Our Little Peter Cottontails

So Sunday night we had a little surprise - bunny babies!  Apparently Jeremy and Olivia were outside playing when the next thing Jeremy knows he hears a "squeak" and a skirmish and realizes that Jake has obviously caught something.  Olivia starts crying, Jeremy starts chasing Jake, and in the ensuing chaos Jeremy discovers that Jake has found a rabbit's nest in Olivia's swingset and caught a baby rabbit!  Luckily, Mr. Cottontail survived.  The rabbits are clearly only days old - they have no fur, their eyes aren't open and they are as small as a mouse.  We couldn't leave them to the mercy of Jake and Maggie, who are bred to hunt out rodents, so we had to figure out something quick.  So Jeremy made a late night trip to Lowes for some wiring and we rigged up a shelter for them just as the sun was setting.  We managed to get the baby rabbit that Jake caught back into the nest, but we were very worried its mother would not come back.  So Jeremy did some research and ended up sitting two toothpicks on top of the nest and if they moved overnight, then we had a pretty good indication that the mother was returning.  I checked this morning and they had moved - but our little baby was still outside the nest squirming around.  I finally managed to get him back in the hole today with his brothers and sisters (I have no idea how many are there), but not without alerting Maggie.  Maggie has since been pacing the floors, whining to go outside.  The research we have done suggests it will take a month for the rabbits to reach maturity - I am not sure we can protect them that long...

Our attempt to protect the babies while still 

giving the mother access (thanks for the idea Dad)

I wish you could see Mr. Cottontail's ears - 

they are the tiniest things you have ever seen!

Sisters

Olivia and Lilly's Portrait Session Summer 2010

We thought it was time to take some professional pictures of the girls together and they turned out so well.  Enjoy!

Random Summer Pictures

My bathing beauty loves the bathtub!

Mommy and Lilly

Mommy and Olivia

I am getting to be such a big girl, Dr. Kanga!

Olivia doesn't go anywhere in the car now without her sunglasses!

Driving Nanny and Papaw's Houseboat

So hot we had to strip to our skivvies (not me of course!)

Hanging out in our underwear has become a theme this summer

Such a beautiful little girl!

Another pretty little girl!

Time to catch lightning bugs!

Riding our tricycle has become one of our favorite activities!

One tired little girl (who is growing some fuzzy hair!)

An Update On Lilly

So it has been a while since I posted - sorry!  Things have been a little better here at the homefront.  While the last time I posted we were pretty down about Lilly's new treatments, as always we have become accustomed to it and have worked it into the routine.  She finally finished her antibiotic today and I can say that she is doing better - I haven't heard her cough much in quite a while which is a relief.  We have discontinued the Albuterol inhaler for the time being - it never seemed to help much with her cough anyway.  We are continuing the Pulmozyne nebulizer though - Dr. Kanga wants to keep that in the routine as a preventative measure.  It takes about 8-10 minutes to complete and we administer it right before her chest percussion therapy, so it is not as disruptive as I originally thought.  Lilly is pretty good throughout the treatment, although sometimes she becomes very irritated at having her "fish mask" on her face.  A picture of it is below (sorry Jeremy - it was the only one I had!)

Since we started the treatments, we have been back to see Dr. Kanga recently and I am happy to report that Lilly is now over 14 pounds - hooray!  I was so excited.  We switched her enzymes to Creon and she has taken to them quite well.  She doesn't have to take as many and they seem to work better for her than the Ultrase ever did.  She has chubby little thighs and I love it!  Lilly continues to have problems with reflux - ugh - despite the new formula.  The Enfamil AR makes a big difference, but it still isn't enough.  And as many warned me, while I saw improvement short term, I think she is starting to regress a little.  I look forward to the day that I don't have to change her (and myself) several times a day.  We don't have to go back to Dr. Kanga until September, when Lilly will be cultured again, so hopefully we will have a good report.  I will keep everyone posted!