On Thursday, my darling, first-born baby boy turned two.
I know it's been quite a long time since I have updated Spencer's blog. If you are my Facebook friend, you more than likely are bombarded with all sorts of Spencer (and Collin, his new little brother, born September 1) statuses and stories, so while I feel a little bad about neglecting his blog, I take solace in that fact. It's been a hectic few months, introducing the new baby into our family, moving, and all sorts of other things.
Spencer is now 36 inches tall and 30-ish pounds. He can count to ten, and partially to twenty, all by himself. He can recite the entire alphabet by himself. He can point out and name both numbers and letters when he sees them. He knows red, orange, yellow, chartreuse, green, aqua, blue, purple, pink, black, gray, white and brown. He knows circle, flower, star, heart, square, triangle, rectangle, moon, and oval. He knows a ton of animals and their sounds. He is learning words like crazy. He's full of hugs and kisses, climbing and exploring, and of course, mischief. He's an amazing boy that I am grateful for, every single day. Yes, sometimes, I will admit, he drives me a little batty, but you'll have that.
With that brief update, I will leave you with a few videos, taken on his birthday.
Sioux Falls has a pretty... decent zoo, for the most part. They're undergoing renovations again this year which will make it a little more awesome, I think. Spencer has been there at least three times... possibly five or six. I cannot remember exactly. He enjoyed it when we went, for the most part, but he was a bit younger then and didn't really understand animals or have that much interest in them at the time. Also, sometimes the animals in the zoo in Sioux Falls seem hard to see. That's my opinion, anyway. They have a pretty good variety, but it's not nearly as awesome a zoo as the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, NE.
Ever since Spencer started showing interest in fish (which he calls "wish!" very excitedly), I have had it in my heart and mind to take him to the zoo in Omaha, because they have a wonderful aquarium with an underwater tunnel. I just always thought he would love it.
Spencer's fantastic daddy made it possible for the three of us to take a day trip to Omaha this past Sunday to visit the zoo. While the temperatures climbed to over 100° that day, we left early enough to be able to spend a good five or more hours wandering the zoo. We, by no means, saw it all, but it was our plan to attempt to see all of the animals out of one of Spencer's favorite books, "Where's Spot?" as well as the aquarium.
We accomplished that much, plus a few animals he hadn't heard of yet and a few others he had from different books he has. He is 20.5 months old now and he knows quite a few animal names and noises, which made the adventure even more exciting, I think. We definitely got to put his knowledge to the test! He did so well! And was so excited!
We first visited the desert dome. We decided to start there while the temperature outside was only in the 80s and so it wasn't going to bake us. Spencer really liked the foxes, the jack rabbits, porcupines, and a few other animals that I can't remember. He got really excited with the rabbits, and an elderly lady next to us just loved watching him squeak at them. After, we went to the... night.... area... where the animals that love the dark are. Spencer honestly loved watching the bats in the bat cave flying around overhead. He would say "flap flap" as they flew. He also got very excited about the snakes and frogs and made their noises for quite some time. Then, we visited the swamp lands, and he got to see turtles and alligators, both in his book.
Then, I think, we went and saw the gorillas and monkeys. Spencer was enjoying the monkeys from inside the pavilion area, where we were about three stories above ground, until we pointed out a monkey on the ground for him to look at, and we think he was afraid he was going to fall down there (because the glass was clear), and he started to get a little freaked out. He enjoyed it again when we were on the main level with various other primates and the big gorillas. I got to stare a gorilla in the face with only glass between us. It was pretty intense. He made a lot of monkey noises the entire time.
I think we then went through the aviary, but there weren't many birds hanging out. We saw a few and a deer of some sort.
We stopped for a rest and snack, where there were little wild birds waiting for Spencer to drop his goldfish crackers. He liked them. Haha. Then we saw the bears! He really enjoyed watching the polar bear swim from atop daddy's shoulders. He enjoyed the grizzly and sunbear, too, but I think the polar seemed to be his favorite. He growled for the bears.
Then we went to the cat pavilion area. Spencer watched the big tiger pace for a while, and roared. He saw a few lions, panthers, jaguars, and a leopard, too.
