Dog Days of August

I hope you aren't sick of my pre-post caveats.  This time I need to tell you that I've been working on this post for...a week??  It's all random stuff that should have been a week's worth of posts.  I'm throwing it all at ya.  This or nothing.;)  (and yes, my baby's crying so I'm stopping!)

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(photo credit: Arwen)

If I ever had two hands, I'd be deadly.  Moms with newborns know what I'm talking about: one-handing it constantly, baby in one arm, up on one shoulder, working with the other arm.  Now throw a broken elbow on top of that. 

I've got all kinds of exciting stories to share...but hands to type?  I have a grunting baby on my lap and a two-year-old with wet polish on her fingernails leaning on Sam's head to kiss him.

               

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Shall we (re)commence?

This summer will be remembered as "the Summer of the Littlest Pet Shop".

I told you before the girls were gifted my sister's old "Littlest Pet Shop" collection.  The neighborhood girlies added what they had, and the hours of play that have ensued over the course of the summer has been staggering!   Staggering I say!

All of the little animals have names. Rosie is my #1 "player", but Galadriel joins in with the neighbors, and Bilbo, Legolas and Eowyn sneak out to play whenever the troupe of neighbor-girls are gone.

It's hard for me to capture the size and scope of the combined collection: they added a basket as an extra house and brought out some doll house furniture and a few Little Critter animals. The above table is about 5''x3''.

Sadly, the fun they are having with the "LPS" took the place of the fun they used to have with our little bunny friends.

Where are the bunnies?  Back with the wonderful woman who bred them.  Why?  Well, in all honesty, I was the primary care taker of the bunnies.  For the last month or so of my pregnancy my family tried to care for them.  My husband dutifully shoveled their mess from under the cages and wheelbarrowed it to the forrest.  Do you know that I actually enjoy that type of work?

 I'm 30 weeks prego here--when we came back from out trip last march we moved the bunnies out of the garage--this is probably the last time I shoveled their mess.

"Alfalfa" all packed up, "Pip" on the seat behind him: yes, I took pictures of them before they left.

 Arwen was very good at feeding and watering them.  Well, she got really good at it after my husband and I saved the bunnies from a death of thirst and starvation once or twice ;).

"Zorro" in the cage on the floor, "Coconut" in the bin (sniff, sniff)

The truth is, it was more work than anyone (other than me) wanted to commit to, and I had a new baby on the way.   We actually had them for a month after Sam was born, during which time it became ever more apparent that we were over-loaded with "chores", i.e. just keeping our family afloat,  so I contacted the breeder and we packed up our pets, and returned them, thankful for the joy they gave for the time we had them.

Truth?  I miss them!  Wish we had kept just one, maybe?  (I guess not.)  Coconut was my hands-down favorite.  Pip was everyone else's favorite.  Zorro was my nieces favorite.  Alfalfa was Arwen's.

We sure had fun with them!

I wonder if the breeder will breed them?!!

That's all I'm going to cover in this random post--LPS and bunnies.  Wow.  If I ever had a reading audience before, I lost it now!