{ splish splash park }

One of my favorite things about being a mom?

How much joy simple things bring to my child.

Like sliding down a water slide, over...

and over...

and over...

for hours on end, with a little buddy.

It warms a mommy's heart.

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{ beach days }

We hope you all had a wonderful Labor Day Weekend.

We had a great time celebrating with friends and barbecues and some great times around town.

Of course, there were hot dogs.

And then we enjoyed "the beach."

There is an area in our downtown where they bring in hundreds of tons of sand for the kids to play on the waterfront. 

It's really pretty cool.

So we headed over.

We had lunch at a place that was... how shall we say?... delightfully tacky, yet unrefined.

Turtle took his grilled cheese quite seriously.

Then we went out to play.

He loves the sand.

And I love him.

After a little while, MacGyver started getting restless, and asked me how I would feel about a water taxi ride.

Ya'll. I don't do boats. I get hideously sea sick. I thought, maybe, for a second, if it was just a quick back and forth, I could do it. But as the docked taxi pulled away, and the next one floated up. 

And started rocking.

Back and forth.

Cue nausea.

So I gave them both a kiss and sent them on their way.

Turtle had so much fun.

He couldn't stop talking about it.

And those? Those are the best days.

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{ hands-on children's museum }

Last week, we attended what could only be called a blogger's playdate.

Turtle and I were joined by the delightful Mungee and her Ma (from Mungee and Me), and E with her daughter K (of The Writer Revived).

Our destination? The local Hands On Children's Museum.

Our purpose? To have lots of fun. And to possibly exhaust the kids into marathon naps. 

I'm going to be honest. The building? A little odd. A little rundown. A little poorly lit.

But, F-U-L-L of super cool things that I would have loved as a kid.

And also? Super educational. Just look as this antique phone, complete with corded handset. That has got to be from the 80s. 

Of course, Turtle was drawn right to it.

Miss Mungee was loving the toddler room. 

There was a very cool Melissa & Doug cash register in the little market area. Very cool.

Not the greatest picture, but check out this Winn Dixie Grocery area (sponsored, of course, by Winn Dixie), featuring the cutest little shopping carts, working conveyor belts and all sorts of great products. Turtle was quick to snatch up popcorn and mac & cheese.

He also managed to get a box of anti-fungal cream, which the moms found to be an odd product for a kids' mock supermarket. 

Trying out the FHP car for size.

The lovely Miss K crunches numbers at the bank.

While Turtle tries to make a deal. Someone should tell him that he's going to need a phone instead of that mouse. Oops.

There were some slides, a veteranarian's office, a puppet stage/theater/dress up area, a mock tv/radio station, and some other cool areas.

For $9.50 (admission for me and Turtle), it was really a great way to spend the morning. Two thumbs up.

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{ birthday fun }

We are a household of birthday lovers.

It's a good thing people have birthdays annually.

Tonight, we were invited to little J's 2nd birthday party at Ollie Koala's (think Chuck E. Cheese, but slightly less twitch-inducing and far cleaner).

Even though Turtle attempted to sleep through the festivities with a late nap, we finally made it to the event.

And a grand time was had by all.

Climbing.

Exploring.

Sliding.

Eating pizza.

Shooting hoops. He throws like his mommy.

Defending goals.

And more defending of goals.

Happy birthday to J! Sorry that I had a guest fail and purchased the same gift as someone else did. It's my special talent. I'll do better next year :)

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{ somewhere over the cake }

It's official.

The internet is bad for my emotional stability.

See, a few weeks ago, a blogger named Lori, who writes the very fabulous In Pursuit of Martha Points, tweeted about this cake she had made for her daughter's birthday. 

The one she saw made on the Martha Stewart Show by The Whisk Kid's Kaitlin Flannery.

The one that I was now compelled to make.

The Rainbow Cake.

{ insert foreboding music here }

I couldn't get it out of my head. The smooth, white icing. The jewel-toned layers. The fact that between the two components, there is enough butter used to keep your local dairy farm in business for the next year, and also enough butter to make Paula Dean cry.

