Pish

Miss O loves fish. All day long we talk about "Pish" and ESPECIALLY "Bookow Pish" or Mickey Fish.

Me? Not so much. Not a fish fan. While I love my father, my only memories of the fish tanks he had for us as kids are dead, floating, pale fish carcasses. Well and the few fish we did have that survived that my brother flushed down the toilet while still alive. It was rather traumatic for me, and even more so when he decided about 6 months later that he was back to being "into" fish and wanted another tank.

That being said, is it too much to ask that Miss O be able to enjoy nice, healthy fish at the aquarium and the zoo? Why do we have to bring the fish INTO the house?

Hubby and I even had "the talk" regarding a fish tank and I explicitly asked that we NOT get one. I really can't do dead fish. I don't know what it is about dead fish tank fish but they make my stomach lurch and my whole body clench. The only dead fish I deal with are over rice with wasabi and soy sauce. No joke.

Anyway, do you see where I'm going with this? Now I must be careful to refrain from husband bashing (well besides over his head when he gets home from his business trip), but my husband had this brilliant surprise for us when we got home from Disney. A fish tank! Completely stocked with .. MICKEY FISH! And, if those weren't great enough, AFRICAN FROGS! "See, honey, I bought what I knew you two would love.."

You see? He made HIS fish tank all about Miss O and me. Don't be fooled. This was not a NICE thing to do. This. Was. War.

Rules: I don't do fish tanks. I don't clean the tank. I don't feed the fish. I DON'T remove dead fish under ANY CIRCUMSTANCE. Nay, I don't want to SEE dead fish.

Anyway, do you see where I'm going with this?

Two weeks in: Mickey Fish #1 doesn't look so hot. I'll spare you the details but safe to say the end was near. Ray offered to flush him while he was still alive but, well, see posting above. Finally, after days of suffering, Mickey Fish #1 goes.

One week later: Ray is gone for business. Do you SEE where this is going? Not only am I to FEED the fish (see rules), BUT I come in to find one fish dead. Not floating, of course, where it would be "easy" to reach, but rather wrapped around the filter thing-a-ma-jig. So I spend all night last night freaking out, trying to figure out how to get the fish. Gagging over the fish. Creating quite a scene for the neighbors (should they be peering in my windows).

Anyway, do you see where I'm going with this this?

Upon further inspection there isn't a dead fish. Whew. No. There are TWO DEAD FISH. I am telling you! I can't take it.

So I went to bed.

Apparently, however, I have inherited the inability to deal with dead fish. In fact, I'm going to do some research later because I actually think it might be a disease passed through nurturing. You see, my mom also did not deal with dead fish. She would wait until my father would come home from his business trips and announce (ever so sweetly, as that is my mom's way) "Dear, I do believe there is a dead fish in the tank" and at this point probably batted her eyes (or not, as that is not really her way).


Wait.. Maybe that's why all I remember about tanks are dead fish. Thanks, MOM.

And I'm only half joking when I say if any of you would like to come remove said fish, I will pay you one hundred dollars. (I'd say one million, but I might have too many offers and I simply don't have enough room for you all to show up at my house..) :)

Fun Friday: The Great Cloth Diaper Change!

First off, we need to address my obsession with creating alliterate themed titles for all my blog posts. You know you love it. I know I spend my dreaming time coming up with it. Let us all embrace it.

Now, The Great Cloth Diaper Change! Say Huh? If you are not in the cloth diapering community (and why not? why AREN'T you?) then you probably have no idea to what in the world I am referring. The Great Cloth Diaper Change is this incredible event created by the Cloth Diaper gods... ok, well I think actually The Real Diaper Association had something to do with it, in order to bring more awareness to the world of cloth diapering. According to the website, as of April 9th, there are 305 officially registered hosts in 16 countries! Talk about powerful!

Miss O and I participated in the FIRST change last year. The timing was all wrong for us, as we were in the middle of moving and life was crazy, but the one tried and true fact of life is that the BEST THINGS always happen at the most inconvenient times. Am I right? Sure enough, on that Saturday morning in April last year I pulled my mom (who thought, eerr *thinks*, I was just a little bit nuts) and Miss O to a local cloth diapering place in Madison (I wanted to go to my favorite place in Racine but didn't have time to drive all the way there - but that's neither here nor there). In my overzealousness we were the first ones there. We *might* have arrived before the store opened, but I'm not telling.