The last stop (I think) that we made was the aquarium, because it was getting to be to the point where Spencer was getting potentially whiny and needing to sleep (we woke him at 6 and he only slept 20 minutes out of the entire 3 hour drive to the zoo). It was the part, as I said, I was most anticipating for him. When we walked inside, I got the video camera out, and Jake put him down to run free. He ran excitedly toward the first tank inside which had a bunch of fish (I don't remember what they were), yelling "wish! wish! wish!" the entire time. He kept pointing and squeaking and running and LOVED it. Here's the video:
We took him to penguin area next. He watched from right up against the glass for a bit, with daddy, until a penguin zipped by him in the water and made him jump. I didn't get to see it, but Jake and various other spectators did, and commented on it quite a bit. He warmed up to watching them shortly after, and was mesmerized by their swimming.
Then, we took him to the underwater tunnel. He sat atop daddy's shoulders again, fascinated with fish swimming overhead. After a bit, we set him down right at the glass, and he watched more "wish" swimming, until a sting ray swam by his face and made him cry. Then he wanted to be held, so I held him, and we watched sharks and others swim by us. It was wonderful!
The final thing that we took time to see (other than a few other types of ocean fish) were the jellyfish. Spencer was mesmerized by these as well. The orange ones (again, I forget what they're called) were his favorite. We stood right up against the glass and watched them swim in front of us. He kept reaching out to the glass to "touch" them and saying "wow!"
By the time we got out of the aquarium, he was basically asleep. :)
Because we didn't see it all (we missed out on many safari animals (like elephants, zebra, giraffe, rhinoceros) and rain forest type animals (macaws and such)), we decided that sometime, probably next spring when Spencer's brother or sister is a little older, we would go back and see more.
It was definitely worth the trip, I think. We didn't have our camera with, but had our video camera, cell phones, and my sisters point and shoot, so we did get a few photos and videos to share with Spencer when he's older.
Today, Spencer turns 19 months-old. My slacking blogging skills mean that it's been a month since I last wrote about our little guy! Yikes!
We've been keeping busy. Spencer is on the go pretty much the entire time he is awake nowadays. He's been doing "cute" toddler things, like lying on his tummy to play cars, and saying 'vroom vroom' as he drives them across the floor.
He's also been doing not-so-cute toddler things, like throwing a fit if he doesn't want to do something, like come in the house after he's been re-routed from entering the street four times in a row.
He's been doing funny and mischievous toddler things, too, of course. Recently, he discovered he could re-position the rolling computer chair and climb in it so he can reach things off the table. He also discovered he can take the computer keyboard off the desk and type. He's been found using Google as well as trying to print things from my email. Good thing we don't have a printer, I guess.
Overall, though, it's been a good month.
Jake started his new job, and Spencer and I went through a period of sleep-training where I would let him cry-it-out in his crib until he finally went to bed on his own. The past two nights in a row, he cried a little on the way to his crib, where he went willingly, because I won't give him his milk in a cup until he gets there. And as soon as I laid him down and gave him his cup, there wasn't another sound. He just drank his cup, plopped it out on the floor, and went easily to sleep. I was so proud.
He has been learning more animal sounds, too. He has a See-and-Say that he got from Nana Mindy and Travis for Christmas that's been aiding in that, though he sometimes seems a little freaked out by it. He also has been practicing them with a few books that have animal pictures. It's been interesting, because even animals that don't really have distinct noises have to have some sort of noise or he won't turn the page. So, we make them up from time to time. So far, he's knowing goat, owl, horse, cow, duck, dog, cat, bee, bear, lion, snake, and a couple more that I can't remember.... monkey... and something else.
One of his new favorite past-times, I think, is watching Hot Air Balloons launch. His uncle Jesse and honorary aunt Samantha help crew hot air balloons for her family that owns them, and invited us to watch two weekends in a row. The first time we were pretty close to the action, but when the fire started, he got scared. The second time we were about 100 yards away or so (I'm bad with distance, so just guessing) and he stood, silently, happily, and mesmerized for about 15 minutes while the balloons were inflated and took off. It wasn't until he couldn't see them in the skyline anymore that he first moved. It was SO cute. Last weekend, he got his hair cut for the fifth time. This time, my aunt opted to try the clippers. He did NOT like them at all. So, she switched to the scissors for the main part and then trimmed up again with clippers, and then the scissors once more. He looks like he's three now, I think! But goodness, he's handsome!
