Lizard Friend

A couple of weeks ago I hosted a playdate with a few friends and while walking them out the door I noticed a very large lizard at the top of our outside entry way (he was about 12 feet above the ground). Being the animal/bug/reptile enthusiast that Grafton is, I had to try and catch it for him.

I stood on a ladder and gently ushered him down with the end of a broom. Then, we used a butterfly net to capture him once he was on the ground.

I knew I had to try to get him, but never expected this would actually work!

So, we had a pet lizard for about two days.

He was six inches from head to tail and was actually very calm and sweet (if you can consider a lizard sweet). Grafton held him constantly and even took him to my mom's house with him when my step-dad watched the boys for a few hours.

We found him on a Friday afternoon and released him on Sunday morning before church.

Grafton was a really good sport about letting him go and I was impressed with myself that I handled all of this so well!

Critters

There have been some "exciting" finds around our house recently. It started a couple of Saturdays ago when the boys were playing outside and we heard Grafton excitedly scream, "There's a scorpion!"

Vince was the closest to them and raced outside where he immediately yelled, "Oh my gosh!". Sure enough, dead under the playhouse was this Desert Harry Scorpion.

This is the largest scorpion I've ever seen, measuring at 4 inches! I am told however, that he is not as dangerous as the regular scorpions you usually see around.

I guess this is supposed to make me feel better?

Six days after our scorpion find I was in the guest-room bathroom and spotted a lizard resting against the wall.

This was a surprising find but not upsetting because I know lizards are harmless and eat all of the "bad bugs" as I like to tell the boys.

I was able to capture him in a tupperware dish, but then Grafton decided he'd like to hold him before letting him go.

I picked the lizard up first to make sure he didn't get away and that Grafton wasn't going to hold him too tightly.

After giving Grafton a few instructions I passed him on and the lizard actually nestled down into Grafton's hands and didn't seem to mind at all that he was being held.

In fact, when Grafton opened his hand to let him go he just stayed there.

And stayed there some more...

And then some more...

Until finally Mr. Lizard decided to crawl up Grafton's arm which freaked him out a little bit and then Grafton flung him off.

The lizard finally scurried away, but stopped in the middle of our patio and Grafton was able to pet him one last time before he darted into the rocks.

Grafton said he loved his lizard "so much" but knew he was better off living in our backyard.

Tonight we had our most recent interesting find.

I guess this is not as interesting as a scorpion or a lizard, or even considered a "critter" for that matter. However, that is one large mushroom we found growing in our backyard.

It didn't last for long though. We decided to pull it out of the ground and see what it looked like and felt like on the inside before throwing it away and thoroughly washing our hands.

I wonder what interesting discoveries tomorrow will bring....

This is what you find . . .

When you live with a little boy.  I just smile and walk by. :0)