Sexy Froggy Update

Well, we finally figured out what those frogs were making such a racket about:

Mark stumbled onto this scene a few nights ago when he opened the pool gate.  And by stumbled onto, I mean accidentally grabbed.

That's right: Mark touched frog sex.

And then went back for his camera. 

And then we posted the results on the internet.

And that's the story of how my husband became the first purveyor of fine frog porn* Anderson Heights has ever known.

*Bring on the crazy googlers who find this page and are sorely disappointed.

Tiny Little Huge Frog Noises

So.  One thing we didn't notice during the cold daylight hours of a late winter and early spring renovation, and has only come to light now that we are living in the new house, is that the dirt and grossness pit in our backyard (which will someday be a real pool) is apparently the home of a menagerie of loud creatures.  Mark says they're frogs.  Okay then.  Frogs.

On warm muggy nights (read: almost every night in eastern North Carolina from April to October), we are serenaded (I mean that in the absolute loosest definition of the word) through the evening by loud frogs.  Really really loud frogs.  Like, turn-up-the-volume-I-can't-hear-the-movie-over-the-frogs loud.  LOUD.

Loud enough that soundproofing the doors and windows along the back of the house wouldn't be totally crazy. 

We've had a few nights where the frogs are pretty quiet.  When the weather is sixtyish or below (usually happens after midnight).  Deck lights and flood lights will make them quietly cautious for a few minutes.  Turning Bowden loose in the pool area sometimes does the trick. But despite what Mark told me (and what I might or might not have believed in a somewhat gullible moment), dumping a bunch of ice in the pool to cool things off and shut them up isn't a real thing.

Mark went exploring a few nights ago and found some of our loud pool squatters.  And you know what?  They're tiny.  Unless you've seen the size of the bricks on our pool deck, you won't have much sense of scale from this picture.  But they're small.  Like, an inch or two.  Tiny. 

I can't believe something so small, even in a group, can cause such a racket.  (Somewhere out there, my parents are knowingly smiling and nodding their heads.  You know, because they raised Ashley.  The only loud one of the three of us.)

The internets tell us we're lucky because frogs mean no bugs.  And let's be honest, the pool is pretty much a swamp these days.  The bugs could be out of control, but right now they're manageable.  I guess we have the frogs to thank for that, so I won't "chlorinate" the pool (read: run in a mad frenzy from the laundry room with several gallons of household bleach to put those suckers out of our misery) just yet.  I choose noise over bugs, for sure.  I just wish those danged frogs would eat more and talk less.*

*Also something I hear myself saying to Nathan three times a day.

Two New Beasts in the Family

I don't know how to start this post off except to just say it: In addition to two canine beasts, one human beast (and one on the way), we are now officially the proud owners of two amphibious beasts -- pet frogs.

(And a dead snail who lives with them, but we're working on that situation.)

Because Mark and I know how fascinated Nathan gets while watching fish (and by fish I also mean the lobster tanks at any seafood restaurant), we had been toying around with the idea of an aquarium for his birthday. We eventually ruled it out because the expense (and energy!) required to keep up an aquarium are a bit much for us right now, and because we didn't really have a safe place for Nathan to enjoy it without destroying it.

But Uncle Nick (and Barbara too) found a compromise: African dwarf frogs who live in a tiny little box aquarium that acts as its own ecosystem. Cool, huh? (They have a friend who is a buyer for Learning Express who is extremely in tune with what's interesting and fun for kids... so pretty much everything N&B get for Nathan -- especially on said friend's recommendation -- is a home run.) They only have to be fed a couple of times a week, and their home stays clean on its own, we just need to wipe down the sides a couple of times a year. The snail is supposed to do most of that cleaning work for us, but seeing as he's notsomuch alive.... yeah like I said we're working on that situation.

Nathan has named his frogs Wilbur (after my dad's cat, we assume) and Nathan. He changes his mind about their names at least once a day. Please don't ask me which is Wilbur and which is Nathan. The snail doesn't have a name, since we're carefully avoiding mentioning him to Nathan in the hopes that he'll think it's just a rock, not a dead pet. Good parenting at its finest.

Nathan and Wilbur Frog arrived at our house on Saturday during the shower; since (human) Nathan's birthday at the end of July, the frogs have been living at Nick and Barbara's. And Nathan is loving his new pets; he asks to see them all the time. Right now we have them up on the mantle in the family room, and in his zeal to talk to them (and kiss their box... no I am not kidding) he has been climbing up on the (rolling) ottoman and standing up on it. Yikes. So I think the frogs' box will be finding a new spot in our home soon, but I'm not sure where yet. (We'll take care of that when we take care of the dead snail, I assume.)

Anyway -- welcome to the family, Wilbur and Nathan Frog! We promise to take good care of you for your expected 2-year life span, and we can't wait until you mature a little and start singing to us!