Meet Cleo!

Singing:: Here comes Misses Cottontail...Hopping down the Johnson's trail... Hippidy Hop Hop...Starling's gonna FLI-IP!::

Meet Cleo!

OH YES... despite the fact that Starling JUST talked me out of getting the CUTEST white Maltese/Shiatsu mix from the pound... he didn't tell me I couldn't get a RABBIT! AND... anyway... it was FOR Brooklyn. Mostly.

Brooklyn wanted a "rap." EVER since she played with Frankie Raub's rat, she was DYING to have her own. Over Starling's dead body. He let me have a CAT so we didn't GET rats. Okay, okay. But the cat scratches Brooklyn. Charkley is just too heavy to be hauled around by a 2 year old that hasn't even broken 25 pounds yet. PLUS both the CAT and the DOG are attached to ME. Like Hot Glue to a careless finger. SOOOO I took Brooklyn and Boston to LOOK at the bunnies. There was only ONE and it was big and, quite honestly, ugly. It was a Velveteen rabbit with giant kickers that kangaroo kicked the kiddos in the chest and took off running through the pet store. Nice. Did that deter the two little darlings? On the Contrer... It put them in animal-holding-wanna-hold now-CRAZED-mode. They wanted to hold the Guinness Pigs, the Hampsters, the birds, the FISH... AND, this absolutely SHOCKED ME, the SNAKES... I wasn't THAT shocked by BOSTON wanting to hold one... but BROOKLYN? Little miss- "MOMMAY!!! I don't WANNA touch the WORM!" She was DEsPerATE to hold ANYTHING. Well- I wasn't going to get close to the GLASS- let alone HOLD a snake. Ughgh... they give me the hibby jibbies in a stalker at Wal-Mart kind of way. BUT some lady let them pet the one she was holding. My insides froze up... but they survived alright.

Then Boston said, "BROOK BROOK! COME!" And she ran to see what he had found. SPIDERS. I didn't even go NEAR that section. ICK, Ick, double BEAT em' with a STICK, ICK! (Which reminds me of a funny story I'll have to remember to tell). I asked wearily... "Brooklyn, you want to hold a SPIDER??" She looked at me like I'd asked if she'd like to drink raw sewage. "NO! I don't WANT to touch the itsy itsy spider! The spider es YUCK!" Halelujia... all her sense wasn't lost.

Anyway- they held the protesting bunny for another thirty min, each saying, "My turn," immediately after passing it off. Finally, when I feared for the bunny's well being, I bribed them away with tauntings of ALL they could eat PIZZA! At Ci Ci's. Yeah. All they could eat. like two slices a piece and a brownie. BUT they had a BLAST! And, if I'm being COMPLETELY HONEST, SO DID I! It was like- THE most ADORABLE thing watching them eat pizza. "I want a... RED pizza!" Opposed to...? And then they would put pepper on their pizza and act like their mouths were ablaze like my kitchen stove every time I try to cook meat. Then they would giggle and guzzle down some sprite. I had as much fun as them just WATCHING. And I ate enough to make up for their measly appetites.

I'm thinking that's why it is IMPERATIVE for true life happiness to have offspring. All the things that used to bring me the GREATEST joy... Barbies, going to the Zoo, Theme Parks, Scary Movies, text messaging, mud sliding, Boys... its just NOT the same. So what do GROWN UPS do for fun? (Plenty of things, I know... get together and EAT... that's what) but NOTHING is more fun than RE-LIVING your childhood THROUGH your kids. Seeing their excitement over a "turtle fish" or dog clothes with Rhine stones ("MOMMy! Its... so... BEAUTIFUL...")is simply priceless. Hearing their little voices sing the theme songs to Disney Movies, watching their eyes try to escape their heads when they catch a glimpse of a squirrel in the yard, watching their tongues savagely mutilate an ice cream cone.... I could just sit back in my Lazy Boy with a big ole' tub of buttery popcorn (or better that cheese kind... and caramel kind... ya know.. sweet and salty fix at the same time...) and a GIANT glass of sweet lemon aide and laugh my way through the next 18 years. (OR until they hit the dreaded TEENS).

