Oh you mean my ribbit?

A cow hears a “ribbit” for the first time, and enlists his Piggy friend to help him figure out which animal made the noise.

That’s the gist of the bedtime story I’ve told my son Emerson every night for roughly half his life. It also features a big white dog named Nothing and a cow/pig/frog beatbox-powered dance party. Long story.

As a Christmas gift to Emerson, I illustrated our star frog, thus far known only as “Froggy,” drawing inspiration from the description I made up nearly 2 years ago and have repeated ritually ever since:

…it got louder and louder, and louder still

And then they saw him,

up on TOP of the hill!

The most beautiful frog they’d ever seen

he was small, but mighty

and slimy and green

He had weird long legs

and a big bellowing throat

and looked like he was wearing a top hat

with a cane and a coat.

Yes, I feel compelled to make it into a full book. About a year prior to bringing the elusive, purple-clad frog to life, I did tried to capture the beginning of the story, the moment the Cow (now typically named “Sit Down”) first hears the mysterious noise mid-graze.