Last Day of 3

As I'm doing some final preparations for Spencer's party tomorrow, I'm feeling so sentimental about our sweet boy's birth. It's strange how an event can feel simultaneously like a million years ago and also just like yesterday. At this precise time in 2008, Dave and I were in the weeds big time, working hard (they don't call it labor for nothing) at getting "Ziggy" into the world. Bet you forgot his in utero nickname, huh? When he emerged, "Ziggy" became "Spencer" and then our world changed forever. I laugh when I think about how during my pregnancy I would tell people that I couldn't imagine loving my baby more than my cats - I would love them all equally. Talk about naive!

Cut to 3 years, 364 days later and we're about to celebrate our little boy's fourth birthday. I love him in the whole world and the meteorites, as he likes to say. Every day with my Spencie is a gift and I look forward to celebrating him tomorrow and seeing what's in store for my little four-year-old.

Nature's Way

Spencer started a new preschool in late September—Nature's Way, which is part of the Austin Nature and Science Center in Zilker Park. It's the only preschool that we got on the list for when he was a baby. Our good friends Jessie and Cooper went there and we heard how magical it was from their mom. We're pretty sure she had something to do with Spencer making the cut, along with Dave and Spencer's frequent trips to the ANSC where they talked to the director and various teachers. However it happened, we are feeling beyond blessed around here.

As you might guess from the school's name, it is very focused on the outdoors—they spend most of their time outside, rain or shine. There's have a huge playground covered by a canopy of oak trees, with a giant sand area complete with water hoses, shovels and PVC pipe, as well as access to paints, musical toys, puppets, etc. They take a hike every day. They eat lunch outdoors. Sometimes animals from the ANSC will visit their class. He comes home dirty and sweaty and happy as a clam!

Spencer is in the Hummingbirds class with seven other 3-yr-olds and a class frog. He has a male teacher and a male teaching assistant, and he adores them both (and they are beyond awesome with the kids). Here's a quick example of how great his teacher is. The third day of class, Spencer brought a huge yellow moth that we had found in a parking lot over the weekend. When we returned on Wednesday, his teacher had it on display with a note saying it was donated by Spencer, along with all sorts of information he had found about the moth. Made the boy feel special.

He is going to thrive here—it was obvious from the first day when Dave could barely tear him away to go home and then he talked non-stop during dinner about his day. This is a picture I took from my office while Spencer was telling Dave about something he learned on his hike the first day:

The program is just two mornings a week, so he still goes to his Montessori school two mornings as well. The only downside? His old school is now "boring" (direct quote). But we told him that maybe he can bring new ideas to the old school and make it more exciting for everyone. He likes that idea.

Soccer Cubs, the Sequel

Spencer missed his second Soccer Cubs class because we were in Houston, so we were psyched to go to a class again over the weekend. On tap this week was some obstacle course work.

First, they got familiar with the course:

Then they did a run-through with the ball:

It's fun to see Spencer in a class environment like this - he's confident and excited to try something new, which makes me know we've done the right thing by not rushing him into organized activities. Proud of my little Soccer Cub.

More Scenes from the Weekend

I love getting to spend full days with Spencer on the weekends. When possible, I try not to over-schedule our weekends so we can find a balance in playing/relaxing at home with some out-and-about stuff, too. We had some good quality time this weekend for sure!

After Soccer Cubs on Saturday morning, we ran a few errands in Sunset Valley then spent at least an hour reading in the bookstore. We also stumbled upon a child safety event at Old Navy. There were several police cars and a firetruck we got to climb into, and inside the store there were various safety-related activities. Well, if there's one thing we know about Spencer after almost 4 years, it's that he doesn't like surprises of that sort. If I had told him before we set out that we would be going to Old Navy to get him fingerprinted, etc., he would've been totally on-board. But you don't just spring something like that on him! The expression in the first photo below pretty much sums it up. So we passed on the indoor activities and just checked out the emergency vehicles.

Today, we met Spencer's school friend Taylor Bee and her mommy at the Paramount Theater for a Ballet Austin production called "Not Afraid of the Dark: The Show that Glows!" This was the first theater-type-event Spencer has attended and it was fun - a glow-in-the-dark ballet for the littles. At the beginning, the ceiling and walls were suddenly covered in lights from disco balls and he gasped in the sweetest way and grabbed my hand. At one point I heard him say, "Hey Taylor Bee, this sure is nice!" Mommy's heart melted quite a few times during that hour.

It was pouring rain all day and I was regretting that I hadn't found him new rain boots or a rain jacket yet. But then I found last year's boots and they still fit (sorta). And the golf jacket Daddy brought him from Pebble Beach was water resistant, though it came down to his knees. And the purple umbrella he grabbed on the way out of the house ended up being broken. But my little hobo was happy as a clam splashing around downtown before and after the show.

Soccer Cubs

I'm behind on blogging so I'll be skipping around a bit. Starting off with a fun activity from the weekend.

Spencer started Soccer Cubs yesterday. It's held at an indoor soccer club and his class is for ages 3-4. Two teachers lead the kids in games to teach them the basics of soccer, but it's not a soccer team. No sir, I'm not ready for the madness of organized sports for the pre-school set. Spencer really enjoyed himself and it was fun to watch him. I think we picked the perfect time for something like this.

And here's a short video of Spencer learning how to "Tick-Tock" - the Soccer Cubs version of dribbling. Adorbs!

Blooming Rock Update

It took longer than the couple of days mentioned on the package, but the Blooming Rock we talked about last month did indeed bloom. Kinda hard to get a good picture because we haven't removed it from the bowl yet. It is very fragile and we're hoping over time the new crystals will harden more.

 

Art

Just some pics of recent art projects - found objects art and finger painting.

The artists and assessing their materials.

Brachiosaurus

Stegosaurus

Sunny leaves

Need a caption contest for this one

I think the hands are always the best part of finger painting