3 Month Anniversary

Sunday, as E and I were getting ready to drive our kids our junior bridesmaid, N,  and junior groomsmen, S, down to camp, E realized that it was our three month anniversary. I'm not surprised that I didn't realize it sooner, E has always been a wiz with dates and numbers and the time has passed so quickly. I'm not sure where these last nine years of our relationship have gone but these last few weeks where we've been raising Milou and hosting N and S have zoomed by at light speed.

Milou is already 26 pounds!

Last Thursday we picked N and S up at the airport and went straight to the Aquarium of the Pacific. They're in that place where they're not quite teenagers yet but they're not really children anymore, one moment they're ohmygosh30yearsold mature and the next they're closer to a tantruming 6 year old. Luckily, we had a great time at the aquarium with no meltdowns and much appreciation for the tropical birds, puffer fish and moon jellies. I only got minimal complaints when I told them I wouldn't buy $3 one ounce cups of nectar for the birds and although I could tell S wasn't happy, he was able to be resourceful and use nectar flowers to attract the birds. They worked better than the cups anyway (what bird would be attracted to a plastic cup??) and I got approximately 284329874634 pictures of them holding the birds. 

The next day was spent at play dates and a friends BBQ, where they ran themselves into exhaustion with a pack of kids I've watched be born and grow up. Some are now taller than I am and other's have changed so much that they're nearly impossible to recognize as the soft,  bow mouthed newborns and bright eyed toddlers they used to be. I did a double take when I saw a little boy I used to watch at 5 as a grown up 12 year old with a mop of shaggy hair and a "Death to Humans" t-shirt. His little sister who I watched as a baby is now a little girl, running around and playing rough'n'tumble with the boy. As an adult, you don't realize how much can change in 7 years until you look at a child.

Beanbag Battle

Captain Australia

Ziggy watches N and S battle

S and T battle for the fort

Saturday ended up being a lazy day, although we started out with grandiose plans for visiting the LA Science Center. I think the BBQ the day before wore them out a bit, so instead we watched movies, went to the mall, and went out to our favorite mexican restaurant. Although I was hoping to get them into bed early, they hadn't seen the 1980's version of Batman so E, S and N piled into our bed and watched batman kick butt until midnight when we foisted them into their own beds and spent a good half hour giggling back and forth through the wall. When N called from her bed in her squeakiest sci-fi voice "Do you know who the fiend is? ....it's the LAXATIVE!" and we all burst into uncontrollable fits of laughter at this nonsense while S called "In Bed!" (thank god they still don't know why this is funny), I realized we had reached the that time and it was time to sleep.

N and S's awesome camp

Dropping them off at camp was a kind of bittersweet experience. I know they'll have a fabulous time although we'll miss them while they're gone. S acclimated pretty much instantly as soon as his friends got there but N took a little bit longer. We walked around the camp with her for about 2 hours and she still wasn't quite ready for us to go. I think it's going to be a hormonal summer for her and I felt like a giant meanie leaving her there when she wasn't ready to let go. We made up the secret word "pumpernickel" for her to write to us in letters if she was having a tough time, like "man they served us pumpernickel bagels for breakfast" instead of saying "i hate it i'm having a terrible time". Home sickness usually comes in bouts so hopefully hers are few and far between and they both have a great time.

Beautiful Gazebo

After dropping off the kiddos, E and I went to visit his stepdad G at his house where we got married. It was a little surreal to see it looking like a house instead of our wedding, but he kept up the gazebo we had our ceremony under and has a little table and chairs beneath it.  I really can't believe it's already been three months since we said our I do's. E says it feels more like a few weeks, but we've been together so long he doesn't really count in months anymore. I keep thinking of all the things we still have to do like send more thank you notes, lose the few pounds we gained so we can take our day after photos, choose photos for our wedding album, etc etc. If life goes this quickly without kids, I can't imagine how it will fly once we have our own! For now I want to try and focus more on enjoying each other and our surrogate children N and S. Oh, and getting out those remaining thank you notes >_<

Pupdate

It's been two weeks since Milou came into our lives and man has she shaken things up. There isn't a room in this house that doesn't have puppy paraphernalia all over the floor, be it toys, beds, crates, blankets, bones etc. She's everywhere and it's hard to remember what our house looked like before we brought her home!

Lap Dog

Despite my desperate love of sleeping in, I am now up at the chipper hour of 7:30 to take her out to pee and begin defrosting her breakfast. We've decided to go with raw food for her and it takes a little bit of extra work, though it's totally worth it. Thus far we've been making our own since our freezer seems to have a never ending supply of frozen chicken but I think we'll order it from a friend's breeder once we've used up our stash.

Who could resist that face???

Every Saturday she goes to puppy class where we attempt to make her into a well behaved social butterfly. She's picking up on commands really quickly but is still a little distracted by all those other pooches in the room. Today was better since the instructor let them have some off-leash playtime/meet'n'greet but she still needs to work on being tethered and she might have accidentally peed on another puppy's towel. It seems we're constantly being told to keep her in her crate/tethered/locked up somewhere which is tough since I we want to spend time with her. Next Saturday class is cancelled so we'll have a whole two weeks to get her used to being tethered so she doesn't run back and forth like a ping pong ball when we tether her in class.

Haji and Milou: Staring Contest 2011

Since we brought her home, Milou has gained 4 pounds, bringing her up to 26lbs. According to the GSD growth chart that puts her at about where she should have been two weeks ago, so she's not quite caught up. It's difficult to gauge whether she's growing correctly and getting enough food but I think she's okay. I'm not sure if she'll make it to 36 pounds by 4 months but as long as she's growing we're happy.

