Pet Update

Poor puppy is doing somewhat better. She does allow us to drag her outside to "use the facilities" which is an improvement. On Monday we had to take her someplace else (outside of our yard) for her to "go." Hmm, I guess it does take a long time to teach an old dog new tricks!

On other pet related notes (this is The Zoo after all) we are now back up to two hamsters, as the girls replace Blackberry (RIP) with a tan Syrian hamster which they have named Honey. I will post pictures soon - once the little critter settles into her new home and isn't freaked out by all of us. She didn't seem to care for her first exposure to bagpipes last night :-)

Nina's future bunny is growing and now has it's eyes open. It will still be a few weeks before we can bring him/her home. I'll try to post a new picture of him/her soon as well.

Although he's not a pet, my poor hubby is ill with a sinus infection :-( poor guy, he's still in bed right now which is VERY unusual for him. Hope he's better soon - he has to get ready for his trip to India.

Poor Puppy

I'm sure you can teach an old dog new tricks, but our old dog doesn't really WANT to learn new tricks :-(

We just installed an invisible fence for Snickers. She is a very good dog and stayed in the yard 90% of the time, but during that other 10% she apparently scared a woman who uses the park. Said woman is afraid of dogs and Snickers barked at her and scared her, SO no more wandering back to the park for Snick Snack. Unfortunately, we have such a timid dog that, now that she has been shocked a few times by the "fence", she is afraid to even GO outside. Hmm, this is NOT working well.

Actually, she was even afraid of me for awhile today since I am the one who accompanied her outside today when she got shocked. Made me cry - really, it did, just ask my son. So now, I need to spend time each day showing the dog that is safe to play outside - just away from the edge of the yard.

Anyway, I'm hoping that dear Snickey catches on quickly, because I don't know how much more of this I can take.

Bunnies Revisited

My faithful blog readers may remember that we used to have a not-so-nice bunny named Sweetie who escaped from her cage, never to be seen again. No tears were shed over Sweetie's disappearance, I might add. Well, after being bunny-less for about a year and a half, we are ready to entertain the thought of having a bunny again. Actually, Nina is entertaining the thought of having a bunny again. A friend of hers has a couple bunnies and one of them has had babies, so in a few weeks we will, once again, be bunny owners. Only this time, it will be an indoor bunny.

Have you ever noticed how kids wear you down. When the first bunny arrived it was an outside bunny all the time. According to Dad, that was where bunnies belonged. Now just 1 1/2 years later, we are suddenly cleaning out the laundry room to make way for bunny. How does this happen???? I'll tell you how it happens. Really cute 13 year old daughter makes long pleas for little bunny and how cold he would get outside and he might even die if he was left outside....you get the picture...

Anyway, who can resist this....

Is There No End...

to the funny things that Raelea says? Here's tonight's conversation with Raelea which occurred while we were making cookies.

Raelea: Heat kills germs.
Mom: That's right, how did you know that?
Raelea: Because I'm smart because I eat my broccoli.


There you have it folks. Take it from Raelea, eating broccoli will make you smarter.

Happy Birthday, Sweet Raelea

A bundle of sweetness packaged in a little girl. That's our Raelea! Happy Golden Birthday, Sweetpea. You will have so much fun being 5!

It's A Marathon, Not A Sprint

Parenting, that is. Today was one of those days when I needed to remind myself that this parenting thing is a long-haul, big picture sort of activity, not a short little jog in the park where the end is in sight from the beginning. Oh, how it seems like no ground is being gained some days...

We frequently compare parenting with rolling a ball up hill. As soon as you stop rolling it up the hill, it begins to start rolling back down.

Okay, enough musing on the trials of parenting, I'm going to bed now...

Hair Today

I've stolen my husband's laptop for this post, since our beloved computer is in the shop for, gasp, five to seven days! Ugh!

Anyway, Nina & Molly were very excited to get their hairs cut today (by someone other than Mom). Nina specifically asked for me to post a picture on the blog, so here they are - my beautiful girlsThey're beautiful no matter what, but don't their haircuts look nice?