I’ve been a bad blogger the past couple weeks. :( I even missed WW last week, and I always do those! However, I have been pretty busy. If we’re personal facebook friends, you’ll know that our dog Maya hurt her back last week, and she has been taking up a lot of my time as I aided in her recovery.

Back injuries are very common with dachshunds as they have fragile, long spines, and they are prone to this kind of thing. We’ve been pretty lucky with her so far (only a few minor issues), though my parents’ dogs Penny and Sparky have had some severe back problems that they have bounced back from with lots of love & care. A week ago, Maya hurt her back in the middle of the night. She wasn’t doing anything strenuous. She simply stepped down wrong while walking around Zachary’s room at night, (have you ever done that? it can be painful!) and something in her back gave out.

At first, she couldn’t even move her back legs. We were so worried! This made certain things (like taking her to the bathroom) truly difficult and messy, especially since the medication that the vet gave her had upset her stomach! Fortunately, we love her very much and sucked it up for a few days. After lots of rest (she is confined in an enclosure), medicine, and love, she is feeling MUCH better and is now walking – though VERY wobbly. She’s still confined to her enclosure, as she needs a lot more rest so that she can make a 100% recovery, but we can see the light and the worst part of this experience is now over.

Maya is pictured below on the day she got hurt. She looks a bit pitiful, doesn’t she? I’m so glad and most of all RELIEVED that she is feeling better now!

Canon 5D | 35L lens | 1/45 sec @ f/1.4 | ISO 500

Today is my little dog’s 8th birthday! She is so little that I always forget she is getting old just like the rest of us. We are so lucky to have such a loving little animal in our lives!

Here is a dreamy looking shot of Maya at her happiest – snuggled into a patch of warm grass, with a tennis ball in her mouth. Happy birthday, little Maya! We love you!

I remember before I had a kid, my life pretty much revolved around our dog, Maya. All I could talk about was Maya and how much I love her, pamper her, and how wonderful she is. Well, she’s still wonderful and I still adore her, but lately I’ve been thinking about how she is often “neglected” in favor of Zachary.

Since having the baby, she’s not exactly the pampered pooch any longer. ;( Of course, that’s what happens when you have a child, but it doesn’t make me feel good to know my dog is put last. I know she loves Zachary, but I don’t want her to feel badly, either!

A couple of years ago, I took Maya to a dog park for the first time. I attended a Meetup for dachshund owners, and it was so much fun to see her playing with all of the other South Florida dachshunds! I think she really had a good time! Of course, I got pregnant right after this event, and all of my hopes of being an avid dog park goer were dashed because I was so exhausted from my first trimester. Poor Maya. She hasn’t been to the dog park since then!

Maya is the black/silver dapple. I loved that she was playing with another dappled doxie!

This picture was taken at Happy Tails Dog Park in Plantation, which was nice, but not very close. I liked that they had a small dog enclosure so I didn’t need to worry about the huge dogs looking at my dog like she was a squeaky toy….. but now there’s another dog park a bit closer to my house, called the Gary B. Jones Park for People and Pups in Tamarac. It also has a small dog enclosure, and is right around the corner.

I think it’d be a lot of fun to take Maya and Zachary one day to play in the dog park. Our backyard is definitely nice, but with spring basically here in South Florida already, there are bound to be lots of bees flying into our yard soon to pollinate our honeysuckle hedge, and I won’t feel comfortable having Zachary play around there anymore until the bee season passes.

Since I’m not a regular dog park goer, for those of you who regularly visit a dog park, is there anything I should know, other than bringing extra water for my pup? If you’re in South Florida, which dog parks do you enjoy visiting?

I rented a few lenses from BorrowLenses for a big wedding I have this weekend (yes, there’s a giveaway later this month! watch for it!) and among them are the 45mm Canon Tilt Shift lens and the 100mm Canon macro L lens with image stabilization. I had a shoot in South Beach and wanted to get a feel for both lenses before heading off to work, so I used my only willing model — the dog!

I love the dreamy look of the Tilt Shift. It’s hard to focus but you start to catch on as you use it:

Stats for this image: ISO 400 . 1/10 sec (kind of ridiculous) .  f/2.8

The 100mm lens is amazing! You can use it as a portrait lens or just as a macro, very close up.

