I was really excited about being pregnant the 2nd time around.  I was so sick with Daphne and frankly so busy that I wasn’t slowed down at all until the last few weeks.  It is different to be a free spirit and to have a toddler to be accountable for.  There was one point when I looked at plane tickets out of PDX leaving that same day because I felt that everything would be better if I were on a plane to Greece.

And it’s been tough, in fact, it’s been a real challenge.  If it is even at all possible, I have been more sick this time around.  There is a 50% chance of Hyperemisis recurring with any future pregnancies if you get it one time.  I was lucky enough to draw the short straw.  Eating has been a real challenge.  I am usually really big about food.  I’m always in the kitchen making some new concotion or doing some new experiment.  When I was first pregnant, I couldn’t enter the kitchen at all, and it was still looking bad as I rounded 25 weeks.  We ate out a lot and spent WAY more on food than any 3 person family should be spending but I truly felt that I couldn’t help it.  What is worse, I was not eating good foods at all.  Any attempt at a blanced diet was always met with me only being able to eat the one thing in the fridge that didn’t make me sick full time until I found it revolting.  Things are better now, but I can’t say that I enjoy food.  Every time I go to eat something that I have made that I usually find delicious, I find it horribly mediocre.  Even if I like something one time a lot, it is generally not interesting when I try to go for it a second time around.  I can at least tolerate foods, and truthfully, the more bland the better.  I do hope that I can enjoy food again in the future.

When I got smacked with the Gestational Diabetes diagnosis, it felt like a slap in the face.  Now not only did I find food neither tasty nor fun, many of the fun foods were risky to eat, so they were out.  I had to totally reevaluate what I could eat, and it’s been a process.  At first I felt like it was totally hopeless.  There was no way I was going to make it, and maybe I could just pour on the drama.  After all, going through these two major obstacles AND adding the fact that this is going to be a VBAC is a lot more pregnancy related stress than any sane person needs.  It seems to be sorting itself out as time goes on.

I’ve had to break my terrible sugar habit.  I’ve done it before, but I feel great about it now.  After I graduated from high school I spent the next year eating almost nothing with any sugar in it, and I did great.  However, I succumbed at some point to snickers bars and ice cream.  I became a HUGE ice cream freak, and I still am today.  I never hesitated to eat any sugar though, and in fact, I had little willpower.  It has been hard to break that.  I’ve gone from needing ice cream every night to being satisfied by the occasional watermelon or strawberry.  Though I still do miss ice cream, I feel like I could make ice cream and savor it rather than gobble it.

And truth be told, it may all be for naught.  After a LOT of finger pricks, I’m learning that things are actually looking a lot better than they origionally did look.  My blood sugar is well within normal rage 2 hours after eating regardless of what I eat.  Mind you, I’m not eating any processed grains or sugars, so that helps, but  I really have nothing to worry about in that department.  Additionally, my blood sugar looks really good if I fast between meals and don’t eat a snack.  It can even get into the low normal range.  HOWEVER, the problem seems to be the 12 hour fasting levels.  Every 12 hour fasting level has failed the test.  Many of them are by less than 5 points, but some of them are by more than 15 points.  My midwives and I are starting to think it is not much to worry about, but we have to do more testing in a week to see where everything is.

And as this goes on, I only have a few more weeks to really get serious about really cleaning the house and wrapping up any projects I need to do before there is a possibility that I have another baby to care for.  The list is not long, and everything for the baby is set up, but I am wrapping up really old agreements and finising old projects.  There is also the very important project of spending time with the darling angel that I have already managed to birth and keep alive for 2 years.

The more challenging it gets, the more positive that I feel.  It seems a little backward, but I’m happy that it is turning out that way.  At the risk of sounding whiny, this is more than any mama should ever have to deal with at one time though, and I look forward to meeting the alien that has expanded my belly.

I’ve not been able to eat much meat with this pregnancy because it makes me feel really ill.

