Lukas asleep

I love this photo of Lukas because he's so peaceful when he's asleep. James M. our beloved "manny" took this photo of him with a high grade camera, by that I mean beyond your typical point and shoot and actually developed it himself. As usual, I am inspired to blog only when I read Tereza's blog. Because she writes so eloquently, insightfully and is so full of inspiration. Even her facebook posts are meaningful, as opposed to the typical "what I had for lunch" post.

It's been almost a year since Lukas has been in our lives and what an adventure it's been. We are so incredibly fortunate to have been blessed with a human being that is healthy, precocious and just really darn cute. From my mostly comfortable pregnancy, to the protracted 40 hour (yes that's 40!) labor and the shocks of parenting as you learn 'on the job' - it's also been really transformative. By that I mean that you tighten your priorities and who and what you spend your precious time and energy on, and as parents you also become more understanding, at times, and also more cynical too, especially of other parents.

A few months after Lukas arrived, during the horrid months of a typically dreary Seattle winter, we decided to place Dolce in a new home. It was a heartbreaking experience, but in the end, it was the right thing to do, as many tough decisions are. We are pleased that Dolce's new family has the time and energy to take her to the off-leash area of Magnuson several times a week, and Chris and Dave are incredibly active, so they also take her hiking, backpacking and all those wonderful things I did with Drake. And they are really pleased with all the great work we did with Dolce in terms of socializing her and training her so she walks off leash (compared to the early days when we spent hours chasing her to come back). And they wanted either a Ridgeback or Boxer, which we suspect are her major breeds, among several. And they maintain her raw food diet too. So it all worked out beautifully. I still miss her!