Aquarium

Posted on March 11, 2011 by clare

Watch out for that ray Spencer!

While Dave and Ellen were here, they took Spencer to the aquarium one day. I was not there, but I got their pictures, and it looked like a great time.

: Ellen and Spencer seem to be excited at the aquarium

: Spencer helps open a present

: Spencer carrying around the firefighter cutout from his birthday party

: Dave and Spencer looking at rays

: Dave and Spencer at the aquarium

: Ellen keeps Spencer from falling in

One week old

Posted on March 7, 2011 by clare

Meg relaxing on the couch

Margaret turned one week old yesterday. To celebrate, we took her on her first car trip – to Woody’s pizza in Golden, where we met our friends from around the block – Rick, Alisa, and Tao.Meg wasn’t too wild about being in the car, but calmed down once it was moving. She is doing pretty well so far. Today she had her one-week checkup, and she is gaining weight – back up to 7 lbs 2 ounces. That makes us very happy.

Spencer continues to be very nice to his sister. Last night he was playing with some magnets that spell out his name, and at some point, he came over to give them to Meg. It seems like he will do a pretty good job teaching his little sister all he has learned about the world. Dave had to go home yesterday, which was sad for us all. Ellen is staying until Saturday, which is nice. It has been very helpful to have them around.

Other highlights of Meg’s first week include a walk around the duck pond, and lots of cuddling with Mom, Dad, Grandma and Grandpa.

: Meg checks out her hand

: Dave holding little Nutmeg

: Dave playing with Spencer

: Spencer tells Dave about his body parts

: Meg gives Clare a wide-eyed look

: Fedibbletys relaxing on the couch

: Clare and Ellen with Meg at the pond

: Clare holds Meg at the duck pond

: Clare and Meg at the duck pond

: Rob holds Meg by the duck pond

: Angry Meg

: Margaret’s first car trip

Train museum

Posted on February 24, 2011 by clare

Spencer and Dave by the Rio Grande at the train museum

On Monday, Dave and Ellen took Spencer to the train museum, while Clare and I enjoyed our day off from work by working around the house, like going through piles of junk, and trying to get ready for the new baby. I wasn’t actually there, but from the pictures, it seems like Spencer had a great time.

: Dave and Spencer at the train museum

: Spencer and Dave in a train

: Trains and mountains

: Spencer carrying around trains on the train tracks

: Spencer and Ellen in a train

King of the castle

Posted on February 24, 2011 by clare

Spencer playing on the chair

It seems like not too long ago when I called Spencer man of the house. Now he really seems like the king of the castle in the big recliner in the living room. He can climb up all by himself, and sometimes he can even get it to recline. He and Dave were having a good time fooling around in the chair last weekend.

: King of the chair!

: Dave and Spencer playing

: Dave tickling Spencer

Happy Second Birthday Spencer!

Posted on February 21, 2011 by clare

Spencer's 2nd birthday cake

Spencer turned two years old today. We had a whole weekend full of fun. Even today was fun. Dave and Ellen arrived Friday evening, and Dave left a few minutes ago. We all had president’s day off, so we were able to continue playing with Spencer today. However, the big birthday event was on Saturday. We rented a room at the Apex – the local rec center – and had a pool party. Every one had a really great time. Ellen went all out with party favors and decorations using a fire truck theme. She got fire hats for every kid, along with buckets and beach balls they could use in the pool, plus fire-hydrant shaped water bottles, and some little fire engines. We couldn’t find a fire engine cake, so instead we got monster trucks, which Spencer absolutely loves.

Every one was able to make it to the party, including all the kids from our block, Spencer’s friend Tao from the Academy, who lives just around the block, plus my cousin Jessie and her kids, as well as one of Clare’s work friends. Spencer gots lots of cool new toys – mostly trucks and cars, his favorite. Thanks to every one for making Spencer’s second birthday a great one.

more pictures follow

Christmas at the Feltys

Posted on January 25, 2011 by clare

The Felty family

This year we spent Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa Feltys’ house. Spencer and Sadie had lots of fun playing together. We also got the chance to do the now traditional soup with the Gallagher’s on Christmas Eve. On Christmas we visited with Keith and Gary Felty et alia, and on boxing day, we saw the van Kampen’s and the Moore’s.