I had a real fit of craving tacos yesterday, so I ran to the freezer and quickly thawed some meat out for dinner.  My grandmother makes the best tacos available on this Earth, and every time I have wanted tacos, I have been disappointed that mine don’t measure up.

After doing some reserach knowing that I just HAD to make a satisfying batch of tacos, I came up with a new taco seasoning that just knocked my socks off.  This one is definitely a keeper that is going down in family history cookbooks.  Try it, and you will see.

Chris’ Taco Seasoning

Chop 1 onion and then saute until it starts to brown.  Add 1.25 pounds of ground beef and cook until the pink is almost gone then add:

1/2 Teaspoon Paprika

1/2 Teaspoon Cumin

1/2 Teaspoon Chili Powder

1/2 Teaspoon Garlic Powder

1/2 Teaspoon Oregano

1 Pinch Cayenne

1 1/2 Teaspoons Veggie Salt (my recipe is forthcoming)

Recipe Notes:

You could just as easily mix up the spices in a larger quantity and keep it on hand for when you want to make tacos so that you are never again tempted to buy those packets of crap that they sell in the grocery store as seasoning.

When I made this originally, I did not have an onion on hand.  Being the spring time, I only had green onions on hand so I finely chopped them and added them in with the spices.  I would usually just cook the onion first before adding the meat.

Enjoy this recipe, I think it is a real winner, and that says a lot because food has been very much unappealing to me lately.

I’ve worked really hard to expose Daphne to all kinds of different foods so she wouldn’t be only willing to eat potato chips, PB&J and macaroni and cheese.  I must say that I’ve been blessed with a baby who is really willing to try to eat anything that I put in front of her.  In fact, she ate the greens I made the other day (rather poorly I might add) without any fuss at all.

I’ve learned recently that she dislikes potatoes very much.  I’ve tried feeding them to her in many different situations, but they always get spit out.  I made her and Oregon burrito today with some potatoes in it.  She spent time picking them out, and when I asked her what was up, she insisted that they were “too yucky!”

I guess I learned my lesson.  I can live with a kid that eats rapini, kale, collard and mustard greens and refuses to eat potatoes.

I’ve been meaning to clean the car for a long time.  It back back from California with a lot of food bits everywhere, and it really just needed a good cleaning.  Being the pregnant nesting woman that I am, of course I’ve been worried about the dust that has collected under the place where the glass hatch opens in the back.  I spent an hour this morning cleaning out the back half of the car.  It is much improved, but I still know there is a lot to be done.  I spent another hour in the evning before dinner cleaning sections of the outside of the car that were dirty.  There sure were a lot of bugs stuck on to the front of the car, and I’m not sure that all of them are ever going to come off.  A girl can dream can’t she?

It was doctor appointment day.  Jared had his yearly appointment with his surgen and I went to the midwife and to the imaging people to get an ultrasound.  I haven’t posted a lot lately about the Gestational Diabetes I’ve been working with.  That is partly due to the fact that I’ve been processing a lot and partly because I have little to nothing figured out.  It seems that the problem is my 12 hour fasting levels much more than my levels after eating.  On Saturday I eneded up eating a hamburger, fries and fried asparagus at Burgerville.  Though it was pretty good food, it really sent my blood sugar out of control.  I got really worried, upset and overwhelmed by it, but it turns out it wasn’t even that bad (167, 2 hours after eating).  I am still sorting out what to do.  After seeing the midwife today I feel more comfortable.  It turns out that there is NO glucose in my urine, not even the amount for normal people.  That is a good sign because it shows that things aren’t terribly out of control.  I think the hardest part of this whole thing is that I have had to break my sugar habit.  I have been addicted to sugar for at least 6 years.  The fact that sugar could be really harmful to me and my baby and ruin my VBAC has really stopped me from eating any of it.  Though I still LOVE to eat sweet things, I don’t really have much of an urge to sit and eat sweet things all day long.  On the flip side, I’ve really lost interest in food in general, so it has become more of a chore to eat than the culturally wonderful thing that it used to be for me.  I’m sure this will improve over the next couple of months.  Of course, I wouldn’t turn down a watermelon slice if someone offered it to me, and I do plan to pick strawberries tomorrow, so I do have some guilty pleasures still, just not the chocolate cake and ice cream of yesteryear.

