Sunday, September 5, 2010

From the Dirt Came "Dirt".

When I asked you to become a follower of my BLOG I promised stories of the Hurricane (my 2 ½ year old son, Elijah) so here it goes! In the beginning of the summer we watched a Mama box turtle lay her eggs in our side yard. Elijah waited, as patiently as a 2 ½ year old possibly could three looooong hot summer months for the babies to hatch.
And hatch they did on September 3rd! As everyone in South Jersey awaited the arrival of Hurricane Earl, my son welcomed the long anticipated appearance of a sweet baby box turtle. I never thought I could fall in love with a turtle but one look into those over sized eyes and I knew he had found a home. So off we went to the pet store. We traveled through hurricane forced winds, a major down pour and hail to our destination. (Well, not quite, turns out Earl was a dud, however did provide some swell)
At the pet store we learned all about how to take care of this little guy and that we actually where doing this baby box turtle a favor. Turns out that most baby box turtles don’t make it through their first winter. A proven fact for this little guys sibling. I won’t go into great detail about that other than “RIP Pancake”.
On a much happier note, Elijah named his first pet turtle “Dirt” because well, that’s just where we found him. He is so itty bitty…I would say about the size of a silver dollar. He has taken very well to his new home and spends most of the days sleeping….which tends to bore Elijah but I have assured him that Dirt needs this long nap time to grow. And we are all very excited to watch that unfold right before our eyes!

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