Bunnies be Gone???

Two summers ago, our front yard was ravaged by bunnies. And I mean ravaged. The following spring we had to get about $300 worth of re-sodding done - yikes! So this year, when I started to see that tell-tale rabbit poop and the beginning of some bare patches, I declared war. No more standing by while they eat our entire yard.

I had heard that fox urine was a deterrant so I headed to our "local hunting store", which is actually the a store the size of several football fields all dedicated to fishing, hunting and boating. They actually have an entire row of animal urine - whouldathunkit?! And, let me tell you, this row *stinks*, particularly to the sensitive nose of a pregnant lady. Hunters use these products to mask their own human scent, apparently despite warnings on the bottle that they may be attacked by things such as mountain lions. Obviously the hope with putting it on one's yard is to make the bunnies think there is a fox that wants to eat them.

There were two choices - a predator "bomb" that you set off one time that emits an aerosol spray, or concentrated pee that comes in a tiny spray bottle. The bomb seemed the obvious choice to me, but the sales guy convinced me otherwise. I guess I had pictured in my head trying to coat my entire lawn in fox pee, which would require roughly 592 bottles of this stuff. But all that is required, apparently, is to mark your trees and a few of the areas where the bunnies have been. Repeat once a week, and eventually they will think a fox lives in your yard.... at least supposedly. I have done one application. Hopefully fox urine is safe for pregnant people! So far I have not seen more bare patches so fingers crossed.

The disturbing part of all this was the result of my internet investigation after my mom asked how they collect the urine. She (and I) were picturing foxes peeing in cups on demand. Alas, this is not the case. I found one site that tells the "steps" to collect it, and the first step is "kill a fox." So, generally speaking, fox urine is a by-product of fur farming. Other internet sites talk about the animals being caged and the urine collected and the environment didn't really sound too great. Now I'm not some huge animal rights activist or anything, but I know that fur farming can be a pretty dirty business and most of the animals are not being raised for food- just for vanity products like furs, and apparently for hunting products. It seems that perhaps I should just man-up and trap/humanely kill the bunnies, rather than use the product of another animal that was killed, possibly in a very unpleasant way, for me to chase off the bunnies.

So the fox urine has been purchased and I might as well use it up... but I may have to re-think some other strategies if the bunnies continue to show up. I wasn't expecting this to become a personal ethical dilemma!

Puppet Show

On Monday I took KK to her first "live event" - a puppet show at the arts center in our town. It was really her first time to sit through any sort of event that requires a certain amount of quietness since we have not yet attempted a movie with her. (She has only sat through one movie at home, so I'm not ready to chance it yet....)

The puppet show was put on by the Dallas Puppet Theater, which for this event consisted of two middle-aged men that I assume are full time actors and/or puppeteers. They were quite talented, but talk about a somewhat thankless job - putting on a show in a tiny community theater for about 20 pre-schoolers on a Monday morning! Then again, kids are a pretty accepting and non-critical audience. They threw in some decent humor for all the mommies there too.

I personally found the puppets a bit creepy. They were those traditional large puppets that are manipulated by strings. KK however seemed to thorougly enjoy it. The show was Cinderella. KK did great. She sat silently nearly the whole time; the only time she spoke was to ask "where the puppets went" in between scenes. At the end the kids could go "meet" the wicked stepmother puppet; KK wanted to go but brought mommy with her. She lurked close by but wasn't interested in touching her.

All in all I rank it as a success!

Sibling Class

This past weekend I took Katelynn to "Sibling Class" at the hospital, which we have been calling "Big Sister Class" in our family. There were about 8 or 10 kiddos there, all having little brothers!

I thought the hospital did a really great job with this class. When we arrived they worked on a craft - this door sign:

Then we went to another room to watch a 15 minute video that was silly and geared toward pre-schoolers. It talked about many aspects of becoming a big brother/sister, including right and wrong ways to hold the baby and the many ways they could help their mommy and daddy.

They gave us a tour of the labor and delivery room and we peeked in the baby nursery. They talked to the kids about how they might spend the night with a friend or relative when it was time for the baby to come. Then all the kids got to practice swaddling a fake baby. As you can see, KK took this very seriously:

They also had a bucket of baby items, and each kid got to pick one. Then the instructor went around the circle and discussed each item. They included things like nose bulb syringes, hospital bracelets, and other things that might be foreign to them. They also had a special plastic tube about the size of a toilet paper roll. The kids practiced putting little bitty toys in the tube - if the toy fits in the tube, it is too small for baby brother...

Then the kids got to take home a coloring book, one of the plastic tubes, and a couple of toys. Katelynn seemed to really soak it all in. We have been reading books and talking about baby Tyler for a long time. Hopefully this class, along with some unexpected but excellent breastfeeding "lessons" from some girlfriends with infants :-) , will really help cement things for her.

Tyler's Room

Baby Tyler's room is finally complete enough for posting! I may still add some frames with family pictures, but we are close enough. I'm sooooo happy with how this came out. I am generally inept when it comes to decorating but I have been really happy with how my baby rooms have turned out, and the fact that the designs grow organically from my own brain, rather than from copying a magazine picture.

