Tadpole: Take Two

For Christmas Mara Kate got a Grow-A-Frog kit from her Aunt BeBe and Uncle Choonghwan. The kit comes with everything BUT a tadpole. Included is a certificate you send off when you are ready for your tadpole to be sent to you. So, a few weeks ago Mara Kate's tadpole arrived. Of course it arrived by US mail and Kane was at work when the mailman knocked on our door and handed me a little Styrofoam box that said, "Live Tadpole or Froglet" on the label. So fun---for Mara Kate that is!

If you know me at all, you probably know I'm not a huge fan of sea life, fish, things that swim, swarm, creep or crawl. And, of course the instructions said that it needed to be dealt with quickly and fed, so the responsibility of moving the little swimming thing from it's sealed water-filled pack into it's new aquarium-type habitat fell to ME! Since I'm the wonderful, caring and sweet mother that I am, I placed all feelings of grossness aside and determined to move the thing for my sweet, excited anxious daughter. So, I called Kane, put him on speakerphone and had him help walk me through each step as I read the directions. (Hey, I needed all the help/support I could get).

So, the tadpole successfully settled into it's new home on top of Mara Kate's bookshelf and lived happily ever after.....for about 3 weeks.

Then it died. Mara Kate and I were actually out of town when it happened and Kane came home from work one evening and noticed it had sunk to the bottom and was laying upside down. He realized fairly quickly that is had perished, so feeling like a terrible Daddy, he went about flushing it and cleaning out the tank.

After talking to the folks at the lab where the tadpoles are shipped from he found out that we (meaning him as I really didn't want anything to do with the thing or the responsibility of feeding/cleaning it) had incorrectly cleaned the tank the first time. Apparently you can't dip any foreign object (i.e. a measuring cup) into the water to remove it, but instead are only supposed to pour old water out and pour new water in. Never actually touching the water itself. Who knew?!

So, since the little things are guaranteed through the metamorphic stage they quickly shipped tadpole #2 out to us. I didn't have the heart to tell Mara Kate that her tadpole had died while we were visiting my sister, so I waited until we got home from our trip for us to talk to her about it.

When Kane got home that night (minutes after we arrived and before MK had even had a chance to think about going to check on her tadpole) he picked her up, carried her in her room and explained to her what had happened. She was of course sad and wanted to know why it had died and she gave Kane a big hug around her neck, then wanted me to give her some more hugs. After we told her it had died we also told her that they were going to be sending her another one in the mail soon and that she could be waiting for it.

Well, tadpole number two arrived yesterday---during the day when Kane was at work. The mail man brought it to the door (as there are instructions not to leave it in the mailbox) and said to me when I answered, "Didn't you just get one of these a few weeks ago?" I said, "Yes, but it died." He said, "Do you have a little one in your home?"---and I explained that it was for our 4 year old daughter. He said that was great and that he had gotten the grow-a-frogs for his daughters when they were younger and told me that they had also released butterflies. SO nice to have such a personable mailman! (again, another reason I love living in a small town).

So, here it is in all it's glory! Tadpole #2! We are hoping this one lives long enough for us to watch it actually turn into a frog. Maybe I'll post more pictures as it begins to change!