a wizard in the bathroom

 I woke up on Thursday morning full of energy (Nicholas slept through the night-progress finally!) and nesting motivation.

I was going to deep clean my kitchen.

I cleaned and cleaned and stacked all the trash bags next to the front door so I could take them out later,

you know, when I was wearing something other than my pajamas.

So later, 

the very moment I opened the door to take out the trash,

a little lizard scurried inside, across the entryway, and into the bathroom.

In my head I thought:

grab a bowl and trap it quick!

but the lizard moved much quicker than my quick could happen, 

and then the lizard was beneath our vanity.  

I called Kent to ask for advice.

His response:  laughter and "have a good day!"

I called my Mom.  She was very sympathetic-due to a similar run in with a snake when I was a baby.

Her advice:  call Kent and make him come home from work to get rid of it. 

Also, don't let the lizard bite me.

Well judging from Kent's reaction to my phone call, I was pretty sure he wasn't coming home, and I really wasn't planning on getting close enough for the creature to bite me.

So I grabbed the bathroom rug, shut the door, and wedged the rug tightly under the door.

Nicholas was completely delighted.  The night before this we had pointed out a lizard on the outside of our living room window-

now we had an actual "wizard!" in the bathroom. What luck!  

He spent the morning sitting on the rug, reading books to the wizard, and asking me if he could feed it some toast.

And I spent the day really enjoying the awesomeness that little boys are.  We decided to name the lizard "Warry" as in "Larry the Lizard."  

"Warry the Wizard."

When Kent got home from work it was time to set Warry free.

Our first lizard-catching attempt, however, ended up with the lizard back safe and snug beneath the vanity where nothing we had could get to him.

So I re-stuffed the rug under the door and went to my Relief Society activity.

After Nicholas was in bed, the lizard had moved back over to the wall by the toilet, and we began our second attempt by making sure that little guy couldn't scurry his way back beneath the vanity.

Children's books:  education AND functional.

I couldn't get pictures during the actual process:  

imagine two adults with plastic cups,

a yardstick, and a square of cardstock,

trying to lure/startle the lizard out into the open a bit more-

but trying not to startle the lizard so much that he came any closer to us than we wanted.

Eventually, Kent swooped in and snagged the little guy in his cup and took him safely outside.

What was left, however,

made me squeal and both of us laugh so loud that we woke Nicholas up and had to go help him get back to sleep.

The poor Wizard's tail, still wiggling on the wall.