Meet our Siamese Fighting Fish "Killer Po"

This is Killer Po. He is my new responsibility, because my kids got wind of all that "unaccounted-for-time" I last spoke of and plotted against me.

When we went camping last wekend up at RMNP, we saw alot of fish in the streams. Cutthroat Trout, and brown trout. Arianna, for whatever reason decided that she needed a fish in her life. I can't emphasize her need enough. You had to be there.

So what does her daddy do? Being the "I-live-to-serve-my-children-kind-of-Daddy" he is, told her she would get a fish. Someday.

She didn't forget that. She talked about it all the rest of the way home and into the next day. At dinner on Tuesday, Joseph says his friend across the street has a fish tank they're selling or giving away--he wasn't sure which. I said, "After dinner, go ask about it." He was out the door in two shakes, with Arianna on his tail. He walked back in with a gallon size gold fish bowl and gravel. FREE.

The next 15 minutes are a blur, but suddenly we were standing in Pet Smart looking at fish. We went there thinking we'd bring home a guppy or a goldfish. The PetSmart guy sold us on a betta. We asked if there were a guarantee of any kind? He said there was!--14 days and if anything happened to this fish, we could get another. So we let Arianna pick out the first one, and told Joseph when this one died, we'd let him pick out a red one next week--they were fussin about which one to get...that seemed to settle the argument quickly.(hey, I"m just being realistic here.)

The next feat to overcome was where to put the bowl? Ari was pulling for the bathroom counter. She said something about it being the place with all the water in the house. Hunh? We opted to let each child have the fish in their room for a few days and then switch. We may make this poor betta schizophrenic.

As of this morning, Day 3, *Killer Po is still swimming strong in his little world.

The best part of this experience was when we were leaving PetSmart and our kids announced that WE ARE THE BEST PARENTS IN THE WORLD! True story. Joseph even offerred up,"When I'm a teenager, I'm going to buy Dad a convertible AND a SUV!" Arianna siad she would buy me a SUV too, but I told her that if they bought Daddy a car, I would just ride with him. Then her eyes lit up and she said, "Oh I know what--I will buy you TWO German Chocolate Cakes for your birthday!!"

That's my girl.

*Killer Po is a combination of the kids name choices..Ari picked Killer, Joseph chose Po after the Kung Fu Panda movie...I wanted to name it Jackie Chan.