My Animal Planet

Yesterday was a day for the animals.

It began early in the morning on a field trip to the zoo with my youngest daughter and her kindergarten class.

Since becoming a stay-at-home dad, I have tried to take advantage of EVERY opportunity I can to spend time with the kids.

Whether that means driving my oldest daughter to dance, helping coach my son’s baseball team or just bringing cupcakes to school and having lunch with the kids.

And that’s just this week.

And you definitely don’t have to ask me twice to go on a field trip to the zoo.

In fact, due to the one chaperone for every two students ratio, I would say this was a pretty popular assignment.

For nearly three hours, our trio visited nearly every animal in the park, from Anteaters to Zebras, Giraffes to Polar Bears.

Like many of us who have now reached the age of 43, I’ve been to a zoo about four million times.

And I can’t wait for four million and one.   It just doesn’t get old.

And to see the zoo through my daughter’s eyes was priceless.

She certainly didn’t have to thank me at the end of the day, but the fact that she did was great.

My parents taught me that please and thank you will get you anywhere in life.

I’m not so sure I believe that anymore, but I like the concept.

I also like the fact that I had to ask my daughter exactly zero times to not climb on the railing near the animals.

I’m guessing I said it 36 times to my daughter’s classmate, but who’s counting.

If I sound like the proud papa, its because I am.

I love my kids, I love my dog and I would love to have more of each.

So when my wife brought home a new family member from school yesterday, it really didn’t throw me off.

Too much.

Apparently my son won some type of contest at school yesterday earning the top prize.

His name is Hugo.

He’s a five-inch Northern Leopard Frog.

I must say, I don’t know much about the North, Leopards or Frogs and I know absolutely nothing about Northern Leopard Frogs.

And neither did my wife.

So on the way home she stopped at a pet store to see what kind of care Hugo would need.

I think I stopped listening about three sentences in, but she said something about a heated tank with live crickets and water something and ...  I don’t know the rest.

The bottom line is our home is not the right place for Hugo, but I kept my mouth shut.   

I told my son that if he wanted the tank and all the side dishes, we would do that for him.

But I’m not touching little Kermit.   And neither is your mom.

I think that freaked him out.

Winning a frog.   Cool!

Bringing home the frog.   Really Cool!!!

Taking care of the frog.   Not so much.

He decided pretty quickly, as in about three seconds, that this was not going to work out.

So I called around to a couple of local pet stores to see if they would take our little hopper and as luck would have it, the boyfriend of the cashier had a pond in his backyard and his bullfrog had just...

... well, you know.

So we dropped off Hugo with his new family and headed home.

My son certainly didn’t have to thank me for finding a new home for Hugo, but the fact that he did was great.