dog days of summer

can i even still call it summertime? august quietly slipped away without me even noticing, and a few days into september the weather has finally dropped out of the 90s. ok, enough about the weather, i'm blogging here, not making small talk.

so the last few weeks have been quite busy, lots of events i could talk about, but the motivation to write had escaped me for awhile. i finally have a moment of inspiration, so i'm ready to empty my head.

two weeks ago we held my older sister's bridal shower. i think i did a pretty good job for my first co-maid of honor duties. being from a family of 50,000, it's hard to find a restaurant in the area that has not been done twice over. we ended up selecting Yangming because it was a bit out of the norm but the food was excellent and the bride seemed to appreciate that we went off the beaten path for her. we also created a gift poem that related gifts to marriage advice she'd learn from tv. an avid trash reality watcher, she learned how to have a great marriage from shows like the real housewives, big brother, and the hills. and she got some neat gifts out of that too. i should also mention that my attempt to be martha stewart didn't come across (to me at least) as fantastically as i felt it did a few months ago, but the thought (and the taste!) was still there. and the boston terrier loving bride appreciated the attempt :)

Bostons or black bears?  At least they tasted pretty good...

More cookies... looked a little better

The weekend after the shower was our annual family vacation to the exotic island known as sea isle city, new jersey. i was excited to bring gobbles to the beach again and that his daddy got to see him this time as well. camcorder in one hand, camera in the other, with paparazzi grandmom looking over our shoulders with her camera for good measure, we headed off to the beach. this time gobbles was more interested in the water, but still screamed every time a wave suddenly came up around his ankles.

Gramdmom don't you drop me.  Look at mah bellay, cha cha cha!

This ain't so bad... but where'd my foot go?

After spending about 4 minutes in the sun, my pale husband decided that was enough sun for the day and we retreated back into the tent / umbrella set up to keep Gobbles shaded. He enjoyed crawling off the blanket onto the sand, relaxing with a good book, and playing with bucket full of water, which fascinated him for the remainder of his day.

I can't wait to find out the end!

What do we have here...

Well let's just make sure everything's ok down there.

And of course to deal with the fact that my boy was covered in a nice mixture of sand and sunscreen (I'll spare you the details of how fun the post beach diaper / bath were), I decided to give gobbles some nice surfer boy hair.

I know, i'm a stud

seriously, you don't have to tell me twice. i make it look effortless.

The rest of the weekend, the weather wasn't so agreeable, so we spent a lot of time in the beach house.  Blowing bubbles, playing with  grandma and grandpa, and eating a whole lot of goodness.  The amount of fun that was packed into a few short days exhausted us.  the first "family vacation" was a success, and gobbles birthday vacation is just 3 months away.  time to rest up and get ready.

look at all you guys!  i love you all!!

where did all of your bubble friends go??

Thank you mommy and daddy for taking me to the beach!

we'll see you again next year!

upon our return, we gathered up the puppies from their trusty boarder the hippie lady, and all seemed back to normal.  but that night gobbles started wheezing terribly every time he crawled.  the paranoia set in and we rushed off to the pediatrician to make sure he wasn't having an asthma attack or anything.  we were assured that he is healthy as a horse, and the wheezing is a combination of his excitement & enthusiasm for crawling, as well as the fact that he's a little chubster, (still sitting in the 97th percentile), so it might be more effort for him to move as quickly as he does. 

relieved, we figured we could finally relax with our return to work from vacation.  the next night, cannoli showed signs of trouble jumping up to the couch and going up the stairs.  his back was quivering every time he walked so i made an emergency trip to the vet with him during lunchtime.  almost $300 and a series of tests later, the vet made a diagnosis attempt of staph infection.  he assured me it was not contagious to children or other pets and sent us on our way with pills and instructions to chill out. 

when i got home from work that night, cannoli was acting like his old self, better than ever.  we hung out and watched gobbles crawl around the floor.  during the playtime, spoons sauntered over to me for some love.  as i pet her back, she squealed and ran away.  uh oh.  the next morning yielded another trip to the vet and another staph diagnosis.  my little girl has a higher tolerance for pain than cannoli, so the theory is that they got it at the same time, but spoons express that she was in pain like he did. 

for safe measure we disinfected the house and kept gobbles away from the dogs for a few days.  they're now finishing up their antibiotics and are fine. perfect timing too, since now the little man has taken a new interest in his puppies.  he's spent all of his awake time the past day or so terrorizing these poor creatures, crawling after them and pulling at their hair with a new vigor.  just another reason for me to break out the camera, so until then...

so there's my month's worth of stuff in one blog.  and that didn't include the bachelorette party i'm sitting here recovering from.  but what happens in ocmd stays in ocmd.  besides, there is so much fun stuff coming up, i'll have plenty to write about without going into detail about pole dancing classes and multicultural penis wine charms (thanks again, isrut!).  

now i'm off to save those puppies from the crawling maniac who currently has cannoli trapped in his crate!