Critter Country 3

I had planned for this week's post to be the debut of our latest family photo. Unfortunately, the wind and a fussy baby conspired to make sure none of the pictures we planned turned out halfway decent. As evidence, this photo won the "Most Likely to Be Framed" award:

My apologies to anyone who finds this hand gesture offensive. In Ukraine it is just hilarious. (Since your mind is now primed for offensive gestures, let me assure you that Megan is not, in fact, flipping the bird. Well... probably not.)

Fortunately, I found myself inundated with new critter pictures, so I'm happy to present the third installment of Critter Country. You'll have to forgive the poor resolution on many of the pictures. No matter how many times I tell them or how loud I yell it, the animals are pretty bad at waiting for me to get the good camera, so my camera phone has to suffice.

Behold the reason we are afraid to keep our windows open at night:

I'm amazed that Lunesta would use this moth as a mascot, since the thought of it attacking me in the night made me leery of sleeping altogether.

I thought for sure that the Luna Moth was going to take the cake for best bug picture this time around. Unfortunately for him, we found this hilarious inch worm who apparently loves Buddy Holly:

He even seemed to have pretty good rhythm.

We've been watching our baby turkey grow, but I am somewhat suspicious that it might turn out to actually be an ostrich.

Which would be a way better story than the ugly duckling, since rather than just showing up all those who once laughed at him, he could crush them. That's a moral you can take right to the bank.

And our friend Roger the chipmunk has been up to his old tricks.

Apparently the amount of nuts in a chipmunk's cheeks is inversely proportional to their fear of humans. Cuteness seems to be their greatest defense.

Our best find this time around was a ground hog.

He was sad because someone called him a Wood Chuck, but nobody called him a Whistle Pig.

The ground hog was actually stuck at this fence. He couldn't figure out how to get through and apparently didn't feel like just moving on. Fortunately, some folks from the UConn grounds crew came by and helped him cross the road to terrorize the golf course.

Finally, we present our most underrepresented class of critters: the amphibians.

Here is a Vermont salamander. They are like regular salamanders, except they hate Wal-Mart.

We were out playing in the grass in front of our apartment when we found this little guy minding his own business:

Little did he know the kind of trouble he was in for.

"What do we have here?"

Topher was a little apathetic to begin with, but I think that once he figured out that we would be upset if he were to put it in his mouth, we couldn't hold him back.

Fortunately, the frog got away with nothing more serious than a poke in the eye. Topher drowned his sorrows by trying to shove a couple rocks in his mouth.

And before I go, I'm not sure if this is Topher's impression of a saxophonist or an elephant, so I'll include it here. Either way, Kenny G should eat his heart out.

Nice Gams :)

We all went to the bank at UCONN the other day for some pretty ordinary business. Toph isn't a huge fan of being held these days and so while I was talking to the teller, Scott put Toph down and let him roam. He kept walking around and around the room, trying to avoid the arms of some random girl who continued to beckon to him. The girl was sitting waiting for her friend who was talking to the the teller next to me. The friend was discussing some pretty serious business it seemed (and for the purpose of the story it should be mentioned that she was also wearing some pretty short shorts) and Toph stopped, looked at her and started heading her way. Normally, Toph is pretty shy and he'll stick close to us when he walks, but he decided this time to be friendly. A little too friendly :). Toph reached out and grabbed her bare leg and the girl screamed so loud! It was hilarious to watch her freak out and see Toph just stand there staring at her :). I guess we already need to have a talk with Toph about not touching girls' legs :).

Moose, Bears, Snowmobiles, Deer

Here is your weekly riddle: What do the four things in the title have in common?

Answer: The are all things we were warned may be crossing the street in Vermont. Interestingly, the lion's share of the roadkill in Vermont was actually birds (with snowmobiles a close second).

Our weekly adventure took us to New England's Texas. We have grown quite fond of living in the quiet corner of Connecticut, but Vermont was a league of its own. Here, for example, is a typical view as you drive through Montpelier (which only takes about a minute and a half):

I have it on good authority (i.e. it best suits my comedic purposes) that this is the tallest building in all of Vermont.*

Fortunately, the relative lack of things to look at opened the door to a wonderful two hour nap.

You'd be surprised how many pictures of my arm I took before we finally got a decent one of Toph.

At this point you may be wondering what we were doing in Vermont.

Does this answer your question?

We all had a great time camping, despite a rude awakening by a car horn at 7:00 in the morning.

This was obviously before the horn, else there would be a lot fewer smiles and a lot more questioning of what on earth was going on in my life.

We came to the conclusion in the process of the trip that the draw of camping for us is not the great outdoors, communing with nature, or any of that stuff.

It's the food.

While in Vermont, we availed ourselves of the opportunity to visit the birthplace of Joseph Smith.

Here is a link to give anyone unfamiliar with Joseph Smith an idea of why this was a special experience for us.

Topher, too, seemed pretty awestruck.

In less spiritually fulfilling news, we also paid a visit to the Ben & Jerry's factory. The tour we took was neat and we liked the ice cream, but things took a turn for the weird when the staff announced a "Frozen T-Shirt Contest." The contest consisted of five contestants trying to thaw T-Shirts that had been soaked, balled up, and left in a freezer for several days.

For a good idea of the experience, stare at this image for 15 minutes. That's about the extent of the action.

After 3 contestants left because it was taking too darn long, the dude sacrificed the win to give his thawed shirt to the girl so she could win. This picture makes it look like he is now hitting on her (which would be weird because she looked like she was 16), but the staff is actually leading them in a cheer.

"Ice Cream?!" "Get your head in the game!"**

And last, but not least, the "Flavor Graveyard" gives us our weekly Obscure-Joke-That-Probably-Only-Scott-Thinks-Is-Funny:

Now with more 20% more Syphilis!