Talk about being a part of something bigger than all of us. You know by now how much I thrive on life changing, earth shattering, above all powerful moments - and this was one of those moments. I mean, sure, all I did was change a diaper - goodness how many did I change before that and how many after! - but in doing so, I made a statement. I made a difference. I joined a community. No other diaper I have changed has meant more than that Hot Pink Charlie Banana. Tears come to my eyes every time I think about how I came together with these amazing cloth diapering mamas I knew mostly from online and we stood up for something in which we truly believe. The actual act of changing that diaper, of course, was rather mundane. And in true "Kari-style" (of which you will learn plenty) I completely forgot wipes or a changing pad of any sort, so poor Miss O had to lay half naked on the dirty floor. BUT STILL. Her grump face will NOT diminish how amazing I felt! The fact that I'm quite sure my 11 month old became the youngest child ever to roll her eyes at her mama will never take away how much fun I had.

Even if you do not yet cloth diaper (sorry, have you seen my post? What is Love?) you can still participate - just find a local cloth diapering store on the Great Cloth Diaper Change website and purchase some for the day! What a great excuse to try cloth diapering and if you don't like them, you can definitely sell them to some addicts on the street.. I mean cloth diapering mamas. Come on.. aren't you curious?

I don't have the photo of us at the store online, BUT here's a photo of Miss O playing with the free rattle she got!

Thoughtful Thursday: My Husband, My Blessing

I am always amazed at the comments women will write about their husbands online. Don't get me wrong - my husband drives me nuts, too, but I do hope I refrain from complaining/nagging in public forum and focus on the incredible things he does for his family every day.

At the risk of producing proficient gagging from my readers, let me go into some of the top things my husband does:

He brings me flowers. Not just on holidays or Mother's Day, but random Mondays, Tuesdays, Just Because Days. Our table always has flowers.

He paid a ridiculous amount of money to ship an entire box of Disney shampoos/conditioners to my door step because he knew I needed a pick me up and a reminder of Disney at home.

He cleans up Miss O after dinner. This might seem minor, but messes give me heart attacks and after cleaning up for two meals already, dinner time is usually my breaking point.

He laughs. You know those genuinely deep, really enjoying life, so happy to be alive laughs? Those are his laughs.

He gives Miss O her bath. Similar to cleaning up at dinner, usually by bath time I need a few minutes of peace to get stuff done, usually folding laundry. So it's nice that they have father/daughter time. I know this won't last long as soon she won't want Daddy giving her a bath, but we all enjoy it now.

He cleans while I'm away. Countless times I've left to visit family, take O on a trip, do a vendor event and have come home to a totally scrubbed house - floors vacuumed, shelves dusted, everything put away. 'Nough. Said.

I could go on and on, but I really just want to give you a little insight into our lives and who we are. I also want to encourage you to remember all the great aspects about your significant other! What is something your SO does that makes you proud or makes you want to brag about him/her? Go ahead! Brag away!

Wordless Wednesday: Bookow! (Mickey)

Spiders Beware!

This afternoon I walked out of my house to discover a HUGE spider lying next to the step. At first I was so shocked I ran inside. Then I decided I was going to risk capturing a picture. When I worked up the courage to get a closer look I realized that it had been smooshed by some kind of giant!! Oh my goodness!!! This spider was SO big - bigger than anything I'd seen in Africa and yet something big enough to smoosh it came close enough to my HOUSE to do so! WHERE DO I LIVE!?!?! (I believe I actually muttered those words aloud.)

I quickly text the picture to my husband (who was, yes, just upstairs) who then replied he had killed it this morning on his way home from work and left it there as a warning to all other spiders to stay away from his family.

My Hero! ... or Utterly Lazy? :)

*note: I have a picture of said spider on my phone, however, it was being eaten and carried away in pieces by ants and, well.. that's not very "family friendly" now is it?*