William, Self-Reflector

I have a bunch of pictures from a trip to a pumpkin patch, a visit to Ikea and his first Halloween. But we are all swamped. Will has these giant projects due at his daycare (and his promotions to the Toddler III room are completely dependent on the quality and efficacy of these projects) and Dave and I have minimal projects that have to do with certification and endorsements, so, we are ridiculously, bad-work-life-balance busy.

In the meantime I made a movie of one of Will's favorite pastimes. Will is a 21st Century Guy. He loves to press as many different buttons on the computer as possible. And he loves this little app called iPhoto. We've used it all this summer and I compressed all of his self reflections into a short movie. It appears below.

Beautiful Days

For the last couple of weekends Will, Dave and I have been able to spend at least one whole day together. We've put away the stress and anxiety of the week and have been able to spend the days as a family. And it has been a BLAST.

Three weekends ago, Dave took Will to the Denver Mineral Show where they panned for gold.


And two weekends ago we all went to the Denver Zoo. I love living in a metropolitan city again, there is something to do every single weekend. Dave and I are total nerds and we love to look for all the animals in their habitats and read all the information on the signs. Will, however, is still in that phase of "everything is fascinating."


So while Dave and I were oohing and ahhing over the length of time it takes for a giraffe to pee,


or that Mongolian Wild Horses are the living ancestors of the modern horse, or Madagascan Ring Tailed Lemurs,


or that a Celebes Crested Macaque came over to the window to check *us* out, or the Pink Flamingos...


Will is wandering around becoming enchanted with bridges (different sound when he stomps his feet) or throwing his ball hither and yon, and fascinated with the activities of other children, and any exhibit that features a ball...



I think Dave and I might spring for a babysitter at some point and just check out the exhibits ourselves one day.


This most recent weekend we all went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Dave and I traded off toddler-chasing while the other one looked at minerals or North American mammal exhibits.

It was really fun, but there's a part of me that longs for the time when Will can read and talk and can spend a little time being fascinated with the deliberate exhibits, not just the general physics of life.


Will had a ton of fun playing with all the buttons and flaps of the interactive exhibits.




And when we went to the Discovery Zone (children's room) part of the museum we had Way Too Much Fun playing with the magnets and the flying scarves.

The Nature and Science Museum has a really decent cafe. We had tacos. Which means Will pitched a fit over being able to consume my entire bottle of grapefruit juice and mostly ignored the tacos we ordered.



Until we started eating it all. *Then* he was interested.

It's been great. Barring the ear infection that Will cultivated last week, and the ensuing baboon butt resulting from necessary antibiotics, we've all been having a really great time. Oh, and the weather's been fantastic too.

Next week, who knows? We may be on to a local harvest festival and corn maze, or just hanging out at home. Having a Will-toddler is so much fun.

Would You Like Some Cheese With That Whine?

Did someone say that the terrible Two's start at two? Well, Will has definitely hit that milestone a little early, (he's advanced, what can we say?).


After a day of super stimulating super fun time at the daycare, Will is ready to let loose all of his grief and tension from being so good (the daycare ladies absolutely love him. He's very well behaved). So when I go to pick him up the demands begin in earnest as soon as I strap him into his car seat.


Unfortunately Will has not mastered the subtleties of the English language (although he's fluent in Whine-ease), and his frustration at his inability to communicate his needs is expressed in volume.


He's learned a couple new tricks: he stamps his little feet and falls on the floor, rolling around as if the sky is falling. When we try to pick him up he goes all noodle limp and and screams, squeezes out a few tears and lies on the floor at our feet. If we try to put him somewhere he doesn't want to be, he kicks his legs in our arms.

It gets a little exhausting, but we do have the weekends where Will reverts back to his sweet, happy self again.


He still loves exploring new places and being in new situations. He loves to press all the buttons he can as well.

Opinionated

Another month of big changes in the Spero-Nickerson family!


I got a job, so William had to start daycare. He LOVES it. When we drop him off in the morning he runs to the toys without a look back. If he's a bit truculent one of the nice daycare workers distracts him with a book or a toy and he's good for the day. He naps on his mat without a bottle or a paci (something we could not convince him of at home) and eats all the food that they provide. He barely looks up when I go to pick him up. I wash the sand out of his hair from the play area every night.

Before he started daycare I took Will to the Children's Museum of Denver. He enjoyed the train room for a little bit.


And a nature room.

Will has learned to ride his zebra (thanks Auntie Alicia!).


And he's transferred that skill to riding Rocky.


When we do get home he expresses ALL SORTS OF OPINIONS. Wow. He's been changing daily since the day he was born, but this is new and insistent! He will screw up his face and cry if he is unhappy with something or frustrated and when he's angry he'll stomp his little feet until he achieves the desired result. For example, when we stop pushing the toy car for a second.


This weekend Papa Joel and Grandma Judy came to visit. Boy, Will was the Superstar-Center-of-Attention! He loved it.


Papa took him to the park and climbed on all the play structures with him.


He watched Will turn the wheel.

Over and over again.
And Papa read his favorite three books.


Over and over again.

It was a fantastic visit. Will and Dave and I had a wonderful time with Papa Joel and Grandma Judy. We hope to see them again very soon!

Physics

Wow, it's been quite a summer! We moved to Denver, Dave started his new job, I turned 40 (!), and Will has been doing just about everything, including figuring out the secrets of the universe.


