ATTACK OF THE CRAWDAD!

Yesterday it rained almost all day.  The roads were extremely muddy and the yard resembled a water park in some areas.  We spent the day inside which was good because both of the kids have swimmer's ear and needed to take a break from their swimming pool.  We decided to watch a movie.

The crawdad tank is next to the television so we unplugged the filter to get rid of the extra noise.  We finished our movie and went to bed soon afterwards.  JJ was having a hard time sleeping so he camped out in our floor, but Savannah was sound asleep.  

At 3:45 AM this morning, I heard Savannah scream out in her room. She was very upset.  By the time I made it out of bed, she had met me in the hallway.  I asked what was wrong, and I thought she said, "I have fallen out of my bed."  I figured she had a dream and did not remember where she was so I explained that she had slept on the floor in a pallet in her room.  She said, "No...The crawdad bit me on my finger."  She was trying to show me her "bitten" finger. At this point, I figured she was sleep-walking or something.  I walked her to the bathroom and told her to go to the restroom then I would take her back to bed.  She was not happy with that and said, "NO, I don't want to go to bed...the crawdad bit me!"

She was adamant that something was in her bed and had bitten her.  She said she saw the crawdad, and it was on her finger. Jason was up at this point, and I told him to help me check her bed.  I wanted to make a "show" of checking things out to hopefully calm her down and get her back to sleep.  At this point, we are kind of laughing to ourselves.  (Jason later said that he was afraid she was having a reaction to her antibiotic ear drops and was hallucinating.)  We looked through all her covers and had her set to get up in her bunk.

I looked in the living room, and she was diligently studying the crawdad tank.  She said, "Mom, the crawdad is not in his tank."  I have to admit that I laughed (out loud) this time, but she insisted that it was not there.  I went to help her find it.  IT WAS NOT THERE!

I called Jason in and told him.  He thought we were teasing him and did not believe us.  He checked every hiding place in the tank but no crawdad!  The only thing we could think of was that he got out because the tank filter was no longer vibrating, and he climbed out the open area in the top.  We knew he was in there the previous night because I had mentioned last evening how neat is was to watch him climbing everywhere.  (By the way, he has shed his shell 4 times since we got him a few months ago, and he is getting pretty big - about 4 inches long.)

We began searching the kid's room for our missing crawdad.  Jason finally found him on the opposite side of the room hiding near one of the toy crates.  Of course, Savannah, Jason, and I were all wide awake at this point.  Savannah tried to get to sleep in her bed, but she ended up in our floor.  Jason had to get up for work at 5:00 AM.  Me...I kept thinking about our crazy night of sleep  and occasionally laughing at the thought of our Attack of the Crawdad!