Nature vs. Nurture

I have never thought of Spencer as being shy, but rather a little cautious in new situations. He's always tended to take everything in and slowly acclimate to the environment rather than jump right in. Lately I've noticed that he doesn't seem to need that warm up time as much. One day this week, Dave dropped him off at our friend Anissa's house where he played with her littlest boy while she home-schooled her oldest for a few hours. He barely knows these friends (we of course know them very well), but he just walked right in, started playing and had a total blast. Yesterday was our first class of the new semester of Music Together. The teacher and the parents (most of whom were in our class last time) kept looking at me like, "Who IS this kid and what have you done with Spencer?" He was Mr. Showboat - dancing, singing, banging drums, talking to the babies and mommies and just having a grand ole' time. We went to the rodeo carnival last weekend and he was eager to get on rides. And I already described how fun and comfortable he was at our friend's birthday party last weekend.

The reason I'm talking about this is I think it's interesting that this behavior is exactly what has been described as a benefit of Attachment Parenting - a style of parenting that Dave and I subscribe to (though somewhat loosely). The idea is that keeping your baby close in the early years and responding to his needs doesn't create a clingy/needy/spoiled child - it actually fosters independence. So, maybe Spencer was just born this way. But I like to think all that baby-wearing, co-sleeping, extended nursing, responding to him throughout the night, and keeping him close to us actually did something!

Dancing Machine

New plan: Whenever I'm feeling sad, I will just watch this video.

Our boy had an absolute blast at Alexis' 40th birthday bash. He got to play with other kids, blow bubbles, nosh on all sorts of goodies, stay up way past his bedtime, and of course DANCE!

Happy St. Patrick's Day from Geep & Spence

First Catch, First Canoe

When I arrived at the ranch Friday, Spencer and Pop were fishing. It was one of the cutest things I've seen lately - Spencer sitting in his little chair holding a fishing pole. He had already reeled in one fish, but I got to see him land his second fish.

He was so proud of his perch! The first of many to come I'm sure.


Spencer also went on his first canoe ride on the pond with Daddy. He looked like such a big boy in that life vest.

We Will Miss You, Grannie

Spencer's Grannie went to Heaven on March 5, 2011. She will be dearly missed but we will cherish our memories and keep her alive in our hearts forever.

Gelato: Yummy or Yucky?

We went to Central Market for dinner Wednesday evening and decided to get a gelato to share afterward. Spencer has had a couple tastes of gelato before but wasn't really interested. When we gave him a taste this time, at first he was sticking out his tongue and saying, "Yucky!" I was ready to order a DNA test because I don't know how my own flesh and blood could possibly think gelato is yucky. But a few tastes later he started giggling uncontrollably. I really wish I had taken video - it was like he just discovered the most awesome, delicious thing in the world. With every taste there was more giggling. Of the three flavors we had in our cup, he liked pistaschio best - just like Mommy!

Wee Wheelin'

I forgot to post this is video of Spencer from our last trip to Angleton. He is racing down Grannie and Paw-Paw's sidewalk on Mommy's vintage Wee Wheeler. I like how he navigates around the popper and how he just looks happy.

High Chair No More / A Yotta Food

The days of the high chair seem to have ended in our house. Spencer prefers to sit in a big chair now. We've thought about getting a booster seat, but he doesn't like using them at restaurants so that might be a purchase we can skip. The only downside to this is what I call the "free-range chicken" syndrome - he can climb out of the chair whenever he wishes.


I absolutely love how Spencer pronounces his Ls as Ys much of the time. This isn't something I'm always correcting because a) I think it's adorable and quite toddler-ish and b) I'm not worried that it's going to stick around forever (he can pronounce Ls properly, he just doesn't always do it). When he and Dave got back from HEB last week I went outside to greet them and Spencer excitedly told me, "We bought a yotta new food at the grocery store." Then his eyes got SO big and he said in a deep voice, "We bought a YOTTA, YOTTA, YOTTA STRAWBERRIES!"

Ya just gotta "yove" that boy!

Touring Austin

Last weekend we took Spencer to the Texas Memorial Museum on the UT campus. Or as Spencer calls it, the "muh-zee-um." After we looked at the rocks, fossils and wildlife, we wandered around campus a bit. (I think that was the first time we took Spencer to UT??) He wanted to check out the East Mall fountain and as luck would have it, there was lots of construction going on - a bonus for our big machinery fan! We tried to make Spencer understand the significance of walking right by Darrel K. Royal - Texas Memorial Stadium for the first time, but it just didn't compute. Give him time.


On Monday, Spencer kept talking about going to the muh-zee-um, so Dave took him to the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum. It wasn't the most exciting venue for a 2-year-old, so they strolled over to the Capitol. They even got to go inside the House of Representatives Chamber.