Will's physical agility has progressed so much in the last two months. He's now able to climb up the slide and go down all by himself. He can climb into his high chair and sit himself down for meals and he can toss a ball up a little and catch it.


Ah, balls. Will is such a jock! His first word was "ball." If he sees a ball when we are shopping we must either buy it for him or be prepared for a major meltdown when we take it away.

He enjoys climbing and the dogs and was curious about the farm animals we visited at the Denver County Fair, but balls are his first and foremost one and only true love.


He also loves team sports. In the last month Will has become much more interested in other children. He had a "no-no" battle with another girl his age, where they chased each other around and pointed their fingers at each other and shouted "No! No!" back and forth, back and forth.


We've been to a couple of parks where there are other toddlers playing and he's so interested! At one point he was flirting with several little girls from a daycare.


He loves story time. We've been going to a variety of story times at libraries in the area. He loves the singing and dancing.


He's still obsessed with computers. We went to a branch near our house and I had to chase after him several times because he kept running to the desktops available for library members.


We found out he loves to play dress up. I put my shirt on him one day and he swanned around completely delighted with his new garb.


Will's much more into books. He will often bring a book to you, plop down in your lap and turn the pages as you try to read him a story. Occasionally he'll read the book to himself.


We also went to the art museum. There was an installation that everyone could walk on. He spent several minutes tromping back and forth across the tiles.


And we've been to a play place where Will can run back and forth. There is an art room there where Will tried his hand at painting with a brush and an easel. Will is fascinated with how things work: surface, texture, mark and influence.


This applies to everything, including puddles.

And grass.


We've enjoyed our new environment this summer. Will had an 18 month checkup with his new doctor and was pronounced completely healthy and developmentally on track. Good job, William!

The Missing Color

Well, we did it. We managed the giant move and subsequent emmigration from Reno to Denver and have settled down a little bit.

Dave has been swamped at work and has been at the lab at least 11 hours a day five days a week. Will and the dogs and I have missed him dearly, but there are so many incredible things to do in this town we've been thoroughly entertained.

There are three or four really great city parks in our neighborhood and we make a morning outing of each one.

Forgive the picture quality, I had the camera and then it decided to go on walkabout, so I need to locate it again. These are images from my camera phone.

First up is Observatory Park which is about a mile from our house. It's got this incredible play area designed by Kompan a Danish playground company. Actually, most of the parks in Denver have a play area with at least a few things from this company. Will likes to go up the stairs and down the stairs and up the stairs and down again. He likes the slides too, we go down together a lot.


Observatory Park also has a community toy bin with a lot of busted up play tractors and push and pull toys. Will LOVES these. He spends a lot of time pushing stuff around. Even if it's only the bottom half of a ride-on toy.


We've also been to Hayden McWilliams park. This is a cool little park that has a big purple cement dinosaur and camel for the bigger kids to play on. It also has a creek running through it.


We've been a few times to Harvard Gulch Park which is across the street from the Rosedale Community Garden (super awesome place, and I got my composter from them, yay!). Rosedale is one of those typical urban gardens but with a little flair, you get a giant plot (15'x30'), there are hose attachments at every plot and people are allowed to make any kind of garden they want. There are lots of different types of gardening there and most people donate their unwanted produce to Project Angel Heart a non-profit organization that delivers meals to the medically fragile. It's a combination of Food and Friends and Meals on Wheels. Good stuff.

Harvard Gulch Park has a recreation center and a pool- which is where I think Will and I will be spending our summer next year.



One day we went to Cherry Creek State Park, which has a big reservoir in the middle of it. Apparently you can swim and fish and boat. Will and the dogs and I ended up on a beach where a bunch of European old men go to fish in the morning. Will was extra charming that day.


We went to the Rocky Mountain Arsenal Wildlife Refuge which is wayyyyy on the eastern part of the city. It was on a vast prairie and we didn't actually go into the refuge, and I realized after the fact, that it's not the kind of place you want to wander around without instruction. It used to be Rocky Mountain Flats, a notorious plutonium manufacturing plant.

We stayed about an hour and watched the dogs go nutty chasing prairie dogs until they got tired.

We then visited Belleview Park on the east side of town. This park is Kid Vallhalla. It's amazing. Two playground areas with a giant pavillion in the middle. It's grassy and hilly and has a kid-friendly stream running through it. The stream is about 6 feet wide and four inches deep with a concrete bed and a couple inches of sand. There is a petting zoo and a miniature train. There are lots of places to sit and eat or roam around. It was amazing. We went to the petting zoo where Will had more fun with the gravel than the goats or donkeys.




The last park we've visited was the Windy Saddle of Lookout Mountain in Golden. I had no idea where to go and parked at a couple of places on the hill looking for a level, stroller friendly path and were unlucky, but we had a good time walking a little bit up the path. It was a misty, cool, overcast day and I was absolutely thrilled with the vast amount of GREEN. To me, it was like visiting the Andes.


Compare the above to a picture of Hidden Valley Regional Park in April. Hidden Valley was the park we most hiked at in Reno.

See what I mean?

On Saturdays, Dave and Will have had their own outings. Last Saturday they went to the Denver Zoo, and they rode the bus to get there (Will slept great that night!). And this Saturday they went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Both times they have had a fantastic experience.

So, it's been a little difficult to settle into a schedule. Each day is an orgy of new experiences. I suspect the next couple of weeks will be a bit more sedate. If not, they will be memorable.