So, our beta fish, Nemo, died yesterday. This was Dillen's first fish. When Sean and I noticed it, I wasn't sure how to break the news to her. But it had to be done. We went through the death of the other fish not too long ago but she only "knew" those fish for a few days before they died.

I said, "Hey, Dillen? Roxy? Come here a second. I have some sad news..." Dillen perked up with a concerned face immediately and came right over (Roxy toddling behind her more to see what Dillen was up to). She asked, "What's up, Mommy?" And I said, "Well, it seems it was Nemo's time to go. He died today and I was hoping you could help me say goodbye to him." Dillen's head shot towards where Nemo's tank was sitting and her eyes started to well up. My heart broke. She said, "Ok. Are we going to flush him down the toilet?" I said, "Yes. But I thought you might want to say something first." She seemed to like this idea so Sean, Dillen, Roxy and myself all crammed into the girls tiny bathroom. I dropped Nemo's little lifeless and dull-red colored body into the toilet and Dillen broke out into song. (I sooo wish I had the video camera for this moment.) Her song lasted approximately 3 minutes and was really touching. She made up the tune and all of the words ("Oh, Nemoooooo, we will miss you soooooooo." "You were such a good little fishy and we were good friends." "You lived in a small tank in our kitchen and had purple rocks...." "Nemo, I loved you so much.") When she was done she reached for the handle, flushed the toilet, closed the lid and walked out of the bathroom without another word. Roxy just started saying, "Nemo. Bye-bye. Bye bye Nemo" over and over.

Dillen seemed fine until about 10 minutes later when she came over to me with tears on her face. She said, "I miss Nemo." I gave her hugs and said I did to. Then she wiped her tears and said, "Well, maybe he'll come back as a bigger fish. And maybe he will live in our bigger tank." I agreed that perhaps that might happen or that he wants to come back as a SUPER big fish so he could live in the ocean. She was content and I loved the fact that she came up with the idea of reincarnation for Nemo. :)