Reptiles R Us

First off, I'd like to say that I never thought of myself as a 'reptile person.' I mean yes, my sister and I used to hunt down Gardner Snakes in Washington and mercilessly play with them like dolls. The stench would last for days on our hands, but who else had the opportunity to pretend that snakes were toys? There was no fear - it was Western Washington and nothing could hurt you over there.

Fast forward to California many years later. It seems that everything can hurt you here. From spiders to snakes, what house DOESN'T have the brown or black widow lurking by a trash can outside or the rattler in an uninhabited field? My fear was born.

When Bryan and I got married, I had a bird. I loved her, but she had a little 'tude and tended to fling poops on the wall. Not to mention as I exited our apartment to do laundry all the way down the hall, I could STILL hear her sassing about something that was bugging her. So, when she died, we decided that since we were allergic to just about anything with hair, we'd get a gecko. An eye-lidded Leopard Gecko (Leo) - cute as a button. She was about 2-3 inches long and adorable! Several years later, Stubbs joined Leo in the terrarium thanks to some friends of ours who could no longer have her and knew we'd be good parents. Soo....I really have no fear of reptiles (at least the 4 legged variety).

This weekend we had the awesome opportunity to go to Ethan's friend's birthday party where he had a reptile party. What a blast! A lot of the kids were sketchy about some of the various reptiles there, but Ethan went right up and held pretty much everything. It's like being at home, right? Once Austin was out of the spotlight, he too held all the frogs and turtles he could find. It was an amazing experience and the guys did a great job teaching the kids about the various varieties of reptiles - including an alligator and a boa!!

 This guy was so sticky you had to hold him with a wet napkin. His name was Michael Jordan because he was a BULLfrog. The guy told the kids to hold him like a cheeseburger. I was cracking up.

 He was the finale. Quite strong and of course I was given the head. NOT my favorite part of the snake. Notice Austin not holding it, but investigating it.

 A tad close for comfort? He was pretty brave with all the reptiles.

 They provided toothbrushes to scrub the tortoise. He didn't seem to mind at all.

 If I could, this would be my next pet. A sticky toed tree frog. ADORABLE. He just got cozy in my hands.

 The 2 foot baby alligator who actually put up with all of us holding her. She was scoping us all out, don't get me wrong. In fact I was one of the last ones to hold her and her little cat-eye was staring at me quite hard.

 Ethan holding the alligator.

Ethan getting kisses from the scaly lizard. It had this really thick blue tongue.

I guess with boys and animal allergies I'll probably always have reptiles for pets. Either that or fish. We have both at the moment. What a fun time we had. I went home and gave my little geckos each a hug.