This was more than a cake.

This was a commitment.

And I was all in.

I picked this past Saturday as Rainbow Cake Day. Never mind that the past week was crazed with Oscar's surgery and recovery, catching up on the house and family after my trip out of town, hosting a little spa party for some of the women in my community, and having some neighbors over to dinner to get some insight on preschool selection.

Never mind that MacGyver kept shooting me the side eye and asking why I just can't ever relax. 

That cake was being made.

And so I began, using The Whisk Kid's cake and frosting recipe.

Including all 19 egg whites and 8 sticks of butter.

I was not quite as precise as my inspiration bakers. When it came down to splitting up the cake batter into six portions for coloring and baking, I relied not on a kitchen scale, but on an age-old technique called "eyeballing it", in which I scooped similarly-sized spoonfuls of batter into bowls until each bowl looked "about right."

It worked.

And so, two at a time, I baked off a total of six thin layers of rainbow-colored cake.

While they cooled, I mixed up the first batch of frosting.

I'm going to go ahead and suggest you actually make three batches, not two, as Kaitlyn suggests. Because it just tastes that good. I honestly could have sat with that bowl and a spatula in the corner and hung out for the rest of the day, completely happy. 

Now you know.

With shaking hands, I filled and stacked my layers.

I think that's when I took my first breath of the day.

I crumb coated (Which MacGyver believes means to coat the cake in graham cracker crumbs. Silly man.) and then mixed up the second batch of swiss meringue buttercream.

To frost the cake for reals.

So innocent, so simple.

And then.

Ka-chow.

This really could not be more beautiful.

Or delicious. Nine out of ten toddlers agree.

It was one of the more tedious cakes I've made, but it was well worth it, and I feel quite proud of myself for pulling it off. It's not a project for the faint of heart (or for those concerned in the least about their arteries), but I'm so glad Lori tweeted me into it. :)

And now. Now I'm just going to do full disclosure. We're mostly moms and parents, right? We're prepared for just about anything. Aren't we?

I'm not going to get too super specific, here, so please follow along. There is A  LOT of gel food coloring in this cake. It's necessary to get those brilliant pops of gorgeous color. 

However, what goes in must come out. So please do not be alarmed when what comes out is slightly more colorful than you might expect.

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{ plan crib-til-college didn't pan out }

It's a bit of a bummer.

I thought I had it all figured out.

Turtle loved his crib. And I loved Turtle in his crib.

We were all very happy with the whole thing.

But lately, Turtle has been putting his leg up on the crib rail. He's been applying just the slightest bit of weight shift.

And that spurred us into action.

Today, after lunch, we picked up a travel pillow and a pool noodle.

And after nap, MacGyver removed the front of Turtle's crib, to reveal the toddler bed conversion.

We shoved the pool noodle under the sheets along the open edge, to create a lip to help prevent him from easily falling out.

We set it up, under Turtle's supervision. Original Monkey, Replacement Monkey and Elephant got to stay. The rest of his menagerie was relegated to shelf by the window. Whatever the big boy wants, right?

So he had his dinner, and his bath, and then we read a few books in his new bed.

And then we tucked him in with his animals, kissed him good night, wished him sweet dreams and went out the door.

He cried for about six minutes. Then he settled down for a while. He cried a few more minutes around 8:30 or so. Hopefully, he does well through the rest of the night. Fingers crossed. :)


Morning Update: SUCCESS!!!! We had one more wake up at about 2:30am. Apparently, Original Monkey had taken a flying leap over the side of the pool noodle. It took a moment, but finally, Turtle stuck his little hand into the abyss, pulled OM back to safety and went back to sleep. Whew.


Next challenge? Today's naptime. Wish us luck!

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{ story time }

I want to use this post to address my incredibly innovative neighbors.


They implemented a story time at one of our local churches, and over the past year, it has grown into a really amazing hour.


