Mariposa Kisses (aka Dianne's Blog)

You know how life just surprises you sometimes? One of those occurrences happened to me about three years ago when I said, "Oh, I'll never get into one of those silly vampire series, ever..." Shortly thereafter, I fell in love with Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series. I mean, I'm literally a junkie now and can't wait for Breaking Dawn to hit the theaters.

As moms, we're shocked by very little; so it's a good idea to limit our "I'll never..." statements. We've seen everything from poop hanging out of our kids' behinds to puke resting upon our own laps in the middle of a nice restaurant. And then we've heard every other story from fellow parents who have heard it from their friends and their friends' friends. Nothing is really that crazy anymore after three kids; so basically, I'm not easily surprised.

But a few months ago, when my middle daughter caught a lizard during our day-trip at the Botanic Gardens, I ended up with a curious surprise. It was an eventful day, truth be told. First, she warned us of a rattle snake in our path during our hike; so we backed away slowly and changed routes. Then, this same daughter discovered a hibernating tortoise after she decided to go off-roading. We thought it was dead; but given the season, we came to realize it was simply taking Mother Nature's intended nap.

Then, even though we'd seen hundreds of friendly-looking lizards, my daughter chose one particular little critter to bring home as our newest "pet." At first I was a bit apprehensive, but figured, "What the heck, why not?" I mean, life is pretty short; if a pet lizard brings joy to my daughter's six-year-old heart, then I could get over the live worms and the nasty smell coming from its cage.

So, the surprise! You're wondering what this has to do with being surprised, right? Well, the thing is that Eugene Fitzherbert (yes, from Tangled) has paved a beautiful sketch upon my heart. In fact, he is resting on top of my yellow tank top at this very moment as I type. He's become incredibly social and I am his "Grammy." Each time I hold him, I do four kissing chirps so that he knows it's me. He even gets so relaxed on my shoulder that he shuts his eyes and falls fast asleep.

Awww, he just shut his cute little black eyes a second ago. I'm literally blown away that after about three to four months, Eugene is officially a member of the Bright household. He will probably even make it into this year's Christmas photo. We'll definitely have to consider some fun backdrop colors to highlight his handsome brown skin and his animated black spots.

I never realized how long a lizard's toes and fingers were; it's super cool, by the way. And he's quite resilient. He's had a couple of close calls, falling from the Sears Tower equivalent for us; but he's fine every time. And I certainly didn't expect my daughter to wash him with hand soap about six weeks ago, but it did help with his over-all hygiene in the long-run.

Anyhoot, it's just fun being a mom and being occasionally shocked by the unexpected turns along the way. My little grand-lizard, Eugie for short, is truly a blessing in disguise. In fact, I'd be incredibly sad at this point if anything detrimental did happen to him. At first, I almost hoped he would sneak away; I barely even wanted to touch the darn thing.

But when he did escape last month, I found myself praying that I'd find him while my daughter was busy at school. There I was on my knees, calling out his name into the ominous distance, as if he'd come rushing into my arms. Good thing I caught him before our Labrador, Nugget, who wanted to cradle him with her salivating mouth.

It's a good thing I never said, "I'll never love a lizard." We recently sewed Eugene his own miniature sleeping bag and pillow, so obviously he's made it into our hearts pretty big-time. Share your thoughts about parenting surprises and pets that have touched your heart. We'd love to hear from you. :)

Labels: family, pets, surprises