Imagination Land

This summer has brought new exciting developments (and new challenges!) in the Spero-Nickerson family.

We moved to a new house in Englewood. It has a TON more space and is charmingly run down. We love not having to step over each other to get from one place to another, and our back yard is much more private. In the sweltering and scorching heat, we miss the central AC of the old house. Everyone's a little more sweaty.

I started a new job at a middle school in the Adams 14 School District. I left the treatment facility a few weeks before I got my Colorado teaching license, but it was definitely time to go. I applied for a ton of teaching jobs in arts and in special ed and finally landed a job at a public school as a Learning Specialist (Sped) for Moderate Needs students in Commerce City. I am so glad I stuck with middle school and that I'm teaching reading and math. I have pretty much no idea what I'm doing, but I enjoy it immensely. "My kids" are incredibly sweet and I look forward to work each and every day. After the wayward ladies at Excelsior I am grateful for normal adolescent brains. Or at least brains that are not hell bent on manipulating every single situation to the brain's advantage. I also love LOVE love working for a public school system. Not only do I reap the benefits of a strong union with a great collective bargaining agreement, I feel that I am doing the most radical activist work of my life. There is something profoundly rewarding about teaching these kids to read.

Will has moved up to the older toddler room. We are still in the midst of potty training with as many wet pants as dry, but he's pretty advanced with his gross motor skills so the Powers that Be at the daycare have officially moved him into the "Preschool." Will knows his colors, ABCs and can count to 12 (although he doesn't quite know how to apply the numbers) with good consistency. When Dave or I go to pick him up in the afternoon he is more often than not engaged in some form of daredevilry, flipping over monkey bars or swinging on a car tire. He's fearless. We will start swimming lessons as soon as I sign him up.

Another thing that Will has developed is a pretty cool imagination. He can play with toys now by himself and makes up little story.

Together we play a game with Playdoh. He builds a "cake" out of the Playdoh cans and I make "candles" out of the dough. Then he puts them on top of the tower and we sing the Happy Birthday song. This is the Happy You You Game.

He will also play with his toys and stuffies and make up little stories about them. I don't understand everything he's saying, but he's interacting in a new way with them. His favorite is a little Curious George monkey doll and a Cat in the Hat doll.

  

Things have names. He has a fondness of churches, they are called Big, Big Castles.

  

We can have a conversation with him. He talked about his playdate with Nathan (son of a colleague of mine) for an afternoon.

We can engage him in play, and his play is more involved. In fact it's hard to drag him away from certain things.

On July 4th we drove up to Mount Evans. The highest "Paved Road in America!" We didn't make it very far up to the peak (Will fell and was cold and hungry), but we had a great time driving around and looking at the primordial landscape. 

 And we stopped in Idaho Springs on our way back down to Denver to play in the stream. We stayed here for about two hours.

Will likes to wear his "pack-pack" everywhere.

We stopped at a park in Stapleton one super hot day. Will cooled down by running through the sprinklers, over and over again!

 We're also taking more videos. Will rarely sits still, it's hard to catch a picture of him!

Will and I played in the water at the Museum of Art:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MnuLN2LnEA

Will and Dave rode an elephant for the very first time at the Renaissance Faire.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBGYONVN5vc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVuTp__ZmU0

And then he played with this new sword while we waited for jousting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQvCHLkynEY

And most recently, Will had a massive meltdown on a hike at Garden of the Gods, a national monument in Colorado Springs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShBm0FIYoXY

Heh. Heh.

Onward Summer!

I finished my license program and am now just waiting for the Colorado Department of Education to go through the paperwork and then I'll have my license. I've also left my job at the treatment facility and am busy applying for jobs at the school districts in the area. Cross fingers that I get lucky and land a sweet job!

Dave is busy at the lab during the week, and he's tired but happy when he comes home. Either he or I pick Will up from daycare at the end of the day. When we get home, we usually have some kind of activity, we play in the back yard and Will organizes his toys,

Or pumps up the tires on his trike,

Or fixes mommy or daddy's bike,

Or waters the lawn,

Or takes Rocky for a walk around the block,

Will is very industrious.

We have had several weekends in a row where we've had a chance to do stuff TOGETHER. As a FAMILY. How novel.  Dave bought me a bike for Mother's Day/Graduation and we've been taking family rides out on the Highline Canal or to Wash Park or Platt Park. We have a little buggy that Will sits in like a Pasha and Dave tows him along. No pictures yet, but I'll get some soon!

