Well, we said goodbye to Gil the Beta today. The family stood around the toilet--even Bando came up to the bathroom for the ceremony. The unmistakable kerplunk. Then the flush, swirl, and oooo-don't-let-him-float-back-into-the-bowl moment.
she keeps asking about the body vs the soul and where is his skin and where is the real Gil and where is Diva and where is...(insert the name of every other person/thing she knows is dead here, including Martin Luther King, Jr.)
a mother's gift isn't exactly changing the subject, but diverting the conversation toward an area of the topic that's just a bit right from where it might be headed. we learn this because our children like to talk about Very Deep Things just when they are about to go to sleep, putting mom in a precarious position--either tell a happy lie so everyone goes night-night with dreams of faries and ponies; tell the truth and expect to be up 2 more hours clearing up the aftermath; DIVERT THE CONVERSATION down a parallel path so your child doesn't know you're not talking about what they'd like to be talking about so that everyone can lose sleep.
Tonight i used the many colors of coral in the sea to steer us away from the 'where is Gil's skin and where is Diva and when are we going to bury her ashes' discussion at 10:30 p.m on a school night.
Go me.
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