(I hope.)
Last week I was spending some time visiting on my neighbor's porch. It was gorgeous, cool day and we spent most of the evening there. Our homes are all situated around one big park. A huge grass field and a basketball court greet me as I walk down my sidewalk from the front door. They are called "park homes" and we essentially all share one giant front yard.
Matt was gone to a late softball game. I was watching Paige crawl around the grass when Zoe decided to run home to go potty. She does this often when we are outside so I wasn't worried. I sat talking with the neighbors and watching Paige devour a green tomato I gave her. Kid seriously LOVED it. When Zoe come back out of the house, she came straight to me and tattled on herself, "Mom, I fed Fish Food."
I immediately got frustrated because I had fed him for the night and she had already fed him AGAIN once before that. (Granted, I shouldn't have left it within her reach. I just hadn't put it away from being left out when my family was visiting.) I warned her she needed to be careful how much food she fed her fish because too much food could kill him. (We are very graphic in our house.)
All of the sudden she melted into a ball of tears and came and cried in my lap. I calmed her down and told her we would take care of him and Mommy would do everything she could to keep him happy and healthy, but she needed to know what could happen if she fed him too much. She melted again.
I calmed her down again and she went to play as I sat mystified at how upset she had been. Usually she takes facts very well and applies them. This time, every time I mentioned overfeeding the fish, she freaked. Needless to say, I have decided the fish will just be replaced if it ever dies. Zoe is not ready to experience fish death.
We sat on the porch until dusk and then I went inside to get the girls to bed. I made plans with the neighbors to make non-alcoholic Mohitos after the kids went down.
Soon, it was Mohito time. We mixed our drinks and sat down in the living room to enjoy them. (They were yummy, but we are going to do a bit of tweaking next time.)
As we were talking I noticed Fish Food's water was looking pretty cloudy. I looked closer and there was a pile of food on the plastic leaves in his bowl. I stood up and gasped as I saw this:
Zoe had emptied the ENTIRE contents of the brand new can of fish food into the fish bowl. No WONDER she was so upset about overfeeding him!
Concerned, I grabbed the bowl and moved Fish Food to a bowl of clean water. I emptied out the contents of the bowl into a strainer and immediately gagged. Fish food stinks! (The actual food, not the fish. Although, I've never actually tried to smell him. Perhaps he does stink.) Especially mushy fish food in large quantities.
I began to run my fingers through the rock/fish food combination to wash off the fish food. It was gross! Meanwhile, I tried to keep tiny rocks from falling into the garbage disposal. (Because luck would have it that only the garbage disposal side was available for fish bowl cleaning.) Finally, I plugged the drain and the cleaning went much faster.
In order to give me a heart attack, Fish Food (the fish...this is going to be a problem) kept floating on his side in the bowl he was resting in. My neighbor and I kept putting our fingers in the water to make sure he was still alive. Stupid Fish.
At last, the bowl was reassembled and filled with clean water. I purified the water, checked the temperature and put Fish Food back in his bowl.
Then I watched him.
He was being kind of twitchy.
I started to freak...a little.
Eventually my neighbors told me to calm down. He was probably just worked up from all the chaos.
After a while they turned out to be right. He calmed down and was soon swimming around happily.
The next morning I showed Zoe the sparkling clean bowl and the happy fish and told her I took care of him like I promised. I was rewarded with a huge smile and the tightest hug.
Supermom? I think so.
Ever had any crazy, or parent saves the day, or just gross, animal experiences? Please share!
Last week I was spending some time visiting on my neighbor's porch. It was gorgeous, cool day and we spent most of the evening there. Our homes are all situated around one big park. A huge grass field and a basketball court greet me as I walk down my sidewalk from the front door. They are called "park homes" and we essentially all share one giant front yard.
Matt was gone to a late softball game. I was watching Paige crawl around the grass when Zoe decided to run home to go potty. She does this often when we are outside so I wasn't worried. I sat talking with the neighbors and watching Paige devour a green tomato I gave her. Kid seriously LOVED it. When Zoe come back out of the house, she came straight to me and tattled on herself, "Mom, I fed Fish Food."
I immediately got frustrated because I had fed him for the night and she had already fed him AGAIN once before that. (Granted, I shouldn't have left it within her reach. I just hadn't put it away from being left out when my family was visiting.) I warned her she needed to be careful how much food she fed her fish because too much food could kill him. (We are very graphic in our house.)
All of the sudden she melted into a ball of tears and came and cried in my lap. I calmed her down and told her we would take care of him and Mommy would do everything she could to keep him happy and healthy, but she needed to know what could happen if she fed him too much. She melted again.
I calmed her down again and she went to play as I sat mystified at how upset she had been. Usually she takes facts very well and applies them. This time, every time I mentioned overfeeding the fish, she freaked. Needless to say, I have decided the fish will just be replaced if it ever dies. Zoe is not ready to experience fish death.
We sat on the porch until dusk and then I went inside to get the girls to bed. I made plans with the neighbors to make non-alcoholic Mohitos after the kids went down.
Soon, it was Mohito time. We mixed our drinks and sat down in the living room to enjoy them. (They were yummy, but we are going to do a bit of tweaking next time.)
As we were talking I noticed Fish Food's water was looking pretty cloudy. I looked closer and there was a pile of food on the plastic leaves in his bowl. I stood up and gasped as I saw this:
Zoe had emptied the ENTIRE contents of the brand new can of fish food into the fish bowl. No WONDER she was so upset about overfeeding him!
Concerned, I grabbed the bowl and moved Fish Food to a bowl of clean water. I emptied out the contents of the bowl into a strainer and immediately gagged. Fish food stinks! (The actual food, not the fish. Although, I've never actually tried to smell him. Perhaps he does stink.) Especially mushy fish food in large quantities.
I began to run my fingers through the rock/fish food combination to wash off the fish food. It was gross! Meanwhile, I tried to keep tiny rocks from falling into the garbage disposal. (Because luck would have it that only the garbage disposal side was available for fish bowl cleaning.) Finally, I plugged the drain and the cleaning went much faster.
In order to give me a heart attack, Fish Food (the fish...this is going to be a problem) kept floating on his side in the bowl he was resting in. My neighbor and I kept putting our fingers in the water to make sure he was still alive. Stupid Fish.
At last, the bowl was reassembled and filled with clean water. I purified the water, checked the temperature and put Fish Food back in his bowl.
Then I watched him.
He was being kind of twitchy.
I started to freak...a little.
Eventually my neighbors told me to calm down. He was probably just worked up from all the chaos.
After a while they turned out to be right. He calmed down and was soon swimming around happily.
The next morning I showed Zoe the sparkling clean bowl and the happy fish and told her I took care of him like I promised. I was rewarded with a huge smile and the tightest hug.
Supermom? I think so.
Ever had any crazy, or parent saves the day, or just gross, animal experiences? Please share!
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