We have been missing out, simply because Turtle went through a rather long phase of needing to nap at precisely the same time story time started. He's an even-keeled kid, but when he gets overtired, well... Let's just say I prefer not to have him overtired.


They start off with some music, to get the little ones excited. 


And then two or three books get read.

More music.


Turtle's favorite part is snack time. Goldfish make everything ok.


And then it's project/craft time. Which is my favorite part.


My neighbors find some super cute projects on a few different websites. Last week, they talked about going back to school, and passed around yellow construction school buses with cutout wheels and passengers for the kids to color and glue. We got to take home an "S" worksheet.

And this week, we discussed rain, by dipping a cotton ball into a container of water, and squeezing it to simulate precipitation.


Turtle was a huge fan of the bus and of the container of water. 

Not so much of the wet cotton ball. He kept picking it out of his container and tossing it on the mat, saying "Ew. Garbage." 

Eh. You win some. You lose some.

It's a wonderful way to spend a morning. Thanks to our awesome neighbors for giving us such a great and fun learning experience.

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{ someone's feeling better }

And thank goodness for that.


Oscar has been a little trooper, bravely devouring swallowing his rations of wet food, resting and submitting to early bedtimes on the couch. Such a good patient.


It's been tough on the little guy, not being allowed countless hours roaming the back yard, in search of delicacies (mulch, grass runners, fish dropped by careless stork/heron-type birds, etc, wink wink), and having us dote on his every whimper and tail wag.


He's adjusting. 


He's also found a new hidey-hole.

You know. Because he needs a secure place to nap.

Please feel free to tell me I have the world's most spoiled pugs. I deserve it.

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{ apologizing in advance }

It doesn't happen often, but I am off.

I don't want to say it's a matter of writer's block, exactly. More like exhaustion. Brought on by a whirlwind trip, a pug crisis and starting this week behind the proverbial eight-ball.


I'm not a fan of being off. It's not a great state of being.


I could talk about my trip, which was wonderful. I loved seeing my friends and their families and some of my family. With the exception of talking to MacGyver on the phone for updates on Oscar, and asking for prayers and giving brief updates on a few social networking sites, I was pretty unplugged. 


And it was nice.

But it's hard to get back in the saddle. So I'm going to take it easy this week. I'm not going to force a blog post. I'm going to share a little bit about my day, and focus on getting out from behind that irritating eight-ball.


It's Monday, and I'm a Bravo addict, so I'm watching Real Housewives of New Jersey, while MacGyver and the pugs snooze on the couch. This particular Housewives incarnation makes me incredibly uncomfortable because of the unreal level of drama and crazy involved. Who behaves this way? Really?

I just laughed too hard at a trailer for Going the Distance with Justin Long and Drew Barrymore. Because I love Justin Long and I think some of the scenes seem hilarious. I hope it's good.

I read a book called Life After Yes by Aidan Donnelly Rowley over the past few days, and while it's not my particular genre, and the dialogue was ridiculously contrived, I enjoyed it.

I am looking forward to this week's events: story time, a playdate, a mini spa party and dinner with friends.

I am NOT looking forward to doing more research on preschools, grocery shopping and getting caught up on cleaning.


I have some red tape work to do and that's unfortunate. But it must be done.


I have also decided that we need a House Assistant a la Jeff Lewis of Flipping Out (I told you I was a Bravo addict). House Assistants mix and serve attractive dirty martinis during household cocktail hours and handle the peculiar personalities of pets. I think a House Assistant would be an invaluable asset to the Three Pugs & A Baby domicile, and I hope MacGyver agrees to go in that direction. Soon.


I have a lot of baking to do this week, which is both exciting and daunting. On the list, pug cupcakes and a rainbow cake. Stay tuned.


And, really, that's all there is.


Tomorrow, I should be back on my game. Thanks for indulging my extended break. I'll make it up to you soon.

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{ highs and lows }

Ironically, and sometimes unfortunately, you can't have one without the other.


This weekend was intended to be a high. I packed myself in my car with my skinny jeans and some adorable cookies to pay a visit to one of my best friends, her new husband and her even newer baby.


