A Sad Day

By Amy

It's been a sad day in the Morello house today.... At about 10:15 the boys and I put Snowball in my bathroom and headed out the door to pick Savannah up from school. We made it back home around 11am. As Savannah walked in, she headed straight to my bathroom to let Snowball out. Immediately she burst into tears and came running to me, saying she thought Snowball's dead. I quickly headed into the bathroom to find our little friend lying on his side next to our bathtub. I immediately picked him up and wrapped him in a towel, as he was all wet. His legs kicked a little, but he didn't seem to be breathing. Savannah and I both held him and prayed. Pretty soon, he stoped moving at all. We cried together and call Brad.

This little guy was so funny! He was full of determination. Many times we have laughed watching him try to jump up on the couch or on the kitchen table. (Thankfully, he was unsuccessful at both!) We have found him trapped in the trash can multiple times, though. And, we just couldn't keep him in his cage. Even after blocking all four sides, he'd still climb out the roof. So, we basically turned my bathroom into his "cage." He still had an actual cage in there with his food, water, and litter box inside, but we never shut the door. It was located next to our bathtub. A few times, we've gone to get him only to find him trapped in our bathtub. We thought that was pretty funny and even joked about finally finding a place he couldn't escape from.

So, my only guess is that today, he got into our bathtub. Then, for the first time, he jumped up to the edge of the tub, but broke his back as he jumped down. I heard that breaking a back is a common way for bunnies to die, since they often twist hard when they jump from high places. I'm just so sad that my little girl had to be the one to find him....

When Brad came home this afternoon, he took his girls out for ice cream to try to cheer us up. (Unfortunately we discovered that our Baskin' Robins has closed down! -- bummer!) Then, when the boys woke up, we buried Snowball. Savannah and I both have shed a few tears since then. (It's silly how much I liked that little bunny!) But, I think we'll be OK. Brad has been sweet and sensitive and even took the kids down to the "grave" tonight so they could say good night to Snowball before heading to bed.

Although this has been sad, it's provided some good opportunities to remind our kids that all good gifts are from above. We were blessed to have a month with Snowball. Even though it was shorter than we had hoped/expected, we should be thankful. God is good and we trust his wisdom.

You know you're no longer in America when...

by Brad.

The Hunt's BBQ Sauce has an anti-theft device planted on the bottle but the DVD doesn't. In fact, the DVD is 1/4 the price the BBQ sauce and conveniently says, "The Empire Strickes Back." Then, once you put it in to play, you find out it is actually, "The Return of the Jedi." I guess I like 'Return' so nothing to complain about here.

I will admit that I've gotten re-interested in the Star Wars dual-trilogy recently. I watched episodes 4, 5, and 6 before I was a teenager and simply enjoyed the light-saber fights. Then as a mid-20 something year old, I watched episodes 1, 2, and 3 and really found them confusing (and therefore somewhat dis-interesting). But I resolved to understand the bigger picture (after coming down with a sickness) and accomplished that over the last month with my kids. It's really a very carefully constructed story with many interesting twists that went right over my head before. I'm not about to become one of those SW geeks who live, eat and sleep the stuff, but I am happy to have a more complete understanding of the saga. Recently, Alex has been walking around with his chest out, breathing very heavily and saying, "You are my Son." (Editors note: Actually, it is 'I am your father' but he in the right ballpark).

We're excited that we've made a number of new friends lately. Please think of us as we have them over for lunch over the next couple of weeks and get to know them.

Give it up for Mavala Stop!

by Amy

For about a month before my parents came, any time you asked Peter about Papa and Nana coming, he'd always say, "When Papa and Nana come, I'm gunna get big!" It took me a little while to figure out why he was saying that. Brad had told him that Papa and Nana were bringing special medicine from America (or Switzerland actually) to help him and Alex stop sucking their fingers & thumb (respectively) and be big boys. And, if you know Peter and Alex very well at all, you know that was going to be a difficult task! Those boys love to suck their fingers/thumb!

The bottle pictured above is about the size of a bottle of finger nail polish, and it cost almost $10 on amazon! That's a lot of money for such a little jar! And, since we have two kids, Brad actually considered buying 2 bottles. There's no telling how much of that stuff we'd need!

Well, after painting their nails/fingers with the Mavala Stop, it took 7.5 minutes (my dad timed it) before Peter forget about being big and put his fingers in his mouth. He was sitting at the kitchen table waiting for breakfast. I walked up to find him with tears in his eyes madly wiping his tongue on a hot pad that had been sitting in front of him. After that, they both forgot a few more times and tried to get a quick suck, but it didn't last long. Alex was requesting water all day long trying to get that horrible taste out of his mouth.

