Thursday, December 17, 2009

Pollywogs and Tall Tales

The first 12 hours were eventful....sadly we lost one of our tads. Jude did not make it through the evening.  With each passing hour Miracle gained strength and now is swimming tale up!


So happy pollywog = happy family.  Even more cool is that Caleb noted (with his good eyes) that Miracle has his (let's just say it's a boy for now, we really do not know yet) legs...I was told to get my glasses on so I could see and wow, lookie that...Miracle does have some mighty fine little legs sprouting. Well I guess we are on our way! (legs behind the belly above the poo he do).


So we will report tomorrow any growing developments. This is a cool thing that Caleb is truly enjoying.

Day 3 Posting -added Dec 18th
Home from school, ran in to feed Miracle, Caleb calls out, "It looks like he is using his legs!"  We look closer and it appears that the legs are on the outside of the tail (fin) and looks like there are spots on his legs. They almost doubled in size...take a look!


Day 8
Changed Miracles water yesterday, dumping one forth of it out, leaving the rest of the crud...he likes it, he's a filter feeder and has established his own lovely ecosystem of goobly goo and fuzzy too.  He is growing but the water is not at optimum today, need to up the temp of the room.  Tomorrow is Christmas eve! What is Santa going to bring Miracle? How about Stage two food? Yumm Yum...and a bed (shell to sleep in).  Can't move out of this tadpool till we have our legs and have officially become a froglet!
Miracle today shows five fingers in his legs and a bend now in the knee. Slow but sure. His spine looks a little wider, rounded ...maybe.

Merry Christmas!

January 10th  ...Day 26
Metamorphasis!
Big news at the house...Miracle's forearm buds have officially popped..we have pipes.
Now we stop feeding Miracle as he will get all his energy from his tail that will disappear.
We are entering the final stages. Miracle will now slow down in movement, hover alot.
We read that during metamorphasis they just do not move much so not to be alarmed.
Check it out!

You can see his small forearms just bumping out behing his head but in front of his legs.



Here you can see how his digestive system is changing and the small forearms with what looks like two toes.
As soon as the tail disappears we can move Miracle into his new, bigger home.  He will then be a froglet! They are froglets for months till they are full grown frogs.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

A Big Fish (Tadpole) Tale

Ok, its Minnesota and its Dec 16th…our 2nd shipment of tadpoles arrived today. The first arrived frozen last week!  We were very disturbed. Called GAF and she said she would ship again. I was very concerned because it is too cold for these little guys. Well…she said she would try. Again our mailman has proven himself not able to read, left the tads in the mailbox. It was 5 degrees out!!!!! My son, whom the tads are for, brought them in immediately. I got home 1 hour later with the tads lying in the transport bags looking dead. I watched for a few mins and thought I saw some undulating in the tail of one. Sure enough, I did. So I held the bag in my hand to further warm it. It appears that the water never froze…but it must have been close.

5 hours later one is on his belly, on the bottom of the tad pool, breathing and moving slowly around. Has not made it to the top of the water yet. The other is not doing so well, he is on his side, not really breathing much, his heart is beating and tail is waving. He revived much slower than the first. I am sure they both are suffering from hypothermia. The second one’s whiskers look to be broken off? Is that bad? Both are very short, about 1/16th of an inch.

So we wait, to see if they survive. We are praying hard…we offered a Novena to St Jude to get them here alive…well he did that…so one will be named Jude and the other Miracle as we feel it was a miracle that they have made it this far. All this is for a science project for my son….that is why they sent them in the first place, because it was a project. Otherwise I believe they would have not sent them as it is way too cold here in the North.

Hoping you can offer words of encouragement. I am guarded about the first 72 hours. We look forward to them swimming tail up!

Monica

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

'Tis the Season

I think you know the drill:
How to reduce your stress during the holidays
How to NOT put on lbs this holiday season
How to dress for the party
How to decorate for the holidays
Even...
How to crash a party ( I couldn't resist!)

and then there are those parties you should NEVER attend:
Pity Party
...feeling sorry for yourself? Slap yourself silly...this is a party for one.
Patsy Party
...blaming everyone else. You have only yourself to blame..you are responsible for your actions.
Pride Party
...big egos here...need I say more.
BTW, how do you get your head through the door?
Pig Party
...selfishness is not a magnet, so give it up!
Share the wealth...be kind, compassionate, and loving.


Merry Christmas!

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Would you like some Sugar with your tea?

Well I really would but.........no thanks!
We know it goes straight to our thighs...what?
Thighs? I thought only fat went straight to our thighs...
Fat has always gotten a bad rap don't you think? 
Well I say a calorie is a calorie but there is so much more to this.
For now...let's cut the sugar.
I am a sweetie! Really!!! I love the sweet stuff.
So how about agave in your tea? Honey? or even Sugar in the Raw (very limited).
The point being , the more you get away from the sweet stuff the more the other foodstuffs taste sweet.
Naughty list:
Soda Pop
Even Naughty-er:
Diet Soda Pop...yikes
The goal:
Cut it out slowly...
Just say NO.