The room concept started with the desire to carry over some of the same colors and fabrics, not to mention the black crib, from KK's room and grew from there. My parents' creativity and wonderful handiwork in the workshop and the sewing room added beautiful touches with the cornice board, crib skirt, and fishing quilt. The fishing quilt was a labor of love by my mom a few years ago, intended for the first grandson. We didn't even know it would match so well, but it blends quite nicely. My sister-in-law Jen made the picture frame and diaper cake for my shower and also helped me arrange the dots on the wall...she has a much better eye for that kind of thing. Well enough blabbing....on with the pictures!

My Marathon Man

A little over a year ago, my husband Gene announced "I think I am going to start running." And boy, did he ever. Gene is never one to embrace anything half-heartedly. He got all the gadgets, read all the materials, and entered into a little love affair with his new sport. He has run 3 half-marathons in the past year, improving his time significantly with each race. He is relentless in his discipline with training. So I knew the quest for the full marathon was probably coming soon....

So Gene decided to run his first marathon this October, in Chicago. I probably won't get to be with him to support him but will have a good excuse of a newborn at home! In order to make this run more meaningful than just a personal goal, Gene has also joined the Leukemia-Lymphoma Society "Team in Training" and has committed to raise $3,000 for research to fight blood cancer. Astonishingly enough, we know 4 people who have fought or are fighting blood cancer. Gene is honoring 3 of these friends in his race. If you would like to follow Gene's own running blog or help support his fundraising, you can visit this link: http://tinyurl.com/genells . I am proud of my Eugene!

PS. Visit www.bethematch.org to become registered as a possible marrow donor - it's free, easy, and you could save a life!

Papas and Public Potties

It is a rare occasion that Gene takes KK to the potty when we are out. And I will admit, it usually makes sense for mommy to do it. I certainly don't want her in the men's restroom at the mall, or for that matter, any men's room with multiple stalls and strange men in it. Sometimes though, we are at a nice clean restaurant with a one-hole potty and it really doesn't make a difference who does it. And mommy wants a break.
Friday night was one such instance, especially since I was crammed into a corner seat and the big baby belly made it very challenging to get in and out. When KK announced she needed to potty I looked at Gene and made my own announcement that he could take her. As he got up to do it, he was visibly uncomfortable and noted that "it stresses him out". He was referring to the fact that it is difficult to keep her from touching things that are not sanitary. Hello...it stresses out your neat freak wife the other 291 times she has done it! Plus, dirty germy changing tables were no picnic either and there were at least 437 fun experiences with those!

Posting this little incident on Facebook resulted in a firestorm of funny comments from other mommies including reminders that he is about to get a baby boy and get to share the joy more often. My favorite response came from my friend Sarah though: "Here is a puzzle for Gene. Four people have to go to the potty. Me. My two year old son. My six year old daughter. An unrelated nine year old boy who is with us. I am the adult in charge. We are at the movie theater. Discuss -- suggestions welcome -- but that defines 'stressed out' :) "

While searching for a funny picture to support this post, I came across this funny 4 minute video from the dad's perspective on this topic.

Pregnancy and the Charley Horse

I knew that reporting an easy pregnancy was going to jinx me somehow! This week, the middle-of-the-night charley horse made its first appearance. Ugh. I am hoping this does not become a frequent event. This also got me to thinking about the cruel irony of the charley horse during pregnancy:

1. It is a muscle cramp - your leg muscle seizing up - and so it's an accurate pre-cursor to the contraction pain of labor and delivery. Charley horses can be soooo painful and yet it's almost a little tease - "You think this is bad? Just wait!"

2. The easiest way to relieve a charley horse is to grab the ends of your toes and get a deep stretch. Oh, except you are 30-something weeks pregnant with a huge belly and 20 pounds of extra weight in one spot. This is rather awkward, people. So, one finds oneself writhing aroud in bed in pain, trying desperately to reach one's toes over the big belly.

3. Sleep is so precious these days and it's getting harder to stay comfortable. Another source of waking is the last thing a pregnant lady needs!

Oh charley horse, I know you are "normal" during pregnancy. But I don't want normal again.

First Day Camp

This week, Katelynn went to a 3-day "Trash to Treasure" day camp offered by our church and designed especially for pre-schoolers. She really seemed to love it... just a slight bit of anxiety being left the first day, then days two and three were a piece of cake. It is rare to leave my girl smiling... the best I can usually hope for is lack of crying. Not this week! She just about ran in the door on Tuesday and Wednesday morning.

The flyer pictured in this post sums up all the neat things they got to do. I am thankful for my church, the pastors and staff that serve the children, and wonderful ministries like these.

Preggo Family Pics

My brother Griff is a budding amateur photographer. It's quite impressive actually... no need to book a professional session with him around! Recently he met up with our family at the Fort Worth Water Gardens. This provided lots of beautiful backdrops for some creative pictures...despite the fact that it was still 95 degrees and 1000% humidity at 7 pm! I'm posting a few of my favorites. Just for fun, I'm also posting some of the professional pictures that we found online and used as the base idea. He's pretty good at this, huh?!