Backyard Adventures of the "Yankees"

For anyone who knows me, you should be quite aware at this point that I'm not talking about the NY Yankees.  So, now that we've covered that, on to what I'm talking about.  As most of you know, Chicago is the furthest South we had lived prior to here...so, one thing that continuously surprises us is the wildlife that inhabits our backyard.  So, todays post will show some of the things we've dealt with in the last few weeks.

Our insect journey begins with what we had the joy of pulling out of the youngest one's ear about two weeks ago. Whilst getting Brian up from his nap, Jules noticed his ear was dirty. As it turns out, it wasn't exactly dirt. Upon closer inspection (insert gasp here) she saw legs moving. So, as it turns out, we got our first experience detaching one of these little beauties from a child. By detaching, I do mean detaching. Pulling it out of his ear and taking skin off as it was quite attached (all the while trying not to detach and leave the "mouth parts" embedded in the skin). So, at the instruction of our pediatrician, we have been watching for the tell-tale signs of Rocky Mountain Spotted fever since then. Good times.

Our journey continues with the two of the Southern version of these that we have tangled with in our backyard (one near the garden, one on the fence by the playground).

Lastly, would be this guy that Jules needed to relocate in order to use the hose to water her garden. Needless to say, she was less than enthused (I'm currently attempting to talk her out of putting the house on the market).

Okay, now that I have given y'all the heebies (and potentially a jeebie or two), on to other things. We will be taking one more week of vacation next week to hang out before school starts back up again and things get nice and busy for the next nine months.

Hope all is well for everyone out there.

DT