Be Free Coco

All my dreams have come true. She set the frog free!!!!!!!!!! Can you tell how sad she is by the look on her face and the snot she has wiped on her shirt:
She bought this pet years ago. She had wanted one for-ev-er and I finally gave in because I THOUGHT that frogs were a low maintenance pet--mistake! You have to feed the amphibian LIVE crickets (which you keep in a separate cage and feed them to keep them alive). Oh, and don't even get me started on all the times that the crickets have ESCAPED from their holding cell...the thought makes me curdle.

Now that we live in a humid, muggy, did I say humid?, place, we have been begging her to let the frog (name: Coco) live in the wild (a.k.a. backyard). There are frogs everywhere here, and more importantly--crickets. We have been trying to convince her for months that Coco has a longing to be one with nature.

We finally found a bargaining point--a cell phone. She is the only one in the universe that doesn't have one. Boo hoo, salty tears of sadness. Up until now, I have told her that she doesn't have a cell phone because: #1-you can't use it at school, so when exactly would you be able to call someone....."Um, I can call my friends (who live around the corner) on Saturday and ask them to come outside and ride bikes." Super convincing argument. Oh, and she did add, "a cell phone makes you look cool." "No, obeying your mother makes you look cool." #2-We can't afford it. But alas, when I finally added up all the $ I was spending to buy the darn crickets, I realized that the frog was more expensive than a phone. Drat. So, here is my proposition to her: set the frog free, maintain awesome grades for 3 months, and you can have a phone that you will hardly ever use. Just typing this makes it sound so logical....

Coco has been liberated into the wild. Once we were in the house, Addie got so hysterical that she couldn't control herself and blew her nose in her shirt. The fact that a tissue was 13 inches away from her didn't stop her from using her clothing. High glamour and etiquette.

If you see a frog in your backyard, keep that information on the down low. I told the girls that Coco lives right here with us and they can visit any time. I wonder what bargaining point I'm going to have to conjure up when it's time to buy her a phone....maybe I'll try a bunny this time. I've heard they don't eat crickets.