May 2009

1. The bank called and we have an appointment to finalize some stuff on Tuesday. Please continue crossing your fingers!
2. As long as I lie perfectly still and don’t move, my migraine disappears significantly. Thankfully, I was able to lie perfectly still for much of today – with the added bonus of a purring cat on my back.
3. The baby bunnies are apparently doing well – I checked them this morning and they were kicking each other (ha!) and squirming around. This is good!
4. Oldest One is going to Scout camp this weekend!
5. Fuzzy dog bellies are wonderful things.

1. I am quite pleased that mama rabbits are.. less than concerned. And that the little babies will (hopefully) survive. Yay!
2. White Tea and Blueberry iced tea.
3. Having time to read a book once in a while is a really nice thing.
4. The dehumidifier in the basement is my friend.
5. Yawning the kind of yawn where I’m pretty sure my jaw can’t open any further.

This morning we made the discovery that OneBun (or TwoBun, or..) had made a nest in the middle of our lawn and happily filled said nest with baby bunnies.

Also, this morning, Coffee made the traumatic discovery that Zooey, our beagle, had snacked on some baby bunnies.

I’ll pause while you finish shuddering.

We had a bit of a panicked moment trying to figure out what to do. I mean, after something has seriously disturbed the little nest like that, obviously the Mama isn’t coming back to handle things.

So, what should we do with the little bunnies that Zooey didn’t eat?

I tried to call the local Humane Society but they’re closed for “training”.

I left a message with the Ontario Humane Society asking for advice (they have a wildlife rehab centre, which is the only reason I called them.)

And in a fit of desperation, I called the vet’s office to see if they could give me some advice. They passed along the phone number for a local woman who does (wild) rabbit rescue and I immediately called her.

After patiently listening to me ramble about the situation, asking what I should do, she told me a whole lot of stuff about bunnies that I didn’t know – starting with the fact that it’s nearly impossible to hand-raise wild bunnies. They almost always die when they’re not with their mother because the milk she feeds them is ultra-potent.

Most bunny mamas only visit their babies for 5 minutes EACH DAY to feed them. That’s how magical bunny milk is.

Another thing she told me is that human scent doesn’t bother the bunnies – so it’s okay to prod around in the nest a bit to see if the babies are still alive (there were definitely some alive in there) and that it won’t bother the mom at all.

Her suggestion was that we dispose of the dead ones away from the nest and then do our best to ignore them overnight “just in case” the mom returned and was going to continue caring for them. A few tomato cages around the area would help prevent the dog(s) from getting in there (in the event that they were accidentally allowed into the yard by one of the kids) and.. just hope.

This afternoon, I took Maymo out to see the nest – he was very curious – and we saw OneBun hopping away as we came outside. The nest had been recovered with some new, fresh fur (yay!) and some additional grass to keep the babies warm and safe.

In other words, it looks like the babies are going to be continually cared-for! It also appears that there are between 8 and 10 babies still alive in there. (!!! Holy crap, OneBun!)

Tomorrow morning I will “finger test” for warmth and, if all is well, we know they’ll survive. If the babies are cold, however, there’s little chance of them living much longer.

As soon as the babies’ ears are upright and their eyes are open, they’ll be ready to survive on their own – away from mom and the nest – and that will take less than 2 weeks.

Cross your fingers, ok?

Please note the tiny little ears on the left bunny – TINY! Can you stand the cuteness? I CANNOT.

Our front yard is landscaped in such a way that there is no lawn. No grass other than a small patch by the street.

We have tulips and low-lying hedge-like things and tiny evergreens and even a rose bush (or two?) and.. it’s all a bit of a disaster. But it’s a disaster that we don’t have to mow, so for now it stays as is and the neighbours can just DEAL with it.

One of the great things about our front ‘yard’ is that it’s a perfect place for (wild) bunnies to hang out during the daylight hours. They nosh on the flowers and they hide under the low-lying vegetation and they don’t usually mind us walking by them on our way in and out of the house. (We don’t get close.)

In our backyard, we often find a bunny hanging out under the bird feeder – scarfing down the fallen bird seed – or in the middle of the (actual) lawn eating dandelion shoots.

We have named the bunnies “OneBun” and “TwoBun” (and “ThreeBun” and .. you get the picture) and the one we see most often is OneBun.

They are all chubby bunnies that make their way around the ‘hood devouring everyone’s garden produce in the summer and leave deep hop-prints in the winter snow. They’re absolutely wonderful.

Zooey, our beagle, has a very high prey drive. We can tell when OneBun is in the yard because Zooey begins to emit high-pitched squeaking noises and claws the shit out of the door to the yard.

If we let Zooey out, not realizing there’s a bunny in the yard, she’ll chase OneBun around the yard and then howl like a lunatic when OneBun escapes under the fence.

So you can imagine my surprise when I called Zooey into the house a few days ago and saw her in the middle of the lawn sniffing some grass with OneBun. Less than a foot or two apart.

I blinked my eyes a few times, thinking I was hallucinating, and when I called Zooey’s name again they both looked up.

OneBun took a short hop to the side and Zooey ran into the house.

I emailed Coffee and told him what happened. I am not sure he believed me, fully, because I wasn’t sure I believed myself.

And then Coffee saw them together the next day, in the yard again.