So, all that to say, after a few days of applying the stuff to their fingers/thumb, the habit was broken! And we only used about 1/100 of the jar! It's a good thing Brad didn't buy two! So, now Peter and Alex are officially big! And, they like to remind me of that! Just the other day, Pedo asked why I got to eat two cookies and he only got one. I replied with, "I'm big, Pedo, so I eat more than you." He promptly responded, "I'm big too, Mama; I don't put my fingers in my mouth anymore!"

Dinner Table Conversations

by Amy

Just a few nights ago, Brad and I listened to the kids have this conversation:

Savannah: When I grow up, I want to be an artist -- well, an artist and a doctor.

Peter: I want to be an artist, too, when I grow up.

Savannah: That's great Peter! That means we can go to the same school to learn about being artist and then we can work in the same company.

Alex: I want to be an artist....

Savannah: Great, then Alex when you grow up, we can all work together!

Peter: And, when Daddy and Mommy grow up, they can be artist too! We can all work together!

Savannah: When we grow up, Mommy and Daddy will be really old. They can't work with us!

--at least she doesn't think we're already "really old!"

Papa & Nana Flashback: Wild Animal Zoo

by Amy

After our week in the Big City, we all spent a just over a week in our hometown. I had heard from some friends that our city has a "Wild Animal Zoo." So, we thought that might be a fun thing to check out while there were here. I asked Leigh to write the name of the Zoo on a piece of paper, so I could just hand that to my taxi driver. Brad decided he couldn't skip another day of class to participate in this adventure. So, that left 6 people...I figured we'd all try to fit in one taxi....Good choice since it cost over 130local dollars/and 50 minutes to get there! (130 local dollars is about 18USD, but since I rarely pay over 20local dollars to go anywhere, I was shocked!)

The first exhibit we saw at the wild animal zoo was the Dog Exhibit.....

Notice the sign above this guy's head. I think they're a little confused!

Next, we saw some monkeys, ate lunch and took a bus to see the Lions, Tigers, and Bears (oh my!) -- and wolves! We got in a "Cage-on-Wheels," and carried raw meat to attract wild animals to us. Crazy, yes, but it was so fun!!

My kids were a little unsure, at first, but they ended up having tons of fun feeding all these animals! I'm not exactly sure how "wild" they were, but it was still cool!

Savannah fed a wolf, then he jerked the stick from her hand. The workers on the bus with us were not too pleased. I guess good sticks are hard to find these days!

Then, we saw lions. The males never came up to our cage, but we got an up-close-and-personal look at the females. I was impressed with the size of her paws and face! Not a small little kitty!

Next came the tigers and bears.

We actually got out of the cage to view the bears, on the other side of a short wall and deep trench. They looked so soft and cuddly!

We had a fun time, and the kids couldn't wait to tell Daddy all about it when we got home! FYI- I had heard about the cage-on-wheels and raw meat, so I packed Clorox Wipes in my purse to wipe us all down with after leaving the cage!

Stay tuned....more flashbacks coming in the near future!

He's Here!

By Amy

(I have to admit that I delayed posting these pics because I was so enjoying the comments we were getting from our previous post!)

Meet Snowball! He's our new little bundle of joy! Our kids absolutely LOVE him! He's sweet, soft, clean, and fun!

While my parents were here, we saw some bunnies for sale and my kids fell in love! (And, so did I, I must admit!) The only problem was -- we were out of town. I wasn't ready to deal with the logistics of having a cage-less bunny in a hotel room and on the train... (nor did I want to carry a big cage on the train with all our other stuff!) So, I asked Leigh where we could buy one in our town. She recommended a "Sunday-Only Market." "But," she warned, "there are a lot of people there." Sure, but there are a lot of people everywhere in this country, I reasoned....

Lesson Learned: When a local warns of a lot of people...there are A LOT OF PEOPLE! This was the most crowded place we've ever been! It was fun getting to look at and pet lots of different animals (dogs, cats, birds, fish, etc.) but it was insanely busy! I'm thankful we didn't lose a kid in that place! Brad and I both agreed that was a once-in-a-life-time experience for our family!

Savannah has decided that Snowball is the best thing in the world! I cannot tell you how many times a day she runs to me saying, "Mommy, Snowball loves me! He just hopped in my lap, (or) was kissing me, (or) snuggled up to me because he didn't want me to put him down!" He has stolen my daughter's heart!

(Obviously Snowball is a true Morello as he too, loves crocs!)

I'm sure many more pics of snowball will be in future posts -- if he lives that is! Everyone I've asked about buying "Special-made-for-bunnies-food" says that doesn't exist here. So, right now he's living on a diet of carrots, lettuce, apples, and grass/flowers from outside. Any suggestions?