I haven’t posted in a couple of days.  It’s really bugging me, but then I haven’t felt like writing either.

Timber, our Siberian Husky, died on Thursday afternoon.  He was 14 and 1/2 years old.  We found out on Thursday that he had a mass in his lungs which was making it very hard for him to breathe.  He had masses on his liver too, and he was unable to eat.

He became part of our family when he was 7 and 1/2 weeks old.  He and Koko (our now 15 year old Chow) were our first attempts at some type of “parental responsibility”.  We didn’t quite plan that our “first attempt” would last for 11 years until Davey was finally born!

Timber was the most loving, gentle and goofy dog you could imagine.  If you’ve known Siberian Huskies, they have many similar traits, so you  have an idea of what he was like.

So I thought that today, I would write about Timber’s life and some of the fun goofy things he did.  There were a lot of them because Timber acted like a puppy until he was nearly 12.

But then this morning I woke up, and I thought to myself – “ok that’s enough.  I’m ready for Timber to come home now!”

So since he is not, I think I will try writing about him again tomorrow.

I’ve been looking at early pictures of Davey.  I wanted to see what he looked like 3 years ago –  in March of 2008.

He was a little booger having a great time.  He was learning how to eat solid food.  This was around the time of his first Easter.

As 4 month old,  he wanted to try to eat paper.

Today he says things like, “Mommy!  They are approaching!”

Here he is in March of 2009.  Such a sweet grin.

And now just today, Davey was listening to the radio with me.  I’ll listen to some songs that I think are ok for him to hear.  But then he listens and says, “Mommy, what are the feelings in this song?”  So together we try to figure out what is happening in the song.  He always has very interesting condensed ideas of what’s going on.

And then I look back to just one year ago.

The kid who continues to be fascinated by all things poop. 🙂

I took several pictures of Davey yesterday and today.  We went to the Denver Botanical Gardens yesterday and then this evening, we just went for a little “follow the leader” stroll over to the playground.

Davey is curious.

He enjoys smelling flowers.

He loves looking at maps.

He’s a little bashful right now.  Note how he is hugging the edge as this little girl runs by him.

He likes to build things.

He likes to closely examine “fossils”.

He likes to crawl through things.  Ok that’s kind of a stretch.  I confess – I just really like this photo.

He has taken a great interest in letters and numbers.  He can identify most numbers under 10 now, and he loves to pretend to read.  He’s very interested in the sounds letters make.

He loves to pretend.

He sits in the gravel and sprinkles it in his hair.   I don’t know why.  It’s all part of whatever imagining thing is going on at the moment.  “Mommy, I don’t want to tell you!”, he often says.  Or, “Mommy!  I am busy pretending!”

He’s animated.

And so busy!

We have begun packing again.  It’s kind of hard to believe that I am once again filling up boxes.  However, we are very very glad to be moving into our new house.  We will be moving in less than 2 weeks.

Davey is very excited about the whole process.  “Let’s pack Mommy!”

He started bringing his toys into the living room one at a time.  “Here Mommy.  Pack this one!”

Then he enjoyed handing me dishes to wrap.

He carefully labeled the boxes.

We packed quite abit in the morning, and then  Davey and I went to the little beaver lake.  We hoped we might see a beaver.  We didn’t.  Of course we threw rocks into the little lake as usual, so that probably didn’t help our sighting odds.

It was really windy, so Davey and I found a small slope which protected us somewhat.  Davey had his juice box and we shared a snack.

I love the winter colors although I guess they should soon be turning into spring colors.

When we got up, I noticed that our shoes had lots of rocks and sand in them.  This might have been partially due to Davey’s game.  He found a stick with some leaves and called it an umbrella.  Next thing I know he is cascading sand down on us.  This was rain.  Davey had lots of rain in his hair. (Apparently, the “umbrella” he was holding over our heads did not provide adequate protection.)

We decided to walk a little further up the trail.  We looked at logs.  We looked at some poop and tried to decide if it was coyote poop or not.  Several people on horses also came by, and Davey liked seeing them.

We’ll miss this beaver lake and surrounding open space, but we’ll find new places to explore, and we can always come back for an afternoon excursion.

Yesterday, Davey and I decided to sit out on the balcony for awhile.  We were watching for the auto glass repair person.  He came to install a new front windshield on our car.  So we were keeping an eye out for him.

I was reading my book and Davey was playing.  Unfortunately, I failed to note that he was playing with the sliding glass door.  I looked up to see it being shut very firmly.

I looked at Davey.   I tried to open the door.  Locked.

“Mommy!  Lucy locked us out!  It was Lucy.”  He was very insistent that his imaginary friend Lucy was the culprit.

I asked Davey to keep an eye out for the maintenance guys who zoom around in their golf carts.  We see them all the time.  Except for yesterday, when we saw exactly zero.  Davey kept yelling, “Mr. Maintenance Worker!”

Luckily it was a beautiful afternoon, and so Davey, me  – oh yes and Koko, just made the best of it.  I read a little more.  He played, and Koko was a little confused.  She likes free rein and does not like being hindered in any way.  So she was pacing and staring at the door. (Timber was staring at us from inside.  It was all very confusing for them.)

About 45 minutes later,  Daddy got home.  As soon as Davey saw David approaching in his Jeep, Davey started yelling, “Daddy!  Come rescue us!  Daddy, come Save us!”

And Daddy rescued us.

So that was a little exciting.

Davey and I’d gone for a walk earlier in the day.  We’d walked to a pie shop and had ice cream.  On the way back, Davey found a “sunflower” and presented it to me. (Try not to be too distracted by the shirt covered in icing and ice cream. Davey expects his clothes to work hard for him, and they do!)

