Poor Dori :(

Saturday started out as a day of shopping for Olivia Grace and I. We went to Mount Pleasant to find a bookshelf for Carter's room and then to BabiesRUs to pick up a few more things we needed before he makes his appearance. It was nice and we were excited to find the bookshelf for Carter. Although, I am not really sure why because the poor baby doesn't have a single book. Olivia Grace's bookshelf was full before she even arrived. Claire and Becky assure me that I will get over this feeling of trying to keep everything "even" for the two. I sure hope so because I am feeling really guilty that I haven't bought him any books. Olivia Grace was nice enough to go through her books and find 3 that he would like and put them on his shelf. She is going to be a great big sister! Anyway...I digress...let's get back to "poor Dori". After the 3 of us put the bookshelf together (mostly me because Craig refuses to read the directions), Craig went to put the tools away and noticed that our beloved pet fish, Dori, was floating on her back. If you know our family well, you know how important all of our pets are to us. It is kinda like a farm around here but we wouldn't have it any other way. Craig and I couldn't figure out what to say to Olivia Grace so we just decided to make it up as we went along. We showed her how Dori wasn't swimming any more and told her that we thought Dori just got old and had to go be with Jesus. At first, she was adamant that Dori was just resting and she would still swim...all while she was tapping on the glass to "wake her up". We then tried to explain that she had "died". That is a very hard concept for a four year old...really for any of us but especially for a four year old. I started by saying we could put her in the potty to send her back to the ocean but Olivia Grace didn't like that idea and started to cry more. So then I changed it to having a burial outside...we didn't like that either because Dori wouldn't like the dirt. Then Craig said someone from the pet store would come and pick her up and send her to be with Jesus. Finally, Olivia Grace agreed to her own version of what would happen...someone from the pet store would come pick up Dori and the fish doctor would take her to the ocean where she could be with her mom and dad and sister and brother. I am not sure that she understands the concept of what really happened to Dori but we did our best and when your little one's heart is broken you do whatever you can to "make it better" so we agreed with her. We finally got her to stop crying after Craig assured her that we would get another fish. I never thought that it would be that difficult to explain, after all, it was just a fish. But all the pets at our house are loved equally, I guess!! :) We will post some pictures of our new fish when Daddy finds the perfect one...Olivia Grace has given him a list of characteristics that her new pet should have!