These days...

Christmas morning, two new horseslllllllllllll
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A true little story: Today Daniil and I visited the library, as we do most days when we're together. Danya chose a book on horse care, no surprise since he's all about horses these days. His favorite Christmas present hands down was the little toy race horse and jockey in blue riding silks. His favorite movies of late are National Velvet ("The race is very, very fantastic!" he says) and The Black Stallion, minus the scary parts. His riding lesson on Bronzee, a chestnut pony, marks a weekly high point. Danya posts on pony-back and chatters away with his teacher.
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As I checked out the horse book and chatted with Kathi the librarian, Danya lay on his tummy in front of the desk, toy horse in hand, staring off in space. I suspected his unusual silence might be pregnant with something interesting.
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"What are you thinking about, Danya?" I asked.
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"Love," he answered.
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Kathi's eyes welled up. She commented on what a sweet boy I have and how far Daniil has come over the past year. She recalled how shy and hesitant he'd been at first.
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"And what are you thinking about love?" I probed further.
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"You," Danya said, feet swinging side to side through the air. Kathi and I looked at each another and spontaneously drew our hands to our hearts.

I knelt down on the floor next to Danya and gave him a hug. "I love you more than anyone else in the whole wide... " I paused to allow Danya to fill in the blank. "Ocean!" he concluded. He promptly shifted the topic to horses and we paged through the book, sitting together on the floor, blocking a good half of the check-out desk, to learn about horse shoeing, horse combing, horse bathing, horse feeding. Stick to timothy grass and clover and avoid blue fescue at all costs.
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Love and horses. That's what we're up to these days.