A couple of weeks ago I was inside getting dinner ready while Noah and Josie played out back. Suddenly, Noah burst through the door calling, "Look Mom! Look!" I turned around and almost jumped out of my skin! I thought he was holding a handful of poop. Upon closer inspection, I realized that what he was really holding was the largest toad we've ever seen in our backyard!
My boys frequently find toads in the backyard and it's not uncommon for me to check on them and find them holding toads. When they first started finding toads we looked them up on the internet to learn more about the type of toads that were inhabiting our backyard. They are Spadefoot Toads (so named because they dig holes to live in) and they are all over our yard. I've made the mistake of asking the boys about the frogs they find in the backyard only to have them instantly correct me, "Mom" (dramatic eye roll) "We don't find frogs. We find toads!"
The reason this one was noteworthy was it's size. Toads are kind of cute when they're little, but not so much when they're bigger and you can see all their bumps and nastiness. I immediately insisted that Noah take his new friend outside. Which he did. Gladly. When Clayton came home shortly afterward, Noah recruited him to the backyard to play with the toad. When I looked in the backyard I found them pushing him on the swing. I told them that toads don't swing. A few minutes later, Toad was taking turns going down the slide. I told them that toads don't slide. A few minutes after that, I found them putting Toad in a plastic cup, and slingshotting him around the yard. I told them that Toad missed his family and needed to be put back in the woods so he could go home. The boys set Toad free. I hope he didn't have a tiny toad heart attack.
1 comment:
Oh, Mimi is going to die when she sees this. That's the thing she misses most about Indiana--the toads. We had several toads, all named Alice, and I know I'm going to need to apologize profusely to them in the spirit world.
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