They just grow and grow and grow

The tadpoles... not the kids. :) They are now 3 days old, and have doubled in size each day. It's amazing. Here are some pics I snapped today.

I better get a lot of princes out of this!

So, the frog saga continues. Yesterday morning there was one in the pool. So I finally got smart and put him in a bucket. I had planned to take him to one of the community lakes around here. But I knew the other one was around.... and wanted to take them both tegether. So I left him in the bucket and when I came home from work this morning... wifey was in the pool. I plucked her out and put her in the bucket too. So here they are together. Probably a one night stand gone bad... thinking they would never see each other again... how awkward. LOL :) And just in case you're interested... the frog on the left is the girl and the one on the right is the male. How do I know that? Lots of Googling! The males have bigger front toes than the females. :)

So... Johnny cleaned the pool yesterday... lots of acid and shock. But I did take out a couple leaves out of th epool that had eggs on them and put them in the kids' water table (which was full of rain water). Not sure what I was thinking... but I did read it takes 2-12 days for the eggs to hatch into tadpoles... and the tadpoles "mature" in about a month into frogs.

Try 24 hours!!!! We have tadpoles!!!! No idea what I am going to do with them.... I leave for vacation in 8 days. Probably keep them for a few days so the boys can see them grow a bit, then release them into one of the community lakes (where they will probably get eaten). Anyone local to me want some tadpoles?

I think it's an awesome experience for any kid to be able to see tadpoles grow. I got to see it as a kid because my grandparents lived out in the country... and I am bummed my kids don't get to have a similar experience.

****UPDATE****

Just found out the true species... they're not Colorado River Toads like I assumed... they're called Couch's Spadefoot. Their tadpoles can turn into "toadlets" in as little as 8 days! Wow! http://www.reptilesofaz.org/Turtle-Amphibs-Subpages/h-s-couchii.html

Horny Toad Update

Last night the horny toad made so much noise, he/she attracted a mate. So we had two of them in the back yard making a lot of noise. So much noise, in fact, that the neighbors caled the police about "a goat or a duck" in someone's backyard. So at 11:30pm the police were banging on our door. We showed the nice officer the toad in our pool (he was in there AGAIN!) and he had a chuckle and went on his merry way. I plucked both toads out of the pool and came inside. I heard them making their croaking noise until at least 4am.

This morning I went out there and sure enough, they were in the pool again. I guess they like salt water (chlorine would have killed them). As I was waiting for them to surface (every time they see me they dive to the bottom of the pool) I noticed how dirty the pool was from the storm last night. Upon closer inspection... I notice EGGS!!!!! They procreated in my pool!! There were

hundreds of Colorado River Toad eggs in my pool!! All over the vacuum hose, all over the side of the pool, and on a stray leaf. Imagine all the tadpoles we would have!! I imagine pools were used for breeding grounds on a lot of the abandoned pools around here.

I feel bad that the vacuum is going to suck them all up when it comes on in an hour and a half. But such is life!

Horny Toad!

I got cancelled tonight from work, so I have time to make a post. We're having a great and busy summer so far! Nicolas is going to gymnastics 3 times a week, Karate 3 times a week, and he's in basketball. Max tags along for all Nicolas' activities, plus he has his own gymnastics class as well. Busy busy busy!! And we're going away for 2.5 weeks.... leaving in about a week and a half! This summer is flying!

The picture to the left is a little (but NOISY) Colorado River Toad in my back yard. We heard a strange noise in the backyard during tonight's Monsoon/summer desert storm... thought it was a cat stuck out in the rain. Upon closer inspection, we found this little guy. He's still out there making a ton of noise... I can hear him from my computer room, which in on the side of the house and he's in the backyard. I went out later to take some pics, and found him in our pool. I took some pics and video and moved him to the yard. I suspect he'll make it back to the pool. Here's some video I shot... see for yourself how noisy he is!!

(Update - an hour and a half later... I just went out and took him out of the pool again... in the pouring rain!)