Triumphs and Tragedies

It has been a while since I posted. Mainly because I have been really busy, but also because life has kinda been on cruise-control. But, I have to tell you that this past weekend was a doozie.

The son had a good weekend. (He even admitted this to his mother last night, much to our surprise.) A friend of ours from the neighborhood has a little band that plays at parties and such and they have lost their drummer. Friday night we took the son over where they jam and he got to play drums for them. He absolutely loved it and I have to say, he did not do bad for his first time playing with them. He then competed in the state Solo & Ensemble contest Saturday. He was part of a percussion trio that has been working hard on a piece and they received a Superior rating at the contest. I think he was kinda proud of himself, but God forbid he not act cool about it. He then went to a movie (a chick-flick no less) with his new girlie and he said he had a good time. So, all-in-all, he did have a good weekend. It just shocked us when he admitted it, because how often do 14 year-olds admit that to their parents?

Daughter, on the other hand, did not have a good weekend. As you may already know, the Yaeger menagerie included a big black lab, Boomer; a ferocious watchcat, Poozie; and a cute little Panda-Bear Hamster named Squeakers. Saturday morning, daughter came downstairs and announced that Squeakers was dead, and proceeded to get hysterical. Mom came over to comfort, as all moms do, and I proceeded upstairs to investigate. Sure enough, he was deceased in the bottom of the cage. I thought about it for a second and decided the best thing to do was to remove the cage and everything from the room. While I was attending to cleanup and burial arrangements, Mom was still comforting. I was in the kitchen with tears in my eyes, due not to the death of the hamster (though he was a cute little guy), but due to the fact that my little girl's heart was broken. (Side note: I have decided I will not do well with the boys that might do this in the future.) I got the cage cleaned and in the garage and I buried Squeakers in the side yard to prevent any exhumation by the above-mentioned black Lab.

Now, have I mentioned that my daughter might be a bit of a drama queen? Her hysteria continued for a good 45 minutes, which I can understand. We have discussed that hamsters do not live long and she has always said she understood that, but it is still hard for her and I realize that. I can also understand the fact that every time she goes in her room for the next few weeks and looks over where the cage was, it will cause her to get sad and even cry. I get it. But the things that may have earned her the "Drama Queen" tshirt that I have been threatening to buy her is the PowerPoint tribute to Squeakers and the wanting to wear all black to church on Sunday. That's right. I said a PowerPoint tribute. Some of you may have been fortunate enough to receive the tribute in an email, complete with videos, pictures, and dramatic text. But I have to admit, she put the thing together in about 15 minutes and it really is kind of good.

My immediate thoughts after this was all over Saturday was "no more animals!!" But then, I started thinking about it. Our job as parents is to prepare our children to go out into the world and be responsible, contributing members of society, knowing right from wrong and being respectful of others and the world around them. Death is something we all experience and one day, we all lose someone that is precious to us. Life is fragile and finite and we have to teach that to our children too. As much as it hurts and as much as it causes sadness, helping our kids through this is another life-prep we can work through. In his own way, little Squeakers helped us with this. Thanks, Squeakers.