Missing: Turtle!

Tonight, Brad and I were reading to Hannah when all of a sudden, Brad popped up to examine the turtle tank.

I heard, "Well, that's not good," and assumed that maybe Spike had passed away.  But instead, there was not a turtle in the turtle tank.

That was when Tuesday night got interesting.  With Jack screeching and moving so his feet weren't on the floor (where a turtle could attack!), and Hannah crying because her turtle was gone, Brad and I began a full-blown search:

I was just about to explore the hallway and Jack's bedroom, when I heard Brad call out, "Found him!"  He'd found a snuggly spot behind one of Hannah's toy buckets.

Crisis averted.  Thank goodness!

our newest addition

Don't get too excited.  This is not a post about babies...at least, not of the tiny human variety :)

Our newest addition came in the way of a teeny, tiny turtle.

Halfway through our very snowy, very chilly winter, Hannah decided that she'd like another baby turtle.  Mid-winter is not a very good time to get a new turtle, for a couple of reasons.  One, we already had a turtle in her tank that she'd raised since it was a quarter-sized baby, and bigger turtles and tiny turtles can't go together in one tank.  Two, you can't release a turtle to a new home in the middle of winter.  So we told Hannah Bear she'd have to be patient, and that once it got warm outside, we'd be able to give her turtle a new home, and only then, we could get a new baby turtle.

Hannah remembered this conversation very well, and as soon as she could wear short sleeves to school, she'd ask about getting a new turtle.  We'd explain that we needed to let the ponds warm up a bit, and she'd wait another week or two before she asked again.  Until it got to the point where she started to ask every day, and then Brad gave in and finally ordered a new baby turtle.  Just like that.
One Monday night after dinner, he called a turtle guy, and before we knew it we were expecting a special delivery the following morning.  Hannah was beyond thrilled.

This morning, we got up, had breakfast, and got ready.  As we were getting ready to go for a bike ride, I got a text from Brad:

As you can see, Hannah wasn't the only one excited about the new turtle.

We came inside and opened the package, and there he was:

(Hannah looks scared in this picture, but I can assure you, she wasn't!)

We named our new friend Key Lime, but Hannah mostly refers to him/her as Mr. Turtle, which is just as cute.  She checks on Mr. Turtle every so often, just to be sure he's okay...the way I used to check on Hannah when she was just a tiny baby.  It's adorable.

Mr. Turtle is here to stay...at least until Hannah decides she'd like to release him to a happy pond and start all over again.