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Goodbye, Sonny

| patmcg

Goodbye SonnyClaire lost her first pet today.  He had not been with us for long.

About a week ago, Claire picked out four fish and a snail to put in the aquarium that she had received from Santa for Christmas.  Their names where Larry and Mary (the two tiny fish), Spots and Sonny (the two slightly bigger fish), and Max the snail.  Today Sonny stopped moving and gradually sunk to the bottom of the tank.  We are not sure what caused his premature death.

Claire was sad to lose Sonny but managed to hold back her tears.  We buried Sonny under the large pecan tree in the back yard, under a few inches of soil.  We all showed our respects with a few words.  Claire came up with something like, “Sonny, you were only with us for a week.  But we loved you, and we will always remember you.”  It was a brief but dignified ceremony.  Then Claire came inside and went to work on a small marker.  It was a nice drawing of Sonny with a few extra sparkles stuck on it to make it fancier, and then taped to a straw and stuck in the ground on Sonny’s final resting place.

Molly missed the ceremony since it was held during her nap time.  When Molly woke up, Claire was anxious to show Molly the grave.  Once outside, Molly was not so interested since she wanted to ride her little bike instead.  Since Molly would not pay her final respects to Sonny, Claire did it for her.

Newtown

| patmcg
On Friday, there was a terrible massacre of 20 first-grade kids and 6 teachers at a school in Newtown, Connecticut.  (That sentence is so awful it was actually hard to write.)  Claire’s excellent 1st grade teacher sent out the following apt message to the class parents.

[quote]Dearest Parents,

As I prepare myself for the school morning, I feel compelled to say something in regards to Friday’s tragedy.

I think when things like this happen, we all respond with a similar thought pattern: “That could have been my child.” Being that these students were first graders makes this tragedy somehow more poignant and raw for us. I have repeated the previous thought over and over in my mind this weekend, followed by, “That could have been my students. That could have been me.” Last night I dreamt of one single message: “Be the light.”

I would be remiss to believe that evil doesn’t exist in a real way in our world, that really bad things happen to good people for senseless reasons, but I want to acknowledge the truth that love and light live in greater proportions than darkness.

So…love more, do good, contribute to the greater consciousness, and turn on as many lights as possible…everyday.[/quote]

Still Can’t Read

| patmcg


Claire was in her room looking at a pile of her books before bath time this evening. Then she brought a big board book into the bathroom where I was drawing her bath and getting everything ready for bedtime. She asked me to read the book, and I said sorry, not right now, I am busy. She threw the book down and started crying. Usually she gets a little annoyed, but not that upset, when I tell her I’m busy. So I asked her what was the matter. She looked down, with tears in her eyes, and said in a quiet voice, “I’m too little to read it.” It was so sweet and sad. Then Kit showed up and read the book to her and cheered her up. I am afraid Claire has a pretty long wait before she can read books “all by her own self”, as she says, but it is nice to see she is motivated.