The quality is beautiful, as this image was taken at ISO 1600 . 1/15 (also ridiculous) . f/2.8

Both were taken with the original Canon 5D.

So yeah… my shutter speeds here were way slow. The lights were also off in  my living room. I would not normally recommend that you shoot this slow if you want to get anything in tack sharp focus. It is actually AMAZING that I was able to get anything focused as perfectly as I did. While I do have steady hands, they usually are not that steady.

Click here to read more about Photo Fun Month and document your life with me!

I decided to enter the Skinned Knees Photo Challenge again. The theme is friendship… do I need a better reason to pull one from the archives and show you some vintage Zachary and Maya? This photo is from Zachary’s 6 month photo shoot. He and Maya have been best buddies ever since Maya laid eyes on “her baby” and will be friends forever. There’s no doubt in my mind that this boy’s best friend will always be his dog.

If you want to learn more about my blogger friend Christy’s fun blog, Skinned Knees, and her photo challenges, just click the button! :)

just a cute shot of Maya waiting for me to throw her tennis ball…. she is always ready for action!

We are truly lucky with our dog, Maya, a longhaired mini dachshund. Maya is a small and somewhat possessive dog (never bitey, but she loves her mama), so when I got pregnant, I wondered what she would be like when the baby came. She really took to me even more and became very close to me during my pregnancy, often stopping to lick my belly or lay close to my belly to feel the baby kick. She knew there was a little “puppy” growing in there, and when it came time for him to join our world, she was soooo excited to meet him!

When Zachary was born, Maya stayed at my parents’ house for two weeks while we got used to the whole parenthood thing, and then she came home. She was always extremely careful and gentle around the baby. She only wanted to kiss him. As he got bigger, she tried to play with him, and eventually taught him to push her favorite tennis ball – and then, much to her delight, throw it! They both absolutely love to go out on our back porch area and play fetch (and other games) together.

Now that Zachary is mobile, they play around the house like two puppies. It brings Maya AND Zachary so much joy to play with each other. If I’m in the kitchen and I look into Zachary’s room, I might see them both sitting on the floor, each playing with their respective toys. Other times, I hear happy giggles or dog noises coming from behind me and smile to see them chasing each other around in a circle! Other times they sit quietly on the couch watching tv together, Zachary with his arm across Maya, and her head stuck in position to lick his leg over and over (he doesn’t mind).

He gives her kisses on the head, and she gives him many kisses back. He gives her big, sweet baby hugs, and she gives him a lick on the face.

They are best friends.

I took these images a little over a week ago. We put Maya on her leash and let her sit in the front yard while Zachary played. He came right over to her and sat down in the grass, and she laid right next to him, with the most perfect look of joy on her face. I’m so glad that my dog, my first baby, has accepted and loves my little boy so much. I thank her every single day when I scratch her head and give her an extra treat, just for being wonderful.

Maya is turning 7 this year. I wish she would live forever!

Happy 6th birthday to our sweet little dog! I can’t believe she’s already six years old. She is such a good dog – great with the baby, (mostly) obedient, and she loves her family very much. I couldn’t have picked a better little dachshund to join our family six years ago. We love you, Maya!!!

Happy 5th birthday to the best dog in the world!

As of tomorrow, I’m 20 weeks pregnant. I can’t believe how quickly the past few months have flown by, and we are now at the halfway mark of the pregnancy!!! It seems like just yesterday that Adrian and I were telling our families, and now our little pumpkin seed is already the length of a banana according to babycenter.com!

Here’s what else Babycenter has to say about our little boy at 20 weeks:

Your baby weighs about 10 1/2 ounces now. He’s also around 6 1/2 inches long from head to bottom and about 10 inches from head to heel — the length of a banana. (For the first 20 weeks, when a baby’s legs are curled up against his torso and hard to measure, measurements are taken from the top of his head to his bottom — the “crown to rump” measurement. After 20 weeks, he’s measured from head to toe.)

He’s swallowing more these days, which is good practice for his digestive system. He’s also producing meconium, a black, sticky by-product of digestion. This gooey substance will accumulate in his bowels, and you’ll see it in his first soiled diaper (some babies pass meconium in the womb or during delivery).

There is also a fetal development diagram. Pretty amazing how I am carrying another living being around inside me!!!

And, since I like including a photo, here is a cute picture I took last night of Maya giving the baby some love!