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.

Juggernaut

It's been another month of big changes in the family. Young Will is walking with much more confidence now and is managing and mastering stairs and steps with aplomb. He likes to practice going up the stairs and down the stairs a lot. Which is great because our new house in Denver (if you don't yet know, we are relocating to Denver at the beginning of June) is a two story home.


Because Will is the locomotion-master nowadays, he is insistent on getting to places under his own steam. Add an hour to any travel time because walking there is a somewhat random activity. ANYTHING is worthy of further investigation, and after it's investigated, there might be a need to RE-investigate further down the road, which is the cause of many a 180 degree turn. It's always amusing, though, if you have the time, because watching Will discover stuff is awesome.

On Mother's Day we took Will to the Animal Ark in Red Rock (north of Reno). It was a little windy and a little chilly but we all had a good time looking at all the different animals.





Will has also been much more communicative lately. If you offer him something he doesn't want he will shake his head "no." And he consistently says "BALL!" for balls (and for a lot of other ball-shaped things). He's also started saying "Uh Oh" for fun and when he's dropped something. And this weekend he's begun to say "Hi!" to everyone over and over again. I think he's discovered that making certain sounds will elicit a response. And because of, or in addition to, he's much more interested in people and how to interact with them.



In other news, we went to visit Will's new cousin Audrey. Miss Audrey is around a month old and a precious little poppet. Will was a little boogery so was not allowed to touch her. He did, however, express some interest in the noises she made.




We want to thank Grandma Veronica for the wonderful pictures she took while we stayed with Grandma and Grandpa.

Snips, Snails and All That Jazz

Those of you who know me know that I really could care less about toys and clothes designed for gender. We waited to find out the sex of the baby until birth and we prefer to buy him gender neutral clothes and even toys.


Imagine my surprise this week when William showed a definite preference for wheeled toys like trains and cars.


He still enjoys playing with his kitchen and his balls and balloons, but he's started to carry a car around wherever he goes.


There are studies done with children and monkeys (not at the same time) to test this exact thing. And guess what, boy children and boy monkeys preferred cars and trucks and girl monkeys preferred plush toys. Interesting, huh? I suppose it is genetic afterall.


In other news, Will's started in the toddler room at daycare this week. He seems to enjoy it and we love the interaction and socialization he gets. The daycare is very interactive and structured- he goes to music in the morning and they all sing learning songs. In the afternoon there is a different activity every day. When he's home, he's as industrious as ever.



He's a very busy boy these days and has expanded his repertoire to include climbing on and off the coffee table and climbing onto the couch.


He insists on walking around when we go out for walks now. He's not a marathoner yet, he gets distracted easily and wanders off, but we're impressed with his stamina.

What's most amazing to us is how he's transitioned. He's no longer an infant, barely a baby, definitely a toddler.

Transitions

Big things are happening now. William is finally walking with some confidence and he's getting better every day at eating with a spoon.

It's been an interesting poignant experience watching him achieve these milestones. Both Dave and I have felt bittersweet about his growing independence. I was happy and sad when I went to get him his first pair of wear-all-day walking shoes and Dave felt the same way when Will insisted on holding his own bottle as Dave put him to bed.

Will will be moving to the toddler room at daycare at the end of this month. Right now he towers over all the other babies in the infant room. It's time for him to move on and play with some new toys!

Here are a couple of videos of him doing Big Boy Things:

Walking



Eating


Physics Experiment

Birthdays and Better Hearing

William had his first birthday on January 29th. Omi joined us for a small celebration. We had a great time singing "Happy Birthday!" and eating cake. We found out that Will has a ferocious sweet tooth and he consumed the adult-sized piece of cake we put on his tray with a concentration and deliberateness that Dave and I had never witnessed before.








Omi and Will had a great time playing together and they even completed their first artistic collaboration. They worked together to create a very nice piece that explores the states of form and plasticity with cool, organic colors dichotomously paired with abstract expressionist techniques. The green paint tasted kinda gross though.


