Numbers Lonkar

So, Daddy decided that it was time for the boys to get a fish. When I asked why, he replied, "Because it's too hot to play outside today!". Umm, ya, sure, that makes sense. Whatever. Turns out, his brain was in the right place, but his mouth just wasn't on board with the articulating part.

He thought it would be fun to take the boys to Petsmart, since it was too hot to play outside. He thought they would enjoy looking at all of the animals. He figured that a fish would be exciting for the boys and cheap for dad. As far as cheap thrills go, fifteen cents ain't bad.

We walked in with our stroller brigade. The female cashiers hopped up from their boredom to ooo and ahhh over our three toddle-waddlers. We made our way to the fish department and the boys fell silent. They were mesmerized. That was until Miles realized that about 500 of the fish were his favorite color, ORANGE! He started pointing and telling us, over and over. We saw red fish, blue fish, yellow fish, stripped fish, spotted fish. It was quite a thrilling sight for their two year old eyes. They also saw snails and turtles and crabs.

We decided to stroll around and see what other animals we could find. We came across some sleepy kitties. Aidan was soooo excited about the cats. He kept telling them, "It's okay kitty cat. No be scared, I'm Aidan". Once we peeled Aidan away from the cats, we saw some birds, rats and an assortment of creepy crawly reptiles. Miles was the most excited about the hamster toys. For some reason he thought that those plastic tubes and balls looked super fun.

I was fine with the boys getting a fish. But first I had some criteria that needed to be met.

1. It can't be housed in an ugly contraption. No, lava lamp/fish tank, no Spongebob Squarepants fish tank.

2. It had to be a low maintenance fish.

I had a little fish tank in my classroom when I was teaching. We had one fish and a snail. I hated having to clean the tank and smelly rocks and replace filters. It's all just entirely too germy at this point in my life.

3. No fluorescent rocks or plastic seaweed.

If this thing was going to be in my kitchen, it had to be tasteful and blend in.

Since Miles wanted a red fish and Aidan wanted a blue fish, we settled on a Beta. We were a little surprised when we found their stock of Beta. They were sitting in their little cups on a shelf, lined up, about 8 across and 6 deep. I felt bad for all the guys way in the back. I reached to the back and started pulling from there. Those little dudes deserved to get some attention too. After inspecting a few, we found our guy. A male beta with big healthy fins, and best of all, he is red AND blue. We found a simple little acrylic cube for him to live in and collected all of the little bottles of stuff required to keep him alive. Brian's fifteen cent fish, turned into a twenty five dollar fish. But the boys were thrilled.

Once we brought him home and set him up in his new pad, we asked the boys what they wanted to name him. Miles shouted, "Fourteen!". Aidan said, "No Miles No! Just Numbers. Numberssss!". So, Numbers it is, Numbers Lonkar. Let's face it, it's just more versatile. This morning they informed me that today, Number's number was three. All day long they have been referring to him as Numbers Three. We'll just have to wait and see what Number's number will be tomorrow!