Confession: I Have Lied March 23, 2012

Today was a sad day in my daughter’s life.  Today Kendra lost her dear pet Marshmallows.

When Ronnie and I went into Kendra’s bedroom and sat on her bed with her, we didn’t know what to expect her reaction to be.  She immediately burst into tears upon hearing the news.  This cry was different from her usual brands of tears – this one was heartbroken, devastated, mournful.  She seemed so young to me at that moment, yet strangely so grown-up too.  While she was crying over the loss of her fluffy pet, she was also experiencing loss for the first time in her life.  Our hearts hurt for her.

Max came in and upon hearing the news looked at his sister and with genuine sincerity offered to share his rabbit with her.  It was sweet.  He recognized the true pain his sister was experiencing.  He wanted to help.  He decided to go out with his daddy and help with the burial preparations.

Kendra and I made a gravestone.  I asked her what she wanted to put on it, and she burst into tears again.  “I just loved her so much,” she told me.  So, that’s what we decided she should write – “I love you Marshmallows.”

When we went outside for the burial, Kendra wanted to put something special in the grave.  She decided on a picture of herself.  She laid the picture so tenderly on the shoebox that contained her special pet.  Then Ronnie covered the grave with dirt.

Kendra ran in the house, still visibly upset.  She went to her room and got paper and a marker then went back outside to the grave.  She proceeded to write a beautiful letter to Marshmallows, a heartfelt eulogy in the words of a six-year-old.  She folded the letter and put it under the gravestone.  She needed to say goodbye in her own way.

My baby lost her first friend today, but in doing so, she showed us what a strong, sensitive, sweet young lady she is.

And that is why, when we found Max’s rabbit dead a few days later, I told Kendra that I accidentally left the rabbit hutch open and he got away.

Introducing Max February 25, 2012

I thought I’d repost a few old stories about the kids for anyone who hasn’t properly met them yet.  Here is one of my favorite Max incidents:

I am still breathing heavy and my heart is still pounding from my latest adventure with my son.  If my hands stop shaking enough, I’ll be able to write this down before I forget the intense emotion I just experienced.  Warning: this story is not for the faint of heart.
It all started this morning when Ronnie caught our cat Sparkles (don’t let the name fool you) with a baby rabbit pinned to the ground.  Ronnie rescued the bunny from the claws of our feline huntress and brought it to show to Max and me.  Well, being the loving, caring mother that I am, I didn’t want Kendra to miss out on the baby just because she was at school, so I put it in a plastic storage bin with some leaves and carrots and set it in the laundry room.  What a cute little thing it was looking at us with those big, round eyes.  Adorable.
Well, we all went on about our business, and mine happened to include leaving the house for about an hour.  I thought that innocent little babe would be fine just resting after the near-death experience with Sparkles, so I left it in the laundry room.  Imagine my horror when I returned home only to find the rabbit was gone!  That little beast was loose in my house!  It could have peed or pooped or nibbled on anything!
The first thing Max did was check on the cake I had cooling on a rack.  “Mom!  The bunny ate your cake!!”  I ran over to look, and of course it wasn’t true – he just couldn’t resist the chance to tease me.  I started frantically looking through the house, scared to death that when I put my face on the floor to check under the furniture, the little monster would pounce at me and bite my nose.  I actually had thoughts in my head of myself running through the house, arms flailing, with a baby rabbit latched on to the end of my nose.  I told Max to help me look and to call me if he found it.  “MOM!!” he promptly yelled.  “Did you find it already??”  I gushed – very relieved.  “No,” he chuckled.  UGH!!
I honestly considered for a moment who I should call to help me.  Ronnie was at the dentist and probably wouldn’t share my opinion that this was an emergency.  The fire department probably wouldn’t either.  My dad came last year and saved me when there was a snake in my yard…Nope.  A BR does not compare to a snake.  This was a mission I would have to accomplish with just myself and my highly amused two-year-old.
Well, I finally spotted the critter under my bed, so I closed the closet and bathroom doors and sat Max on a stool in my bedroom door to guard the only exit while I ran outside to get some heavy-duty commercial-grade cow-hide work gloves.  Then, once I had donned my protective gear, I entered the BR (that’s Baby Rabbit, of course) Zone.  I told Max to scare him out so I could catch him, and that resulted in one of the most comical scenes I have ever played a part in.
Let me just say, I don’t really like animals that much (in case you couldn’t tell), but I try hard not to show it around my kids because I don’t want to influence their feelings towards animals.  I failed today.  I screamed my head off and actually ran away from a baby rabbit at one point – in my own bedroom at that.  Max was screaming.  I was shrieking.  We were both laughing hysterically, and the poor rabbit was so scared that it was literally trying to jump through the walls.
My mind, in the midst of the chaos, thought about the time when I was a little girl that a lizard got into our house and my mom sucked it up with the vacuum cleaner hose.  I thought about the time a tree frog got into the house and my mom screamed that it was on my head (it wasn’t).  I thought about a good friend of mine who had a snake loose in her walls somewhere, and how a BR paled in comparison. I thought about how stupid I was acting and how ashamed I would be for anyone to see me running and screaming like I had a Tasmanian devil in my bedroom instead of a traumatized infant bunny.
None of it helped.  Max and I laughed and screamed and yelled until the rabbit apparently was just exhausted.  I cornered it, picked it up (thus, the reason for the gloves), and put it back in the storage bin for Kendra to see.  This time, though, I put a screen on the top to prevent further escapes.
Max is now in his bed for his afternoon nap.  And here I sit.  Rather embarrassed.  Feeling silly.  And wondering if that nappy little creature really did pee in my house somewhere.
We’re taking the kids to the zoo tomorrow.  I may need to consider some medication before that trip.