Merry? Christmas

It's that time of year. Time to torture take pictures of children.

She liked Santa until her mom put her down.

Then she changed her mind.

This was the best picture we got.

You don't want to see the worst.


Ah, the joys of Christmas.

The bunny saga, part 2

Zorro, at our house in Huntsville

In the back yard of our house in Macon, there was a dog run - a fenced in area. Dad added additional fencing and it became a bunny yard. The bunnies loved being outside and built fairly intricate tunnels to play in. They loved to stretch their legs, dig, eat dirt and do other fun bunny stuff. The bunnies lived in a hutch and spent the night there, but they would play in the yard many days.

One night during my third year of law school, the bunnies were in the back yard and I heard a terrible noise. Dad and I had the same thought simultaneously - the bunnies. Poor sweet laid-back Cocoa had been attacked by some animal. Dad got him and he was alive, but badly injured. His good eye was punctured and he had bite marks through his nose.

We searched for an emergency vet clinic, and the closest one with any exotic animal experience (bunnies are exotic animals) was in Atlanta. Dad drove up there and left him overnight. The next morning we continued our research and Cocoa survived the night. He was clearly in pain and in need of intervention. We contacted the small vet animal hospital at UGA, which has a highly-ranked vet school, and they agreed to see Cocoa. I picked him up and drove him to Athens. When we arrived, there were three vets waiting for him - a small animal specialist, an emergency specialist and an exotic animal specialist. And it was after hours. He got better medical care than I did the last time I went to the ER.

They determined that they had to remove his eye. He survived the surgery and after a few days he came home. He was much thinner, but began to improve. We had to feed him with a syringe and medicate him. It was tough to balance our schedules with Dave working full time and me in law school. After a few days, unfortunately he made a turn for the worse. He developed an infection in his eye and wasn't eating well.

We made another trip to UGA and after a few days in the ICU, they believed he was not going to be able to make it. We decided to bring him home for one night and take him to a local vet to put him to sleep. It was so hard.

That night we loved on Cocoa and told him how much he loved him and how he was such a good bunny. Amazingly he started eating. And drinking. And kept right on. He improved all night. We think he just missed us.

We kept our appointment with our local vet but told them we didn't think we should put him to sleep. The vet agreed - so long as he continued eating and drinking he seemed like a healthy bunny (all things considered).

UGA called a few days later to follow up. I explained Cocoa's miraculous turnaround. He was improving daily. They didn't believe me. I think they were convinced that we were crazy because we had fought so hard to save a bunny. They insisted that I bring the bunny back, to make sure that we weren't allowing him to suffer.

When I arrived they brought him back. I could hear everything they said. During the exam I heard someone ask, "What bunny is that?"

"This is a brown bunny that just REFUSES to DIE!"

It was true. Bunnies aren't really tough animals. They can literally die of fright. I understood her point - it was remarkable. They brought Cocoa back and agreed with our assessment that Cocoa was recovering and wasn't suffering.

Cocoa continued to live a happy life despite being practically blind. He would walk in a bit of a circle, but he knew Zorro and they were sweet to each other. He got pretty hefty again, which was impressive for a bunny they thought was going to starve to death.

Cocoa died while I was pregnant with M.P. - about a year after the accident. He lived a happy and good life and kept Zorro company.

Zorro is still with us. He's become more ornery in his old age. He will charge and scratch at MP when she gets too close. He is a good bunny who is nearly 9 years old.
Cocoa, at our house in Huntsville.

Dear MP,

You are 17 months old! I'm sorry I missed sixteen months, but I'm sure you did tons of cute things.

One of your favorite things right now is books. You love for us to read to you and you love to "read" them to yourself. You even track your finger from left to right just like I do when I read to you. You will pick up any book - even the musical dictionary, as we discovered - and read it.

Your vocabulary is expanding and you are saying things much more clearly. "Outside" is really clear now, and "stairs" is pretty close. You even said a pretty decent "Christmas Tree" the other day. You are pretty close to making sentences even. In the morning you'll say "Eggs. Hot." And then you'll blow on them. I am no longer worried about your language development.

Another new love of yours is airplanes. You call them "Emmos" for some reason. You have an amazing ability to hear them. I guess adults just ignore background noise like that, but not you. It's been amazing how many times you will say "Emmo! Emmo!" and Dad and I will start to say no, but then we'll hear it. You also spot them while we're driving. If someone asks you what an airplane does, you make your hand like a plane and make a swooshing noise."

You helped us pick out our Christmas tree again this year, although this year you were much more interactive. Look at the difference from last year! You wanted to run into the street and threw a temper tantrum because I wouldn't let you. You flung yourself onto the (wet and muddy) ground. Temper tantrums are becoming very common around here. Thankfully they are very short. Once you realize that you still aren't going to get to do whatever it was, you move on.

Despite the tantrums, you are really at an incredibly fun age. You mimic us and you're so so smart. We've been showing you videos on the computer for awhile now (although your tv time is still extremely limited) and in addition to all of the owl videos, you like the Goldilocks cartoon. It's also one of your favorite books. You have some understanding of the plot because when Goldilocks breaks the chair you say "Uh oh!" completely unprompted.

Your imagination is also growing. You try to give your dolls and teddy bears your crackers and juice. This morning you wanted to get into your baby swing, which is way too small for you and shouldn't really be in your nursery anymore. You threw a quick tantrum when I wouldn't put you in, but then you put a stuffed rabbit it. You rocked it back and forth exclaiming "Whoa!"

