Swimmy Wave Corner: Part 2

This is part two of the fish saga. To find out the how we came to own a fish, read here. To back up even further, you can read my feelings on fish here...or here. So for us to have a fish in the house, let alone as a pet, means you know I love my kids.

Evan, Andrew, and Andrew's sister, Caroline, each won a fish. Caroline actually left the fair with two fish, one which died before they even got home which didn't give me high hopes for this fish. Thankfully our good friends, Terry and Angela, are fish experts. They have had a fish tank with many different types of fish for a while. They know what kind of fish need what kind of water/food/temperature/etc. All the things I have never wanted to know. I texted Angela for help and she has an entire goldfish habitat set up in a margarita pitcher in less than 5 minutes! I may have even texted her "I'll make sure to give you the pitcher back as soon as he dies." Again, not high hopes for this little thing.

As soon as we got home, I start prepping the water while Evan literally walks room to room with the fish bag giving Swimmy a tour...of our house. I can see attachment issues already. As we are discussing Swimmy's new home, John and I make sure to say over and over, fish don't live forever. Fish sometimes die after a couple minutes days. We are going to love and care for Swimmy as long as we have him.

Evan fed him his first meal that night and all went to bed happy.  Naturally, Swimmy was housed in Evan's room. Evan, being the most tender hearted little guy there is, asked me if Luke could have a turn feeding him in the morning. I told him that was fine as long as Evan was the one who got the food out of the container. He could put it in Luke's hand before Luke put it in the alcoholic beverage container bowl. The next morning all went according to plan and Luke got a turn to feed the fish. Evan brought an iPad to my bed that morning and asked me to go to a goldfish website so he could learn how to take care of Swimmy. Thinking this was absolutely adorable, I conceded and we read about goldfish for about half an hour. We read about how to care for their water, how to not over feed them, how to change their water (because there is a multi-step process to changing water...), what they like to eat, etc. I felt like we could teach a goldfish 101 class after all of that.

Fast forward to 9:45. I am doing yoga downstairs. John and Evan are playing Skylanders and Luke is playing with toys in different parts of the house. As I am doing yoga this is the conversation I hear.

Luke: I feed him all da seeds!!
John: What, Luke?
Luke: He have a lot of dem.
John: What do you mean sweetie?
Luke: He has all da seeds!
John: Can you show me what you mean?

They walk down the hall and about 15 seconds later I hear, "OH NO!!!! It's EVERYWHERE!! OH NO!" Followed by Evan shrieking at the top of his lungs. Of course from the first "OH NO", I unpretzel myself out of whatever yoga pose I was in and start sprinting up the stairs. When I hear "It's everywhere!" my first thought is the water. In my head I pictured the pitcher on its side, water spilling everywhere and Swimmy flopping around on the floor. Thankfully I made it up the stairs in about 2 seconds to see that wasn't the case. Luke had decided feeding Swimmy was so much fun that he wanted to do it again. But this time he gave him "all da seeds". To Luke's defense, no rules had been explained. We had had this fish for less 14 hours. He had no clue what he was doing. As soon as he saw/heard us freaking out, he went into hiding. I still have no idea where he went.

Now remember, not 3 hours before, Evan and I read about overfeeding being the number one killer of goldfish. So Evan is convinced Luke killed Swimmy. John grabs the pitcher, I sprint back downstairs to start prepping new water. I grab a bowl and the water conditioner and try to get the faucet to a decent temp. The good news is Swimmy seems unfazed. I am not sure if he even ate any of the food Luke so generously gave him. Once we deem the water ready we have to figure out how to get Swimmy from bad water to good water without getting any of the floating food into the new clean water. John knows without even looking at me, I ain't touching that thing. Being the amazing husband and father he is, he scoops Swimmy out with his hands and drops him in the bowl.

Keep in mind, Evan is still hyperventilating about his fish dying and Luke is in still hiding. Once Swimmy is placed in the clean water, I sit with Evan and calm him down enough to explain, he might die, but we've done all we can. I swear it was like a version of Fishie ER. We sat by his makeshift bowl watching him kind of gasp every 3 seconds of so. Anytime Swimmy would start floating on his side, Evan would plead and beg, "pllleeeease don't die, please don't die Swimmy!!!" I told him Swimmy was probably freaking out from all of this so we had to stay calm for him. He sat with Swimmy and talked to him for at least 10 minutes. And if I am being honest, I sent a prayer up to the big guy to keep Swimmy alive....but don't tell anyone that.

Thankfully Swimmy survived the dramatic event. Since there was nothing we could really do about Evan's co-dependent attachment to the fish, we decided we needed to upgrade Swimmy's habitat to something a little more permanent. More hours of research and one hundred and twenty dollars later, Swimmy has a permanent home in the Asbell house. Good news - if Swimmy does pass on soon, Petco has goldfish for 15 cents. Anyone see the irony here?? anyone??

Swimmy Wave Corner Asbell: Part 1

Evan has been begging us for a pet for about a year. John and I had dogs for 12 and 13 years. We were kind of enjoying the pet free home. Not that we don’t love animals, but we also love our pee-free carpet, no-vet bill budget, and dog hairless couch. Let’s just say I have had more success potty training two boys than house training animals.

Evan was in the right place at the right time this summer. There was one day…just one day, he had to come to work with me due to lack of childcare. He did great. Read books, played on the playground, enjoyed his time. Sometime mid afternoon, Mrs. Gano came to visit the lab to ask a question. She immediately grabs Evan to go get some toys. He comes back with legos and building items. He’s in heaven for a while. When he takes them back he looks around her room and notices her class pets, the frogs. Mrs. Gano realizes she hasn’t fed them (it had been a month, don’t call PETA just yet), and enlists Evan’s help. She sees how enamored Evan is with the frogs and asks him to take care of him the rest of the summer. All this takes place AWAY from me. All I know is when he comes back, he has a small frog tank with two frogs that we are taking home.

He names the frogs; Rocky and Crystal. Guess what two things were in the frogs’ tank besides the frogs themselves. Rocks and a crystal. It’s a black and white world, people. The frogs live on his nightstand. He prays for the frogs. He brings every single person that enters our house up to his room to ‘meet’ the frogs. The boy loved having a pet. We cried quite a bit when we had to give them back to the class.

Fast forward to Labor Day – We were discussing over dinner Sunday before Labor Day that we didn’t have to go to school because it was a holiday called Labor Day. Daddy and Mommy didn’t have to go to work and the boys got to stay home. Evan interrupted me and said, “And I get to go to the Delta Fair!!!” I did a double take to make sure I heard him right. I glance at John, who is looking at me just as confused as I am looking at him. I then say, “wait, what?” He proceeds to tell me he has a ticket and he is going to the fair on Labor Day. I am still looking at him like he has 4 heads.  I explain that we aren’t going to the fair because none of this was passed through me. He proceeds to melt down, say, “but I have a tiiiickeeeet!” and question why I am ‘in charge of the house’. (his words…not mine…but he’s not wrong).

The more time that passes, the more I think of what a horrible mom I am for not taking him AND Evan doesn’t let things go easily. So we decided if he could control his talking at school (something he comes by naturally...have you met his mom??) he could ‘earn’ the fair. I know, I know. He broke me. But really, have you seen those dimples. Jeez.

 On Thursday, the day we planned to go to the fair, a mom emailed me and invited him to go with their family. After talking it through we he made the decision to wait until the weekend and go with his friend. Despite a rain delay, the boys had a blast! And the mom sent me tons of pictures and videos. This was the last picture I received with the caption of “ummm….well….”

Part 2 coming....