I am glad that I got to meet with the midwife today.  She will not be working during the month of June, so I will likely see her next time at the birth and that is all.  I have 2 midwives, so someone is always available to me, it was just nice to meet with her and get things sorted out.

One thing that is cool is that I plan to make a birth sling that can be attached to the ceiling at the birth center.  It is something that has been used for many hundreds of years in other cultures, but it is not common here.  It is something that can be leaned on during labor or pushing to make things easier.  I am making it for me to see if it would be helpful in my own labor, but I plan to donate it to the birth center when I am done.  In exchange, they are going to set up the hardware for it to hang from the ceiling securely.  That’s a pretty good deal.  This is the room that I plan to have the baby in.  The tub is wonderfully HUGE!

Daphne came to my appointment with me.  She was really good as long as there was something to occupy her.  You have no idea how much fun a tourniquet is until you are a 2 year old!

I am very much interested in an intervention free pregnancy.  It recently was brought up to me that I might want another ultrasound to determine the placenta placement and try to see how the baby is doing.  We want the placenta and the cord to be as far away from the scar as possible.  It turns out that everything looks fine.  It was nice to see the baby and make sure that everything was fine.  I am measuring a little bit ahead, but that means nothing, it is all based on averages, and everything is well within normal range.

When we got home this afternoon it was time to dig in to make some bread.  The dough was a little bit wet, which is odd because it was a pretty dry day.

Daphne seems to think that bread dough is the best thing to eat in the house, and I couldn’t keep her away from it.  I don’t really mind at all, and it makes for a happy baby..

Look at all the dough and flour on her face!

The bread turned out perfectly though!

After dinner I turned the table over to clean it.  We got a new table from Jared’s grandma Lois.  It is a big of an heirloom.  I love the table, but it was a bit dirty, so it needs some cleaning (and possibly a sanding and restaining.  Daphne found a new use for the table.  Looking awful medieval.

Thing 1 is turning into a much better mama.  She jumped in to nurse the babies today both times I took her the box, and it made me feel better.  I think she trusts me more now.  My decision to keep them inside was confirmed when one of them held on to the teat while Thing 1 jumped out of the box.  I was busy feeding other animals and didn’t notice for a while.  The baby was very cold and limp when I got back to it less than an hour later.  I let it nurse again and then put it in with its litter mates.  It seems to be doing fine, but if I had not gone to take the box back away from her, the baby would not have made it.  This has happened on at least 3 other occasions with Daisy as well.

They are still small, but they are all getting fed and they are growing nicely.  I think we are out of the clear on losing any of them at this point, but I wouldn’t put any money on it yet.

Here is a comparison of the two boxes.  The older bunnies sure do show a difference in growth.  They have started to spread out over the litter box, and they get comfy.

All of the black babies have their eyes open now, but none of the white babies.  All in good time, I am not worried about it.  I also discovered yesterday that one of the black bunnies is not actually black.  It might be chocolate or agouti.  I need to wait a bit and ask some people who know more than me.  If it is a chocolate torte, I will keep the bunny in my own herd.

They look like little baby rabbits now rather than hairless rats.

I found a snake in the back yard today, so Jared was sent out to cut the grass.  Even though it was a harmless snake, I don’t like them, and they tend to make feasts out of baby rabbits when possible.

Strawberry picking tomorrow as well as some other gardening projects.

Until then…

I really like the blog format where I post what went on during the day along with photos.  There are also definitely posts that deserve their own spot, but for now I am going to try to make this work.

I have been carrying the camera around with me a lot more lately, which really helps me document the day and the things that go on.  One of the only things I have from my mom (who died when I was 3) was a journal that she kept about what was going on and the changes I was making as a person.  I hope to pass this on to my future family.

