Since I'm tired today...

I guess I will do a post. :)  I have an update on the bunny situation.  Strawberry has calmed down quite a bit.  She doesn't feel the need to rearrange Shortcakes fur arrangement around the bum area now.  We also got a new hutch for them:

I like this one and they seem to as well.  Sam got a long length of cage wire and he made a big ring so the the bunnies have space to run around.  We put the table over the hutch like that so they would have shade from the sun as well as the rain until we can find a better solution.  We will probably end up framing out the run and building a lean-to of some sort...you know, in our sparest of time. ;p

I also managed to get into our garden beds to remove the plastic coverings and till up the soil.  

                             

I was really glad for the rain because it made that job much easier.  I planted some of the seedlings I started in ziploc baggies the other day, too....right before we had torrential rains.  I should probably go out there and see if any of them survived.... :)  The stuff on the end there is parsley, oregano and rosemary.   All of which survived the winter with no attention or intentional watering on my part.   The string in grid form is for the purpose of square foot gardening.  It very much appeals to my, um, "style" of gardening, which is basically, sprout seeds, plant them, make sure they have a water source and then leave them alone.  Theoretically, the square foot method will cut down even more on weeding because it basically doesn't allow room for weeds to grow once the crops get going.  Works for me!  We'll see if it all turns out.

Here are some other random tidbits.  One day, this is how I found Brea after her mealtime.  

Yesterday, I heard Ailey fussing and then calling me for help.  When I looked out the door to see what was going on, this is what I found:

Yes, I did go and grab my camera in both instances before I intervened.  It was necessary!

Shamefully Overdue!

Well, the title says it all.  It has been way too long since I have done a post.  Me thinks this will be one of my usual marathon posts, so you may want to go ahead and use the restroom, get a cup of coffee or cocoa to keep your eyes open and find a super comfy chair so your bum does not fall asleep.  Don't say I didn't warn ya!  Ready?  Here we go....

First up, here is our new bunny, Strawberry the 2nd:

This one is, indeed a girl.  Yay.  On the other hand, she is rather aggressive.  Not yay.  She chases Shortcake around and nips at her hiney and pulls tufts of fur off of her bum.  Poor Shortcake!  The funny thing is, shortcake still really enjoys her company...as long as they are in separate contained areas and can still see each other. :)  Anyway, this means we will have to have a unit with two separate living quarters for the bunnies.  Just keeps getting interesting!  I let them run around the living, dining and kitchen areas in the evenings because they will go back to their cages to do their business.  That's a plus. :)  Oh, and in all the reading I did the night Strawberry started getting all Kra-Z, the consensus seems to be in favor of getting them both spayed since I have no intention of breeding them.  They are apparently quite susceptible to getting cervical cancer.  Not so yay, again. :(  Oh, well, they are already part of the fam, so we will just figure it all out. :)

In other happenings, Brea is doing lots!

She is still very serious about her food and can pack it in like nobody's business!  Its quite amazing to behold, to which many who have been present during the process of this astounding feat can testify.  I think the most astounding part of it is that she is so stinkin' tiny and we are all very lost as to where she stores it all before it makes its way out of the southbound end!  Remarkable, I'm tellin' ya!

She is very vocal while she eats, too and will let whoever is feeding her know in no uncertain terms if she is not satisfied at the speed at which her food is being shoveled down her gullet.  Its pretty funny. :)  She is a bananaholic.  LOVES her some bananas!  She can also put away some grapes.  I'm thinking we need to plants some banana trees and some grape vines to keep up with her!  Whew!

Since I am really bad with the concept of time and keeping up with dates and all, I will just go with its been several weeks plus, since she started mimicking sounds.  Her first full word is Mama, but I'm pretty sure she tries to say banana, too, which comes out more of a Bah.  She is pretty equally partial to both Sam and I, so I'm working on her saying Daddy, too... ;p

She has been able to toddle along holding on to the edges of furniture for some time now, too and was able to stand up, unassisted for a second or two at a time for a week or so, but I just witnessed her do the whole shebang and then stay standing up all by her lonesome for many seconds 'til she decided to squat down to crawl some more this very morning.  She's getting there and then they will all be running around after each other.  Curiouser and Curiouser! :)

