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.