Armadillo!!!!
The boys and I were playing in the front yard on Friday when B got home from work. Since it was a lovely day and the kids had a lot of toys out of the garage, B decided it would be a perfect opportunity to sweep and wash out the garage. (A wonderful idea if I do say so myself - the garage needed a good cleaning after the winter!)
When B was removing some bins from the garage, in one he found a small lizard (or salamander, or something of the like), It was about 5 inches long, including the tail and crawled with 4 feet. It was black with light colored stripes running down its back. Pretty cute - not slimy. The boys liked looking at it. J would touch it and squeal “touched it!” and then jump back. He was fun to watch. C kept referring to it as an armadillo. J called it a dinosaur. When the lizard got out of the bin, it ran to the grass. J followed it through the grass for quite a while - maybe 10 minutes until C started playing and diverted J’s attention.
Yesterday during nap/ rest time, C had some trouble getting calm and resting. He kept coming out of his bedroom - I think in part because Daddy was home. He is going through a “needing Daddy” phase. Watching them together is really sweet. Anyway back to the story - the last time that B tried to put C back in bed, C started talking loudly and pointing “Armadillo! Armadillo!” As it turned out, there was a lizard in the house! I’m not exactly sure how C saw it. B was able to retrieve the lizard from under the bookcase in the living room. As C said, “Daddy did a really good job!” B then released it outside.
(As an explanation for the increase in animal activity: Earlier in the week, it had been raining and I have been wanting granular bug killer put out on the lawn - it has to be watered in. This is something we do twice a year. It keeps the spiders, ants and other creepy crawly stuff out of the house and I don’t have to worry about the kids getting bitten either. Well, B bought the bug killer and didn’t have time to spread it on the lawn, so I did. I should have read the instructions - for our size yard, I should have put down about 1 lb. of the 10 lb. bag. I just kept filling up the spreader when it got empty and ended up spreading about 8 of the 10 lbs. B was quite concerned that I had destroyed the grass. So far, the grass has survived, but the lizards are certainly running from our grass and mulch!! The neighbors are going to have an increase in bug and lizard activity if all the bugs are following the lizard’s lead and getting out of our yard! I don’t think I’ll tell the neighbors what I did. Maybe they will think ALL the yards have as many bugs and critters as they do.)