1-Grace has a pair of pajamas that she's been obsessed with lately. Honestly, if she sees them, they're the only thing she wants to wear. They aren't anything fancy- just an old pair of frog pants that I got out of a bin for a quarter at a rummage sale.
2-I had a pet salamander for a while growing up (a tiger salamander, which I caught in our sprinkler system in Utah).
3-Luke has, throughout his childhood, raised many different critters, fish, and bugs in his aquarium.
4-Luke and I talked about -someday- growing tadpoles into frogs, in order to teach our children the life cycle of amphibians.
5-We had an empty fish tank that we weren't using for anything.
6-We were Up North, near Luke's favorite childhood place to catch frogs.
So have you guessed it yet?
We're growing tadpoles. Oh, and salamanders.
The salamanders were a bit of an afterthought. We caught some tadpoles, and then while Luke was wading around the pond, he found a gelatinous blob of eggs. He wasn't sure exactly what he was scooping into the pail, but he figured it was worth checking out.
A little bit of research showed us that they are probably blue spotted salamanders and wood frogs. That's our present guess, at least.
 |
| The larger one is a wood frog tadpole, and the smaller one is the salamander. |
 |
| Wood frog tadpole |
 |
| A view of our tadpole nursery from above. Sphagnum moss, a moss ball, a bit of fish flakes, and tadpoles. The stripes are from a dish towel underneath the aquarium. |
 |
| Another view of our new pets |
Grace loves the tadpoles, and it's remarkable how quickly they're growing. According to Luke's calculations, they should be fully transformed around July 1st (also my due date!). Once they turn into frogs, we''ll release them back into the wild.
It's crazy how quickly the tadpoles have grown! And the set up was remarkably easy. They eat fish flakes, so we didn't even need to buy anything different to feed them.
It's so neat to watch the animals changing each day, and every time they change, they grow and take a step away from being a baby. Obviously, once they're frogs they aren't going to go back to being tadpoles; that life will be over for them, and they'll be a completely different animal. They will live out of the water, breathe, and eat a completely different diet.
It reminds me of 1 Corinthians 5:17, which I know I've posted on here before:
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
Has God ever changed you into a "new creature"?
~Jen