Milou in Action

As the incredibly adorable puppy that she is, Milou is prone to fits of playfulness that could melt even the grinch's heart.  

Milou chasing her tail. I'd never actually seen a puppy do this in person before her. 

Milou running in what we call "Crazy Dog Mode"

Even with a bum thumb, Puppies make you feel like everything is right in the. Somehow, I need to turn this bundle of fluffy energy into this by August:

 

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This pooch is crazy talented. I know Milou is smart enough to learn it, I'm just not sure we're smart enough to teach it.

M and C's Las Vegas Wedding

M and Clay's Las Vegas Wedding

June 15th, 2011

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Location: Little Church of the West, Las Vegas NV

Dress: Prom dress altered by M's mom

Shoes: Etsy

Head Band: Made by M herself!!

Necklace: Planetjill, photo of baby R

Suit: Friar Tux, Charcoal Grey

The Details

Bride, Groom and Baby R

Happy Together 

I wish I had brought my nice camera along with me! Instead, I took E's portable little Canon Powershot and it just couldn't handle the heat outside or the low light in the chapel. M and C made a beautiful bride and groom and R was adorable in her dress, even though she was napless and cranky. Both families were able to come last minute, including C's sister who came all the way from Texas and you could tell everyone was there because they loved M and C. 

After the short but sweet ceremony, we went out to dinner at the Luxor buffet and then headed back to the rooms for some champagne, wedding cake and mojitos. We toasted the happy couple, shared stories of our troublemaking youth and ultimately sent M and C back to their room to enjoy their incredible hot tub with a view of the strip. E and I were so happy we could be there to celebrate with them will try to upload a little video of their ceremony when we get home. 

Las Vegas, Wedding Edition!

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Today, E and I are in Las Vegas for the wedding of two of our best friends, M and C. M and C have been together for years now and have the gorgeous little girl R featured on my blog at every possible opportunity. After much back and forthing over whether or not to have a big ceremony, M and C decided to just go for it and elope! E and I were supposed to be there surprise witnesses but plans often don't work out as they're supposed to so the whole family is coming along and we are sadly no longer a surprise. I don't expect that to damper the enjoyment of the day and we can't wait to be there for them this evening.

Our nice big king bed!

To make our trip a super secret surprise, and since we haven't been on vacation since we got married, E and I arrived in Vegas yesterday, a day before the wedding. We made the drive pretty quickly, about 3 hours and 45 minutes plus a stop for a lazy lunch at Bob's Bigboy. We checked in, walked around the hotel, and drove over to the forum shops for some shopping and dinner. To our great dismay, FAO Schwarz is no longer there! Apparently it closed last year and our tradition of bringing home a furry friend from every Vegas trip has ended. We were also sad to see that our traditional restaurant is gone which led to dinner at the delicious but unexciting Cheesecake factory.

Amazing pools!

Given our tradition of sleeping till the afternoon with the Las Vegas blackout drapes closed, I would normally be asleep right now if our hotel room clock wasn't off. I rolled over at about 8:30 this morning and our clock said 2:30pm! I assumed we had just been really tired, and woke E up to tell him the heat was keeping people away from the pools which were miraculously empty! He's gone back to sleep but I think we'll be hitting the buffet and the pool sooner than expected. If we have time, we'll get E's hair cut before the ceremony and then it's off to watch M and C get married!

(Bum) Thumb's The Word

Le sigh. Somehow, I managed to slam my thumb in the car door today. We were parked on a slight incline and I was reaching to get groceries and close the door at the same time when the door swung shut and my thumb was in the way. It hurt pretty frickin' bad, enough that I got all pale, clammy and nauseous which was worse than the actual thumb slam. I reaaaally didn't want to go to the ER but I called and they said they weren't busy so Milou went into her crate, E covered my baby sitting job and my mom drove me to the ER. Thank goodness it's my left thumb and not my right, I already feel useless and it's been less than a day.

I should have taken a profile shot. It was swollen to twice the
size of my right thumb and stuck in a bent position.

After some x-rays and a doctor's exam, it seems that I have torn my extensor tendon. Fun right? If I'd just broken the bone it would have been a quick month in a splint fix. Instead, I have to wear a splint for months and months to straighten it and might need surgery. I think that's a bit premature but I'll have the surgeon they referred me to check it out.

Splint. AKA Major Pain in my ASS

Ugh. This is not the way I wanted to start my summer. It's gonna be pretty hard to go swimming at the beach with this get up on my hand.

Edit: I saw the surgeon! It turns out I only have a partial tear so no surgery, yay! It'll hurt for a long time and I'll have to keep it bandaged and take care of it, but it should eventually be okay :)

New Furry Baby!

Somehow, despite 10 million reasons not to,  our family has adopted a new fur baby! It was like all the planets aligned and she fell into our lap, too sweet and wonderful to refuse. She was dumped in the shady, should-I-be-wearing-this-color part of Silverlake with a note that read "2-3 month old GSD puppy" tied around her neck. I can't imagine how anyone could have abandoned that sweet face, but they did and miraculously she wasn't hurt by a car or stray dog. For the first few days, we had our friend who fosters for German Shepherd Rescue keep her since he was set up for another dog and we weren't sure if we could keep her. I brought my mom to meet her on Tuesday and by Thursday E and my sister L were meeting her and we were taking her home.

I know she looks giant in this picture but she's actually really small