Dear Miss Leyba,

You are eleven months old now!

And this is my last monthly letter. (Look, I am so excited about this that I even wrote it early.)

Not that I haven’t enjoyed writing them, but from here on out I am going to write to you at a minimum every year on your birthday… but more realistically I am going to write when I feel inspired to do so: when you have a new accomplishment or I have a cute story about you that I want us to remember.

And let’s face it: this whole blog has morphed from Carrie’s daily happenings to MISS LEYBA’S FAN CLUB! Not that there is anything wrong with that, but I honestly can’t remember the last time I wrote a post just about me. And mama deserves a little blog face time too, don’t you think?

Before I start rambling about this past month, I have a little catch up to do. In the last letter I forgot to write about what a cuddly and affectionate girl you are becoming. You give us giant hugs and super wet kisses every day. You are also so very smiley and happy these days. Oh, your cute laughing and happy shrieking! (Especially when Daddy is playing with you!) I think you are coming into your own.

The big development this month is that you are teetering on the edge of walking by yourself! All month you walked around holding our hand (yes, one hand! how do you balance yourself?!) and took the occasional steps by yourself. When this happened you almost immediately squatted down and clapped for yourself (and we cheered!).

Earlier this week though you started really taking steps on your own. Last night you took 9 steps in a row and it went something like this:

Step, step, pause. Step, step, pause. Step, step, pause. Step, step, pause. Step, pause… Cheer and clap!

Sometimes you are so excited that you are walking that you start cheering, waving your hands and clapping for yourself while you’re walking and then you almost always wipe out (i.e. sit down). We’re thrilled that you’re so proud of yourself and, my god, is it cute when you cheer for yourself, but it really can be hard to multitask. Especially when it messes with your balance and everything.

And I almost forgot — you now have teeth! Not just one tooth, but FOUR! Despite this, you have been incredibly smiley and happy. You’re continually breastfeeding though: evidently I am the ultimate comforter. There is no thumb sucking or a special favorite toy (yet!). There is mama. And boy do you love me! (I love you too, sweetie!)

Things that are big this month: clapping, waving and saying “bye bye.” You’ve been doing all of the above for a while, but now you are REALLY doing them. I know I say this a lot, but just when we thought you couldn’t talk more or clap more and wave more, you surprise us. What can I say? You continually amaze us.

You continue to love knocking down towers of blocks, reading books, singing songs (you even do the hand motions for “If you’re happy and you know it” most of the time!), dropping objects (off the high chair, off the bed, off the changing table), and following after us. You like to be in the middle of the action. And doing everything we’re doing. (Hence, the above photo where you are evidently working on our grocery list.)

I am getting very good at cooking while holding you. And unloading the dishwasher. And even doing the dishes. And loading up the laundry.

If we can’t find the remote (or a book or shoe or cell phone), chances are you’ve hidden it under the couch. You love putting things under there.

Sweetie, we just keep having so much fun together. And just when I think we couldn’t possibly have more fun together or you couldn’t possibly get any cuter, you blow me away and prove that we can and you are.

Life with you and Daddy rocks. We are all so happy.

2008 has been my favorite year ever.

I love you, little one.

Love,
Mama

Reason #1:
She now has four teeth!

All four teeth cut in the span of three weeks.

Poor parents.

I mean, poor baby! Ouch!

For the most part, she’s been a real trouper, though we are so relieved she’s back to sleeping through the night.

And by sleeping through the night, I mean latching herself on to eat every two or so hours without ever opening her eyes or making a peep (and often not waking me up). As long as I don’t need to stay awake while she eats, I am not complaining. She can eat and comfort suckle as long as she needs to.

And reason #2:
She’s walking!

Yes, you heard that right.

Walking.

More on that (and a video) soon…

Our lives are about to change forever.

You’d think that since Hanukkah, Solstice and Christmas were all in one week and it’s baby’s first holiday season that we’d go all out, right?

Nope, not this year.

Hello, she’s not even going to remember it!

So we kept the holidays very low key. We stayed home and celebrated amongst ourselves (with lots of Skyping with our families — tis the season!). We lighted candles on the menorah and Mama messed up the blessings each night:

We kept the decorations simple (thanks, Alice and Christana!):

We ate good food: lots of yummy latkes (red potatoes with their skins on! zucchini grated in! vitamin packed and delicious!) piled high with sour cream, smoked salmon and dill. (Major kudos to the hubby for making them not once, but twice!) And we continued the Leyba Family tradition of bagels and lox on Christmas morning (and they aren’t even Jewish!), although we technically enjoyed our bagels several days earlier and ran out of whitefish by Christmas (next year we’ll have to stock up and bring this back to breakfast on the 25th; David was a little blue about it when the stores were closed so we couldn’t pick up more… Whoops! Now we know better.).

And the chocolate! Wow, did I have a sugar hangover:

The baby opened one small present each day for eight nights. Most of the gifts were from our amazing families and friends.  You kept surprising us with lovely cards and packages for Miss Leyba. What a lucky girl! You guys are awesome! Thank you so much for the great gifts!

She loved every single one.

And the packaging! What joy!

David and I received exactly what we wanted: shiney new loaf pans from Williams-Sonoma for the mama (I can’t wait to get baking!) and Daddy is taking four yoga classes a week (approximately) for two weeks straight. And we got lots of new clothes. Hooray!

The best present of course is being able to spend these two weeks together. We are one happy family over here. (And trying not to think about pesky things like pay cuts and the impending layoffs!)

Overall it was a very low key and merry holidays. How I wish we could keep it this simple every year… Something tells me next year it’s going to be a whole lot bigger. Since the baby is going to understand what’s going on and everything. Hmm…

Our friend Miriam — who we met in Boulder five years ago — is in town for the holidays. She stopped by to visit with us and got to meet Miss Leyba:

One of David’s classmates in graduate school, it’s no surprise that the subject of engineering came up (and went right over my head!). The most pleasant surprise, however, was our shared love of natural building and all things cob! Wow, do I love it when I meet another cob enthusiast. There are more of us than you’d think.

Miriam spent several months earlier this year in Thailand studying natural building methods and has also taken a natural building intensive course in Colorado. Check out her photo albums; she includes great descriptions of the building styles and steps in her photos. Hooray for building beautiful homes out of dirt!

We had a lovely, relaxing day together yesterday catching up. The weather was bright and sunny, so we even went for a walk (one of our frequent activities in Boulder: hikes on the weekends together!). Almost as if we were back in Boulder in 2004… except for the whole baby and California thing. So, um, never mind.

Thank you for visiting us, Miriam! We hope to see you again soon.

To celebrate your new teeth, we decided to treat you to a new non-mashed food: (organic, gluten-free, all natural) rice krispie cereal!

Talk about a big hit. You loved it!

Not only is cereal now all over your high chair and the dinning room floor (we have even found occasional krispies in bed!), but the cereal keeps ending up in odd places on you:

David took these shots.

Too funny.

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!