A few of this morning's Tayja questions

"Where do fish pee and poop?"

In their fish tank.

"Yuck! . . . Why can't I see it?"

You can if you look closely enough.

"Oh. Do fish have the same germs?"

Well, I guess they sort of do since they all swim together in the same water with each other's waste.

"And they poop in it! How do you clean the poop up?"

That's what the filter is for. It filters out all the dirty stuff. We look at the insides of the filter while I explain how it works.

"The filter will clean out the extra food when we give the fish too much?"

Yes.

"Oh. Is there a big filter in the ocean?"

No. We'll have to get a library book to see how the water gets cleaned in the ocean.

"See you don't know everything!"

No answer from me. She tells me this daily. I grit my teeth and try to ignore the comment. And she is only 5!

"Do fish get shots?"

No.

"Why not! What if they get very sick?"

Fish don't tend to get sick with stuff you can fix with a shot. You just put the medicine in the water with them.

"But what if only one fish is sick? Or two fish get sick and need different medicines? Or if the fish medicine killed the crab because it needed crab medicine and not fish medicine? We could use a really little tiny needle and just give a shot to just the one sick fish. Or what if BLAH BLAH BLAH.."

I cut her off with a what if you just go brush your teeth so you are not late for school. We can find out more about helping sick fish when we go to the library, okay?

"HEY! You talked over me! That's not good manners...What if you forget about fish when we go to the library!?!"

*I* might. But I am sure that you'll remind me.

"Yes! I will," she said. "I never forget anything."

This is why we have a no-questions-before-you-are-dressed-for-school rule.



Tayja waits in the car for me to drive her to school.

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“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” Lao Tzu
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