Bullfrogs and Butterflies

For those of you who were wondering, our little family is still having fun with our collection of wild animals. We don't have quite as many as we used to, but it's the circle of life, right? Sort of.

Rodie the Spiny Lizard is still as feisty as ever. I think he's figured out that I take the lid off the cage to throw insects in there for him to eat. When he sees me coming, he scurries up onto his branch and gets close to the top. Any day now there may be an escape attempt. About a week ago I had a dream that our darling pet had grown to the size of a baby crocodile, gotten out of his cage, and was attacking me and biting my arm. I still haven't worked up the courage to try cleaning the cage. 

There have been no recent sightings of either of the frogs, or of the gecko we caught last week. Oh well.

Croagie the Toad spends his days completely buried in the wood chips. Is that normal for a toad? At night he crawls into the water dish.

Cannibal the Tadpole is doing well. Now that he's run out of siblings to eat, he nibbles on bits of turkey we feed him. This week he sprouted legs!

We have a 50% success rate on caterpillars. Caterpillar #1, as previously mentioned, turned black and died. Caterpillar #2 recently hatched from his cocoon! We contemplated feeding him to Rodie, but Madi wouldn't have that. We set him free out the front door. Caterpillar #3 hung upside down from the lid of the jar and gave up on life. Caterpillar #4 is currently incubating in a pretty green-with-gold-specks cocoon, so hopefully we'll have another butterfly in a few days.

Anybody remember this song?  ;-)

Madiquotes

Just some things Madi's said lately...

"My Daddy knows EVERYTHING!"

"Wow! You look like YOU'RE about to get married!" 

(when i got dressed up to go to a friend's wedding)

*disgustedly* "He looks like a girl. He has long hair like Belle." 

(when the Beast turned into the Prince)

*nose wrinkled up* "It smells like the nail polish place in here." 

(walking into Al's Formal Wear)

"Um...Ruth? Do you know HOW to drive Daddy's truck?"

(yes, I do know how to drive the truck!)

"I never knew caterpillar poop was so...nasty."

"Daddy, you wanna snuggle on the couch?"

(now, who can say no to that?)

Pixie in the Bluebonnets

It happens every spring. You can see it on the sides of highways and in fields and pastures everywhere. Parents all over Central Texas dress their children in white, drag them to meadows of bluebonnets, and coax angelic smiles from them for the cameras.

This year, I joined the ranks. Of course, Madi was more than willing to get dolled up and have a photo shoot. And somewhere in the midst of all those flowers, she happened upon a patch of faerie dust and sprouted wings! ;-)