The tricycle
This week I purchased Devon a tricycle with a push bar off of Craigs List. A push bar allows an adult to steer the tricycle from behind (and push) while the child pedals, giving the adult some nominal control and the child some faint feeling of tricycle freedom. There are very fancy German versions of this type of push-bar tricycle, but since those can run over $200, we opted for the old Radio Flyer version. The Chinese-manufacturerd steering is not anywhere near what we'd get in the German-engineered bike, but then again, this one was 20 bucks. At any rate, Devon just loves this tricycle; and ever since we got it, at least once a day she clamors for "Bicicel!" until we relent. We've been taking a lot of walks with the tricycle -- on Friday evening we went all the way down to Arguello and back, which is about 16 blocks, and she only had me carry her for the last block.
Early on Saturday morning Devon and I went to try out a new playground. On Friday we met a family a couple of doors down who have two little boys, Tom and Aidan, who are a bit older than Devon. They were drawing on the sidewalk with chalk, we were coming around the corner on the tricycle; and in the way that kids have, Devon got off the tricycle and just helped herself to some chalk and joined in. We must have spent at least a half hour drawing on the sidewalk with them, to Devon's great delight (Walt passed us once on the way to the light store and a second time on the way to the hardware store). I talked a bit with their parents, and their mother, Susie, recommended a couple of new playgrounds that we hadn't visited; so on Saturday we decided to try out the Laurel Hill playground.
The playground itself was fine -- not bad, but nothing special -- but the disappointing thing was that there were no kids there. I know from Devon's point of view that a playground is a miss if there aren't other kids to interact with (or at least observe). Over the time we were there, children slowly trickled in; and by the time we were leaving, there were several kids there. It made me think that perhaps we were on an opposite playground schedule, since everyone was there just as we were leaving! I guess I need to consider visiting the playgrounds at 11 am instead of 9:30 am.
One of my old college friends was in town this weekend on his way up to Idaho and Montana, and he stopped by to visit us. He doesn't have children, and I think based on his comments during his visit, he may put that off for a while. Devon was rather cranky on Saturday and wasn't her usual preening self for visitors. When Colin arrived to have lunch with us, I was just taking Devon out for a little ride on her tricycle. When I took her off of it to go upstairs with him, she broke into a tantrum that lasted at least 10 minutes (based on leaving the tricycle in the garage) -- and that was just his first meeting of her.
She eventually took a nap after lunch (followed shortly thereafter by Walt) -- she was tired from the tricycling and her tantrum, I think -- and Colin and I went to the de Young Museum to take a look at the James Turrell sculpture. I've been to the de Young a couple of times but hadn't seen the Turrell piece; and after we went there, I realized why: it's an underground installation with an entrance at the back of the sculpture garden, and you really have to be looking for the Turrell installation to find it. This was a nice piece, which is saying something, since the de Young collection is really pretty lackluster (although the new building is quite nice). It's a museum for cafe and architecture enthusiasts, not art connoisseurs.
Devon did oblige us by taking a two hour nap (!), so by the time we got back, she was just waking up. Colin left for his roadtrip soon thereafter, but it turned into a long night for us, since Devon woke up early in the evening with an earache. This is the second week that she's had an earache at night that has disappeared the next morning. It's weird -- Walt is going to take her to the doctor this week before we go to New York just to make sure she doesn't have some kind of latent ear infection or other problem. She was up several times on Saturday night, though, and kept us awake for far too much of the night, even after we dosed her with Motrin. The next morning she appeared to be totally recovered, though, so we weren't sure what to make of it.
Early on Saturday morning Devon and I went to try out a new playground. On Friday we met a family a couple of doors down who have two little boys, Tom and Aidan, who are a bit older than Devon. They were drawing on the sidewalk with chalk, we were coming around the corner on the tricycle; and in the way that kids have, Devon got off the tricycle and just helped herself to some chalk and joined in. We must have spent at least a half hour drawing on the sidewalk with them, to Devon's great delight (Walt passed us once on the way to the light store and a second time on the way to the hardware store). I talked a bit with their parents, and their mother, Susie, recommended a couple of new playgrounds that we hadn't visited; so on Saturday we decided to try out the Laurel Hill playground.
The playground itself was fine -- not bad, but nothing special -- but the disappointing thing was that there were no kids there. I know from Devon's point of view that a playground is a miss if there aren't other kids to interact with (or at least observe). Over the time we were there, children slowly trickled in; and by the time we were leaving, there were several kids there. It made me think that perhaps we were on an opposite playground schedule, since everyone was there just as we were leaving! I guess I need to consider visiting the playgrounds at 11 am instead of 9:30 am.
One of my old college friends was in town this weekend on his way up to Idaho and Montana, and he stopped by to visit us. He doesn't have children, and I think based on his comments during his visit, he may put that off for a while. Devon was rather cranky on Saturday and wasn't her usual preening self for visitors. When Colin arrived to have lunch with us, I was just taking Devon out for a little ride on her tricycle. When I took her off of it to go upstairs with him, she broke into a tantrum that lasted at least 10 minutes (based on leaving the tricycle in the garage) -- and that was just his first meeting of her.
She eventually took a nap after lunch (followed shortly thereafter by Walt) -- she was tired from the tricycling and her tantrum, I think -- and Colin and I went to the de Young Museum to take a look at the James Turrell sculpture. I've been to the de Young a couple of times but hadn't seen the Turrell piece; and after we went there, I realized why: it's an underground installation with an entrance at the back of the sculpture garden, and you really have to be looking for the Turrell installation to find it. This was a nice piece, which is saying something, since the de Young collection is really pretty lackluster (although the new building is quite nice). It's a museum for cafe and architecture enthusiasts, not art connoisseurs.
Devon did oblige us by taking a two hour nap (!), so by the time we got back, she was just waking up. Colin left for his roadtrip soon thereafter, but it turned into a long night for us, since Devon woke up early in the evening with an earache. This is the second week that she's had an earache at night that has disappeared the next morning. It's weird -- Walt is going to take her to the doctor this week before we go to New York just to make sure she doesn't have some kind of latent ear infection or other problem. She was up several times on Saturday night, though, and kept us awake for far too much of the night, even after we dosed her with Motrin. The next morning she appeared to be totally recovered, though, so we weren't sure what to make of it.
posted by Devon Szalva at
8:50 PM
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