Olivia's Pick--14 June 2009

"Mama, Mama! I see a bunny! I see a bunny!" Olivia was standing at the back door off the kitchen, gazing into our yard.

I looked out the window over our sink and, sure enough, there was the sweetest, smallest baby rabbit nibbling at our lawn.

"Mama, can we go out and see him?"

"Sure, angel."

So we opened the door as noiselessly as we could. And we tiptoed out, as noiselessly as a 3-year-old in close proximity to a baby bunny can tiptoe.

Before too long, the bunny caught on that he was being stalked and bounced away to safety under our hedge.

"Bunny, come back," Olivia was on the move after him when, all of a sudden, she fell down. Except, from where I was standing, it didn't look like she had actually fallen. She was on the ground, one leg out to the side, but...where was her other leg?

It was, as it turns out, stuck up to the knee in a groundhog hole in the back of our yard. She started crying while I tried very hard not to laugh. I rushed over and pulled her out. But when her foot came out of the hole, I saw only her little pink sock; the hole had kept her sneaker. Once discovered, this prompted a round fresh tears at increased volume.

"MwaaaalssshhhhMySHOOOOOO!"

I brought her inside, dried her tears and offered up a second pair of shoes. (I had peeked down that hole and it was pretty deep. I wasn't about to stick my hand down there after a well-used sneaker from Target.)

Despite the lost shoe, she was calm and smiling within minutes. She's also had considerable fun recounting her harrowing adventure to friends and family.

She hasn't even soured on the bunny in our back yard, or rabbits in general. As I type this, in fact, she has recruited her Papa to go out and look for our backyard bunny. But this time, she's doing it barefoot.