting, the twins were fussy and uncooperative.  And then, the photographer DIDN'T EVEN KNOW HOW TO TAKE PICTURES OF CHILDREN in the fact that she would wait too late to snap just one photo, and by that time they were already looking somewhere else, or not in position, or crying.  What's the point of having a digital camera if you can't take multiple frames in one shot to get the perfect picture?  It's not like you're wasting film or anything!  The other lady that was supposed to be helping by trying to get the kids' attention and making them laugh went off to her computer so she could start the next group's session, as they were already 20 minutes behind schedule, which meant that now Tangie and I had to take over and do her job!   And to make matters worse, they had some issues transferring the images from the camera to the computer, and then spent another 45 minutes trying to choose images with different borders and templates, all the while we, as in me and the twins, were starting to get hungry and frustrated and impatient.  Terrible!  We are so used to having a professional photographer like Uncle Mike just pick up his camera and shoot away!  These people had no idea how to do it right.  I guess that's why it only cost us forty bucks.

They rode to the studio sans clothes to avoid wrinklage.

So photogenic, even with a sippy cup.  Strike a pose, Kohl!  Work the camera!

You're a tiger!  A happy tiger!

Waiting and waiting for our session to begin.  Here was where Maddy started to lose it.

At least they were able to get a cooperative Braelyn to pose for them.

That evening I put together my new toy.  I didn't think it was that big!  Wait for it...

We were also able to go and enjoy Sea World courtesy of our United Way sponsorship.  We had gone last year around the same time as well, but this time the twins were walking  running around, and were able to comprehend the different species of animals:  "Birdies!"   "Fishies!"   "Duckies, quack quack!" (sorry Kohl, for not catching you!)  "Sharks!" and so on and so forth.  The weather was fantastic and the children really enjoyed themselves.  We may have to go back as they are having this deal through December 31st wherein you buy a day's admission and get the rest of the holidays and all of 2012 for free.  We'll have to see if we can fit it in our schedule.

Sisters enjoy the park and each other.

Mesmerized by the dolphins.

Braving the stingray pool.



She enjoyed tooting the train's whistle!  A lot!

Braelyn was too scared of Santa Shamu.  Too bad, as this would've made for a good family picture.

She just made it!

Siblings give a high five for the merry-go-round!

Having lunch at the waterfront.

Someone's happy!

Maddy and her hard cheese!

These two will be thick as thieves.

Braelyn and the twins continue to grow and amaze us.  Although the twins communicate with each other in their own gibberish language and "twin-speak", they are constantly trying to grasp, speak, and understand regular words.  They both know the meaning and use the words of "up" and "down" and "open", along with numerous body parts and their names.  And of course, just like big sister, both have a strange fixation on all things Dora the Explorer, especially Kohlden.  Like she's his girlfriend or something.  Except that they can't pronounce the "r" in her name, so whenever we're at Walmart and see a toy figurine or stuffed likeness you'll hear two kids screaming "Dowah!  Dowah!  Dowah!!!"   And don't let me get started with Elmo!  Who knew these simple, make believe characters would have such significance so early in life!

Did I just miss the tornado that came through?!?!

It's always nice when they're not fighting...

Maddy in the Christmas spirit helps with the wrapping of presents!

Keeping them busy whilst holiday shopping at Old Navy.

Mommy joins the kids table for dinner.

Fascinated by the silent, frozen people.

Enjoying some great weather at the park.

Kohlden shows his little sister where the airplane is.

Sometimes too much affection can be painful.  Maddy shows the result of one of Kohlden's playful swipes.

Here's what's for dinner:

Chicken ravioli.

Cilantro tuna fish sandwiches.

A few randoms:

And we thought we had our hands full!

Hey, looks like this guy has got himself some wood as well!

Hello, customer service?  Yes, my satellite is working but the picture is all fuzzy...

On the way to/from school every day Braelyn notices a very tall cross next to a church (similar in size to those huge flagpoles at some car dealerships).  She always yells out, "That's the cross where Jesus died!" in a very excited voice.  Then the big question: "Why did he die?"  Do they have the Story of Redemption written for 4 year olds?  Hmmm...

On Wednesday night, as Tangie was putting Braelyn to bed, Brae had to go potty for the second time (we are trying to get her past the pull-ups...but can't get more than one dry night out of her), so out of bed she went.  As she was coming back to bed, Tangie praised her for going again and mentioned that it wasn't very hard to get up in the middle of the night just like that to go use the potty:

     Brae:  "No, I'll just come get you to help me." 
     Tangie: (with further encouragement) "I'm sure you can do it on your own, you are a big girl." 
     Brae: "But I'm not big like you." 
     Tangie: "But you were old enough to do it just now by yourself!" 
     Brae:  "Not at night...not until I'm 25." 
     Tangie:  "That's really old. You won't be living here any more." 
     Brae:  "Where will I be?  Will you be dead?  If you are dead, I'll take care of Maddy and Kohl."
     Tangie, "No, we won't be dead, but you will be living on your own and maybe even be married." 
     Brae:  "I'm going to marry Landon.  He's going to be my husband and Brandon is going to be my
                boyfriend."  (boys from her class at Starchild who she hasn't seen in 5 months) 
     Tangie: "Oh, a husband and a boyfriend?" 
     Brae:  "Yep." 

Then the conversation moved to Jonathan...another boy in the kindergarten class at her current school who she and another pre-k friend were chasing in the playground.   This is starting way too early for me.....don't we have to get through full potty training first?

Have a great weekend!