My daughter has wanted an aquarium for quite some time. I had pretty much decided that when her 10th birthday came this summer, we would bite the bullet and put an aquarium in her room.

She’s a pretty creative kid and had, many times, created her own aquariums.

Case in point: the little model at the left with plastic fish suspended by pipe cleaners from a cardboard circle.

This had adorned her dresser for quite awhile. A little reminder to Mom and Dad that she would really like an aquarium in her room.

She and her dad did some recon at a pet store earlier this summer. She picked out some varieties of fish she liked and determined the type of design she might like to see in her tank. She read about some varieties and asked her dad a ton of questions as he’d had fish as a kid. When I was a kid, my grandma had huge fish tanks and I could sit and watch them for hours, but I don’t remember a whole lot about what grandma taught me–except about beta fish. In fact, the last aquarium I had was set up beautifully, but I never stocked it with fish. It was amusing when people came over as they would stare at the tank for some time before finally asking if there were any fish inside it. They were almost offended when I told them, “Um, no.”

So, yesterday, we decided to go to the pet store and see what we could see. We purchased a 15-gallon tank and my daughter could not have been happier when she found a volcano decoration for her tank. She has a thing about underwater volcanoes. It was, she said, the “dream of her life” to have one in her tank. Of course we purchased it plus a bubbler so it could be extra awesome.

Once we had the tank set up and filled [this was a daddy/daughter project], it looked pretty magnificent. The volcano was majestic, the rocks on the bottom of the tank were SO her, and the tank was tall rather than long, so she had plenty of room to sit by it and admire her handiwork.

I admit it, I was a little jealous.

I mean, look at it. That aquarium rocks!

Today, we went to the pet store and purchased four fish for her tank.

They are quite impressive. There is a black molly, a dalmatian lyre tail molly, a yellow fish and an orange fish. They have been christened Michael, Spike, Limoncello, and Maverick. They are pretty wild and crazy, so they will fit in around this joint just fine.

My daughter took a video of them and hopes it will be famous. The page views make her certain her fish are the next celebrities on the cover of People magazine. You never know!