So... beCAUSE my greatest joy in life is seeing my CHILDREN joyful... can you BLAME me for wanting to get my kid a rabbit? Its not a dog or a rat. IF I had gotten EITHER one of those... well... that would have just been blatant disregard for the love of my life, Starling. BUT I do not wish to make his life miserable... SOOOOOooo I got something cute and fluffy and prayed he'd like it.

Yeah RIGHT... like I'd leave the BUNNY to do all the work... BROOKLYN is my secret weapon in all things ANIMAL. She TOTALLY sucked up my DOG attempt. When we took Starling with us to the pound to get the dog I claimed BROOKLYN was in love with... Starling asked, "Do you LOVE the dog?" Brooklyn, who had never even shown INTEREST in the dog, said, "umm.. NO. I just love Charkley." SOOO Starling ROLLED his eyes and we left, my cover blown. BUT the rabbit was different. She really WAS and IS in love. And could Starling REALLY NOT love Brooklyn being in LOVE?? Um. What is he made out of cement with a frozen turkey for a heart? Of COURSE he isn't going to make HER take back that BUNNY. (Although he did give me an ear full about its HUGE and NOT a tiny little rabbit and he has to go work to pay for the FOOD and our WHOLE house smells like a VETeranarian's office... yata yata... which is HILARIOUS mind you since he walked into our house like FIVE minutes after we got home with the rabbit who hadn't even laid a single pellet yet). But really... after watching Brooklyn love on Cleo for two minutes... Starling was saying things like, "Awww... do you love your new bunny?" "Look at the sweet little thing...she loves you, too..." AND Cleo is like- the sweetest thing ever.

I had actually decided, on SEEING the "new" bunnies they got in today, that we were NOT going to get one because they WERE indeed NOT the cute, tiny little bundles of fur that I saw on the internet. BUT... after HOLDING Cleo... and her velvet fuzz squishing through my fingers while her tiny little nose waddled around on her face like a little spring duckling... I just... I didn't CARE that she was a LITTLE ginORMOUS for a BABY rabbit. We JUST clicked. And then there was Brooklyn... smitten. Totally smitten. And Boston is going to do a cartwheel when he comes on Monday. That bunny is going to be spoiled like 10 day old cabbage.

So I just took the plunge before I could turn back. They gave me a BOX to keep her in on the ride home. haha... RIGHT. Brooklyn held her in her car seat the entire way... and Cleo didn't seem to mind too much.

"I love her better than Nochio..." She said when she got home. (K. THAT is like a HUGE deal). And a few hours ago she said, "I love her better than the rap." Or RAT. Whatever...

So now if we can just get CLEO to love her as much...

I lost the poor thing practically RIGHT away. I went to help Brooklyn in the bathroom and said, "Charkley... watch Cleo!" And I'll have you know I came back and that bunny had disappeared. "Where did she go!?" Yawn. "CHARKLEY- sniff her out! Go!" Yawn. Sneeze. Dance. (Dance= pet me Mom... hold me.. give me a treat... and i'm ignoring your quest to find the replacement animal). UGH! So I started calling Cleo... "Cleo.. ClEO!!! Here bunny bunny! Wanna CARROT, bunny bunny?? PLEASE COME OUT BUNNY! WHERE ARE YOU?" Yeah. Not really the answering type. A little on the SILENT type.. So I started moving couches, chairs, looking behind pianos...

When I gave up and stopped griping at Charkley for being the WORST watch dog EVER... Charkley WENT to the rug where we'd been playing with the bunny, sniffed, sneezed, then walked over to the ONLY place in my entire house I hadn't ram-sacked. He yawned, sneezed again, and laid down STARING at the air conditioner. (A little stand up thing we put in the red room). AND there she was curled up asleep behind the thing. I thumbed Charkley in the butt, and took the rabbit BACK to HER room.

She's already warming up to us. I was a little discouraged at first since she kept running and hiding every time I put her down. But I think she's getting less afraid. Of me. Probably MORE afraid of Brooklyn. BUT I'm working with Brooklyn. She'll be alright EVENTUALLY. And I found out those little bb pellets are Cleo's poop. I thought they were part of her Fiesta Mix Bunny Food. They are WAY smaller than the poop I used to find in my back yard. And so I'm newspaper training her. So far... so good... well... on MY end. Cleo- not so much.

I wouldn't want my life to get all dull and boring... I have to keep spicing it up with random things to keep my family going a LITTLE crazy. THIS outta do it! (Just ask my hubby!)