for Natalia’s visit! We are so lucky: every year one of my good friends from elementary school comes to town for a geology conference and we get to see her! Last year (on the right, below) she saw me pregnant, three days before I was put on bed rest:

And this year she met my daughter:

We’ve known each other for almost 20 years. It’s remarkable to share in these life events together.

Natalia, we’re already looking forward to next years visit! Our family loves this tradition.

from our family to ours!

Every day we go over colors. I like to make piles around the house with color-similar objects for Miss Leyba. I try to put different objects together each time to keep it interesting. Here are several groupings from yesterday morning:

Oh, the above photograph, how it makes me chuckle. I think she’s saying, “Mom, why do you have my carrot? Can I please play with it now?”

Finally Miss Leyba had enough:

“Who cares about colors?! Come on, Mom, let’s read!”

Someone has been practicing walking every day for months. Here’s the latest method that she came up with all on her own:

There she goes! from Carrie on Vimeo.

She’s since been loading up the laundry basket (with toys and books) and pushing it all over the house.

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Two cute stories:

From the dining room I hear her crawl off down the hallway. I assume she’s gone to the bedroom (as the bathroom door is usually closed), so I scurry after her and SURPRISE she’s not there. I check twice and freeze in panic mode. Where is she?! Then suddenly I hear a lot of giggling and bang bang banging going on. I run to the bathroom and she’s standing at the toilet banging on the seat cover (thankfully, we always keep it down!). She was VERY proud of herself (knowing full well that she’s not allowed to touch this magical contraption called a toilet) and I nearly had a heart attack.

The other day she crawled into the bedroom and closed the door. She then sat up against the door so I could only open it VERY slowly by pushing her forward with the door (thankfully, she wasn’t standing!). I had flashes of Miss Leyba as a preteen refusing to let me in. It’s only about 10 years away now. Not that I’m keeping track or anything.

Miss Leyba has two teeth (one on the bottom, shown above, and one on the top)!
And two more are in the process of popping!
It’s been an eventful two weeks!

Here’s a bonus photo because it is just so darn cute: