Our Frog Croaked

A couple weeks ago, my husband went four-wheeling with a couple of his buddies, and of course they had to go down by the creek and drive through the water. To those guys, driving on nice flat, dry ground is simply too boring and too safe.

So they came back with with their four-wheelers dripping wet and full of creek water...and frogs. My hubby found a tadpole swimming around in his floorboard. I'd never seen one so big before; it had to be three to four inches long.  Lydia has never seen one at all.  So we found a bucket, filled it with water and plopped the tadpole in.

Hubby worried the chlorine in the tap water would kill it, but the next day, it was still swimming around in there, very much alive.  Lydia constantly wanted to go out and see the tadpole.  She learned you had to tap the outside of the bucket to get it to move around.  As the days passed, we watched back legs grow.  The tail began to turn transparent, and front legs sprouted.

This past Saturday, we went to a wedding for my niece. It took place three hours away, so we rushed around all Saturday morning, trying to upload a Chipmunks movie onto the iPad for Lydia to watch on the ride. This was her first long-distance trip.

She slept for a good hour on the way there and didn't start getting antsy until we were about ten miles from our destination.  So that went well.  The wedding was a great success too. The bride was sooo beautiful (not that I'm prejudiced!) and the groom couldn't stop grinning.

We drove back without incident (I know, how not-exciting, huh).  But when we returned, Lydia immediately wanted to see the tadpole. So I carried her over to the bucket only to find the tadpole was gone and a tiny frog lay upside down floating in the water. God rest his little soul.

The hubby thinks it was his fault because he had been using filtered water to fill the bucket. He thinks the filter took out a lot of the chlorine.  But the night before, he didn't use the filtered water.  However, I am of the (probably wrong) opinion that the tadpole turned into a frog and drowned.

Either way, we apologized to Lydia, and then she started apologizing to us.  Now if you mention the word frog around her, she starts saying, "Sorry, mama, sorry."

After watching her interest in the tadpole, we think she needs some kind of pet.  The husband says cats and dogs are out. So...maybe a fish!

Two Writing / Blogging Tips I Learned and Appreciated This Week:

--Be careful which pictures you post online; just read this woman's trials : Roni Loren's Blog

--Want a likable main character? Make him/her think of others, not themselves : Jody Hedlund