Our Life Together

That Damn Fish

"Mommy! I feed Minnie!" Liv runs up to me with the fish food.  I pick her up so she doesn't knock over the bowl.

"I'm gonna take them a while." Brad walks by grabbing his keys "I'll be back then with your food."

"I get donut?" Liv asks sweetly. He takes her from me to hold "Of course, Princess, but make sure you don't give Minnie too much food."

He hands her back and walks out with the boys.  They're all going to school, so it's just Liv, Brad and I today.  We both have off of filming for a while and she has been taking complete advantage of having us here with her.  She hasn't had to do anything for herself in a week.

"Hey baby, do you want juice or milk?"  I'm standing at the fridge while she "plays" with the fish through the glass.

"Milky!" She decided running over to me.  I put some in her cup and follow her into the living room where she figures out how to put her shows on.  She cuddles up to me on the couch while we watch.  I pull a blanket around us, capturing the moments like these when she wants to be with me.

Brad walks back in a few minutes later with my coffee and her sprinkled doughnut.  He hands them to us and sits cuddled up with us on the couch.

"We really should have named her after you.  You're twins."

"She definitely takes after me."  I admit watching her.  She's currently eating only the sprinkles and icing off the doughnut.

"Well yeah, but I mean you look identical."  He looks at us closely "It's like we just replicated you."

"We kinda did."  I laugh "I mean, depending on how you think of all that."

"I always wondered what a girl would look like.  Every time I was hoping I'd get to see, and now every time I look at her all I see is you.  She doesn't even have my mouth or anything."

"She has your weird ass toes.  They're so gross." I take the half eaten doughnut from her "She does have your appetite though.  Only eating sweets and sugar."

"I taught her the best." He leans over to kiss me "I taught them all that."

"Daddy?"  Liv crawls over me and onto Brad's lap "More?" She asks wanting another half a doughnut.

"You can have more after your lunch."  He says making her cry "You aren't going to die of doughnut withdrawal.  You'll be fine."

She ends up falling asleep a few minutes later, so I carry her up to her room.  Brad makes us some lunch to eat before she wakes up and takes it all.

"This smells good."  I walk into the kitchen "I guess I'm worth more than a peanut butter sandwich now?"

"Yeah, but still not worth a full meal." He jokes "I made the kids chicken nuggets.  I thought it would be fun to bite the dinosaur heads off."

"So I'm eating lunch with a 5 year old." I laugh "Should I expect crying over how they look and obnoxious yelling?"

"Well it is upsetting when they're touching.  They could have been kissing or something and that's disgusting." 

I walk over to the counter where I stand waiting for him.  I happen to glance over at the fish tank and see that Minnie is acting weird.  She's just laying on the top of the water.  She's dead.

"Brad!"  I wave him over "Minnie's dead."

"Shit."  He puts be food on the oven and walks over.  I tap the glass a little hoping to scare it so it wakes up, but nothing happens.

"You gotta go get a new Minnie!"  I can't believe what I'm saying right now "She's going to be so heartbroken if she wakes up to find out we killed her."

"We killed her?" He raises his eyebrow "Last time I checked we know what the phrase "just a little food" means.  That poor fish never had a chance with her."

"Just go get a new one, Brad." I hand him his keys and move the fish tank so Liv won't see if she wakes up.  He leaves right away to get a replacement Minnie while I eat our chicken nuggets.  I need to be quiet so Liv doesn't wake up, and sitting in the kitchen eating is a good excuse.

"You ate them all?" Brad walks back in the house "I wanted at least one!"

"Here."  I hand him the last one "I saved the last for you."

He takes it from me inspecting it "You already bit the head off!  You took away the fun part and your germs are all over it."

"My germs?"  I ask laughing "We have 4 kids together, Brad.  My germs shouldn't be bothering you at all."

"Fine."  He eats it "But you still took away the fun part.  That's not cool."

"Well sorry.  Maybe I wanted to have fun for once."  I stand up looking around "Where's the fish?  She's gonna wake up soon."

"It's in the bag on the counter.  The clear see thru one."  He says like I'm an idiot "Right next to the fish tank."

"I see it."  I snap "It looks different though." 

I walk over to the fish and notice that the doesn't look like Minnie at all.  I don't know what the hell Brad was thinking, but this thing is not going to fool Olivia.

"Brad, what the hell is this?"  I hold up the bag "This fish is dark purple and black.  Minnie was pink.  Pink with black and white on her.  Your daughter isn't going to fall for this."

"Well I must've gotten it mixed up." He shrugs "Maybe she won't notice."

"She's not an idiot." I grab my keys ready to fix this when I hear her wake up.

"Great!"  I put them back on the counter and follow Brad to her room.  I don't know what we're going to tell her, but I do know we're going to have one majorly pissed off toddler.

"You hungry, princess?" Brad asks as we walk back downstairs.  She shakes her head, so he carries her into the kitchen.  He's careful to hold her so she can't see the fish while he gets her doughnut.

"Look!  Minnie!" She points to the tank as soon as he puts her down.  We both quickly look over to see the damn fish swimming around and doing weird flips and crap.

"Look.  Minnie."  Brad says much less enthusiastically.

"Thank freaking God."