The only problem with a daily post is that at the end of the day sitting on the computer is the last thing that I really want to be doing.  I’ve gotten everything else done I HAVE to have done, but I’m still feeling exhausted, and I want to go to bed.  Thank goodness we have laptop I can use to post while in bed.

We have a lot of potatoes that we got from the CSA over the past several weeks that I have been unable to find a use for.  Jared suggested that I try to make a sort of Oregon Burrito with them.  Oregon Burritos are a tupe of burrito that you can get from a local restaurant called Muchos Gracias.  It has steak and potatoes and cheese and other good things in it.  I sliced up the potatoes and fried them up in the grease that was left over from making my morning sausage.  I also added some home made veggie salt to it (there is a post coming on this, I’m still experimenting a little).  They came out pretty well.

Today was the last story time for a while.  The library follows a schedule closely related to the local school system.  They stopped doing story time during spring break, and they are taking some time off now during the end of school.  I personally think it is crazy, but no one asked my opinion.  The next story time will be at the end of June, so our Wednesday mornings are going to be empty for the next month.  Of course there were bubbles at the story time, and Daphne had a blast catching them and playing with them.

She is so nice and she brings the bubbles to me to check out when she catches them.

After story time, we headed over to the park to do some playing and eat some food.  Daphne had a blast running around on the play structure, and we even got some eating in as well.

The play structure is really cool!

After eating, we ended up going to the swimming pool to get a good hour of swimming time in.  People are really impressed by Daphne’s bravery in the water, and I must say that I am very proud of her.  I almost feel totally useless as a caregiver in the pool because she is so self sufficient.  I really hope to start teaching her how to swim under the water soon.

The day kind of went downhill from there.  Daphne refused to take a nap when we got home and then her friends showed up.  I spent at least an hour sewing while I was interrupted every few minutes to handle the fact that she would not lay down to take a nap.  I finally gave up at 4:00 and told her that she could come out, but when she does not take a nap it takes a toll on everyone.  She spent the rest of the day totally unhappy and upset.  She was impossible to please and she made a game out of everything she was not supposed to be doing.  It was not a lot of fun.

When I finally managed to coax Daphne into the bedroom, she found her keyboard and sat down to type.  It is not connected to anything, but she informed Jared and I that she was sitting down to type a post on her blog.  I am trying to limit the time that I spend on the computer so I direct more attention to Daphne, but I had NO idea she even knew what a blog was.

I started to feel like the house was a little too messy and out of control so I went on a cleaning spree.  I mainly was worried about the kitchen because even if the smallest bit of food gets left on the counter the ants come in in droves!  What a total pain.  I did manage to get some things put away so that the house felt cleaner.  However, only 2 hours after going to bed, Daphne woke up upset.  I think she was sick.  She keeps telling me that her body hurts.  She was crying and grumpy and inconsolable.  I finally managed to get some things done by putting her in the big bed and letting her watch “Babe.”  However, she didn’t look good.

Thing 2′s litter is doing great.  I think having 12 kits as a first time mom really startled her.  When I went out in the morning she had pulled out a bunch more fur trying to make a nest to convince me to give them back.  She has less trust of me than Daisy does.  She has been reluctant to nurse, so I have had to force her to sit and nurse the babies which has resulted in injuries to 2 of them (while she struggled to get into a different position).  The scratches have healed pretty nicely though.  I have checked to make sure that all 12 have been fed and full each time I have taken them out.  It is hard for me to keep count, so I can imagine how overwhelming it must be to her.  The smaller kits are keeping up with the bigger ones.  They are not THAT much smaller after all.  I’m glad to see that they are aggressive nursers, so the baby I thought I was going to lose is in the clear now.

I am a little more hands off with this litter than with Daisy’s babies.  It is partially out of respect for the mama’s wishes and also because I’m not wanting to get attached to the babies because they are slotted and designated as meat rabbits.  I will love them and take care of them for sure, but making them tame pets probably isn’t the smartest thing to do.

