Tadpoles

Ollie loves long silly words. They make him giggle. There is a Sesame Street episode where the word of the day is "metamorphosis" and for a while it was his favorite one to watch (Elmo and Abby participate in a game show called "Find That Amphibian" hosted by Anne Phibian!) He thought the word "Metamorphosis" was hilarious, and it helped him learn about the transformation of caterpillars to butterflies, and tadpoles to frogs. One day his nurse Jo asked if she could bring us some tadpoles from her pond, and I said "sure!" The next day she arrived with 4 tiny black tadpoles, with their hind legs just barely showing. I went out and bought a little plastic aquarium, and searched the internet to read up on their delicate care.

Within a week, one of the tadpoles sprouted front legs, and then crawled out of the water, eventually absorbing its entire tail. It was truly incredible to watch it transform so quickly. Unfortunately the remaining four didn't last very long - two died as tadpoles, and one died as a froglet, but the first little guy has flourished and is still with us, hopping around and feasting on fruit flies in his little aquarium. I believe he turned out to be a toad, and not a frog, because he spends very little time in the water, but really I have no idea. He sure is cute though, if you go for that type!