I was under the impression that babes sleep. . .

and I'd have more time to thoughtfully consider the world around me, but as fate would have it, my little guy sleeps erratically, needs help to get down and stay down, and needs constant monitoring while awake. So all my thoughts will have to be brief. He is now 17 months old, and I'm finally attacking something on my 'to do' list (aside from dishes and laundry).

My goal here is to both document the progress of the development of his spatial understanding and to push myself to "think like an architect" under unconventional circumstances (and remember to not take any of this for granted). While I eat up all of the blogs dedicated to witty, clever, and cute design objects that feed the adult mind but are intended for children, I recognize that the relevance of most of these objects is fleeting, and my own son couldn't care less. He is more interested in what is on top of this, under that. He asks, what happens if I climb up here or scoot down here? He uses his body to manipulate space; funny enough, that's what I thought I was doing for years, first with a pencil and then with a mouse. I can't wait to find out what else I will learn from him.

My books are packed away, but this weekend I hope to dig out my copy of Yi-Fu Tuan's Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience. My recollection is that Tuan begins with the babe discovering his hands, but I don't remember his observation of toddlers. Will I find that my guy is a text book case?