A fishy tale

For Drake's 9th birthday, we bought him a fish, the first pet to be welcomed into this household.  We took him to PetCo, and he picked out a lovely betta.  Drake nixed my name suggestion of Sir Glubby McSwimsalot, and went with Bluefin.  The boy has been very diligent in the care of his fish.  He is showing maturity and responsibility, which is delightful.

Blissfully unaware of what his name could have been

And now, the pet ownership flood gates have been opened.  Flynn has decided for his next birthday, he is getting a fish.  This fish won't be living inside the house.  He is going to build a pond in our backyard for said fish.  He reading books and drawing up plans for this habitat.  I have no idea where he is going to place the pond.  

Competition

Today* is Drake's first real foray into the world of competition. For the record, I do not consider playing sports at the Y actual competition.  Thus summer was the first time anyone officially kept score.  He has his first First LEGO League robotics match today. I am very excited for him.  He has worked so hard and has grown so much the past few months.  As a self-proclaimed trophy whore, I hope his team walks away with something. Because, how freaking exciting would that be: a rookie team of all 3rd graders taking home hardware against veteran teams.  Realistically, this is probably not going to happen.  And, you know what, he doesn't seem to care.  That is the greatest thing to hear.  This team knows the odds are not in their favor, but they know they have learned so much, accomplished something as a team, and, I'm not just saying this because he's my kid, they produced a better product than many of the other teams out there.

I'm proud of you, kiddo.  Break a leg and have a blast!

*December 13, 2015.  Don't know why it wasn't uploaded sooner.

UPDATE: The team did bring home some hardware: the Judges' Award.  They weren't the best team, but they held their own against 8th graders and veteran teams.