: Sadie and Rob checking out the camera

: Spencer helps Sadie play with her racetrack

: Sadie got an easel

: Spencer got big boy underwear

: Clare shows Spencer his new digger

: Erika opens her new camera

: Clare checks out her new computer

: Sadie shows Spencer how to use his kitchen utensils

: Spencer and Sadie hiding under the desk

: Harold, Rob, and Spencer playing with cars

: Spencer shows Grandpa Felty some cars

: Spencer and Sadie playing

: Rob, Spencer, and Harold playing cars

: Spence and Grandpa Felty playing cars

: Sadie and Grandpa Felty playing cars

: Grandpa Felty smiling

: Sadie and Spencer playing with diggers

: Spencer and Sadie looking at fish

: Eagle at the nature center

: Sadie and Grandma at the Nature Center

: Sadie, Rob, and Spencer investigate the muskrat lodge at the nature center

: Spencer playing at the airport waiting to go home

: Spencer likes watching the airplanes at the airport

: Spencer tries to give a stranger Clare’s bookmark

Kisses

Posted on October 20, 2010 by clare

Clare, Spencer, and Ellen on the stairs

Several weeks ago Spencer surprised us by giving us kisses on the cheek. A really nice kiss, with an audible smack, and not all wet and sloppy like he used to several months ago. Even better, he started understanding the word kiss, so that if we are sitting on the couch together, and I said: Give your mom a kiss, he will (and he usually kisses me too). Ellen visited us two weekends ago. She got in very late on Friday night. Saturday morning, Spencer woke up, and was cuddling with us a bit. Ellen woke up too, and said good morning to us. I told Spencer: Go give grandma a kiss. He walked over to her room and gave her a nice kiss! Even better was the next morning when we were video-chatting with Dave. I asked Spencer to kiss grandma again. Except this time he kissed Grandpa, by kissing the laptop screen.

Spencer and Ellen

We had a very nice visit with Ellen. Saturday she watched Spencer while Clare and I went out to dinner with friends. Then Sunday Clare and Ellen took Spencer swimming at the Apex while I cleaned house a bit.

Goold reunion

Posted on August 31, 2010 by clare

Goold Family reunion - Phil, Bud, Nancy, Stephanie, Jack, Betty, Melissa, Fran, Harold, Rob, Clare, and Spencer

Last weekend we had a bit of a Goold family reunion in Denver. It turns out that 10 of the 16 people live in the Denver area, so it was a natural place to get together. Nancy and Jack came in from Chicago; Bud came in from LA; Harold and Fran came in from Detroit; and Stephanie came in from Santa Cruz. Saturday evening everyone came over to our house for a Mexican-themed feast. Sunday morning we went to the Links in Boulder for brunch, and Sunday evening we went to Betty and Phil’s in Lakewood for a barbecue. It was lots of fun to catch up with everyone. I didn’t end up getting that many pictures, but here are a few.

: Fran shows off pictures

: Spencer playing with the Links’ toys

: Spencer and Connor keep busy

: Harold and Jack ponder

: Spencer plays with some trucks

: The Goold siblings – Bud, Betty, Nancy, and Fran

Reunion – Elkhorn Lodge

Posted on August 5, 2010 by clare

Spencer on a toy horse, Dave, Clare, and mountains

On the last day of the reunion, we took a tour of the Elkhorn Lodge in Estes Park. It is one of the oldest lodges in Estes Park. It was a very interesting mixture of new old, with several large buildings as well as some smaller cabins. They still rent out many of them. After the tour we had a chuckwagon lunch there with cowboy entertainment. Spencer really enjoyed the cowboy music. There were also some spectacular views of the mountains from the lodge, including some beautiful wispy cloud formations.

: Spencer drives a golf cart at the Elkhorn Lodge

: Jackie and Grant with mountain view from the Elkhorn Lodge

: Spencer inspects the old tires at the Elkhorn Lodge

: The Elkhorn Lodge in Estes Park

: Interesting bathtub in one cabin at the Elkhorn Lodge

: Green shag carpet in the Elkhorn Lodge

: Spencer and Clare at the old golf course at the Elkhorn Lodge

: Mountains and clouds in Estes Park

: Wispy clouds

: Dave and Spencer at the Elkhorn Lodge

: Spencer is strong! He can hold a horseshoe in each hand

: Clare helps Spencer climb the jungle gym at the Elkhorn Lodge

: Spencer likes it when Dave makes the horse bounce

: Rob pushes Spencer on a swing

: Spencer and Dave enjoy the swings at the Elkhorn Lodge in Estes Park

: Spencer liked the cowboy band during lunch at the Elkhorn Lodge

Stacking, planning, and communicating

Posted on August 4, 2010 by clare

Spencer stacking Yogurt

It seems like Spencer is developing really quickly lately. He is starting to be able to plan ahead much more, and his receptive vocabulary is growing rapidly as well. A few anecdotes:

Sit down

Last week at the reunion we were eating dinner one night. Spencer was sitting on a normal chair next to Geebi, and I was sitting across from him. He started to stand up on the chair, and I asked him to sit down several times. He continued standing, so I started to get up from my chair to make him sit down, and as soon as I stood up, he sat down. Spencer knew exactly what I was saying, but he was testing me!

Barbecue Sauce

Sunday night we were about to eat dinner, and I was getting something from the fridge. Spencer frequently likes to shut the refrigerator door, so I was going to let him do that, but he wanted it open. I shut the door, but he kept opening it back up, and was pointing to something in the refrigerator door – barbecue sauce. He wanted some barbecue sauce. I got it out and handed it to him, and he was immediately happy. We then proceeded to heat up a veggie chicken patty for him to dip in barbecue sauce. Speaking of dipping, he was also dipping chips in a bowl of salsa last week at a Mexican restaurant

Communicating

When Spencer wants to go outside, he starts trying to climb into the backpack, or he finds his shoes and brings them to one of us. He doesn’t have any words yet, but he is starting to communicate better. He has been saying “Uh-oh” a lot over the last week, but it seems to be at somewhat random intervals.

Stacking

Just a few months ago, Spencer only wanted to destroy towers. Now he is actively building them. Dave got a short video of Spencer stacking yogurt cups.
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