Category: Pictures

Last night Matt finally saw Frederick (which is what he named the skink after he saw him and simultaneously stopped making fun of me and started planning tactical manuevers for Skink Hunt 2009).  There were a couple of sightings last night (which is odd because we’ve never seen him at night before — my theory is that Fred heard Matt’s statements of disbelief and came out during his beauty-sleep period to show himself — my secondary theory is that this lack of essential skink sleep caused the events of today, Fred was simply not on his game) but we finally gave up and went to bed.  The real action began today during Liam’s nap.  By the time I came downstairs (about an hour after Matt) the living room looked like this:

In case you can’t tell — both couches are moved, there’s a dolly in the left corner of the picture (used to lift up the trunk that was also moved and propped up on shims and books), the lamps are moved, and the coffee table is sideways in the center of the room.  What the picture doesn’t show is that there was also a towel stuffed under the door to the hallway, the doors to the hutch were open, at least three of the games were sitting out and missing their tops (which were spread around the room to be used as skink catchers), and there’s a broom in the middle of the room.  When I got down there Matt had him cornered under the couch but when I used the broom to try to shove him out towards Matt he ran and we discovered that he fit under the “baseboard” (the strip of wood that someone apparently thought would pass for a baseboard at some point during the remodeling of the basement).  Matt tried slowly running a shim under the baseboard in a vein attempt to flush him out that way.  Eventually the baseboard was removed but Fred wasn’t giving up that easily so we ended up sitting on the couches watching Must See TV on Tivo in hopes that he would come running out.  One of the helpful skills I’ve acquired during the past week has been an ability to hear a skink running (no lie), so when I heard him we were on the move again.  To make a (very) long story a little shorter, the end result (after a fantastic show of reptilian prowess on everyone’s part) was this (Fred’s under the Urban Myth game box top (yes, Matt noted the irony) which is under several books including a particularly apt title):

Next Matt carefully scooted the stack over the carpet to the door:

Next he went about creating a perimeter barrier and prepared for the final push over the threshold:

And finally, success:

My hero, upon completion of his mission:

The End (hopefully).

I’m completely freaking out right now.

The only clue I have about what this might be is in the glint of blue on the tail, which triggered a memory I have of a conversation I had with our neighbor last week in which we discussed the mosquitos around here and also in which she said that the mosquitos are actually much better now than they used to be as a result of the fact that our other neighbor now has a bat house in his backyard and that the skinks (which she described as little lizards with blue tails) have moved into the neighborhood and they also eat mosquitos.

I feel like Godzilla has moved into my house and is trying to take up residence in my child’s George-in-the-box.

ETA:  I’ve done a little research, and I found this picture, but I don’t think it quite looks like the one in our basement:

Maybe ours is very, very old or very, very young…?

But all I did was laugh and shake my head when I came out of the bathroom to hear an unusual banging noise.  When I went down the hall to investigate, I found this:

Of course, being the stellar mother that I am, I had to take a picture before I helped him get it off.  This kid is hilarious.

Liam had his first “Parent Tot” swim class at the Y this morning.  He had an absolute blast: