"Mom, Where's Fishie Heaven?"

Little kids are awesome.

So, the other day, Thing Four (who will be four in just a few days! Eeek!) and I were at the store, and he wanted to pass by the pet section and see the fish. I got a "tad" nervous, because his betta fish, Sushi, died a few weeks ago and I didn't have the heart to tell him, and have been hoping he hadn't noticed. (When the fish was ailing I moved his bowl to my room where it wasn't visible to the other kids, I didn't want to have one of them catch him floating.)

Anyway, we pass by the fish section and he waves at the fish and we talk about them for a while, and of course, after a minute he looks at me and asks:

"Mom, where's Sushi?"

I gulp. How will he take the news? Then I realize, he's kind of an "old soul" so I tell him the truth. The conversation went like this:

ME: "Sushi died, sweetie.

HIM: "He died?"

ME: "Yes. I'm sorry."

HIM: "What did you do with him?"

ME: "I flushed him down the toilet." 

HIM: "Oh. Okay."

A few seconds pass...

HIM: "Mom, where is Sushi now?"

At that point I decided it would be unwise to tell him Sushi was probably floating dead and rotting in a sewer somewhere, so I opted for the easy way out:

"He's in Fishie Heaven, sweetie."

Thing Four seemed okay with that, and that was the end of that conversation. Until yesterday. Thing Four had to go to the bathroom. So, I assisted him, and just before he flushed he stood, studying the toilet for a minute. I asked him what was up. And he said:

"Mom, if I flush my poopies down the toilet will they go to Fishie Heaven and be with Sushi?"

I had to explain to him that NO, that wasn't the case. But in retrospect, I can see his line of reasoning: I flushed Sushi down the toilet, Sushi currently resides in "Fishie Heaven," ERGO, you can get to Fishie Heaven via toilet, in his mind, right?

And THAT is why little kids are awesome.