Matthew was home from school today because yesterday I picked him up with a fever and he had to be fever-free for 24 hours before returning. I decided to take advantage of a day with all three munchkins and go to the beach! The weather was definitely not the best, but we decided to make a go of it anyway. We brought our buckets and chairs and found that there was this super cool sand shelf all along the beach. The sand was a little wet and there were sand "rocks" all along the shelf that Matthew quickly discovered were great for sand fights! I had brought my book, but it was a little chilly to sit and read so I decided to get warm by chasing the kids around and having a sand fight! Then we made lots of sand castles and other shapes with our toys.
The kids were getting hungry so we took a break to eat. Caroline is afraid of sea gulls because one stole a cheese stick from out of her hand not too long ago. I assured her that the sea gulls wouldn't bother her today. I couldn't have been more wrong! We circled up our chairs and huddled together to eat and those crazy aggressive birds started flying and hovering right over our heads! Caroline was crying and sitting on my lap, and we thought it smarter to go eat lunch in the car. After our car lunch we headed back to the beach for some more sand fights. Then the kids remembered how fun it is to run from the water. They had a great time screaming and running and I got to read that book I brought for a few minutes. Somehow they all ended up wet and of course freezing, but I still had to pry them away when it was time to leave. It was a great day of quality time in the midst of the chaos.
While it may not seem like it from the amount of fish-related posts lately, there are more things going on in our lives than these little creatures. However, they definitely provide the most writing material!
Today I got home from Playaway, looked in the fish tank, and saw a baby! I knew they were mating! And now I of course have no idea what to do with this baby. Who knows if there were more or when this happened. I immediately call Brian and ask him what on earth am I supposed to do with this baby fish? He, in all of his infinite wisdom, tells me to Google it. So I did. And, surprise surprise, keeping baby fish alive is no easy task! Not only do the other fish eat them, but they also require much cleaner water and more food and sometimes special food. I am still baffled as to how so many fish survive in the wild waters of ponds and rivers everywhere when they seem to require so much maintenance in a tank.
It seems that the best option is this little net/tank hybrid that you place in your existing tank and it keeps the babies separate from the adults. Just as I'm about to load the girls up in the car for yet another trip to the pet store, I realize that the baby fish is nowhere in sight. So apparently they eat their babies quickly. I then have to explain to Caroline that fish sometimes eat their babies. Making that sound normal and not depressing is no easy task. But she takes it like a champ and returns to playing in her room.
Well now I'm in my investigative journalist mode and trying to figure out which fish gave birth. Based on a variety of clues, I think I know which one it is. Which is super surprising because we kind of thought it was a boy fish. To our credit, we were undecided, but due to its chasing behavior we went with male. Now I think it was chasing the other fish away because it was pregnant and hungry! So which fish was it you ask? It was Cootie Car, Caroline's fish, who also by the way has ick or some type of fungus that we've been treating it for. Is this related to the babies? No idea. Is it just one more thing that makes fish high maintenance? Absolutely.
So after much computer research and analyzing here is what I learned about our fish today. Mollies and Platys (the two types we have) are live-bearing fish. Which is why we never saw eggs. The gestation period is about a month, which is about how long we have had them. Cootie Car did have a larger belly which I was suspicious of a few weeks ago before we decided that he was a boy. Apparently my suspicions were correct, and when I looked up what a pregnant fish looks like that was her. She's also been acting kind of strange and just hanging out at the top or bottom of the tank. I was originally attributing this to the ick fungus, but now think the girl was in labor! Also, Cootie Car looks much thinner today than yesterday. She and Jet Pack were the same size, and now she's noticeably smaller. Which means, you guessed it, I'm pretty sure Jet Pack is pregnant. So apparently there will be more babies to come. Help me now!
Update: When I picked Matthew up from school I told him about the baby. He was super excited until I told him it got eaten. Then he might have been a little disturbed. But, we got home and I spotted the baby again! That sucker can hide! It blends in with the rocks on the bottom. So maybe it will survive after all. We will probably get one of those divider things for the tank since I'm pretty sure Jet Pack will be having babies, and obviously we all know how much Banana loves Mandarin. Is it bad to take our one male fish to the pet store and trade it for a female? I'm not sure how much more of this I can handle!
