Why was today so difficult?!?

   Nixon needed to be woke up this morning. While shaking off the sleep, he starts getting sad that his ghost shrimp Midnight is dead. It took me a few minutes to let him have his sadness before getting out of his bed.
    It's important to me that I give him time to feel what he feels without pressure to "get over it" or "move on". He feels so much and loves so hard that death is a whole new and complicated life event for him.

    Nixon was fully together when he went to school.
   He had a rough day, of sorts. More than one episode resulting in time out of the classroom, for a total of 22 minutes. Seven smiles and even spent all but 5 minutes in the cafeteria at lunchtime.

   

   Tonight was rough.
   Nixon's fish, Scootaloo, isn't looking healthy. I went to the pet store today to get advice on helping him. I changed his water (a 50/50 change). I tested his water (all normal levels). It's heated at a perfect temp for a happy fish.
    And still, at bedtime, Scootaloo looked bad. So bad I had to talk to Nixon about it. It's hard, but I feel like I need to prepare him for the worst. It's that bad. Nixon took it pretty good. I told him, if Scootaloo does die, when he's ready we can get him another fish (or fishes).

   I hate doing this to him, because he's likely to get anxious and check on Scootaloo multiple times a day, and possibly watch him before he falls asleep.