Our best guess on this is that bringing home a tiny kitten that Zooey is not allowed to eat has somehow broken her prey drive. We have a broken beagle! I cannot begin to fathom how OneBun and Zooey got acquainted (what with the shrieking and chasing and all) and it’s weirding me out something fierce.

Nature? Totally full of weird and unexpected things.

1. Listening to Sam Roberts singing while I eat my breakfast toast.
2. The woman at the store who was petting my hair and telling me how soft it is while going on and on about how she’d like to have pink hair. For some reason, the petting didn’t make me want to stab her. And it IS really soft!
3. Today we meet with the bank about our mortgage stuff. (Cross your fingers, please!)
4. I reconnected with a kid that I once babysat – who is now very much an adult. (Yay Facebook!)
5. Laughter.

And there’s no desert sun that is hot enough to feed your fire
We shipwreck like fools only to become the ocean’s choir
And the sun dies until it’s reborn
But there’s no road that ain’t a hard road to travel on…

1. Maymo wanted a mohawk shaved into his head. So we did. He is totally unsure what he thinks of it now that it’s done. Heh. (It looks cute. I will try to get a picture.)
2. We all had a good weekend around here, I think.
3. I am really proud of Oldest One lately. He’s being quite awesome and reasonable and his sense of humour seems to have returned again.
4. Coleslaw. I cannot seem to eat enough coleslaw.
5. My husband, the coleslaw enabler.

1. Lemon yogurt.
2. WEEKEND!
3. In a minute or two I’m going to start making mud-pie cookies. Another of my childhood favourites and they don’t involve using the oven… BONUS!
4. Music, music and more music.
5. Sex. :)

1. We had a great day all around, from start to finish. Yay!
2. UFC tonight!
3. Sushi, earlier today, while Oldest One babysat (awesome!) All 3 kids survived! YAY! And, of course, the sushi was excellent. Nom!
4. For the first time in 17 years of trying, I managed to see an autostereogram. I was then able to see MORE of them. And it made me cry because.. holy shit! I CAN SEE THEM! I seriously suspected it was all some sort of a conspiracy between people who claimed to “see the monkey!” or “whoah, I see a guy throwing a ball!”. Mind-blowing. Seriously.
5. It’s THE WEEKEND!!!!!

Sometimes, when it feels like the kids aren’t hearing a single word I’m saying, I remind myself that they’ll eventually grow up – whether to a slightly older age than the present or to full-adulthood – and they’ll likely experience the things I’ve mentioned to them, firsthand.

(I like to delude myself into thinking that, at that point, I will once again appear to be a genius!)

A few months ago, for example, Maymo did not believe me when I casually mentioned that women are able to feed their babies using their breasts. He just stared at me, blankly, as if I told him I could fly by pushing my belly button.

He did not believe me when the subject of breastfeeding came up in conversation more recently, either.

Oh, sure, he didn’t come out and say that I was lying but the look on his face made it pretty obvious.

(I can’t blame him. There are, after all, times when the temptation to toy with his tiny brain is pretty overwhelming and I’m guilty. Ok?)

(THERE. I ADMITTED THAT SOMETIMES I SAY THINGS TO MY CHILD THAT ARE NOT TRUE SIMPLY BECAUSE IT AMUSES THE HELL OUT OF ME TO WATCH HIS FACE.)

Anyway.

When we went on the field trip to see bees last week, he was grossed out that the mother bee regurgitates nectar for “feeding the babies”. He thought the bees would find it offensive to eat something that came from someone else’s body because, EW, that’s gross, Mom!

I then reminded him that when a baby is born, the mom’s breasts begin to make milk for feeding the baby. I also noted that it was quite possible his mom had breast fed HIM and so, y’know, PONDER *THAT* MISTER!

After staring at me, blankly, he casually noted that I could not do that for him.. and I equally as casually noted that I did not wish to do that for him because he’s five and has teeth and is enormously tall and eats, like, a whole cow at every meal at this point.

He did not seem to believe me, anyway, that it was even possible for ANYONE.

A few days ago, as he buckled his seatbelt in a local parking lot, he happened to glance out the window and saw a woman in the back seat of the car next to us – breastfeeding her infant.

It took him a second to get past the point of making strangled noises before he began shouting, “MOM! THAT LADY IS IN THE BACK OF HER CAR AND SHE IS FEEDING THE BABY. *WITH* *HER* *BOOBIES*!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MOM! DO YOU SEE THAT?! MOM?!!!!”

I started to giggle. “Yep. She is.”

It was like a unicorn had materialized. Seriously.

He was stunned, shocked, amazed, and totally in awe of the entire thing. Couldn’t take his eyes off the scene in front of him and was not happy when I started the car and drove away.

And despite being 34 years old and having witnessed many breast-feedings and talked about it and despite knowing people who’ve breastfed (or been breastfed!) and survived biology classes and read many books and actually owned breasts for most of my life? I felt truly vindicated.

I actually felt vindicated that I had “won” the discussion of what breasts do.. against the wisdom of a five year old.

Boobies: they’re not just for resting your head, my small friend. Mama KNOWS stuff.

1. Hello, it’s almost the weekend!!!!! (YAY! YAY! YAY!)
2. Kettle Corn. I cannot resist the call of the corn.
3. Life is pretty darned good lately, in the general sense of things.
4. Maymo and his “lip singing” to pretty much every song I play.
5. It’s much cooler outside than it was yesterday and thus the windows are all open and it’s LOVELY inside, too.