Frogs and other things

I'm sick. Another cold, one I'm sure was passed to me from Erica.... who of course had the mild version where I got the full blown mess. Mark is in the kitchen with Erica making his annual cream puffs to take to our family party tomorrow. It has been a blessing, them in there chatting about cooking and lots of other stuff, while I rest my head. I'm surfing the blog rolls, so I put on the digital music and listen to classic Christmas music. I love these sounds - family noise. It's moments like there when I take the whole thing in, and see it for what it is at a basic level - love, home, safety, happiness. Of course, it doesn't last long enough, and soon Erica is up and running around the house with the dog on her heels, singing Frosty the Snowman at the top of her lungs. This year she is fully aware of all what Christmas means - not so much the religious part but the giving, getting, and celebrating. She has asked Santa for a pet frog, a play kitchen, and Pixos. Mark and I have talked several times about the frog - since I will ultimately be doing the most to care for it. She had seen a frog this summer when we went camping at Turquoise Lake. It had been in the fire pit and when Mark went to build a fire it started to jump around trying to get out. He scooped it into my washtub and Erica wanted so badly to bring it home. We told her that it was on it's way to find it's family and it would be cruel to take it all the way home with us. So she settled for a picture.

But what convinced us was the day she emptied out her piggy bank and put all the money in a small santa faced purse, and stated, "This is for my pet frog (she's calling it Cutie - it's not even in the house yet) for food. Mommy, what do frogs eat?"

So, Monday Mark and I visited the local reptile shop and found a fire belly frog - green with spots and a fire-red belly. Of course we had to get all the gear, and at $99 we walked out and took the soon to be named Cutie home. What the reptile guy failed to do was set our little frog up with a perfect habitat. So when I got to PetCo and talked to the now highly regarded Joshua, I realized how far off we were led. The frog needs soft ground, called substrate, made from shredded coconut husks instead of the gravel we got from reptile dude. The frog also needs a jacuzzi instead of his/her (no way to tell, you know?) whole world under water. The one thing we got right was the bag of live crickets - immature ones that don't chirp. So on the last day before Erica is home for winter break I get it all set up, and Cutie seems happier. Now we need to keep her out of the basement until Santa can bring this special gift. I just hope the darned thing lives that long!

Oh, of course Santa is bringing a play kitchen, hopefully not to cook up the frog!