around town: A Day at the Museum.

About once a week, Gabriel and I take a trip to one of our favorite places in Denver. The Denver Museum of Nature and Science is a great place to spend an afternoon with friends, both old and young, or with yourself (I find the quiet third-floor bird halls to be the perfect place to sit alone). Although temporary exhibits can be expensive (but always well worth it!), the museum offers extremely affordable annual passes for families and individuals. Thanks to our regular trips to the museum over the last year and a half, Gabriel knows the difference between caribou and moose, can differentiate between the call of a doe and the call of a mountain lion cub, and knows the size of his foot in comparison to the footprint of a long-extinct, meat-eating dinosaur. In cold weather, the museum is a lovely, warm haven to spend our time in, and in warm weather, its amazing sky terrace, interactive floor fountains, and stunning grounds, lake, and garden still draw us like magnets. It feels like, no matter how often we visit, there's always something new to discover, think about, and appreciate.

And, of course, a final jumping with the kangaroos.

Summer's Cauldron.

Summer is slowly sneaking away, and will soon leave us with a few big changes in our lives. Until then, we're doing our best to soak up these most sweet, lingering days. See you when it rains!

Story Time.

Life with a two-year-old can bring one to some very unexpected places. Some days, we realize that feeding our lunch to the ducks is more pressing than finishing our grocery shopping. Other days, we play with the hose and let the wetness of our feet decide where to go next. And, of course, we have days of loafing at home in pajamas, when the most socializing we do is a wave to the cars driving past or a breakfast shared with the fat neighborhood squirrells. Sometimes, we make our way back home hours past bed-time, when, though we may have been playing in dirt and grass all day long, there is simply no time for a bath or the usual twenty laps around the kitchen (to burn off that last bit of energy, you know).
It seems like no matter what we spend the day doing, there is one thing waiting at the end of each day that we can always count on. Story time before bed is one of the sweetest moments we share in these very un-docile, wild days of two-ness. Despite how restless, angry, over-tired, or grumpy Gabriel may be, calls of "story time!" always direct him to crawling excitedly into bed (over the foot-board with a leaping belly-flop, of course). I've tried to make it a habit of reading four bed-time stories with Gabriel each night. Although we have a good deal of children's books, it's difficult to find one that is the right length with a charming plot, calming illustrations, and not so many teach-them-how-to-behave-properly morals (I tend to disagree with the way many of these nannying stories want readers to raise their children). After two years of digging around, however, Gabriel's bed-side table is now home to a number of perfect sleepy-time books, even some from the nights I was being read to.

Sweet dreams!