At the beginning of February we took William in for his ear-tube surgery. We all got up at the crack of dawn and waited far too long for the surgeon to arrive at the Surgery Center. She finally did and Will was whisked away briefly for his procedure. He was a little disoriented after, but calmed down as soon as we got him home. He slept like a champ and recovered nicely.

He hasn't recited Shakespeare yet, nor has he completed his marathon, but he's taken a few more independent steps and stands unaided for longer periods of time now. He's much more agile at getting on and off of his sit-upon toys and he just seems more actively engaged and responsive to us.


Will is almost completely off of formula now and we're working with a sippy-cup now. He gets incredibly excited to see the cup. So excited, in fact, that we can't give him his drink until he's finished eating.


Additionally, Omi bought him a ball. He loves the thing. He rolls it around, bounces it up and down and most of the time can roll the ball back if you roll it towards him. We have a jillion light-up, rolly-squeaky and talking toys but Will, in addition to pushing a bowl around on the floor, opening and closing doors and playing with spoons and his tambourine, has added bouncing the ball to his repetoire.


We are looking forward to him walking and soon saying his very first words. In the meantime, he's been healthy and joyous and delights us every day.

The Year of the Ear

It's been way too long, time for a blog update!

Will is turning 1 in a couple of weeks. It has been a year of amazing changes (well, duh). Dave and I can't believe how much has happened. We occasionally go through old pictures just to look at how much he has changed and grown in the last year.


And a lot has happened in the last six weeks too. Will is regularly cruising around on things. He's even stood on his own for a split second once or twice.



He's clapping his hands and shaking his head "no" when he doesn't want anymore food (he shakes his head for the fun of it too). He kind of bounces up and down to a beat. We've found out too, that he is a very good traveller- on the plane or in the car and when he's feeling well he eats like a champ.


We all went down to San Francisco for Dave's Nana's memorial service this last weekend. It was a lovely event, where Nana was laid to rest and her friends (so many friends!) and family celebrated her life during a lunch at Joe's Westlake Restaurant.



William met his all of his cousins for the first time and all of his aunts and uncles too. He accepted introductions and coo-ing with great poise and smiles, as is his way. He and cousin Danny got along famously. Danny was very generous to share his puffs and he even let Will touch Orangeguy briefly! (Orangeguy is Danny's blankie). I predict much troublemaking with the two later on.


On Sunday, before everyone went back to their homes, we all went to the beach. Will experienced his first sand and waves. Dave and he had a great time running from the surf.





And we even got a picture of the three of us together.



Unfortunately, Will must have been incubating some kind of cold because he puked both nights in the hotel, spurring Dave and I into a sort of Keystone Cops routine running around peeling off sleepers and t-shirts and mopping up baby barf. Will's appetite went downhill as did his sleep schedule and he visited the doctor on Monday. He's brewing yet another ear infection and is just sleepy and snotty and poopy all around.

So we've scheduled an appointment with an enterologist next week to see how to more permanently resolve his ear issues.

Thanksgiving

William and Dave and I took a trip to Grandma Judy and Grandpa Joel's for Thanksgiving. We were a little nervous about traveling with an infant for the first time, especially in light of potential full body scans or TSA gropings. But Will was wonderful! We left Reno at six am for a completely uneventful flight to Phoenix and had Thanksgiving dinner later that afternoon.


Grandma and Grandpa were DELIGHTED to see us (and mostly William). We all had an amazing dinner that Grandpa cooked. Will enjoyed gnawing on the turkey leg.


Grandma and Grandpa took Will to see Santa (I still have to scan in the photo) and Dave and I went to Sedona. While Will was giving Santa his Christmas list (tupperware, newspaper and electrical cords please) Dave and I were driving around trying to find Sedona's famous energy vortexes. I think we got close, but I'm not sure.


It was a lovely trip and everyone had an amazing time. It's good to know Will is a chill traveler.