It was Mother's Day 2008. We decide to take a family trip to the mall to spoil me! Awesome!! In the center of the mall there is a cart selling the cutest little crabs. Why are crabs cute? Well, actually they aren't, but someone paints their shells and it is all very amusing. Their shells are cute anyway. My kids REALLY like them so Bobby suggests we let them each pick out their own crab. I guess I was feeling the energy and agreed. Bryce picked out a spiderman painted crab and Leah picked out a bee painted crab. We call them lovingly: Spidey and Crabee!
We take a trip to Petsmart and hook our crabs up! We get them a little coconut hut and beach ball water sponges, so they can live. Now I think the crabs will really like living with us. They still continue to do nothing and I wonder if we should get them a hampster wheel or something. Time passes and we all grow fond of our little crabs. It's a big hit with the kids that come over. I learn that if you breath a little bit in their shell they will come out and play. Probably they don't appreciate it, but we want to see them...and not just at 2 o'clock am.
More time passes. I wonder if they are cold, hot, hungry, thirsty, but mostly I just wonder if they are happy little crabs. I also wonder about how we will know when they die, because they seem dead most of the time already.
About a month ago, Bryce's spidey crab up and died. I guess I didn't have to worry about whether or not they were alive in their shells, because when they do bite the burrito they climb out of their shells. So Bobby makes the gruesome discovery of Spidey outside his shell.
I'm not going to lie and say I didn't cry, because anyone who knows me already knows I shed some tears. I didn't even want to tell Bryce because I knew how he'd react. NOT GOOD! When our fish died he cried and wondered where it went. We had the whole heaven talk, and he asked if God had a big enough fish tank for all the fiish that died. He is really thoughtful!
I tell him I "think" Spidey died. He's like "Why do you think that?"
Well, because he climbed out of his shell and shriveled up!! I didn't say that...too sad. I tell him he went to heaven with our fish. He is sobbing crying and that makes me just want to never have pets again. You love them so much, but when they die it is devastating. I am holding him and we are both crying. I say we can burry him and say a prayer. He yells at me that he does NOT want his crab in the dirt.
OK...so now I'm not sure what to do with Spidey. Bobby puts the crab body in a ziplock and we put the shell by Crabee's tank. Everytime he sees the crab shell, he crys again. I don't want to just throw him in the trash but I don't know what the right thing to do is. Bryce asks me when God is going to give him back...that was seriously heart wrenching.
Finally, the other day he was ready to put Spidey to rest. He said, "Dad, I think we should burry Spidey." Thank God. Closure at last! Bobby dug a hole and we placed the poor little crab in there. We walk away and the next thing we know we hear a pounding sound. We go back outside to find Bryce hammering a stake in the ground. He makes him a headstone and we help him staple it on there. Then Bryce says a prayer that went like this:
"Dear God, please take good care of Spidey. He was a good crab and please bring me a new one tomorrow because I miss him. Amen."
Closure for Spidey. When this next one dies, I'm done with crabs.
2 comments:
Don't they grow out of their shell and look for a bigger one?
This cracks me up! Bryce is hillarious! love it! PS. this does not make me wanna go out and buy a crab for code!
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