Saturday, November 07, 2009

A Prince Perhaps?

I went out to run a few errands this morning and when I returned, Harper had a surprise for me - a frog!

Matt found it when he was cleaning out the basement window wells. He reported that at first he thought it was a snake and jumped out of the well. I'm a little sorry I wasn't here to witness that.

He got the frog from the window well and Harper named it Spotty. She's been keeping Spotty in a bucket on our front porch with leaves and dirt. We did tell her she's going to have to set Spotty free tomorrow - I'm not sure that's going to go over well. We had to go out to the porch with a flashlight three times between dinner and bedtime to be sure Spotty was okay, and also to give him some water.


You guys, I put the water in a Tupperware lid and then couldn't bring myself to put my hand into that bucket. I was afraid (yes, afraid of the frog my four-year-old had been handling all afternoon) that Spotty would jump at me if I stuck my hand in there with him. So, naturally, I made Harper do it under the guise of making her take care of her frog. Ahem.

(When I taught first grade I used to "let" the kids scoop bugs into a cup and release them on the playground when we found them in the classroom.)

Harper, who freaks out about gnats, wondered why we couldn't just read a book about how to take care of frogs and keep him.

5 comments:

Giselle said...

We are the ultimate bug/critter catchers over here. And by "we"...I mean Andrew.

I think it's time to make up a big long sappy story about the frog's family missing him. Works every time with our sappy little guy...perhaps it will pull on Harper's heart strings and make the release easier?

Pam said...

Aww, what a great find! Spotty is lucky to have a friend like Harper. I'm with you - couldn't touch it for fear of it jumping somehow down my bra or on my head.
I agree with the previous post - tell Harper how much he misses his mummy.

Anonymous said...

Harper obviously got the touching animals gene from Matt! Cute story I think you should bring Spooty into the house for the winter. Tell Harpper she looks good in her Badger sweatshirt. She must have been the good luck for the Badger's victory over Indiana on Saturday. I am in Munich so I love November when I can look forward to a new post everyday.
Love,
Dad

Swistle said...

Oh oh oh, I would not want that frog to jump at me either.

CARRIE said...

What a girl!!