We have had a bit of craziness for the past 3 weeks.  Braden got strep throat, then antibiotics, then we went out of town to see Nina and Padrino (that will be a separate post after picture editing has been achieved ;) and the last day we were there, Braden's strep throat came back.  Ugh.  So, we traveled home and the next evening he was seen and sure enough it was a reoccurrence!  This time I requested the shot.  Braden tried so hard to be okay while it was being administered, but didn't quite succeed.  Poor little guy! :(  It did, however, make him feel better in a jiffy, so yay!  The rest of that week was a blur while I readied us to travel once again.  This time it was to East Texas for my Granny's surprise 80th birthday party (this, too, will be a separate post :).   I really went back and forth about whether or not I wanted to go, but I'm really glad we did.  We have double dvd players for the car that were bought quite some time ago, but for a time we could only use one of them because the cord that came with it would not reach across both rows of the van.  Bummer.  Then, at some point, said cord became lost in the shuffle that is the garage.  Double bummer.  So, I ordered two cords and this trip both players were in operation along with a set of headphones that got passed to whoever was sitting in the solo seat next to Brea.  We also had a set of legos that was great entertainment.  Both the drive there and back were quite tame and pleasant, I must say.  I think we may have found a winning combination.  I'm not willing to try it out again just yet, though. ;)

I have to mention something Ailey said the other day.  We were driving in the van and I had the windows rolled down and we got going at a higher speed and she said, "MOM!  You're blowing my head off!"  Hahaha!

We have a little wrist rest for our track pad and one day Zekey came up to me with it on his chin and said, "I'm a daddy."

 Then it became a mustache...

I honestly don't know what Braden was using it for....a sleep mask, perhaps?

Braden has taken to doing this, um, interesting facial expression with his face lately....Kid phases are so funny!

All the kids are doing well and really enjoy playing together....usually.  We do have the occasional non-enjoyable occurrences, of course. ;p  I will have to do a more detailed update later.  Right now we are so stinkin' busy and I'm ready for things to SLOW DOWN!  We'll see how that goes.

Surprise on the Bunny Front

Yesterday afternoon after co-op, my friend Sue and her crew stopped by to have a little peek at the bunnies', ahem, reproductive areas.  Much to my dismay, Strawberry is not so aptly named!  Should be more like the Mike part of Mike and Ike.  Yeah. :(  He had already sprouted the necessary gear to start the baby bunny-making process, so he had to vacate these premises forthwith!  He went back to his previous owners last night and we will wait and see if one of the other two bunnies that are available might possibly be a girl. Otherwise, Sue and her crew are expecting baby bunnies soon and we may be able to get a girl from them eventually.  Until then Shortcake is hanging solo, except Ailey keeps her lots of company. :)

Bunnies!

Sam and I have been talking for some time about possibly getting bunnies.  We are very interested in their poo for our garden and we were thinking they would be good first pets for the kids.  Well, it came sooner than expected.  We found out there were some bunnies in need of a good home and so we took the plunge!  Our newest additions:

We borrowed a cage from our fantastic friend Sue D.  She also supplied us with that first batch of hay and the feeder.  Thanks so much, Sue!

We started discussing names and Braden immediately came up with Rosie and there were some other rather odd names, but we kept on brainstorming until we all agreed on two names.  The list we had was:

Lavern and Shirley
Kit and Kat
Peppermint and Patty
Butterball
Peanut butter and Jelly (thanks James!)
ice and cream
nilla and wafer

Sam put in the following:

Thing 1 and Thing 2
Appetizer #1 & #2
PM 1 & 2 (poop machine)

We finally settled on Strawberry and Shortcake.

This is Strawberry (she's the oldest):

This is Shortcake:

They are so very sweet and fun and super soft!

I've already run amuck at Petsmart.  Sam was a trooper and went out the first night we got them to buy a water bottle.  It was the only kind at the store and it was a total flop.  The claim on the bottle was that it didn't leak.  Well, we filled it up and it immediately started leaking.  Yeah.  I gave it a chance, but to no avail.  After I had to fill it up twice within two hours and it leaked all over the floor by the morning, I was done and went to find another that evening.  The one we now have does not leak.  It has a water droplet that hangs out at the end of the tube after the bunnies have gotten a drink, but that's all.  Yay!

I, of course, had to google as much info as I could find about keeping bunnies as pets and I came across this lady on youtube.



She is a fountain of info and its neat that the kids can watch how they are supposed to handle and care for the rabbits.  After watching the one above about litter training a rabbit, I put that into action and it works!  Woohoo!  I also fixed a rabbit run so that the kiddos can have access to the bunnies throughout the day and the bunnies are not stuck in the cage.

Our next goal, which will hopefully be realized this weekend, is to build an outdoor rabbit hutch and play enclosure.  I have found these online and really like them:




















I like the first and the last the best because of the larger doors.  I want the kids to be able to get into the enclosure to play with them.  I would also like to put two wheels on one end to be able to roll it around the yard so the bunnies can partake of the green grass goodness for as long as it lasts. ;)