I actually watched the dude die...he rolled over on his back and that was it. I geared up and tried to use this as a teaching opportunity about death, but Alex wouldn't believe me. She kept saying,"mama, he's just being a silly lizard. He's napping on his back upside down. He's NOT dead. He's napping." I told her we would wait for daddy to come home and he would confirm if the Ghetti was dead or alive (clearly he was dead). Alex had a friend over, Sam, who just lost his puppy, so he was able to help us explain. He told Alex, "dude, that lizard looks really dead. Let's squish him!" Such compassion :)
After a long discussion about death and what happens, we explained that we would have to flush the lizard down the toilet so his soul could go to heaven. She was asking a lot of questions, such as, "So if his soul is in heaven, where is his head? In the potty still?" So funny!
We took it to the can, and each one of us took a turn saying something nice about the lizard. Sam even chimed in with, "you were really an awesome lizard" and Alex said, "you lived a really long time in my lizard cage."
We let Alex do the flushing....and just like that (sigh)....he was gone. Could we be any more dramatic?!
She now understands that Ghetti's soul is in heaven and his body got flushed. RIP, black Ghetti liz-urd. And yes, I am THAT mom that actually took pictures.
Examining the proof
Reminiscing on the good times
Flushing the Ghetti
Bye little fella!
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