Friday Morning Cleaning Fish with Grandpa

Chloe was up early this morning to take Grandma Sharon to the playground.  They were out of the house before anyone else was awake.

I was still rubbing sleep out of my eyes but hurried to grab my camera because I knew Papa was headed out to clean the fish.  Owen was still sound asleep back on the homefront and Todd was just rolling out of bed.  It was barely 8am.  Pretty sunny for so early, no?  Chloe was interested in seeing how Papa Wenzel would clean the fish and wandered over to the Fish Cleaning House after she saw him pull up in the golf cart and walk in.  

She was fascinated from the moment she walked in.

Watching him carefully as he used the electric knife dangling from the ceiling to fillet the dozen or two croppies.

The fish were flipping themselves out of the bucket just in time to be the next one on the cutting board.  If they only knew....they would have flipped themselves toward the back of the bucket!

Bean took a short break to watch the fishing minnows in the sink, but quickly hurried back to her spot.

These croppies aren't the prettiest fish, but they are some of the most delicious.  They are also very slimy, leaving a slippery coating on your fingers after touching them.  Every time I remove one of these guys from my hook, I have to reach overboard to dip my fingers in the lake to rinse them off.

Surprisingly, Chloe did not fill the air with questions or even idle chatter.  She quietly watched almost the whole time.

She leaned in to watch closely and was very interested in the whole fish preparation process.

After a good fifteen minutes of watching, she summoned up enough courage to start touching the fish.  I was curious to see if she would poke at the eyeballs, but apparently that is not a genetic fascination (I was wretched as a child and mercilessly poked and prodded fish eyeballs as they awaited my Dad's knife for cleaning fish.  Thankfully I grew out of that!).  Chloe just petted the fish with one or two fingers from their faces back to the tails.

She was showing me that her two fingers were not gross after touching the fish. :)

I liked watching the boats zoom by outside.

My little monkey was standing on her tip toes on top of a tall bucket so she could see everything that was happening up on the fish cleaning counter.

As Papa neared the end of the line for cleaning fish, Chloe helped dump them out on the counter for him.

I think this is the first time I have ever seen her gently pet any creature.  Perhaps there was still a small amount of fear and respect that these strange creatures might get her if she wasn't gentle.

And suddenly, she had the courage to pick up the fish and hold them!  I was stunned.  On the boat, she was a squealing little girl, afraid to touch the fish.

"Here Papa!"

She's turning that poor fish upside down!

Look!  She can hold TWO fish at the same time!

I think she was pretending that she was making the fish swim again.