Infestation fascination.

The parents - Mommalah and Papa - are still deciding on whether or not to open the pool this year.

To them, it doesn't seem to suffice when I'm the only one who goes in it - and by "go in it," I mean I just float in my purple inflatable boat (sans oars because they were a disaster I don't want to retell. Ever.).

So Mommalah and I sat in our chairs in the nippy breeze for a few minutes today to enjoy the fall-like weather we so love.

Something on the pool's winter cover piqued her interest and she went to investigate, telling me to stay put because she thought it might be a snake, which is something I'm always in fear of seeing this time of year at the country haus.
{Known from here on out as "That Which We Do Not Speak Of."}

Thankfully, it was just a big ol' frog, so I joined her on the far side of the pool to see if I could spot it for myself.

When I peered into the water on the cover, I yelped, "Oh. My. God."
Just below the surface were thousands - and I mean thousands - of tadpoles.

I ran around the pool in complete shock and fascination because, despite growing up in Bumblefeck Egypt, I had never seen a real, live tadpole.
{They look just like sperm - which is all sorts of gross, but at least they were not thousands of TWWDNSO. I'd die. Die, I say.}

I said, "Mom, there must be like a million here."
To which she replied, "I can see that."
I took a few steps and found even more and said, "Mom, look at all these over here!"
And she said, "OK, stop, I see them."
{It should be noted that, at this point, she was nearing a boiling point.}
And when I got around to the steps in the shallow end, there was the mother load (pun not intended, ew) of tadpoles.
I mean seriously, at least 500 in this part of the cover, so I said:
"Mom, holy shit! There's a ton over here!"
And then she told me to shut up, and the tone of her voice actually, for once, made me shut up.

I hope to be there if they ever get to the point when they decide to turn from tadpoles into frogs. I may have to take video - of her reaction.