Next week, he and I are going to stay at my mom's house and visit my mom, dad, and siblings for four days while Jake works his new job in my hometown area. I'm really excited. I hope he does fairly well sleeping, I am a little nervous since it'll be not at home, but I think it'll be okay. And then, in two weeks, my sisters are both coming to stay. Yay!
The pools opened in town now, too, so I bet we're going to start swimming quite a bit, as soon as it gets hot again. It's been pretty chilly this week.
Spencer is definitely entering toddler-hood. Not that we didn't know that already, but lately, it's seeming more and more evident that he's not so much a baby.
I say this because, lately, he's been getting into a lot more mischief.
No, I wouldn't say he's a naughty boy. He's curious. He's inquisitive. He's exploring. And he's learning boundaries. It's pretty normal for a child his age.
Here are some examples of his current mischievous acts:
On Saturday of this last weekend, Spencer was sitting in his high chair, finishing up his lunch, while I was standing in front of him, starting to work on our lunch dishes. I had my back to him. I periodically was checking on him to see if he was finished, and sometime in between the check-ins, he did finish, and decide that it was time to get out of his high chair. The picture to the left is how I found him. Scared the heck out of me!
Also on Saturday, he was flushing the toilet, just for fun, while the naughty dog had stuck his head under the toilet seat (ugh) and was trying to drink from it.
On Monday (yesterday), while I was going to the bathroom, he went into his bedroom and pulled the strand of Christmas lights we use for nightlights off the window (they had been falling down... or he had been pulling them down, not sure) and into the hallway. He then pushed the bathroom door open to show me.
On Monday, a little bit later, I was in the bathroom again, and I came to the kitchen to find that he had emptied 3 desk drawers onto the kitchen floor. There were file folders, pens, envelopes, and highlighters all over. He did not want me to clean it up.
And, this morning, I am not sure what I was doing, but I came into the kitchen to get us both some juice, and I found that he had used a blue crayon and gave the fridge door a little makeover.
And yet... I just love him to bits. That's a good thing, right?
On a side note: He learned to say "There you go!" which sounds more like "Tay-go," and he spent much of yesterday handing me... anything he could find, and saying that to me. It's his new favorite game, it seems.
(This is the moon that he saw tonight, however, the photo was taken about 2.5 hours after he found it, while he was sleeping in bed.) ---->
I know, it's a simple thing, but for some reason, it feels like a big deal to me. Maybe because I've always thought as the heavens as somewhat magical. Or mystical. They're intriguing. They're PHENOMENAL really.
Here's the story of Spencer's discovery.
We were just leaving work/daycare/Robert & Jillian's house (because it's all the same) around 5:30pm this evening, same as usual. He looked across the street at their neighbors' Christmas lights, lit up on their house, and said, "ohhhh" like he does for most Christmas-related decorations. I replied, "they're beautiful," as I usually do.
We walked across the driveway to the car, and he was looking around checking out the scenery, as he usually does, and then I see him stop and point up at the sky. In a whisper-type voice, he declared, "WOW," in pure, simple, amazement.
He was looking at the moon! He had never really noticed it before that I have experienced (and since I'm with him 99.9989% of the time in the evenings, I feel like I would know), so the fact that he sighted it and was amazed by the piercingly bright crescent in the sky filled me with giddy joy.
"That's the MOON," I explained. "Moon."
He didn't say it.
He just kept speaking the simple, "Wow."
I had been trying to get him to say "wow" for at least 5 days, and he had not once said it for me to hear.
I guess he just had to find the perfect thing to be awestruck by.
And the moon was it.
He repeated, "wow" a few times in the car, and when we got out of the car again, he looked up and searched the sky, and found it again.
He laughed to himself.
It was priceless.
I think we'll be making a habit of finding the moon on clear-sky nights now.
