Frog update

The kids and I were outside looking at the tadpoles, some of which are more like frogs than tadpoles now. We've determined that perhaps they aren't bullfrog tadpoles after all. A wood frog, perhaps. Something smaller than a bullfrog.

This little guy is developing some impressive jumpers:

Benjamin holding the froglet

He still has a long way to go before his tail disappears, though, so before he hops away I hope he continues eating all the mosquito larvae swimming around in his little pool (there are about three other tadpoles in there to help him out):

While we were observing the tadpoles, a delivery person came walking down the driveway with two packages. Swim season is literally just around the corner (the pool opens later this week) so I've been...freshening up our swim wardrobe. A lot of us have grown. A lot of us have been wearing our swimsuits through multiple seasons until the fabric has stretched and paled. Either way we were ready for some fresh looks. So we have swim suits coming at us from left to right...because there are a lot of us.

So here comes this delivery person with not one but two packages. 

But there's a problem. It seems he's in training. He has a question. One package has my name on it. One has Andrew's name on it. Is it okay to leave them at the same house? Yes, it is. 

He'll need to take a picture by the door. But the doorway is full of children. 

I explain to the children that they'll have to move a bit so he can get to the door. 

All of this is happening in Spanish, which I don't really speak...but I understand enough to understand that much. He kept telling me "Un momento. No inglés. Un momento. No inglés." while he was on hold with his dispatcher or trainer or something. When he finally came up to the door he noticed what we were looking at.

"¿Qué es eso?" the man asks. "¿Pescado?"

Now, I'm not really clear on the difference between pez and pescado, but the man said pescado and that sounded like fish to me.

"No," I told the man confidently. "Es una araña."

It. Is. A. Spider.

I literally told the man it was a spider. 

Because my Spanish is impeccable. That's why.

"¿Puedo mirar?"

"Si."

"¡Oh! Non es una araña! Es una rana!"

Rana, right. Not araña.

"Pero en Venezuela, no," he said, pointing to the tail. "No hay cola. Esta cola—no. En Venezuela—no."

"Oh, the tail? Yeah—porque es una...bebe," I explained. Kind of.

"¿Nombre? En inglés."

"Frog," I said. "It's called a frog. Or a tadpole...when it's a baby."

And that was about the end of that. We now have a couple new swimsuits at our house and I will probably never forget the Spanish word for frog ever again.