Christmas is almost here and Dad and I are really excited about what is in store for you!

We love you!

The bunny saga, part 1.

The bunny has been a minor character in this blog long enough. See here and here. I think it's about time to tell the long saga of the bunny.

The bunny that has been featured on the blog previously is Zorro. Zorro became part of my life back in the fall of 2001. Dad and I were both in college and I lived in an off-campus apartment with three other girls. My roommates and I started discussing the idea of having an illegal cat in our apartment (pets weren't allowed). Cats are low maintenance and easy to hide. We knew other folks with illegal cats.

Dad overheard our cat discussions one night and said "How about a bunny?"

"Absolutely not," was our unanimous reply. We complained that bunnies aren't interactive, you have to clean their cages, and they're boring. We all agreed that we didn't want any animal that had to be kept in a cage.

About five days later there was a knock on our door. I opened it to see Dad carrying a bunny. "Surprise! I got you a bunny!"

I was flabbergasted. We had all made it clear that we didn't want a bunny. "Dad, what are you doing? We all said we didn't want a rabbit!"

"You didn't say absolutely not.."

"Actually, yes we did."

"No... when?"

"The other night! When you were here!"

"Well, I don't remember you saying that."

I was really bothered by two things - that he hadn't taken us seriously when we had made clear that we didn't want a rabbit and by what my roommates were going to do. I didn't want to hurt Dad's feelings, but I had to live with my roommates.

We brought the rabbit inside and just sort of watched him for awhile. It was impossible to deny that he was cute. He sat up on his hind legs and washed his face and ears. It was too cute. I kept trying to feel out my roommates and see how angry they would be with me if we kept him. The longer we watched him the more they warmed up to the idea, so he ended up staying with me.

Zorro's cage was pretty small so we let him run around the apartment a couple of times a day to stretch his legs. That's when the problems began. Bunnies like to chew on things. Any thing. In the course of a few seconds, he could cut through a phone cord (my roommate's of course) bite off the button of a remote (my other roommate's, of course), and cut a power cord clean in half (the remaining roommate's).

Fortunately I had a pretty good way of getting the bunny back into Dad's hands. I was headed to Washington, D.C. for a semester and there was no way the bunny could come with me and no way my roommates (who now hated the bunny) were going to keep him for an entire semester. The bunny had to move back in with Dad.

Which was unfortunate for his roommates.

Dad doesn't tend to just jump into things. He does a lot of research, and the bunny was no exception. He learned so much about bunnies and became convinced that Zorro needed someone to keep him company because bunnies are social animals. By this time Zorro had been fixed, so he decided to get a female rabbit because males and females tend to get along better than two males.

Enter Cocoa. Cocoa was a teeny tiny laid back rabbit when Dad got her. She was probably too young to be separated from her mother, actually, because she was lacking in some bunny behaviors that moms teach their babies.

After having Cocoa for a few weeks, we discovered that Cocoa was not in fact a girl. He was a boy. Which sort of explained the difficulties that Zorro and Cocoa were having. Cocoa got fixed as well, and the bunnies sort of got along. Zorro is a high-strung dominating jerk and Cocoa is very laid back. Basically their interactions consisted of Zorro bullying Cocoa around and Cocoa putting his head under Zorro so that Zorro would lick him. It was a love-hate relationship.

When Dad graduated from college he moved to Huntsville and the bunnies went with him. They lived with him for two years and they were really great pets and companions.

When Dad and I got married the bunnies moved with us to Macon. After our first year there, we rented a house with a back yard so that the bunnies no longer had to live inside with us (I wasn't fond of the clean up).

Around that time we noticed that one of Cocoa's eyes looked a little cloudy. We tried to do tests to see if he could see out of it and couldn't reach a conclusion. We took him to the vet and they told us that he had a cataract which probably severely limited his vision. But Cocoa was healthy and happy otherwise, so he told us to not worry about it.

To be continued...

Dressing up

During the Breast Cancer 3 Day walk, I wore these wings. They identified me as being a part of the Pink Wings team. We've gotten a lot of good use out of them as they became part of the Halloween costume of Uncle B one night and Aunt C the next. MP also likes wearing them.

I didn't wear the tiara - it was made for someone with a head MP's size.

A future astronaut with wings to boot!

MP absolutely loves this Bear Bryant hat. She loves all hats actually. If someone is wearing a hat, she points and screams "AT! AT!" (apparently she believes that h's should be silent) until we acknowledge that yes, that person is wearing a hat. This one fits her well and she can get it on and off without any help.

Overdue Halloween

Because M.P. wasn't ready to go trick-or-treating this year, we took her to her great-grandparents' house and then to her grandparents house for some very brief trick-or-treating. She wore her Alabama cheerleader uniform.

Nana and Aunt C came up to join us. Aunt C went out to a party with Dad and I afterward.
Getting candy from Great Grandpa

Hamming it up with Aunt C

Sweet girl

At least her costume fit this year, and she did get a few bites of candy.

Up in Tennessee

We recently went to Tennessee to visit Uncle J and Aunt B and their new house. Here's a nice picture of everyone. From top to bottom, left to right, Uncle B, Dad, Uncle J, Aunt B, MommyAttorney, M.P.

What do you think about Dad's beard?