I’ve known my friend Natalia for over 20 years and, since we moved to the Bay Area, she has come and visited us every year:

In the 2007 photo, above, I am thirty-three weeks pregnant with Miss Leyba!

My daughter and Natalia meeting each other for the first time, above.

Last year walking the streets of San Francisco.

Our whole family looks forward to and greatly enjoys our time together.

We may see each other just once a year, yet I consider Natalia to be one of my dearest friends. Each year, we take off right where we left off and become closer in the short time we spend together. A true friend.

Natalia, we’re looking forward to next year!

Our kitchen table, after a day full of crafting:

The table, honestly, looks better now than it did a couple of days ago. We’re working on organizing the mess.

No, really.

That table is just the tip of the iceberg.

This is my next house organization project: devising an inexpensive (and hopefully attractive) system to order the craft supplies chaos that is encroaching on the entire house.

You think I’m kidding.

Here are some before shots, with descriptions:

I think I have my work cut out for me.

I savor each and every new experience with our daughter. We’ve sewed together and worked on our own projects before, but working on our own, independently-designed projects next to each other is a new, glorious experience.

We began working on birthday crows for our babies (mine turns three years old next week, hers is lying on the table waiting for her crown fitting).

Then she decided that she needed to sew a present for me (my birthday is just after hers).

In true toddler fashion, she needed to do it entirely on her own.

She then preceded to design, cut and sew the project entirely by herself, asking for occasional help threading the needle and tying off knots.

She made me a little stuffed pillow. My heart melted.

She seems quite proud too.

Unfortunately, somehow I’m going to have to break the news to her that I don’t want to cut her embroidery open to get to her intended present inside.

After all, it’s her beautiful needlework that’s special to me, not the stuffing.

But when it’s your birthday, you open presents, and she wants me to open mine. “It’s a stuffing birth-fairy present, Mama!”

I suppose I need to encourage her to wrap it (won’t take much persuading, she LOVES to gift wrap presents), so I have that to unwrap and can keep her darling pillow intact instead.

We’ll see how it goes. I’ll be sure to give her a high-protein snack beforehand and make sure she’s adequately hydrated when she gives it to me. We all feel more agreeable and happy when we’re fed and watered, right?! That certainly seems to work in this family. :)

We flew to the east coast earlier this month (four days later than planned thanks to that big blizzard, but that’s another story) to celebrate my grandmother’s 80th birthday.

At the birthday dinner party, Miss Leyba sat herself right next to the guest of honor. Never-mind that was supposed to be my seat. The toddler insisted she sit between Great-Grandma and cousin Julia. As the tears welled up in her eyes, I realized this was important to her, and quickly acquiesced. I instead sat several seats over where I watched my loves interact and greatly enjoy each other’s company. (It also gave me the perfect seat for capturing these priceless pictures, so in retrospect it worked out great.)

I do believe my grandma was thrilled.

Look at what fun they had together.

We all so enjoyed ourselves. A lovely, incredibly memorable evening and so worth the trip!

Happy Birthday, Grandma! We love you.

Another post in our First on Friday series where we share a new experience from the past week.

While on our trip back east (to celebrate my grandmother’s 80th birthday), my daughter encountered snow for the first time. Talk about little girl heaven! (Above, she’s seeing freshly fallen snow for the first time, exclaiming, “It’s snowy!”)

The things we miss out on living in California!

She spent most of the day outside playing in the snow. (Above, she’s holding hands with her snowman.)

Thankfully Grandma and David were amenable to taking turns with her out there. Mama doesn’t much like the snow. (I’m afraid that commuting everyday in snowy Colorado ruined it for me. Perhaps someday I will reclaim the love of cold weather and freshly-fallen snow.)

In the meantime, my daughter finds it magical.

As she should.

We’re gearing up for a certain little girl’s birthday party this month.

This week we’ve been focusing on making decorations.

We took some favorite photos from the last three years and placed them on construction paper frames decorated by the toddler (with Elmer’s Washable Glitter Paint Pens and Crayola Gel Washable Markers).

We’ll string them up into a banner and hang them on the wall for a fun, birthday girl photo display.

Photos of that soon.

“This is a picture of me sleeping peacefully,” says the toddler upon seeing a photo of herself asleep. I love looking at her when she’s sleeping because she looks so radically different without any emotion on her face.

I love this shot of her, taken at my parents house last week, asleep amongst the comfy pillows next to a stack of books.

Our whole family loves reading before bed. (Truthfully, the parents enjoy it a little bit more than is good for us, as we tend to stay up way too late reading just about every night.)

By far the easiest way to put the toddler to bed is to read her out.

Here are some of the wonderful books we’ve been reading before bed:

• The Fire Cat
• Frog and Toad Series
• Little Bear Series
• Owl Moon
• Ox-Cart Man
• Piggins Series
• Winnie the Pooh and Some Bees Series

I’ve added these books, plus several others, to a new section in our left-hand sidebar on the right titled, “favorite family reads,” and will try to update this regularly as we discover new books to share with you. We so enjoy them all and highly recommend you pop over to your local library to pick them up.