A Phase and a Fish

Matthew is going through a phase where he gets stuck in stuff. He got stuck again yesterday . . . twice. I know I am a mean mom for taking pictures instead of helping him get out of his predicaments right away, but it makes me laugh so hard that I can't help myself. Besides, when he grows up I want him to know how funny he was as baby. And by now he really should know better than to play with the VCR.


In addition, I really thought he had learned his lesson with this particular cupboard on Sunday. Apparently not.


I just can't figure out how he got himself shoved in there like a sardine.

Speaking of sardines, Nathan got a new fish yesterday. Actually, he got two new fish. After the whole flying fish fiasco, we went ahead and bought him a small tank to replace the bowl. I love that it costs $40 to get a home for 24 cents worth of fish. But Nathan loves it. And we came away from the pet store with yet another great story.

We went to Petco after I picked up Nathan from school, picked out the tank, and headed over to the check out to get someone to help us get our fish. The girl at the check out looked at the tank in our cart and asked if we were planning to buy the tank today. Umm, duh. But I didn't say that. I just very politely said yes. She then informed that that the tank has to be set up for 24 hours before the fish can go in so she couldn't sell me any fish today, come back tomorrow. I informed her that we already have a bowl and she told me that it has to be set up for 24 hours. By now I was starting to lose my patience. I informed her, in not quite as polite a voice, that the bowl is set up because the other fish had died only yesterday. Then she asked what kind of fish I wanted. I told her I wanted goldfish. And she started giving me this whole thing about how we couldn't put goldfish in that tank because one goldfish needs at least 12 gallons of water and that means that two goldfish need a minimum of 24 gallons of water and she has an 85 gallon tank with tons of goldfish (In my head I was doing math: according to her info, she can only have seven goldfish in her tank, not tons). That was about the point where I had lost all patience with this girl. I informed her, in a not very polite at all voice, that we had a goldfish in a bowl this big (I showed her with my hands. Our bowl only holds about two quarts.) and that the only reason the fish had died was because he jumped out of the bowl and dried out. So she asked which fish we wanted. Double duh. The goldfish, the 12 cent ones! She replied in a rather snotty tone that they don't come with any kind of a guarantee anyway so she would ask her manager about it. Which she did. And the manager immediately came out and sold me two 12 cent goldfish, which she thinks will do just fine in our little tank unless they get too big. Of course, the snotty girl rang up our purchase and as I was swiping my debit card informed me several times that it had to run as credit (even as I was punching in my pin number which it won't ask for if the card is trying to run as credit). Her last comment, in a supremely snotty voice, as the debit transaction was completed was, "I guess it liked it." Poor girl. There is probably a reason she is working at Petco in the middle of a weekday.

But all's well that ends well. And Nathan is thrilled.