So that's Vermont.

And because this post is coming in a day late, here is a cute video on the house:

My favorite thing about Topher walking these days is that he looks like Danny Devito as the Penguin as he does it.

* Interestingly, in reality the tallest building in Vermont is actually a battle monument built in 1891. I don't think this lessens the impact of my previous joke.

**That's two posts in a row with a High School Musical reference. Good thing I'm already married.

Good to be chillin' out

After some pretty cool and rainy days, it finally looks like summer might be upon us. With school out, we've been trying to make sure that Topher is getting out and enjoying the nice weather.

It is relatively rare that we take Topher out without any pants, but I'd be lying if I said it never happened.

Unfortunately, Topher seems to have his own idea of how he wants to spend his summer.

I think that ultimately Topher will be relieved that he didn't have a top button that I could unbutton for this picture. I, however, am somewhat upset.

The big event for the week, of course, was the Fourth of July. We had wanted to make our way up to Boston for their fireworks. Unfortunately, it looked like we would have had to have waited from nine in the morning, so we nixed that idea after at quick glance Topher's way. Instead, we happily accepted an invitation to barbecue and set off fireworks with some of our friends.

This was the best of fifteen pictures we took. You have to take cuteness where you can get it.

Before too long, we got to the festivities.

The fireworks went off without a hitch, meaning everyone came back with as many eyebrows as they went in with.

Topher has been pretty quick to startle lately, so we were a little worried about him with the fireworks (especially those annoying whistling ones). We were pretty surprised to find he was completely unfazed.

You can't imagine how proud we were that he clutched that flag through the fireworks.

"So guys, can I light the next one?"

Topher got so into the patriotic spirit he started spontaneously acting out famous scenes of American history. Here he is planting the flag on the moon:

This is one wobbly step for man, one giant leap for mankind. My only regret is that I didn't have the camera ready for his Iwo Jima pose.

Topher did run into a bit of trouble when he was recruited for a street gang.

Apparently they heard that he's pretty good with a bo staff.

All and all we had a great time. I can't think of a better way for Topher to have celebrated his first Fourth of July.

Cheeser

It's been a pretty mellow week as far as adventures go. We thought about going down to an Irish festival near the coast, but it turned out that most of the good stuff would be on Sunday, so we decided against it. Instead, we invited the missionaries over for dinner, but we didn't get any good pictures of that adventure.

Fortunately, Topher has been a barrel of laughs. I'm afraid that some people might have taken my comment about Topher smiling for the camera as hyperbole (as though that ever happens here). So, I thought I'd share with you the one face of Topher.

Proof that smiles are contagious.

I hope you all enjoyed that.

In milestone news: nothing is safe.

There Are Many Advantages....

...And disadvantages to having a mobile child. We're also learning new things everyday such as: garbage is apparently edible, turkeys get freaked out when a baby pounds on the glass door, babies are SPEEDY and can grab things as quick as lightning, and it's a bad idea to spend too much time indoors. One important thing we've discovered is that Topher likes to do dishes!! Every time I open the dishwasher he gets a crazy look on his face and keeps his eyes on the prize while he speed crawls/cruises (depending on his mood :) over to "help". Honestly, I know he won't want to do dishes forever, so I'm enjoying his enthusiasm (even if all he wants to do is splash water and try unsuccessfully to eat the detergent :).

Now if I can only get him to change his own diapers we'll be doing great :).

Critter Country 2

Now that we are coming up on a year of having lived in Connecticut, we figure that it is about time for a follow-up on our profile of the various critters we've met since we've been out here. So, without further ado, here are some of our newest friends.

We can only wish we'd met a penguin. I just wanted this here to get things started.

Apparently since we've become so used to run of the mill spiders, the powers that be decided to start sending us spiders with bizarrely unproportional features.

Fortunately, the fabled Giant Second Pair of Legs Spider isn't the brightest character in the world and made his first appearance on the wall just above the toilet.

Given the expected onslaught of bugs, we thought we'd protect ourselves with a citronella candle.

Something tells me that this is not how it's supposed to get rid of bugs.

We also got a nice picture of a seagull flying.

It wasn't even in search of garbage.

Living so close to the woods have given us much reason to wonder just how many critters are actually around us. There are hundreds of caterpillars in the streets these days, so we can only imagine there are tens of thousands in the trees around us.

Before

After

We also got a shot of a Turkey with two hatchlings (only one is pictured. Don't waste too much time staring at the picture).

Turkeys just always seemed to be one of those creatures that only exist as adults. It blew my mind to see a baby turkey, like when I learned you could make brownies from scratch instead of a boxed mix.

When we moved out here and I noticed how dark and moist everything was, I figured it must be snake central. Interestingly enough, it wasn't until Saturday that I finally saw one out here.

After talking this picture I tried to scare the snake off the road and back into the bushes. My efforts were futile as my stomping and shouting only made him hold his ground even firmer. Apparently that is the fundamental difference between snakes and squirrels. That and the whole legs vs. no legs thing.

Interestingly, this question gives rise to some interesting propositions. Like, what do you suppose the feral goat population of Connecticut is?

They are plotting in the woods as we speak.

In other news, Topher has figured out what we mean when we tell him to smile for the camera.

Full on half of our pictures these days feature this exact face.

We also made a trip down to the coast with our friends the Redds. We had a great time.

But Topher was a little more hesitant.

It may have had something to do with his refusal to nap during the whole day.

After not having been able to make it through the entire museum last week, we were happy to find a modern art installation along the coast.

It's actually a vandalized information sign, but I had you going for a minute there, didn't I?