The Runaway Bunny

Yes, folks. You read that correctly. Here is a picture of the bunny haven we developed for our new pet. You can see that it has a luxurious cage loaded with soft litter/bedding for him, a loft with a bowl full of leafy greens, more timothy hay than a rabbit could dream of, and a fancy side hanging water bottle. This large estate has a skylight and front entrance, a 1 bunny garage, and a fenced in "entertainers" yard. (okay, so I got carried away with the real estate hilariosity all around me). Still, you've got to admit, this is a great hang out! My kids were aching to get in.

Not Cosmo though. I spent about an hour putting that fencing together with those darn little zip ties. We coarced Cozmo inside with all of those lucious greens, and closed off the entrance. He was inside chowing down when I walked away.

About 4 minutes later he hopped into my room. "What the?? How did you do that?"

Can you tell how it was done?

Yes, he rammed his nose into the top door of the cage and opened it up. Then he hopped on Pop (I mean top) and squeezed right in between the side of the cage and the wall.

So, I put him back in and secured the side. As I was doing so I watched that tricky thing jump right over that fence on to my COUCH! So much for that fence. I took it down right away because it sure wasn't doing any good.

I was thinking that an outside bunny would be nice. We could just bring him in at night so the coyotes won't get him. So, we let him out on our little patio. Derek was out with the kids and Cozmo jumped right up onto our 2 ft wall. Derek gingerly hopped the wall and scared him back over to our side of the wall before he jumped into the park. Then we REALLY would've had a runaway bunny. There goes the outside bunny idea.

It looks like he's back in the kitchen. I didn't like that his cage was in there - I'm not interested in bunny smell while I eat, but he's gotten into a bit too much trouble while having free reign of the house. He's chewed through the power cord on Ryan's cd player, and our TV antenna cord. Plus, yesterday I found him sitting on our couch and he had used IT as his litter box. Luckily, rabbit poop is a cinch to clean up. I just hope that he doesn't chew through the baby gate that keeps him in the kitchen. *sigh* Like I didn't have enough keeping me busy before we adopted our bunny. Still, I can't help but like him.

I cut up a couple of apples yesterday and gave them to the kids while I was making lunch yesterday. Cozmo kept licking Katie's fingers so she started sharing her apple with him. I was really nervous that he'd end up nipping her finger but luckily he never did. Can you see that he's standing on his back legs to reach the apple?

It was really very sweet to see. She came over to me a minute or two later and said, "Ap" so I gave her another apple piece and then she said, "Coz" and went over and gave it to him. She'd take a bite and then she'd give him a bite. Come on, admit it, that's cute.


Maybe next time, I'll get a little video. That is, if Cozmo lasts another week at our house.

Crabby But Cute

I know, I know, my blog bores ME too. Sometimes I check it myself just to see if something has magically appeared. I actually have like 3 or 4 things that I could blog about (not terribly exciting, but they are things.) The question is, should I spread them out a little bit or blog them all at once?

This post is titled, "Crabby But Cute" because that's what Katie's shirt says. I thought I'd take a picture of her with the "no bangs" look I tried out on her today.

Go outside and play!

I have always dreamed of having a backyard so I could send the kids out to play. I've had a backyard before, but not one that was fenced in and attached to my door so I could keep an eye on them without being outside with them. I don't really have a legitimate backyard here either because they don't actually exist in Orange County. Nevertheless, we do have a porch. I used to send Ryan out, but if he saw a single person out in the park behind our home (be it a 4 year old boy or a 55 year old gardener) he would hop the fence and be on the other side of the park before I could blink an eye. Realizing this to be a huge abduction risk, I had to get a lock for our sliding door and keep him confined to the inside. As a result we rarely spent time on the porch. We have a few large trees shading it, which is a positive thing, unless you are in charge of sweeping the area as there is constantly a layer of the tiniest leaves in all creation, sprinkled on every square inch of patio. This added to our reasons to avoid the area. I didn't love them tracking leaves into the kitchen and Katie would also eat piles of leaves and sidewalk chalk.

This said, I finally decided that I would improve the area. I swept off the leaves, cleaned up the scattered toys, and bought some sand for our turtle sandbox. Ta da! Now it's almost like a real backyard. I actually DO send the kids out to play and they are occupied and get along well, and they're getting some fresh air. Yesssss!

Now, Ryan follows sand etiquette when we go to the playground on "Park Day," but here at home I will find a mound of sand in Katie's hair almost every time they go out. Good grief Ryan, don't you know that it's impossible to get sand out of people's hair? Plus, it's going to get in her eyes. If it's not one thing, it's surely another.

Here they are loading up the sandbox with their toys.

These trucks are WAY too big for the sandbox.

I'm just glad they're having a good time - and staying out of my hair when I make dinner.

