Ribbet..

As we stepped out into the pouring rain this morning to go to school, we encountered a gigantic bright green toad sitting fatly on our doorstep. It was wondrous and magical and when I pointed it out to the girls they literally gasped in amazement. We had to stand for a full thirty seconds in the torrential rain, examining it.

They were speechless. I have not seen them that awe-struck since they first came face to face with the giant dinosaur in the entrance to the Natural History museum.

They talked about it all the way to school, about whether we should have picked him up and put him in a jar and kept him as a pet (no). About who was going to tell Daddy when he gets back tonight from Barcelona. About who the first person they were going to tell at school was. About whether he would still be there when they got back.

Sure enough Mini went roaring up to her teacher and told her at the first opportunity.

Even the two year old keeps talking about him and when she saw a picture of a frog in her book just now she piped up "just like the one outside the door mummy".

It is heartening and quite a relief at how such a simple thing as seeing a real life toad, of which admittedly you don't find many in downtown Shepherds Bush, can still fill a small child with such excitement. I have not seen them react like that to any computer game or TV show.. they are obviously not total ruined by modern technology and screens.

Simple pleasures, it would appear, do still suffice.