I opened my extra freezer the other day and there was a dinosaur frozen in time.\u00a0 I\u2019m not referring to any sort of historical discovery where I would need to call in a paleontologist.\u00a0 I\u2019m also not referring to my lack of housekeeping skills and food left frozen so long it became dinosaur-like.\u00a0 I am talking about a small plastic dinosaur, frozen in a plastic container of water.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
This is not the first time I\u2019ve found a frozen creature in my freezer.\u00a0 For some reason, my youngest has always been fascinated by freezing things.\u00a0 I\u2019m not really sure why she does it.\u00a0 Maybe it\u2019s her love of ice cream.\u00a0 Who knows?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I\u2019m always interested to see what she has decided to freeze.\u00a0 Sometimes it\u2019s little plastic dinosaurs, sometimes it\u2019s little action figures.\u00a0 It is somewhat disturbing to find frozen Barbie dolls, but now that she\u2019s older I don\u2019t find those anymore.\u00a0 Although, we don\u2019t currently own Barbie dolls, so I guess I can\u2019t attribute the lack of frozen Barbie dolls to her maturity.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
She used to play with these things before she froze them.\u00a0 Now, at 13, she usually just happens upon a long-forgotten plastic toy and decides it should be frozen.\u00a0 Our extra freezer is an old, frosty freezer.\u00a0 Meaning it\u2019s not frost-free.\u00a0 I prefer this type of freezer because it doesn\u2019t dehydrate the food.\u00a0 The problem with this type of freezer is it has to be thawed every six months or so.\u00a0 The frost builds up on the shelves so much that it becomes difficult to get food in or out.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
When it\u2019s time to defrost, I unplug it and move whatever food is in there to my refrigerator\u2019s freezer.\u00a0 It slowly melts until the sheets of frost fall off the shelves.\u00a0 Sometimes wonderful things appear and it is like an archaeological excavation.\u00a0 Forgotten frozen creatures emerge, along with my plastic storage containers.\u00a0 This is a thrilling experience for my daughter, not only does she have a frozen, plastic creature to thaw, but it is usually encased in a lot of ice.\u00a0 Not to mention the entertainment factor from the sheets of ice that fall off the shelves.\u00a0 Let\u2019s face it, shattering sheets of ice on the driveway is just fun.\u00a0 I\u2019m just not sure if my husband or daughter has more fun with this \u201cnecessary\u201d task; probably my husband.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
My daughter takes her frozen objects to the sink and blasts them with warm water from the sprayer.\u00a0 So I\u2019m not sure if the thrill is in the freezing or the thawing.\u00a0 When she was small, the whole process would keep her busy for hours.\u00a0 She would put something in the freezer and check on it every 15 minutes or so to see if it was frozen yet.\u00a0 Sometimes she would freeze it and then set it on the kitchen counter to thaw and then freeze it again.\u00a0 Occasionally I would find a plastic bowl of water just sitting randomly around the house with a plastic creature floating in it.\u00a0 She had been watching it thaw, lost interest and left it.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
She has evolved her freezing objectives.\u00a0 I am now finding frozen beverages and various frozen food stuffs.\u00a0 She likes to see if she can eat frozen soda and if frozen chocolate milk will become ice cream.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Rather than being concerned over this peculiar habit, I prefer to think of this as the workings of a scientific mind.\u00a0 Without knowing it, my daughter is becoming a scientist, specializing in cooling and will someday solve some world crisis; like how to quickly cool nuclear reactors or something.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
At least that\u2019s what keeps me sleeping soundly every night.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n