golden-gate-park

ava was slow to warm to the whole "shovel and bucket" sort of playing . . . and i was slow to grasp the idea that this was essential training for that whole "food on utensil and into mouth" activity. we've both got the hang of it now though, and ava can shovel her sand around with the best of them.

errr . . . on the other hand, i'm not exactly sure what "dumping sand on forehead" is training for . . . i'm not sure i want to know . . .

this video was taken in the "stream" that flows into the sandbox in the koret children's playground.

every day after daycare, ava and i go to the arboretum. the arboretum is full of little "micro-environments", each very different from the next. when ava was little, and i got to decide where we went, we visited many environments every day. now, she tends to obsess about a particular area of the garden for a month or so, and then finally agrees to move on.

one of my big accomplishments for the week was to manage to drag ava 20 feet off her usual route to accommodate a visit to the miniature bamboo forest. it was pretty windy today, and in this picture ava is watching the towering tops of the bamboo 50 feet above us, blowing around quite impressively.

watch ava play "night night" in the park.

ava and daddy's tour of the park usually includes two of golden gate park's playgrounds. they end at the "little playground" where ava likes to show off her ability to do a "lap" all on her own (see video).

at 20.5 months, ava is suddenly coming down with a case of "i can do it myself!". at the arboretum, there is a stone courtyard wall that ava likes to clamber on. the wall is about 3 feet high and there are a variety of different ascents. ava mastered one of the more difficult routes today, accepting my usual "spotting" without complaint. after one successful ascent though, ava decided that she'd had enough of mommy's hovering hands. she pushed me away and said "bye bye!" quite firmly. i conceded a distance of a few feet, but then snuck up on her again once she was a foot off the ground. after completing her second ascent (and noticing my trickery), ava came up with a new plan. this time, she dragged me over to the nearest bench . . . "mommy sit down . . . mommy bench . . . " and then stomped off a few feet . . . "bye bye" . . . and went back to her wall, casting the occasional glaring glance over her shoulder to make sure that i stayed parked where she left me.

if you listen closely you can hear ava saying "big step", "big step" to herself as she goes up the stairs.

grandma and ava spend nearly every afternoon in the children's garden at the strybing arboretrum. the children's garden is located in the wildest and most distant corner of the arboretum, surrounded by a natural california landscape and much too far a trek from the entrance gates for all but the most motivated garden visitor. hence, they usually have the place to themselves.

the garden hosts a good selection of veggies and ava has learned how to extract and "count" the beans from a pod, to identify all the veggies, to help the gardeners keep the garden organized and to spot every passing airplane and hawk.

shortly before her september trip to thunder bay, the dandelions in the park started going to seed. i picked a couple one day and showed ava how to blow the seeds off. to my surprise, while ava was in thunder bay, her grandfather reported that she was picking dandelions and trying to blow the seeds off.

grandma and i took ava and paulo to the park one morning this week. i thought with two grownups to chase babies i would have my hands free enough to take some pictures. my hands were free, but i rapidly realized the more difficult challenge was getting the two babies to stay in the same frame.

ava has been carrying on a bit of a love affair with the playground turtle for some time. so, when paulo trod on her turf, she tried to bully him out of the way. more pics

when she gets a little older ava is going to be a master at the sesame street "one of these things is not like the other" game. ava and i spend alot of time at san francisco botanical garden, which as you might imagine, is very green and full of plants. naturally, ava is obsessed primarily with all-that-is-not-plant. for example, the arboretum tags their trees with these little pieces of metal, about the size of a quarter, nailed close to the bottom of the trunk. ava spots those from a mile away.

on cloudy days I like to take ava to the japanese tea garden. she bounces up and down and squeals when she sees the koi fish in the ponds, and likes to walk along holding on to the miniature bamboo fences. unfortunately, the miniature bamboo fence construction is not baby-grade and every once in awhile she knocks one the cross beams out of the posts entirely. although only once has this actually ended in her falling over, she howls from the fright every time.

the city of san francisco has done a lovely job of preparing our neighborhood for ava's childhood. shortly before she was born, they finished off the de young museum of fine arts which has lots of room to toddle around on a cold and foggy day, and a great toy store. next on deck is the new california academy of arts and science which will come complete with an aquarium and penguin feedings. the latest treat though was the completion of the new koret children's playground

ava and I have been visiting the playground regularly very early in the morning. later in the afternoon, the playground is a mob scene of happy children shreaking and running to and fro, mowing over any poor toddling little babies in their path. at 7:00 AM though, we usually have it all to ourselves. most of the playground is built on top of soft foamy material (kind of like a really nice outdoor running track) or really deep sand, making it an optimal place to practice walking and learn a little bit about gravity. sometimes, we learn a little more than mommy intended. one of the first times Aaa was crawling through this tunnel i opted to simply let her crawl right off the edge into the soft sand. i didn't factor in the detail where she crawled over the edge with her eyes and mouth wide open. oops. lots more more pics