Ticks!

I just had to make one more "catch-up" post today since we've been without internet for about 5 days here. All of the pictures are just taken at our house this time, which is where we've been spending most of our days. We did have the chance to meet an old friend of Jared's and her family for lunch last week (Lisbet, Kasper, and Annalief). They were up here on holiday from Holland (where they are from). Anyway, Liz had been an exchange student in Michigan back when Jared was just 12 or 13 years old. I had heard lots of good things about her and it was fun to meet her and her family. Her daughter, Annalief, is 14 months old and a real cutie. She was running all over the place. Ruby and Annalief enjoyed watching each other's antics, as did the parents!

Anyhow, as the title betrays, we have had a run in with a tick. Yesterday after lunch Ruby was playing with her rocking horse and I noticed what I thought was a scab on her head. Well, it wasn't a scab, but a wood tick. I really don't have any good idea about how it got on her as we hadn't even been playing outside that morning. My best theory is that Malle (the cat) brought it in. Anyway, I really wasn't sure what to do as I knew if I just tried to pull it out it would most likely leave the head behind. I ended up going over to my neighbors, Ulla and Ole, for help and they said I should take her to the doctor right away. Ulla immediately got on the phone and called the doctor to tell her we were on our way and Ole got us loaded into his car lickety split. The doctor got the little bugger out (along with a bunch of hair) and Ruby never made a peep. I am now very paranoid about ticks and have been scouring her head every time I pick her up. Today we will have to get a flea and tick collar for Malle so we don't have a repeat of that experience.

I also wanted to show you an update on our tadpoles. All of the eggs have hatched now and the pond is just teeming with zillions of tadpoles. My camera seems have have a hard time doing good close-ups, so this was about as good as I could get. I thought that the ones in the red box were easiest to see, but there are lots all over the place if you look closely. The Nielsens (our pastor's famiy who we gave eggs to) already have tadpoles with little dangly legs. I just hope that our whole backyard doesn't hop away in a few weeks. We recently found out that frogs are protected in Denmark, so we're really helpless to do anything about them even if the population becomes plague-like in proportion.

I'll leave you with one last picture of Ruby with her beloved, Trixie (the Cabbage Patch doll). She has taken to carrying Trixie around the house with her and loves to set her up on her rocking horse and in her wagon. It's really quite cute. Well, I have oodles to do before Ruby wakes up, so I better end there. Hope you all have a wonderful day!