Ok people, I am warning you, seriously think before you get fish. Easy pets they are not! So after we killed our first four fish, we waited a few days for our water to settle. We went back to the pet store to have the water tested and bring home more fish, only to have them tell us that our ammonia levels were still too high. We waited another few days, and finally a week after the first fish massacre we brought home three new fish. Lily chose another yellow one and kept the name Banana. Matthew chose a red one with black fins that he named Jet Pack. Caroline got a silver and black speckled one and named it Cootie Car. This time, success! The fish lived through the night, and the next night, and they are still going strong!
One strange thing we have noticed is that Lily's fish pretty consistently chases Matthew's fish around, almost like it's bullying it. Then about a week in, Cootie Car started getting in on the action too, especially when it was time to eat. I kept having visions of waking up to find Jet Pack eaten by the other too, but thankfully that hasn't happened. Well, apparently Brian was intrigued by this and did some research. It turns out that Banana is a boy fish and Jet Pack (much to Matthew's dismay since he loves all things boy) is a girl. We think Cootie Car is a boy too, which is why they were both ganging up on poor Jet Pack. According to what Brian read, one way to help this situation is to introduce more females into the tank. So when they picked me up from the airport yesterday Brian presented me with his research and a plan to get more fish. Back to the pet store again! (Side note - our tank can hold quite a few fish, but you have to introduce them slowly in the beginning until the nitrogen cycle finishes. They actually want you to wait 4-6 weeks, but you know how we like to live on the edge. More fish after 2-3 weeks? We're in. Please don't die!)
The very nice and helpful pet store employee tested our water again and gave us permission to bring home two more fish. I mean, I brought two kids home from the hospital without anyone's permission, but apparently fish are more fragile? Difficult? Important? I don't know. Although with our track record I'm not sure i should complain. So, we chose two female fish to bring home this time. In order to make sure no child ended up without a fish, these two belong to Brian and I. My fish is orange with a pretty long fin on top, and Brian's is white and almost see-through with some orange on it's fins. I know you want to know the amazing names we are adding to our tank with Jet Pack, Cootie Car, and Banana. Well, my fish is named Mandarin and Brian's X-Ray.
We followed the pet store employees recommendations about feeding our existing fish and changing out 40% of the water before adding our new ones. Seriously people, what happened to the whole "I won a goldfish at the fair and it lived for 15 years in a tiny bowl" fish maintenance that I was familiar with? So, we add Mandarin and X-Ray to the mix. Everything seems to be going well, they are swimming around and exploring. No one tries to eat each other. (By the way, did you know that fish food is made out of fish? Eating each other doesn't seem totally unreasonable for them at this point.)
A few minutes pass, and then all of a sudden we notice Banana is again going a little crazy with the chasing. And this time he is very focused on Mandarin. Must be her pretty fin. Next thing we know, he is totally trying to mate with her! And our kids are watching! Please do not ask about the birds and the bees right now children! You are too young! We quickly distract them with the promise of chocolate or candy or something shiny and off they go. Crisis averted. Except that Banana is VERY persistant. He is chasing Mandarin ALL THE TIME and getting all up in her business. If we end up with baby fish I don't even want to think about all the maintenance and rules that are going to come. I mean, I'm pretty sure fish eat their babies! Help! Can we please go back to the little Beta fish in a bowl idea that started this whole thing?
Banana chasing Mandarin up top and Jet Pack hanging out at the bottom
X-Ray swimming around
Apparently Cootie Car doesn't like his picture taken because he kept swimming away from me
For a while I've been tossing around the idea of getting a fish or two. The kids love them, I thought it could teach them responsibility, and would be a fun little pet to have. So yesterday I mentioned it to Brian over lunch. He thought it sounded like a great idea, so we planned to head to the pet store after naps that afternoon.