Julie is getting interested in buying a meat doe because of the possibility of a nice meat source that is relatively easier than chickens.

Now you can really see the difference in this litter and Daisy’s babies.

Daisy’s black babies started to open their eyes today!  None of the white babies have yet, but I suspect that is because they are albino or REW (red-eyed white).  They sure are cute with their eyes open, but they are very squinty because all of that extra light seems to be a little overwhelming.

They are still very snuggly in the hand when you hold them.  They are almost too big now to safely hold in one hand.

The last part of the day involved cleaning off all the onions that we harvested from the garden before turning the soil.  We got 12 pounds of green onions.  After letting them dry for about a week and a half I cut out any bad parts or any stems that were not happy and got them ready for my next project with them.  I am going to dehydrate them and add them to my veggie salt (yes, I promise to tell about that more later.)

Today was pretty crazy for me.  I’m still working on the cleaning.  I wasn’t as tired as yesterday, so I managed to get some important things done, which is great, but as I walk around the house, I see things that really need to be done.  I am hoping to make some more progress on this tomorrow.  It seems that any speck of food left anywhere brings the ant army back.  The vacuum has been located peremently in the dining room for weeks now.  I finally broke down and bought some Terro at the store today. I am hoping that I will poision the little suckers out of my house.  I’m tired to cleaning them up 3 times a day.  The kitchen is clean enough that they shouldn’t be here at all, but one little nut left on the floor from Daphne’s lunch is enough to bring in a whole hive again.  How frustrating!

Daphne woke up upset this morning telling me that her body was hurting.  After coaxing more information out of her it becamse clear that the had a stomach ache.  I got a lot of breakfast down her, but the only thing that she wanted to do was snuggle her mama.  I spent the morning sitting with her watching TV.  She got to watch Sesame Street, or, as we call it, “Monsters”.  I let her watch about once a week, so it was a nice treat for her.  When I got tired of the TV, I turned it off and sang songs with her.  She likes “Itsy Bitsy Spider”, “I’m a Little Teacup”, “ABCD…”, “There’s a Spider on the Floor” and “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.”  I spent over an hour being told to sing things again and again.  The whole time I was happy to spend time with her and see her smile.  It felt like real quality time.  Snuggling was an important part of the entire process.  She had to be wrapped up in her comfy blanket the whole day as well.  It is called the comfy blanket because a book she got for her birthday called the “Cat Book” refers to putting the cats to bed with a comfy blanket.  This is her comfy blanket.

I got the elastic marked for my diapers so I only have to sit down at the sewing machine now to actually sew the elastic on.  We will have to see when that happens.

The rabbits are definitely growing a lot.  I feel like I have seen a change in them.  They should start opening their eyes in the next day or two, which I think will be a lot of fun.  They are certainly more active now rather than spending the whole day sleeping.  I think it would be nice to see where they are going.  I’m worried about sexing the rabbits because I don’t know if I will botch it.  A lot of people can do it from birth, but I’m just not that good.  They are all just “baby rabbits” to me.  Daphne calls them all “her”, which I can see.  Rabbits are a more feminine animal, and Daphne doesn’t really have the whole male/female pronoun thing down yet.

This is the only bunny that does have a name.  All the black bunnies have a little white stripe on their head, but this one has a leg that is also white.  Unfortunately, it is kind of a flaw, from what I understand, so it might not be sellable, but it is kind of cute.  Maybe someone won’t care about the flaw, but for now I am worried that it might designate the kit as a meat rabbit.  Anyway, this bunny is named Blaze.

I think they are looking much older.

When I gave up on Thing 2 kindling it was time to start worring about Thing 1.  I moved the nest box into her pen, and she was totally happy to start digging in it.  I was almost certain that she was bred, so I stalked her a little last night thinking she would kindle soon.  When I went out to take the angora babies to Daisy, I looked in and saw that Thing 2 had in fact kindled, and I must have just caught her in the act.  There was still fresh blood everywhere, and the babies were still quite damp.  She did a good job though.  She had pulled fur out from her belly and covered them right up like a good mama.

