Yellow Tang

Freestone is an idea guy.  Occasionally, he thinks up an idea that is somewhat compatible with reality.  Today's idea wasn't.  The school crossing guard has a Golden Retriever that Free likes, and he came home from school and asked, "Mom, can we get a really big dog who can sleep under my bed and be with me at all times?"

Absolutely not!

But, I told him, if you practice for a hundred days in a row, I will take you to the pet store and you can get a...(here, my brain is cataloging all the animals we've had that were a bad, bad idea and coming up with...nothing)...a...mouse!  I cringed as I said it, thinking of all the cage cleaning and the probable early death and the inevitable run to the pet store during school hours for a look-alike.  But because I am that stupid, I was willing to buy a mouse if it made Free do his practicing.  (But not for ninety-four more days, which is four days after Xanthe's birthday, in case you're not counting.)  Freestone largely ignored the mouse idea and glommed onto my other suggestion:  hiding one of my dad's Afghan hounds under his bed, brushing it and taking it for walks.  That idea got an enthusiastic "ya ya ya!" 

Then the weirdest thing happened.  Freestone came with me to take Ruby to meet Scott at NSL court so he could drive her to guitar.  I realized the pet store was just down the street!  Freestone was overjoyed when I offered to take him to look at the pets.  What can I say?  I'm a sucker for pet stores, and we don't have one in our neck of the woods.  Plus, I thought if I could get Freestone excited about some cheap, tiny pet, practicing would be so easy!  See, he started with a violin teacher who isn't me last week, and he's all fired up about checking those boxes on his practice list.  Now we have to keep thinking of ways to keep the interest level up.

A few days ago, someone noticed that the clock said 7:11.  One of the kids asked Scott if they could get Slurpees because it was 7:11, and he said, "Get in the car!"   Walking into the pet store tonight, Freestone said, "I can't believe Daddy took us to get a slurpee just because it was 7:11, and now you're taking me to see pets!!"  Both Free and Ptolemy were mesmerized by all the cages and tanks and exciting inhabitants therein.  Free gravitated right to the fish tanks and I thought, "Great!  A five-dollar bowl and a ten cent fish who lives for three days.  I can do that!"  But Freestone was thinking more along these lines...

 Right away, he chose a Yellow Tang, which is essentially a thirty-dollar guppy, for those of you not familiar with the salt-water aquarium world.  Even though he had this whole scenario envisioned where he practices for a hundred days and gets the fish and the million-gallon tank, Free still had to look at every puppy, every chinchilla, every finch and every fish.  It was like the best day of his life.  I followed him around, watching him earnestly peer into the various cages, standing on tiptoe.  Ptolemy, ever the dutiful younger brother, was equally enthusiastic about each creature, squealing and pointing at everything Freestone looked at.  At the end, when we were staring at the massive tank we started at, Freestone asked if he could practice more than once a day.  Because if it took him a hundred days to get one fish, he could only get three fish a year.  Well, well, who am I to deny a child the joy of practicing twice a day?  I thought about it and said, "Hmmm...I guess you could practice everything two times, if you think you have time and it sounds fun."  He answered, "Good.  Then we'll have to get a pretty big tank, otherwise my fish might not have enough room."

In the car on the way home, Freestone said, "Sometimes I think you're the worst parents in the world...and sometimes I think you're the best parents in the world."

"When are we the worst parents in the world?"

"At bedtime.  My bedtime is way too early.  I'm too much of a night owl.  And the lunches you pack.  I've been starved since the beginning of the year!"

"When are we the best parents in the world?"

"Now."

I love Freestone.