We arrived at PetCo, and I started looking at the small tanks for beta fish. I wanted a low maintenance, hardy fish that we wouldn't be likely to kill. (Knowing my track record for keeping plants alive, I thought this the best route.) In the meantime, Brian finds an employee and starts looking at much larger tanks. Turns out while the kids were napping he did quite a bit of research on fish, and was super excited about this endeavor. Next thing I know we have a 20 gallon tank along with about 12 accessories that are required for keeping fish alive! So much for my tiny little beta fish tank!
The PetCo employee was quite knowledgeable and told us which fish would get along well and were the hardiest. She recommended that we wait a week to let the tank settle until we put fish in it, but when she realized that our kids would be super disappointed she told us that we could get a few fish today and then come back and get more later. (Apparently our tank can hold 20 small fish!) So we chose four lucky winners, all different types of Mollies.
Matthew chose a Black Molly, Caroline chose a yellow spotted one with a big belly, Lily got a bright yellow one, and I picked one that was black with silver spots. They were all put into a bag that I very carefully held as we began our adventure home.
All the way home in the car Matthew kept saying "I'm so excited to get home and put them in the tank" and Caroline echoed with "I can't wait to feed the fish". (We then proceeded to hear these same phrases 17 million times for the next few hours while the kids waited for the tank to be ready.) We turned the conversation to naming our new fish. Matthew decided to name his fish Turbo, and Caroline went with the ironic Pussycat. Matthew suggested the name Banana for Lily's yellow fish, and I named mine Mack.
When we got home Brian and the kids worked hard getting the tank ready. We cleaned it out and then put the gravel in. The kids had each chosen some "special rocks" to put in as well, so they put them on top of the gravel. Then they chose the perfect locations for their plants and the little fish hideout they picked out. After everything was in, Brian started filling the tank with water and treating it. I tried to distract the kids with dinner and baths, but I'm not sure how successful I was because they continued to ask when they could put the fish in the tank and feed them.
Finally after letting the filter run for a while it was time to start acclimating the fish to their new tank! We floated the bag that they were in on the top for about 15 min to let them get used to the new water temperature. It felt a bit colder in the tank, but that's why we got hardy fish!
When they had floated long enough, we cut open the bag, drained most of the water in the sink, and then returned the bag to the tank and let them swim out. One almost got suffocated in the process, but it made it out. The kids then each got to give the fish a pinch of food. The fish were more interested in exploring than eating, but the kids still had fun watching them swim around.
I found myself enjoying watching our new fish swim around too. It's kind of relaxing to look over at the little guys. Brian's interpretation of getting fish was definitely better than my initial idea!
FISH UPDATE:
Well, all 4 fish died. Like belly up, floating at the top died. Like before Brian and I went to bed, only a few hours after putting them in the tank. Yep, we can keep 3 kids alive, but apparently fish are too much for us! I have a feeling in 10 years we will be saying to each other, remember that time we bought fish and they died a few hours later? We are awesome parents.
Thankfully PetCo guarantees their fish for 15 days (there must be a lot of inept fish parents out there) and we can get some new ones. Probably in a few days when the tank has had a chance to warm up and settle. And thankfully we warned our kids that these fish were pioneers and may not make it. Still not looking forward to that conversation in the morning though!
For several years now I have been running. I do it because it's great exercise, it doesn't require much equipment, it helps me maintain my sanity, and because I actually (shockingly) like it!
Lately I have been battling again with an ongoing knee injury. As I was feeling frustrated and struggling with not being able to run as fast or as far as I would like, a verse in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 kept coming to mind. "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances." So I started being thankful in my circumstances.
I am thankful that I can run. I am thankful that I am healthy and that I have two strong legs. I am thankful that I live in a place where running is a hobby, not a necessity, and that I am able to run safely.
As I began to think about the things I was thankful for, it brought to mind all the people in the world who are not able to run. People who aren't able to run because they are too sick, because they are in prison, because they are not allowed, or because they are enslaved. So it led me to begin praying for those people, and also to ask God how I could do more than just run for sport. How could I further the kingdom of God while running? How I can run for those who can't?