Yesterday we met Uncle Rob at the Butterfly Pavilion in Westminster (Aunt Angie was not feeling well, but we saw her later in the day).  We’d been hearing about the Butterfly Pavilion since we’d moved here, but we had not yet visited.

What a fun place!

There were all kinds of interesting displays.

Davey and I got to pet a starfish.

But of course the highlight was the butterflies.

We went into this rainforest like area.  (If we get homesick for an Arkansas summer, we know where to go.  It was not too hot, but it was very humid in there!)

There were butterflies everywhere.

There’s a blurry Uncle Rob in the background of this photo.

We couldn’t really do the butterflies justice in our photographs.  It’s hard to photographically capture the experience of these butterflies all around us.

I think Davey was entranced by a turtle here.  Or maybe fish.

There was a great learning center inside.  We walked through a little maze that sent us into a bit of a corn maze flashback.  There were fun activities along the way though.  Davey and I enjoyed tossing beanbags.

And who can resist having their photo taken in a pose which involves a chrysalis.  (Davey could.  He was not interested in this photo opportunity.)

Afterwards we wanted some photos in front of the giant praying mantis guy.  In this picture, Davey has just accidentally pinched David’s leg.  He likes to grab your leg, and in his defense, I think he is more used to grabbing mine which has more squish than David’s.

Here was another try, although I wish I would have gone in for a better close-up.  I was trying to include Mr. Praying Mantis in all his green glory.

This afternoon, I went walking.  About a 1/2 mile from our apartment is a giant prairie dog field.  I’ve blogged about it before, right after we moved here.

So today as I was walking along the prairie dog village, I noticed that the prairie dogs were in a frenzy.  I didn’t think it was me.  They’d always just pretty much ignored me as I went by.

I went a little farther to where I was supposed to wind down the hill.  I glanced up and about 40 yards away from me was a coyote.   He was a good sized coyote.  I think he was Timber’s size so he probably weighed at least 50 pounds.

He looked at me.  I looked at him.  He looked at me.  I looked at him.  At this point, I remembered that I was supposed to appear big and boisterous and loud.  Instead I felt very timid and small.  I took a couple of steps back.  He took a couple of steps forward, but not like he was coming after me.  I think he was just waiting to see what I was going to do.

I wanted to run and hightail it out of there screaming at the top of my lungs.  (I’m remembering now that I blogged previously how I thought this might be my likely reaction to seeing a coyote.)

So I started sidestepping my way away from him.  He looked at me a little more, as he stood amidst the chattering prairie dogs (they were in the highest stage of alert – Defcon 1 for prairie dogs), although in his immediate vicinity, there were none peeking up from their holes.   All of a sudden he took off bounding down the hill.  Now that was a sight to see.  He really looked longbodied then and he just flew down the hill.  I don’t know what made him run, but I was glad to see him moving away from me, while at the same time, it was so pretty to see him bounding down the hill.

I am a little surprised that I’d not seen a coyote in the field there before.  I mean it has to just be a smorgasbord there.  Prairie dog dinner city.   Those little guys are pretty quick though.  It reminds me of the gopher smashing game we used to play at Chuck E Cheese.  They can disappear pretty fast.  Their communication system was pretty amazing to witness as well.

When I got home, I told David and Davey about it.  Davey got very excited and immediately wanted to go back to the prairie dog village to find the coyote.  “Let’s go Mommy!  Let’s go see the prairie dogs!  Let’s go see the coyote!”

Seems like everyone was outside today.  We have a park/playground next to the apartment.  It was crowded over there.  Loud.  People everywhere.  It’s fun to see so many kids outside.

We spent a lot of time outside today too.  Davey and I had to run a couple of errands which ended up at the park near the library.  We had a picnic.

We had a nice view.

I finished binding off my bag while we were sitting there, and Davey helped me model it.

Then he decided he needed a refreshing beverage.

Soon after we decided to head back home to take care of the dogs.  We thought it might be a nice day to take them to the park.  They were pretty happy to go.

Koko does not like to have her picture taken.  It makes her very nervous for me to get the camera out.

Davey said, “Mommy, I need to corral Timber!” (See the carefully placed sticks?)

Timber tolerated this all patiently.

And then it was time to run.

And Jump!

I love teaching.  Lots.

Lately I am also very appreciative for teaching because it’s resulted in my reading lots more poetry, and I love to read it more and more all the time.

I thought I’d occasionally post a poem I like a lot.  It’s always my hope that Davey will like reading this blog someday, and I’d love for him to enjoy poetry in it as well.

I really like ee cummings.  I frequently (maybe too frequently) mention this poem in class because I love the line about the children and how “and down they forgot as up they grew.”

As with all poetry, this poem should be read out loud.  Lots of times. 🙂

“anyone lived in a pretty how town”

by e.e. cummings

anyone lived in a pretty how town

(with up so floating many bells down)

spring summer autumn winter

he sang his didn’t he danced his did

Women and men(both little and small)

cared for anyone not at all

they sowed their isn’t they reaped their same

sun moon stars rain

children guessed(but only a few

and down they forgot as up they grew

autumn winter spring summer)

that noone loved him more by more

when by now and tree by leaf

she laughed his joy she cried his grief

bird by snow and stir by still

anyone’s any was all to her

someones married their everyones

laughed their cryings and did their dance

(sleep wake hope and then)they

said their nevers they slept their dream

stars rain sun moon

(and only the snow can begin to explain

how children are apt to forget to remember

with up so floating many bells down)

one day anyone died i guess

(and noone stooped to kiss his face)

busy folk buried them side by side

little by little and was by was

all by all and deep by deep

and more by more they dream their sleep

noone and anyone earth by april

wish by spirit and if by yes.

Women and men(both dong and ding)

summer autumn winter spring

reaped their sowing and went their came

sun moon stars rain