Same Old Shannon : My Kid "Graduates"

Yesterday was Nathan's last day at Little Vikings, the preschool run by the Early Childhood Education class at our local high school. They had a little end-of-the-year party. I guess they were kind of technically calling it a "graduation," although there were no graduation hats or anything like that. `

When Bill and I arrived, the kids were playing Twister:

The Little Vikings theme this year was "Fish." The kids sang a four-line song about fish. My child refused to participate.

The classic "kid pulling up his shirt during a performance" photo:

The kids had made a fish piñata (not pictured). Nathan didn't get a chance to hit the piñata before it got broken, which is fine because historically he hasn't actually given a rip about hitting piñatas. He does like the candy inside, though. Here's a picture of Nathan with his bag of candy:

There was also a slideshow, and then the high schoolers made each kid a yearbook with photos. Nathan's two "Big Viking" buddies wrote in his yearbook. One of the buddies said, "I will miss seeing the funny faces you make." I have no idea what she's talking about:

Then again, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree:

The kids had been working on an end-of-the-year project with real fish. I had given advanced permission to allow Nathan to take his fish home. The teacher assured us that the kids knew how to clean the fish tanks, so there shouldn't be much work for the parents. Umm, yeah, I imagine that I'll just have to say, "Nathan, clean your fish tank," and he'll jump to it with the kind of alacrity characteristic of all his household chore completion.

So, we have a new family member. I suggested naming him Iron Man because of his red color, but Nathan wanted to name him either "Nathan" or "Fishy." Growing up, I had a fish named Swimmy and a hamster named Hammy, and Bill has named visiting cats The Cat and Gray Kitty, so I'm not sure Nathan comes by the creative-naming gene genetically. (Also, although we did give Nathan a proper, normal name, half the time we refer to him as "The Boy.")

Nathan with the fish, whatever its name is:

I went to Petco and bought some fish food. I got these little tablets that slowly dissolve into tubeworms and things, and you only have to feed the fish one tablet per week. Talk about a feeding schedule that doesn't properly instill a sense of responsibility in a kid. Nathan would probably be happy if we only fed him once a week (fruit snacks notwithstanding), but this girl is having none of that feeding schedule: