Life moves pretty fast

That's what Ferris Bueller said, and probably somebody else, and it's true. It's been an insane couple of weeks since the last time I wrote...

1. We gave up our dog, Charlie. We could not get him past his aggression toward other dogs and it was starting to worry us, and cause us daily stress. It just became too much. It's a tough thing to do and we went back and forth on it a lot, but it just wasn't working. I miss him, I think we all do -- although Jack, strangely enough, hasn't seemed to notice -- but I have to believe he will find a better life in a home where there aren't so many dogs around him, and maybe he can run and play in larger areas than our smallish yard in a crowded Denver neighborhood. I have to because I can't bear to think he won't. He's a beautiful dog and in many ways a good dog, just must have had a bad experience before us, and hopefully he'll get into a home that doesn't have many dogs around.

2. Emily got a job offer in Connecticut, so we're moving back to the East Coast. Last week we got our house painted, this week it went on the market. The past few days we've walked about our house like it's a museum, afraid to touch anything, since it's all "staged" for potential buyers, which is to say really, really clean. No dishes on counters, no newspapers and magazines lying around -- it looks like the homes at Roanoke, I guess, where everything looks normal, and the people are just gone.

3. Jack is busier than ever. Running around the house clutching toys he cared nothing about 6 months ago, putting together his puzzles, bringing us books from the shelves (a Curious George book I just bought, about which he says "Monkey! Monkey!" until I read it to him), asking for cereal ("Cereal! Cereal!"), smiling a lot, laughing, eating -- pretty much oblivious to the fact, naturally, that next week will probably be his last week at his day care, and that we're all moving back East.

And that's kind of the big one, because it is mostly about Jack, both lately and in general. We want the best for him, and that's part of why we're doing what we're doing, and part of what we do every day, every week, every month.

It's scary to sell one's house, to start a new job, to move across the country, to say goodbye to a lot of people and hello to a lot of others. It's all scary.

But I look at Jack, and he's all excited about having his monkey shaped pancake for breakfast, and can't wait to read a book with me or go outside and play with a basketball or help Mommy pick up leaves from that strange tree in our backyard that used to drop leaves and now drops banana shaped pods or something, and I say, well, it will be okay. We'll make it work. Because there's Jack, and he's a happy guy, and we'll do whatever we can to make sure he stays that way.