growing up

my niece suddenly grew up. i remember her being a fat baby that couldn't even crawl. suddenly she is a six year old who not only has advanced to walking and running, but also whizzes through more pages of reading than i do in a week (true, i don't read much, but she is reading 100 page novels)

she asked if she could feed bik the fish (the last time we checked we thought he was dead and found out he was alive). i reminded her that there was the possibility that he might actually have croaked this time. she went into the living room to check and came back with a piece of something in her hand. "i found him," she said. indeed, it was the sole-remaining (and unidentifiable) piece of our beloved bik. i thought that was pretty hard-core of her to scoop up that piece in her fingers. i'm going to go ahead and assume it was that episode that made her suddenly consider mortality. a few minutes later i found this on my bed: