We have a new member of our family of sorts. He actually arrived back on December 1st I believe it was. He is Nick’s Betta fish that he picked out from a selection of over 100 and immediately named him “Billybobjoebob Harris”. He’s very pretty as you can see below, or handsome I guess I should say as he IS a “he”. Nick needed a little pick me up back at the beginning of December…actually we all did. I haven’t blogged about why we don’t have our beloved dog, Rocky anymore. Frankly, it is just too emotional for me to discuss. The bad news is that he did something bad and he can’t live in our house anymore. The good news is that he’s not far from us (at least for the time being) and we have been able to visit him often.
Ok, before I get all emotional, let me get back to Billybobjoebob. I’ll admit that I’ve actually gotten quite attached to him. When he first came, he was in Nick’s room. After a water change and bowl clean, he never made it back upstairs from the kitchen. And I really like him hanging in the kitchen with me. They do say that fish can help lower blood pressure and I agree that watching him swim around in his little house is sometimes the medicine I need for a little stress overload around here. So, he has remained on the kitchen counter for all of us to enjoy.
With all happy stories, there is always some drama right? Well, one afternoon a week or so ago, Nick decided to watch the movie “Nemo” which we haven’t seen in awhile and Brett had never seen. Nick lost interest and was off playing with a friend and the movie was winding down and I was picking up the house from the tornado that usually comes in after school. I noticed Brett was pretty quiet so I looked around and saw he had pushed a chair over to Billybobjoebob’s bowl and had the roof off and was TRYING TO CATCH HIM WITH HIS HANDS. I freaked out and Brett freaked out and I’m sure Billybobjoebob was freaking out. Brett thought that Nemo and his buddies seemed like fun “playmates” so he wanted to take our fishy out of his underwater home and “play” with him. NO NO NO, Billybobjoebob can not come out of his underwater home and play! Try explaining how we breathe air and fishes can’t breathe air to a 2 year old!! No harm done as far as we could tell after the Nemo disaster.
So, today, I was on the phone with my sister in law and lost track of Brett who had been peacefully watching Elmo’s World but now since disappeared and found him, again, on a chair in the kitchen, TRYING TO CATCH BILLYBOBJOEBOB AGAIN!! This time Elmo’s goldfish, Dorothy, was the culprit of Brett’s exploits to befriend a fish. I actually thought that Brett may have had him in his grips by the time I ran over. He was up to his elbows in water and the poor fish was as low to the bottom as he could go. Brett started crying that he “needed to play to the fish” and I was yelling and Billybobjoebob was somewhat motionless on the bottom all the while my sister in law probably thought our house was a complete disaster and I, the worst mom ever!! But, luckily, I think he made it through this 2nd attempt at capture and seems to be swimming peacefully again in his underwater home.
I think I might ban Nemo and Elmo’s World from the house and possibly any fishing shows that the guys like to watch. Brett’s reward for successfully mastering the potty will be a fishing rod and that really could be dangerous with a fish in the house!
*These photos were taken BEFORE the 2nd capture attempt. I don’t think I’ll be encouraging any interaction between fish and 2 year old again anytime soon.
by Kimberly
5 comments