Week 21: Bunny Food

This week the baby is the length of a carrot.

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A 10 1/2 in long carrot; a karate kid the length of a ruler. Apparently the martial arts are going to start getting good but so far, they haven't been too bad. I assume I've felt the baby move since there are weird feelings that happen repeatedly, but I'm still waiting to SEE my belly shift or move. Matt has walked in on me staring at my belly more than once and he thinks I'm weird. Just wait until he feels it.

Last week at the ultrasound baby was 12 oz. Matt and I have come to terms with the fact that our baby is going to be a chunk. I weighed 9lbs 6oz when I was born and neither of us are small people. I haven't seen a lot of Matt's baby pictures but my favorite picture I have seen of him so far is this....

I hope our kid looks like this if its a boy. Just a reminder, Uncle Patrick has promised to get a matching outfit to every outfit he purchases for baby. I STRONGLY recommend something similar to this. Pat had similar get-ups back in '89 and I'm sure he can track down some lavender suspenders.

My photo supply is limited as most little Matt and Katy baby pictures are at our parents' houses, but here is a little dose of the parents~ not as babies but maybe you will catch a glimpse of what the carrot might look like.

Baby has eyebrows this week~ hopefully they aren't thick and black like the look on the left.

This week I busted out the belly bands I bought about a month ago. I finally got to a point where my work pants were not buttoning comfortably. I still think my baby bump looks more like a beer gut but hopefully with each day, it will look more like pregnancy and less like college. I went shopping with Matt's mom and sister this weekend and got a bunch of new clothes. Some were maternity and some weren't but between the new stuff and my regular clothes, I should be set through the summer. Thank God for flowy dresses. I switched out my winter and summer clothes from my closet and there were plenty of things I just said, "won't bother hanging, won't bother, put back in the closet...." you get the point. It was a little depressing but all of the new stuff spruced up the selection. Thanks Nancy!

Matt assembled the crib this weekend and we are diggin' it. Matt did attach the part the mattress sits on upside down (which caused me to make a tiny hole in the new mattress) but maybe if I publish his error, it will motivate him to fix it sooner (subtle hint to Matt #1). I put together the changing table and will leave it at that. Matt hasn't inspected it too closely yet. I'm anxious to get the walls repaired (there are 5 million anchors and nail holes - plus the stupid butterfly decals) so I can get the baby's room painted and start decorating (subtle hint to Matt #2). For my Birthday I got a Silhouette cutter and I finally took it out of the box and put it to use on my baby wall art project.

This was my inspiration...

and this is the start of my version...

The frame on the green one is not accurate~ they will all be black but those are 3 of the 10 images I'm cutting in different sizes, shapes and colors for a little collage. The Silhouette is super fun to use and picking out the images in even more fun. I have way more than 10 that I want to use but I don't want a small collage to turn into a hot mess. If only those walls were patched so I could paint and start hanging.... (subtle hint to Matt #3).

To wrap this up, let's go back to bunny food. When I hear bunny food, I think, carrots, leafy vegetables, my baby's length, that kind of thing. Walter thinks, bunny=food. One cold, Friday night this past winter, I let Gus and Walter outside around 10pm and immediately knew I had an issue. They took OFF into the yard. Bolted. A little back and forth along the fence (I figured they were chasing away the winter birds/rodents) and the hustle stopped. Perfect. Animals had been chased out by my guard dogs, they would do their business, come back in and we could all go to bed. Nope. Not tonight. Walter came trotting out of the darkness with a bunny in his mouth. This was no small baby bunny little thing. This was a full grown FAT adult bunny (longer than a carrot) that probably had too many carrots preventing it from escaping through the fence. I panicked. Matt had just left for drill and would not be back until Sunday.

A) How would I get the dogs in? B) How would Ii keep them from consuming the bunny? C) What would I do if Gus then licked me? D) How would I let the dogs out all weekend with a dead bunny in the yard?

Oh my. I freaked out and yelled at Walter who was so startled, he dropped the bunny immediately (did I mention it was still twitching?). In case you haven't picked up on it, I have a favorite dog and my biggest concern was keeping him out of the situation. So far so good but he was definitely watching what brother Walter was doing. In our old house, Walter had made a habit of jumping the chain link fence which resulted in him having a shock collar with a perimeter just shy of the entire fence line. As soon as Wally dropped Mr. Foo Foo, Gus ran in, snagged the bunny and ran to the top of the yard where he knew Wally couldn't go (Gus is not only my favorite, he is smart too). Shit. Walter admitted defeat and I lured him into the house. I quickly grabbed plastic bags to put over my arms and ran out to Gus with treats in hand. After running back and forth with the bunny draped in his mouth, Gus finally traded the bunny for treats and I got him inside (both went immediately to kennels as I would not allow either of them to lick or drool bunny guts in my house).

Now it was 10:30, cold, dark and I was alone for 48 more hours. There was a twitching bunny in the yard and I had 2 poop filled dogs that I did NOT plan on walking 50 times to do their business. I decided to wait an hour or so and let the bunny die or escape, whatever it was destined to do. FF an hour. I went outside in Matt's boots with a shovel, triple lined plastic bags and 5 gallon bucket. I poked the bunny with the shovel and at that point, he was stiff. Thank God, the twitching still haunts me. Initially, I could not see a head. I was about to puke in my mouth thinking one of the dogs ate the head off but I mustered up courage (a long 2 min worth) to flip the bunny. I just knew I would find a gaping hold with guts and gore oozing out of it but thankfully, the head was still attached, it was just bent in an unnatural position, and the bunny didn't seem to have any open wounds. This picture does not do the scene justice...

That is post-flip so the head seems normal. There was one small issue though, the tail was missing. The only remains were a little, pointy, skinned, boney thing (imagine a red rocket on a dog the size of a bunny). Apparently one of the dogs snapped during the chase and just missed it by a hare. HAHA. I found the cottony poof in the yard and proceeded to scoop bunny and tail into the bag, into the bucket and out of the back yard. I was not about to walk the bucket through my house so I went around (with my arm stretched as far away from my body as possible, also holding my breath as long as possible) and left the bunny in the bushes by our garage for Matt to deal with. It was trauma. I still get shivers thinking about scooping the carcass. Thank God there wasn't any blood.

Bunny food: To each, their own.