{29april2012: birthday}

Happy Birthday dad!

{26april2012: 4 year old nephew's are exhausting}

Since Jason was going to be gone for 2 months and we're moving far far away, I convinced my sister to bring my nephew and come for a visit. We were curious/nervous/anxious to see what my nephew's reaction would be to Darwin. He likes dogs... from a distance. He doesn't like them licking him and gets nervous about them jumping on him.

The first night was.... entertaining. I went in the house first and Darwin could tell something was going on and was barking in excitement, that made C nervous outside in the hallway and he didn't want to come in the door. We used their suitcase to block Darwin and C scooted inside behind my sister. Once Darwin did some sniffing she calmed down (it was already 11pm by then) and C relaxed also (a little). Any time Darwin made a quick movement C would jump and run back to the couch. It was good it was late because we all went to bed (quote of the night by C "I get to sleep with all the pretty girls.").
The next day was better. We got up and got ready to head out for the day and C was less nervous around Dar.

When we got home that afternoon C really wanted to play with Darwin and took every toy out of her toy box and put it in her face hoping to get her to play (she wasn't really interested). Since she didn't want to play, he decided to brush her with her Zoom Groom.


Once he was over that he found my tape measure and tried to measure Darwin.


I was surprised, it was only day two, he'd been around her less than 24 hours and yet he was already getting very comfortable with Dar.



After a while Darwin needed a break and found a great hiding spot.

{he'll never know i'm here}

The next day we decided to check out the view from our roof...


The one thing C was SUPER excited about was going to play in snow and building a snowman. I took them to Snoqualmie Tubing center and we tubed and built a snowman.

On their last day the sun finally decided to come out so we stopped by for a visit at our friend's houseboat and C got to meet Friday.


Friday is older than Darwin and a whole lot calmer so C was in love. (He had bought a stuffed puppy that afternoon and he named him Friday after Friday.)
That night C was sad that he was going to have to say goodbye to Darwin. 

It was fun to see my sister and nephew and I loved seeing how C got over his initial fear of Darwin (and dogs in general).

{23april2012: downtown walk}

Spring has finally come to Seattle (off and on) and on one Friday, Darwin came to work with me and we were able to take a walk downtown during lunch. This was the first time I got really sad about moving. The weather was a perfect spring day and I realized how much I was going to miss it. Darwin of course just saw it as great walking weather.
The nice thing about our office in Seattle is that we can walk down to the SAM sculpture park and to Pike Place Market during our lunch break.
{ahhhh the sun feels so good on my face}


Darwin's best Maddie the Coonhound impression, though of course not nearly as impressive. (I mean come on, really?!)

After the sculpture park we stopped at the butcher in the market so I could pick up raw bones for Darwin. She LOVES bone buying trips as they usually give her a little treat.


I even made a quick little video of our walk:





*BTW on a random note, I looked at the statistics for this blog, and the top 4 search keywords:

evolution of darwin

4

barely covered girls

3

"great dane" marymoor park sunday meeting

2

rock hard pebble poop

1

hahahhaha

{19april2012: monkey death}

On my trip to Kuala Lumpur I made sure to bring back something for Darwin. We had visited a site and saw monkeys!

The hotel we were visiting had stuffed monkeys for sale, with the proceeds being donated to local charities. Charity donation + stuffed monkey for Darwin = sale.

{mmm monkey}

(I just had a vision of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom when they are eating monkey brains.)
{nom nom nom nom}

{must get rid of those eyes!}






It took a few days but the monkey eventually lost his other eye as well (she never tries to swallow the plastic eyes, just rips them out and spits them to the side). I'm sure when Jason gets back this poor eyeless monkey will be used in a tug of war match with Dar and he'll be left in pieces.

{17april2012: Happy Easter}

Yeah, yeah we're a little behind, but things are all over the place over here. Our good friends are remodeling their house and they're due with their first baby in a couple weeks. Did I mention that they are still remodeling? Ive been spending a little time there helping build Ikea closets and drawers and such. Anyhow we spent Easter afternoon at their place so Darwin and I didn't have time to color eggs like I wanted to. Then I forgot vinegar for the dye (my brain's been mush... too much to think about with the move) every time I went to the market.
Anyhow, we finally got around to coloring eggs, and while I don't think Darwin was that excited about the dying part, she has loved the eating part.

{09april2012: i like big bones and i cannot lie}

We get Darwin's raw knuckle bones from the butcher at Pike Place Market, and usually they come cut in half (or thirds) and so one bone is a good snack size for her. The last time I picked up a bag of bones though, they came not cut up and HUGE. Who knew cow knuckles were so large! It was bigger than my fist, probably bigger than two of my fists.

{must.not.make.eye.contact.}

{can.not.resist.}

{give it here!}

{nom! nom! nom!}

When I gave it to her I didn't really think it through, about how big it was and how it may not be good for her to have free reign at it all night. I learned my lesson though... the next night when I took her out for her potty break she was... backed up. Rock hard poop nuggets. Took her 15 minutes of pooping out pebble sized poops in her potty area (two strips of grass along both sides of the dead end by our house). She would not leave her potty area til she was completely done and I swear I went through half a roll of poop bags picking up single nuggets at a time thinking she was done. It was a long process.
The next time I gave her one of those full bones (there were three in the bag I bought), I made sure to take it away after an hour or so.

Is that normal? Rock hard poops after eating/gnawing on a raw bone? Is that okay for them to have rock hard poops? 

{04april2012: wordless Wednesday}

Jason's fancy Belize (and Whistler) movie edition.

{03april2012: Daynakin}

Jason's in Singapore for two months for work, and I had a work trip come up (Kuala Lumpur and a stop in Singapore) so we sent Darwin to Daynakin Great Danes for boarding. Georgia's great and I always know Darwin is in great hands when she's there. Georgia is also great because she makes great little video clips of the dogs so while I was working late in KL, I got a treat of seeing Darwin play!