I let her be for a while and then I decided to inspect and make sure they were all alive.  I counted 10 kits at first, which is totally surprising because this is her very first litter.  They were all alive and doing quite well.  I let her be with them for a while.  I went back out later in the day to bring the box in because it was raining and cold, and it turns out that there were actually 12 of them.  She had done such a good job making a nest for them all that I couldn’t find them all at first.  They were all alive but hadn’t been fed yet.  I decided to keep the box until dusk and then return them to her to see if she would nurse them.

There are 6 black and 6 white kits. Do you think you could count them all under that fur and paper?

The progress of the 10 day old litter now is very clear to me.  These bunnies are super small and hairless!

They are all doing Ok for now.  A litter of 12 is really huge, especially for a first-time mom, so I am doing everything I can to keep them alive at this point, but I would not be surprised if I lose one or two of them.  I took them out to nurse around 7 tonight.  The mama was interested in them but not ready to nurse yet.  I ended up putting her in the box with them, and most of them got the hang of it.  However, she wasn’t totally into being helped, so she jumped out before they all got to eat.  She only has 12 teats after all.  I ended up looking through them and finding the ones that had not nursed and getting them latched on to her.  I also found unfortunately that she had stepped on one of them, so he has scratches on his side that I hope will heal up well.  There was one kit that was clearly not done nursing, but despite all my attempts, it would not latch on to its mom.  I even tried letting it nurse Daisy, and though Daisy didn’t mind, the kit just wasn’t interested.  I hope that this is not a bad sign because I would hate to lose one, but only time will tell what is in store for that baby.  I’ve done all I can do at this point.

Daphne thought the apron I was wearing to cook dinner was awful exciting so she took a turn trying it on before going to bed.

I’d like to get some spinning done before heading to bed, but the crying baby in the next room has other plans.

I’m going back and forth a little bit on how I want to do the blog posts.  Now that I have caught up on older photos and stories, I am free to blog about things that happen throughout the day (and trust me, there is a lot).  My hope is that I will be able to post a “summary” post of the happenings of the day with any photos or updates on life.  That doesn’t mean that I won’t be making other dedicated posts about other things, but a day summary type post could help tie in photos and stories that don’t otherwise really NEED their own blog posts.

Monday was a fantastic day.  I’m entering the very end of my pregnancy, and it really is starting to take a toll on me.  I’ve been working hard trying to get everything done so far so that I wouldn’t have anything to worry about when I got to this point.  Surprise, I’m at that point, and though not EVERYTHING is done, I am at a managable stage where I can remain sane and still take it fairly easy in what I do.

One of my goals has been to get the house in order.  Generally, the house is very clean, but there are random things laying around everywhere that need to go where they belong.  It’s kind of crazy because Ihave to constantly tell everyone to not touch this or that.  If I just spent the time cleaning up and putting things away, I wouldn’t have the problem of having to contstanly clean or chase people around to get things clean.

One of the important things to do was the laundry.  I just love that my little munchkin is old enough to ACTUALLY be useful in some regards.  She puts her stool next to the washer so that she can put things in it, and she actually managed to get the whole load in without much help.

Julie came over to sew after Daphne took her nap.  I have been working on a new style of diaper that I wanted to try out making.  Though I have plenty of diapers, I figure that they always have value, so I can sell them if I realize I don’t use them or don’t like them.  I like having something to sew right now because it keeps me focused and makes me happy.  I don’t think that Jared minds too much.  The diaper I am making is a diaper that is supposed to be one-size fits all.  It is a fitted diaper, so it requires a cover over it, but the one-size concept is really nice.  The only problem is that it requires an awful lot of snaps on it to make it so adjustable.  I’m making 15 of the diapers, so I spent the afternoon getting all the snaps on them.  They are just ready to have elastic sewn in and then to be closed and I will have some new lovely diapers.  I am very happy with the colors I chose to make, and when they are done, I will be posting some photos.  Until then, check out all the snaps.

