Tuesday, July 15, 2008

A Severe Case of the Crabs (At MIDNIGHT, no less!)

Yesterday was mom's 78th birthday. To help her celebrate, I cooked her favorite dinner -- roast beef with gravy, mashed potatoes, broccoli, glazed carrots, and biscuits. I even made a way-cool crockpot cake (yes... CAKE!) called the Triple Chocolate Surprise (much to my son's delight... it's his FAVORITE dessert that I make!).

After dinner, my husband and I cleared away the dishes, and he helped me unmold the still warm cake from the crockpot, and I put candles on it (no... not 78... the poor woman has COPD, after all, and blowing out that many might cause her to keel over!), and we all sung "Happy Birthday" as I laid the cake out in front of her.

After dessert my two girls plied her with presents (it took a lot of restraint for my little one to keep from opening them herself, but she managed somehow). It was actually a nice evening.

She hung out with us upstairs for a bit afterward, before heading back down to her house. After which, my husband and I cleaned up the mess, and got the two girls ready for bed. My two oldest went upstairs to their respective rooms, and husband and I put our littlest little in her bed.

Since the movies I'd rented on Friday were only three-day rentals, they were all due back yesterday. But, my husband and I really wanted to see "Vantage Point", so I decided it was worth the $1.50 late fee to hang onto it for one extra day. After the house was clean and everyone was nestled all snug in their beds, we both went into our bedroom to watch the movie. (It was really good, by the way... I highly recommend it.)

About five minutes before the movie ended, I heard my little one throw her door open through the baby monitor. Then I heard her practically screaming in fear, as she was struggling to open the door to our bedroom (which is right across the hallway from hers). My husband popped up when he heard her, and as he was coming around to the foot of our bed, she burst through our door, and went running as fast as her little legs could carry her into his arms. I was right there next to her then, and when she reached for me, I could feel her whole body shaking.

As I was wiping away her tears and trying to get her to calm down, I asked her what happened. She finally told me she'd had a horrifying dream -- something to do with a dead fish in a fishbowl, and a big crab ("bigger than brother", she explained) who was chasing after her and trying to pinch her. Oh, and this crab also ate one of the kitties she was playing with. When she said this, I went back into her room and got her little toy kitties and their house (a new toy she got while we were out shopping over the weekend), and showed them to her. "See?" I said, "Here are your kitties... all safe and sound in their house where we put them." "No, Mama," she replied, "the crab ate a REAL kitty." I think if I dreamed that, I'd be freaking out, too!

Now, my husband and I are not small people, by any stretch of the imagination. We have a Queen-sized bed, that we both fit on just so. When you add even a little body like hers into the equation, it throws the whole flow off, and makes one of us VERY uncomfortable. Last night that person would be me. She insisted on staying in our bed, and wouldn't budge when I tried to get her to scootch over even the tiniest. She was perfectly content to snuggle in between the two of us and watch The Food Network with us... and was completely careless to the fact that my nether region was practically hanging off the side of the bed!

I tried, in vain, to convince her to go back into her room and go back to bed. She would have none of it, even after she'd asked me to go do a thorough search of her room to make sure there were NO CRABS. Nope... the coast was clear. Even when I tried to explain to her that crabs lived in the ocean, and only ate things that grew and lived in the ocean too.... she stayed put. Even though I tried explaining to her that everyone had bad dreams, and that the thing to remember is that NONE of them are real... nothing doing. Even when I tried to find "The Deadliest Catch" on the Discovery Channel, so she could see Alaskan King Crab fishermen in action, and watch them handle the crab and not get pinched at all... no way... she was stuck like glue to my side of the bed.

Finally, I gave in completely (something I hope I don't regret doing tonight)... I went into her room, removed her mattress from her toddler bed, and put it, and all of her blankets and her pillow, on the floor next to my side of the bed. After some cajoling, she relented and climbed down onto her mattress. After even more cajoling (and some stern talking), she FINALLY went to sleep. In the meantime... my husband was snoring soundly through all of this! (Gotta love that, right?).

So... what time did *I* finally get to sleep. Oh... somewhere along the lines of 2:00 to 2:30 a.m.! I'm a whooped Mama today!

The good news is, while they were having their lunch together, I'm pretty sure my oldest daughter and I convinced my little one that we both found and killed the crab while she was at her playgroup. I only hope it works tonight!

8 comments:

Susy said...

That was a great day mama. Full circle, I'd say, as a mom wouldn't you? Summer has dance camp and I have not been taking care of myself and my blood sugar went sky high. So I am trying to eat much better today! Well I guess from now should be the correct way to phrase that.

Natalie said...

Man...the things taht we do for our kids. It is so sad when they have those nightmares/terrors and freak out so bad. :{btw...where are pictures of your family and kids? I know some people only blog w/o pictures and that is fine..I was just curious. It is always fun to see peoples families...but understand if you dont want their cute little faces out there all over dyberspace to! Have a good one!!

Natalie said...

ok...apparently I cant spell...sorry about the words in the above post!!!

Erica said...

what an adventure! Hopefully everything goes swimmingly (haha!) tonight.
As for final score's (sorry, don't know names)comment on photo's, that's why I purge my blog every few month's. It's my way of trying to be safer and still post photo's for family. (oh, I do PDF my blog before I delete the posts though. I think now that I am getting comments, I'll have to PDF it entry by entry instead of month by month) I think the only down side is, might make it harder for new blogger friends to really get to know me :D

Mama C. said...

All I have to say is, thank GOODNESS for "The Deadliest Catch" on the Discovery Channel (any of you watch it? I love it! :) In the opening segment, it shows one of the deckhand holding a MONSTEROUS crab. I told my little one that I called the Captain of that boat while she was at her playgroup today, and told him what that grumpy old crab did to her last night, and he told me to have her watch tonight, 'cause he was going to take that crab and chuck him overboard.

So...when the opening segment came on, I called her to me, and told her to watch carefully. Sure enough, there was that deckhand, holding up that mungus crab, and I said "There he is! There's your crab! They threw him overboard, did you see?" (Of course they didn't but it whipped by on the screen so fast she couldn't really tell for sure). She got very excited and waved to the TV and said, "Oh, thank you, man! Thank you, thank you!!" :)

I think she'll sleep okay tonight (or at least we can only hope!).

As for pictures... there are none posted anywhere. I'm one of those overprotective mamas who doesn't like to post them over the Internet. I've heard too many horror stories about what perverts do to pictures to feel comfortable. Once I get to know you guys a bit better, I'd be more than happy to share them privately.

C.

Mama C. said...

Oh, and as for your typos, Natalie... I just figured you had Little Man Tate on your lap! :)

C.

Erica said...

I watch Deadliest Catch. And thank God my husband isn't a crab fisherman!

I've also been know to watch Ice Road trucking...again, another job I am glad my husband feels no yearning for!

Mama C. said...

Erica! I watch (and love) BOTH of those shows! Although the money seems phenomenal, I'm not sure I'd want my husband doing that sort of profession, either. I like having him around too much! :)