Bob's Big Boy

This is one big bunny! 10 pounds doesn't seem that huge until you realize that your children were 3 pounds smaller than that when they were born! He came to us with the name "Bob" but it seems so boring. We changed it to Cuzco, but Ryan kept calling him "Couscous" so now we call him Cozmo.

Yes, he is completely litterbox trained. We keep him in the kitchen to protect our carpet just in case. (Might be a mistake if we can't get the bunny odor controlled). He's been pretty shy thus far, mostly sticking to his cage or under our kitchen table in the corner.

I'd venture to say that you would too if you had 2 small shrieking children looming over you all day long. He does hop out and around the house every once in a while but hasn't gotten himself in any trouble yet.

We'll see how the Bayles family does as pet owners. As I was writing this blog I heard Ryan laughing and Katie squawking. I went in the kitchen and found Ryan spraying kitchen cleaner ALL in Katie's hair and now he was aiming it at Cozmo. I hope this bunny lasts more than a week (not to mention my daughter).

No kids?

That's right, Derek and I went to the beach by OURSELVES today. We stayed a few hours and played frisbee and made a sandcastle. We haven't had so much fun together since two weeks ago on our previous date night. We were able to use our tripod to get a shot of us with our sand castle - complete with moat and small entry way into the courtyard.

Gina's Bag

Here you go Gina, a sneak peak at the pretty bag you picked out. Even in the cold Utah weather you'll be thinking of spring for sure. This one even has adjustable straps. Ooh la la!

FINALLY, a new blog entry!

I'm back to cloth diapering (I don't need any comments from all of you who think I'm weird) and am really happy with my diaper choice. After tons of research I decided on a brand called bumGenius. It's a one-size diaper that fits babies from 8-35 pounds. SO, I can use them on Katie AND Ryan (at night since he's potty training and usually wears underwear during the day). Anyway, they are REALLY easy to wash and don't stain and have great stretchy tabs on the side that make them fit the waist really well.

We got 5 of the diaper-wearing cousins together and you can see, they really DO fit all the different sizes. You gotta love diapered bottoms!

(Notice how Judy is the one reliable person looking at the camera in all the pictures. Plus, I love her crossed feet in the last picture.)

Beach Time

*Well, blogger USED to let me copy and paste pictures in the order I wanted them to go. Not today. *sigh*

We went to the beach yesterday for the first time since living in California. We went to a group of tide pools during low tide to catch a glimpse of starfish and octopi and crabs. We didn't happen upon any of those things (unless you count a hermit crab) but we did see anemone, plenty of mussels, and these fun sea slugs that were pretty neat.

We had a picnic (translation: our kids ate sandy sandwiches and apples) and then the kiddos played in the sand. Ryan was nervous at first and kept telling us he wanted to go home. He was afraid the boats were going to get him. There were some pretty loud motor boats. He warmed up to the ocean eventually and spent a LONG time playing in the sand making sand castles and filling the bed of his dump truck.

Katie wanted in on the action too. She crawled around and touched and ate everything she could manage to put in her mouth. She didn't even want me to hold her while we were looking at the anemone and such, she wanted to get a piece of it all.

The following pictures are in no particular order.

Happy Birthday to You

I had absolutely NO plans for Katie's birthday yesterday since I figured she didn't know the difference, but then felt like I wanted to celebrate the day she was born, even if it was just for me. :) Ryan was really confused how it could be Katie's birthday and not his birthday too. He also said to me multiple times in the morning, "I want to go to Katie's birthday". He didn't understand that we don't GO to birthdays, we HAVE them. Luckily, some moms in my ward planned a last minute play date at the park so we took along some cupcakes and sang to her and it felt like a party enough for Ryan.

Katie doesn't eat sugar so I wanted to make something for her besides a cake. I finally decided on a fruit pizza (thank you Cindy for the idea). I know it's a cookie, but I felt like it was better than cake.

She was so daintily plucking off raspberries and blueberries and enjoying it very much. I realized we had one more cupcake left from the park and suddenly decided to give her the choice (for once). I put it on her tray and she picked it right up and got a mouthful of that poison called "frosting". YUCK! She would go back and forth between the cupcake and fruit pizza, but finally settled on the cupcake.

Ryan was told that he couldn't have any of the cookie until after he ate his peanut butter sandwich. He fought and fought and finally ate his sandwich and got his slice of pizza.

He came to me and said, "Here Mom, you can have the rest." He didn't even eat one bite of the cookie itself, he only picked off the fruit. That's my boy! (The bite was from Derek.)

Today we got in the mail 2 packages from grandparents. Grandma Cookies sent a darling little bracelet (on her other wrist in this picture), and Grandma and Grandpa Bayles sent the prettiest little dresses you've ever seen (along with a few other treats). We went to Target last night to find her a birthday present that we thought she'd like. Due to the highly unimpressive selection, we settled on a "My Little Pony" which she likes pretty well, and we know Ryan will soon hijack it from her, as he has every other toy she's been given.

Happy Birthday!