Will is a bit of a daredevil.

But he also knows when to kick back and enjoy a box of raisins.

And he is obsessed with things with steering wheels. This was a little four-person bike that you could rent to trundle around the lake at Wash Park. He played on it for hours and was reluctant to leave (a bit of whimpering).

We took one trip to Belleview Park which has a TON of kid friendly activities (I've called it Kid Valhalla before) including a stream running through the whole hilly park. We rode the little choo-choo train, visited the petting zoo we went to the stream to cool off. After we played in the stream, we changed Will out of his wet clothes to get him into dry ones.

He immediately took off running and giggling. 

And kept running until he reached the train tracks where he found one perfect rock and ran back to the stream to plunk it in. 

This activity lasted for at least 45 minutes. 

On our weekend outings we sometimes stop and have breakfast at Panera. This is a Will and Daddy routine from when I was working every weekend. 

We have been to the big Barnes and Nobles downtown. It has an excellent play area.

Some weekend mornings Will and I make breakfast together. He likes to stir the eggs. 

In the evenings he helps me cook stuff like meatloaf. 

Whatever we end up doing, there is always an opportunity to play a little ball,

And time for a little bike ride. 

No! I didn't forget! I've just been busy!

I've been in school for a Colorado teaching license and it has been kicking my butt. This semester I have spent every. single. weekend. at the computer reading, writing, analyzing, spewing out information.

Here's a picture of my relationship with Will during the Spring semester.


Dave has been picking up ALL of the slack and has taken Will to:

The Museum of Nature and Science.


The park. A lot.


Orange Julius where he (in three parts): enjoyed his Orange Julius,


accidentally stuck himself in the eye with the straw,


cried,


and was happy about two seconds later.


The Home and Garden Show.


The Lightrail, which is a train that goes downtown.


The Denver Museum of Art.


Where he had a lot of fun playing with an interactive exhibit (bubbles streamed by video across the floor that "pop" as you stomp on them).


Target. A lot.


Will and Daddy are tight.

We celebrated Christmas with Omi. Will got a ton of stuff including his very own laptop (which is nowhere near as fascinating as Mommy's laptop).


And a Trike from Grandma and Papa.


He's very excited about his tricycle and wears his helmet every time he rides.


Will also had a BIRTHDAY! He ate cake.


And cried when he couldn't touch the candle.


We took him to an indoor play place and he went in the bounce house for the first time. The look on his face as he was bouncing around was pure ecstasy, not even joy, just pure, religious ecstasy.


Will as a two year old is an amazing experience. Sometimes exhausting. And often fun and funny. We have a lot of fun, but BOY HOWDY is he opinionated, and he's a bit of a tyrant.

Will has been speaking a lot and he can now put together a couple of words. Such as: Rocky peepee potty outside! And: More airplane! Hi Omi! Hi Papa!

His favorite word is NO. When we ask him if he wants a bath, the answer is no. If he wants to use the potty, the answer is no. If he wants to eat an orange, or go to school or take a nap, it's always no. Although the answer is always yes if we ask him if he wants to watch Yo Gabba Gabba or eat a cookie.

He scolds the dogs (and any other dogs in the neighborhood who are barking), and is fixated on Cicero.

He now enjoys "cooking," which means that he can stir something or add something to a bowl. He's very good at stirring eggs. We're still working on knife skills.


Will and Dave have been to the Museum of Nature and Science innumerable times. There is a particular video of the formation of the earth that Will is absolutely fascinated with. He runs to the video screens and yells "BALL!" with an intensity that is both infectious and somewhat unnerving.


In February we went to visit Will's Papa, as he was having a birthday. The trip down to Phoenix was a new experience. We left late, past Will's bed time and Will was a little overstimulated. We let him play on the people-mover parked near our gate.


When we got to the hotel Will's little mind was so blown, the only thing he wanted to do was jump on the bed. We turned out the lights at 11, but none of us got much sleep that night.

The next day, Will, Dave, Papa and I went on a hike at Mount Morty where Papa and I discussed the various local flora and fauna.


And Will picked up rocks.


We were able to visit with Grandma and Papa and Uncle Sam and Aunt Alicia and Aunt Noelle and cousins Audrey and Danny.


Audrey is adorable!



Uncle Sam's cool rubbed off on William a bit.


Will and Danny got along famously. They shared goldfish crackers.


They played on Danny's Elmo bed.


School will start for me again next week. But the grind will be over in June. In the mean time, we'll try to keep everyone up to date.