Of course Julie’s kids wanted to check out the bunnies.  They hadn’t been over since they were born, so the bunnies got plenty of socialization.  They were generally very good with them, and I am happy to have the rabbits be handled by humans.  I’m hoping to sell the Angora rabbits as wool animals, so the more gentle they are the better my case as a breeder is.  Audrey loved the black ones and Copper prefered the white.

I sort of feel like I am taking the same photos over and over of the bunnies, especially the photos of them in their nest.  It seems that the photos look the same every single day, but I’m really starting to see some changes in the bunnies.  Their ears are starting to stand up  like real rabbits, which goes a long way to make them not look like rats.  They are also growing hair at a very fast rate.  Now that we are past the week mark, I am pretty much in the clear that they will all survive.  They are starting to move around a LOT more.  They are agressive nursers now, which I find comforting because at least I know that they are all getting milk.  Mama is happy to nurse them in the morning but more reluctant at night.  Rabbits generally ignore their babies except to nurse them at dawn and dusk.  They are born in such a fragile state that if the mama was to spend time fiddling with them during the day that she would reveal their hiding place to any predators.  The buns have their eyes closed until a week and a half old, so they really have no defense against themselves.  This is why it is viable and successful to keep them inside and take them out to mama.  I don’t like them getting too cold or the possibility of the fact that one could get out of the box at night and die from exposure.  I also like to actually see the mom nurse the babies so that I can check them afterwards to see that they have all been fed.  A litter of 8 is a pretty big litter to care for.

I passed the 36 day mark for Thing 2, which means that she was not bred.  She was lactating, but she must have been experiencing a phantom pregnancy, which happens when you try to breed a doe and she does not actually get pregnant.  I put her back in with the buck, and she was VERY receptive to him, which made me comfortable to know that she was not pregnant.  I have marked my calendar, and I may be doing the baby rabbit routine with her again in 30 days.  I am disappointed that she didn’t kindle.  I have not had the best of luck in the past, but I am feeling that she is definitely bred this time.

When I came in from feeding the animals Daphne was ready to go to bed.  She likes to go into her daddy’s office and lay down on the couch and pretend to sleep.  She wrapped herself up in some fabric that Copper left here and declared she was sleeping in her daddy’s office for the night.  I should have left her there too.  She ended up waking up at 10 pm in her cradle very upset.  It took a good 45 mintues to get her back to sleep.

After I got Daphne to sleep I managed to sit down and card some Angora fiber to spin.  I spent about an hour and a half adding more to my bobbin.  I am excited to fill the bobbin completely so that I can get started on a hat for the baby.

I finished the winter term in school (back in late February) thinking that I had earned my degree.  My adviser told me that I had met all requirments and according to all information I had, I was done.  The problem was that, even though I applied to graduate in November, they take a LONNNNNNNGGGGGGGG time to inform you that you have graduated.  Finally, after feeling frustrated and not complete on my college education, I called the Registrar at the school only to be told that of course I had graduated, hadn’t I been sent a letter?  Silly people!  I’ve been waiting for the letter for a long time.  They promised to resend it (I never got it).

I finally got a letter the other day that said that if I mailed in a form to authorize them to mail me my diploma that they would send it out after June 22.  I guess that’s my official word from the school that I’m a graduate huh?

So, I will hopefully be getting my diploma from PSU before too long here!

With the bunnies living inside for now, Daphne really loves to play with them.  I managed to get these photos of her playing with them that really do show how much they’ve grown.

They should open their eyes this week!

We were out for most of the day on Saturday, so when I got back to feed the kits, they looked a lot different to me.  Their ears are starting to stick up a bit, which helps make them look even more cute.  They are also growing hair at a fast rate.

I went out to check on them the other day with their mama, and one of them had gotten out of the nest box.  I decided to keep them inside and take them to their mama to nuse to avoid losing one of them.  This has been successful so far because they only eat every 12 hours.

Do they look different to you?

So snuggly.