Then my friend mentioned running for Team Freedom, and I knew that this was a tangible way that my running could affect more than just me. As a member of Team Freedom I will be raising funds to help women who have been enslaved in human trafficking. Women who might live across the world from me, or who might be only a few miles away. Women who are unable to fight for themselves, unable to speak for themselves, and unable to run. So I will run for them.
My goal is to raise $500 by January 16th. I know that this time of year can be tight financially, but I humbly ask that you would consider donating just a few dollars to this worthy cause, and also join me in praying for those who are experiencing such an enormous injustice. If you can't make a donation at this point, help me reach my goal by sharing this page on Facebook and Twitter. Or, even better, send an e-mail to friends you think might be interested in contributing and include a link to my page!
I honestly cannot believe that it's been a whole year since we met Lily for the first time! This year has been filled with much laughter, tears, growth, change, and smiles. And we wouldn't trade any of it!
This morning Matthew woke up really early, too excited to sleep because it was Halloween! Unfortunately for us, all of them were up by 6. Not sure how this is going to pan out when daylight savings time hits in a few days. Anyway, we started off our day by accompanying Matthew to school for his Spider Spook-tacular! The girls had a great time entertaining themselves in his classroom while the kindergarteners did different spider crafts. They made spider hats, ball spiders, paper spiders, and webs. Matthew couldn't wait to hide his spiders at home to scare Uncle Scott later.
This year was Lily's first Halloween, and Caroline's first time really getting into it, so as soon as Brian got home from work we ate dinner and started getting ready to go trick-or-treating. They couldn't wait! This year Matthew requested a Captain Barnacles costume. Captain Barnacles is from the Octonauts, and of course they don't sell a Captain Barnacles costume so we had to make our own. I love how it came out! And it actually looks just like him!
The entire time leading up to Halloween Caroline said that she wanted to be a butterfly. However, when the time came to put her wings on for dress up day at school yesterday, she cried like someone was sawing off her arms. Apparently elastic straps are just too much for her. So, at about 5:00 today I created costume option 2 - a pirate. This one went over much better, and she kept running around the house yelling Arrrr! and waving her sword. She wasn't a fan of the bandana I tried to get her to wear on her head, but she loved the eye patch and kept it on all night, even after trick-or-treating!
Originally when Caroline was going to be a butterfly, we thought it would be perfect for Lily to be a caterpillar. And of course the very hungry caterpillar was way too perfect to pass up. The only very hungry caterpillar costume out there is from Pottery Barn for an exorbitant amount of money, so I decided to make hers too. I did some online research and managed to create her caterpillar body. Then I bought her some striped tights and borrowed an already created hat from a friend. To say she looked hilarious and adorable is an understatement!
So once everyone was fed and ready we headed out. Every year we get attacked by mosquitoes in our neighborhood right at dusk, so we were hoping to finish before that happened. The weather was absolutely amazing, and for once the kids weren't sweating in their costumes! The first few houses we went to Lily couldn't understand why on earth people were giving her candy. She would stand there with it in her hand, lift it up and show it to us, then stare at it, and repeat. We kept telling her that it was hers to put in her bucket. I think she finally got the picture, but she definitely did not waste any time asking us to open every single thing that she got! Matthew and Caroline were a little shy at first, not wanting to stand too close to the door or say trick-or-treat, but a few houses in they got into the swing of things. Normally we only go to about 10 houses, but this year they were having so much fun that we went all over the place! And Brian and I really enjoyed seeing our neighbors and getting to catch up with them as we walked around. We probably would have stayed out longer, but those blasted mosquitoes showed up again! Even with the cooler weather and the wind. Grrrr.
Back home the kids had a great time hanging out with Baba, Daideo, Uncle Scott, Aunt Catie, and Emmy. And Caroline became quite the candy distributor! Every time the doorbell rang she ran over, grabbed the basket, and greeted our trick-or-treaters. When it was time for bed I think she was more disappointed that she couldn't hand out candy anymore than she was about trick-or-treating being over! She asked me when Halloween would come again because it was so much fun.
