Butterfly Fish of Africa

Tonight is simply a short and sweet little story of a visit to Wal-Mart. Natty has a science project coming up and we needed to pick up a poster board for it. Check. The kids were running low on tooth paste so we hit the oral care aisle as well. There is always a danger when we hit that particular section of the store, that's right, the fish aisle. Oh how the kids love the fish. When we get to that area it is like they can sense them. Actually it is probably just that Natty knows exactly where we are and knows how to work it so she can get what she wants. It involves little whispers to the boys and before you know it I have Jack and Andy asking if they can see the fish. I do my very best to avoid this as much as possible because it easily adds 15 to 20 minutes to our visit and though there are some out there who love to hang out in the Supercenter I don't particularly enjoy it. If it were say Costco or Sams then the story is different, I love to take in as much of that as possible. Window shopping in the warehouse. Nothing like it. Oh and I used to hit every free sample I could and grab the hot dog combo as well. Wow, those were the days. $1.61, that is all it took. Fantastic.

Okay so back to the story. I just put the tooth paste into the cart when Jack rounds the corner and asks if we can go see the fish. Natty was right behind him and Andy was in earshot - Natty set it up perfectly. I gave them the okay and put a two minute time limit on it with the hopes that we could be out of there in less than 10. I don't know if there is really a season for tropical aquarium fish or not but the tanks were low in numbers, full of algae and overall pretty dingy looking. The kids saw right past that and just loved looking at the fish that were there.

Jack decided that he could use the force to make the fish swim back and forth in the aquarium - they did. What an amazing talent. He got a huge kick out of it and just laughed histarically. Andy was right by his side and laughing along with him. There was another little girl looking at the fish and Andy struck up a little conversation with her. He is a funny kid to watch. His class has helped him tremendously with his social skills and getting on with others. One of the moms was telling me last week how he is such a sweet little boy and so good to all the other kids. It is funny that I have always looked at Andy that way. He has gotten quite a bit fiestier lately and he likes to tell me things like "your the worst dad ever" and "for heaven sakes dad". You know, he cuts me no slack. But I look at this little four year old and think about what he has been through in his little life and I am very grateful for how well he is doing - even if I am the worst dad ever.

Natty was looking at one of the aquariums and thought the fish were dead. I said I didn't think they were and sure enough when she took a closer look they were alive and well. It was acutally somewhat of a freaky looking fish. She pointed them out to Jack who immediately fell in love with them. He was so excited. Andy needed a boost up to see and wow, there was quite the party going on in the fish aisle. The fish is called an African Butterfly. It looks like it is swimming upside down at the surface. I think this is why the kids were so excited. I thought they were pretty cool looking. Jack has determined that this is the fish for him. It has been awhile since I have hooked him up with a new fish for the tank and after a few tough weeks of school he is about to finish his second solid week without any problems. I think perhaps he has earned another fish. So, some day soon we may find ourselves with an African Butterfly fluttering about in the boys room. Here is a peak at one.



Last note on unrelated matter - Andy went on a field trip today with his class. He got to visit the band room at the middle school. He played on the drums a little. The class then went over to Discovery Park and he redescovered the dinosaur bones and had a great time there. I was not surprised at the report that he did not want to leave.

Sure do love these kids even if they do get me stuck in the fish aisle forever. Actually, I think we managed somewhere between 8 and 10 minutes which is okay. Sometimes the worst dad ever needs to spend that kind of time bringing smiles to his kids faces.