Nemo the third

A few nights ago we were gathered around the dinner table, finishing our meal and discussing a certain cute kiddos upcoming third birthday party, when Taylor announced to both Chris and I that she was super excited for all her friends to come to her house, eat cake and sing Happy Birthday to her. And then she took a quick glance at the fishbowl in the center of the table and said, And I want all my friends to meet Nemo too!

And up until that point, Deuce, also known as Nemo the second, was doing great. Much better then the original Nemo that Chris brought home for Taylor on Valentine’s Day, and then we found floating belly-up last week. And after the top-secret switch-a-roo, we were happy to have a red betta fish that actually ate it’s food and showed a little life. We were feeling pretty good about ourselves and our fish-care capabilities, especially since Miss T was doing awesome following the No-milk-or-chips-in-Nemo’s-bowl rule.

So imagine my surprise and utter disappointment when we woke up to a dead Deuce the next morning. SERIOUSLY?! And after calling Chris to alert him of ANOTHER floating Nemo, we both agreed that we’d have to make another sneaky switch and just avoid the dead-pet talk for the time being. And because my daughter is all over me all the time, Deuce was barely flushed down the toilet when I hear her chirping, MOM! What you doing? Why you have that net? WHERE’S NEMO? To which I replied, Well, Honey. Dad wanted to take Nemo to work with him this morning to show all his friends. Don’t worry, he’ll bring him back home soon.

And after another phone call to Chris, he made an impromptu stop home over his lunch break with our third red betta fish of the month, Nemo the third, also known as Tres. And a bottle of de-fungus, let’s-hope-this-fish-lasts-more-then-a-week solution for the fishbowl. And Thank Goodness! he keeps getting a different sales person at PetSmart for each visit he’s made, otherwise we might be put on some Betta Fight Club watch list.

So Tres is doing pretty good so far, as in HE’S STILL ALIVE.

He’s eating, he’s swimming all over, he’s exploring the shells in his bowl. Taylor has another Nemo, and life seems to be alright in the Famous Amys house for the moment. And while many of you might be wrapped up in your March Madness brackets right now, I’m suspecting a few of you might start taking bets as to how long until we have to introduce Quattro to the family. At $2.99 a pop, this whole pet-fish idea of Chris’s is starting to add up.