Ah. The best-laid plans.


I arrived Thursday night. I got to love on sweet Baby J before he went to bed. We ate dinner and cracked open a bottle of pinot.


M (the aforementioned new husband) went to bed, while N and I stayed up chatting.


We finished the bottle of pinot.


It was almost 2am before my head hit the pillow.


Mem'ries.

I lounged in bed til almost 9:30am. I was awake, but it was the first time in a long time that I didn't have to actually move. It was such a strange sensation, but so deliciously enjoyable, I almost didn't know what to do with myself.


I reveled.


And then my phone rang.


It was MacGyver, telling me that he was bringing Oscar to the vet. That he had been up all night, unable to lay down, and whimpering. No one had slept, and DH was worried about our 10 year old first pug.

Obviously, so was I. Oscar is my first baby.


The first update was routine. Dr. R thought it might be a slipped disk and was taking x-rays. Over lunch at a food court Chick-Fil-A, N and I discussed Oscar's overall health. How he is prone to bladder stones, but we do our best to manage it and try to keep surgeries to a minimum, especially considering his age. That he has arthritis and awful hip displaysia, but injections of Adequan have been keeping him as spry as possible (considering that Oscar was never really spry).


The second update came quickly. The x-rays revealed that Oscar had ingested a toothpick, pin or needle. They were going to have to operate immediately and remove the item, all the while holding out hope that Oscar would be strong enough to withstand not only the anesthesia but the possibility of internal puncture by the sharp object.


Dr. R assured me that the procedure itself would be quick: about 20 minutes, provided he could get directly to the item. He told me that there were also some bladder stones brewing and he could remove them at the same time, while they were inside, to prevent a later operation. I agreed and told him to take care of my baby.


And then the wait began.


There was no news until about 4:30.


Because of the complications.


The item? A sewing needle. And thread. A lot of thread. All wound through him. The procedure ended up taking 90 minutes. Dr. R wasn't able to get any of the stones because he didn't want to keep Oscar under any longer than he did. Towards the end, Oscar's little heart stopped and it took Dr. R a little bit to restart it. MacGyver told me words like "dicey", "touch and go" and "scary" were used. 

Also, there is (still) a huge risk of infection because the needle made a tiny puncture in our puglet's stomach.



Not. Comforting.

We have no idea where he got the needle. I haven't had the sewing machine or sewing items out since the beginning of July, and MacGyver did sew a button a few weeks ago, but that needle is accounted for. Horrifically upsetting, especially considering that Oscar is partially blind and can't find a steak two inches in front of his nose, but yet manages to consume items that are likely to do him in.

(Needle on right inserted into gauze; thread on left)


Because Oscar's oxygen levels were good, he was allowed to go home with MacGyver that night, with a promise to return to the vet at 9 on Saturday for monitoring. He spent the night, whimpering and possibly hallucinating (from the intensity of the pain meds). 


He looked like this.

A sore, disoriented, confused pug.


Saturday morning, MacGyver reported that Oscar was a little peppy and showed some appetite. He dropped him off at the vet and we waited for news.


The report? 


Better than everyone expected in the wake of the "dicey" surgery. His liver and kidney are clear (a concern due to all the thread). There was some fluid in his lungs that had gone down. He spent the day on an IV for hydration, but responded well to food (wet food, so Oscar thinks he's won the lottery) and his incision looks great.


I came home today, and Oscar hustled down the driveway on his own to welcome me. 


What relief.

We had a great night. Turtle, Molly and Bentley are being extremely considerate of him. He's eaten, taken his medication and his sleeping soundly and comfortably on the couch.


He is not out of the woods yet. We're still watching for infection and he needs to really take it easy for the next few weeks.


Thanks for your continued prayers and support. We are blessed to have such an amazing support network of friends and family around us, and hopefully everything will be alright. Our pugs are members of our family and times like these are terrifying and devastating to us. 


I'll keep you all posted on his status. We appreciate all the good thoughts.

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