Of Note

It's Mothers Day 2014. As a Mother, these are the things I value. Memories.

Easter Morning 2014 (tired out after arriving home the night before from Goblin Valley)

Sully starring as "The Spoon" in the kindergarten program. Look at that gleam in his eye! He delivered his lines with panache  (eliciting laughter from the audience with his comedic timing), and executed his dance sequence with "The Dish" flawlessly. He was outstanding!

Big kids all: the Melton's are now a crib-less family. Abner graduated to Sully's bed and Sully graduated to Noble's old bed...(the older boys got new beds.)  With this milestone, and the recent registration of our oldest child in high school, all that remains is to clear the potty training hurdle, and we will be well on our way to "older family" status (as opposed to "young family"). Time is slipping away.

Another clue that life is changing: Jupiter the Space Donkey has lost some of his spring. I took him to the vet this weekend to look at a bleeding sore in his mouth. It looks like it's just an abscess. They are going to pull one of his teeth tomorrow. They said they will know if it's anything more serious once they get the tooth out, and get a better look.

At the vet's office I couldn't help but notice how grey his muzzle was as he sat on the waiting room floor...while younger, more energetic dogs trotted through. It occurred to me that the staff seemed to be especially gentle with him, talking to him sweetly, like they would a very old and infirm person. They told me over and over what a nice boy he was, and patient.
 I thought about our years with him. It's funny how all the obnoxious things he does/used to do suddenly become so endearing. We've known he is getting older, but the other day we happened to read that a lab's average life span is 10-12 years.

I hope we have longer than that.

He is 10.5.

Here he is taking it easy after his evening dose of medicine. Back to the vet in the morning.