Monday, April 5, 2010

Yes, I started a new blog and then didn't post on it. Life has gotten in the way. Go figure.

I do want to write down what my daughter, dear, sweet, little Hannah did right after we moved in, though. If I don't, I'm afraid I'll forget it, and I want to hold this over her head for a loooong time!

The first week we moved in to the new house, we didn't have a stove...once they delivered the new one, Sam had a friend of his (Barry) come in to help run the gas line for it. As I was getting ready to run to Home Depot for Sam, I saw Hannah standing on a box beside the fish tank. (We have two fish, both betta's...David's is Billy Bob, who is red, and Daniel's is Jedi Master, who is blue.) I noticed that she had a little net...when I asked what she was doing, she informed me that she was fishing. This is when I noticed that there was water everywhere, including the floor, shelf and all over her. I got the net away from her, put the box up and told her why we didn't do that. (we don't want to hurt the fishies because we love the fishies, don't want to make a mess, etc...) She looked at me with her head cocked sideways, patted my hand and said "OK mommy." And off she ran. Before I left, I warned Sam that she was messing with the fish and that he couldn't take his eyes off of her. He agreed, in that "I'm not helpless, I know how to take care of my child, she won't cause any trouble, would you please go ahead and go to Home Depot and get what I need so I can finish this please" kind of voice. So off I (along with Mom) went.

Halfway through the shopping trip, I felt a little uneasy so I sent a text inquiring whether everything was ok. The reply took a little while to get and then said something along the lines of "we're ok. Hannah nearly killed Billy Bob." G-R-E-A-T. Wasn't this why I told him not to take his eyes off of her?!

We got home and got the whole story. Apparently Sam had to go under the floor to do something with the gas line. He said he was gone about 3 minutes and when he came back in, he saw Hannah come out of the den (where the fish were) with cool whip up to her elbows. He went in there and saw that she had dumped cool whip on my coffee table and fingerpainted with it. Assuming this was the worst of it, he turned to get towels and noticed the fish tanks...full of what looked like thick milk. Yes, my child filled the fish tanks with cool whip. Sam called Barry and he came running and the two of them began fishing through the murky, nasty water, hoping to save the fish. Sam managed to find Jedi, and got him in a tiny bowl full of water. Barry, however, was having trouble finding Billy Bob. He was up to his elbows in this milky water, had a net in one hand and using his other hand, and not finding this poor fish anywhere. It was about then, 4 or 5 minutes after discovering the mess, that they noticed this poor, tiny, un-moving fish body laying on the floor in front of the shelves. Nice. They grabbed him up and threw him in his own little bowl, just to say they tried to save him, even though they just knew he was dead. Luckily (for Billy Bob, anyway) betta fish breathe air, and can live for up to 10 minutes without water. So it took him a bit, but he started swimming around.

Now to the mess. One of the men (I think Barry, actually, LOL!) had to clean the fish tanks, including every single tiny rock in there, refill them, condition the water and get it up to the right temperature so we could put them back in their homes. We decided to leave them on the kitchen cabinet at this point, for obvious reasons! Well, I was working in the bedroom and Sam had to go to the laundry room for a minute...I heard him bellowing at Hannah about 2 minutes later. After trying to kill the fish, apparently she decided to take care of them, because she had dumped an entire cannister of food in one of the tanks. So here I go this time, getting him out of the tank and cleaning the entire thing once again. I'm surprised the poor fish didn't die from shock!

As if this wasn't enough, about half an hour later, once all fishies were happy and swimming (and alive!) in their freshly cleaned (twice!) tanks, I came in and asked Sam where Hannah was. (she had been "helping" them) He had no idea. This could NOT be good. When I yelled for her, I heard very faintly, "I'm here, Mommy! I'm baking just like you!" Oh no. No, no. I opened the pantry door and yep, there she was, on the floor, playing in the 5 pounds of flour that she had just dumped out in front of her.

After she was dealt with (yes, there were various punishments/spankings involved after each of these...) and the mess was cleaned up, Barry, poor Barry who thought he was coming to hook up a gas line, not bob for fishes in cream and then clean fishy houses, looked at us (who were frazzled, frustrated and exhausted) and said "well...I guess she just wanted to batter her fish!"

LMAO!

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