A perfect Sunday morning.
Sand castles, clam chowder, gray whales, pelicans, and California sea lion sightings, and toddler patrolling of the waves, “Stand back! Don’t get wet!” (It’s cold!)
Video: Morning at the Sea Shore from Carrie on Vimeo.
Here’s a time-lapse video of our two year old putting together a 100 piece puzzle.
(Thank you, Tracey, for the awesome suggestion!)
VIDEO: For All You Non-Believers from Carrie on Vimeo.
And you thought I might have been exaggerating.
We are back from our trip to San Diego. Neither David, Miss Leyba nor I had visited San Diego before and we all enjoyed our trip immensely.
One of the main highlights? Four days spent at the San Diego Zoo.
This was my favorite moment from our zoo excursions:
Video: Play time at the zoo from Carrie on Vimeo.
Meet Tutapenda, a two year old Bonobo (more here) who lives at the zoo and is just three months older than Miss Leyba.
Miss Leyba and Tutapenda played like this for about 20 minutes. Benobos are among the most endangered of the primates and I believe that this experience was a once in a lifetime opportunity! It certainly was one of the most remarkable events of my life and I believe you can hear the emotion in my voice (I was definitely tearing up during this interchange). For those of you who don’t know, my undergraduate degree is in biology and I’ve had a lifelong interest in Great Apes. So much so that I wrote my thesis in college on orangutan rehabilitation and, yes, I was choked up at that exhibit at the zoo too.
Bonobos are considered our closest living relatives (genetically) and I think it’s clear that developmentally Miss Leyba and this little guy are very similar. Thankfully, she doesn’t climb twenty foot tall trees (yet!). That would be too much for this Mama to take at this stage in life.
More on our trip coming soon…
to her birthday! (one week and a day to go!)
If she’s not talking about opening presents or telling me how she’s turning 2, then she’s singing the “Happy Birthday to you!” song!
Here’s a video of her singing:
Movie: Happy Birthday To You! from Carrie on Vimeo.
Now you know why we haven’t posted any movies lately. Every one we take ends up being about Miss Leyba begging, “I want to take the picture!”
Please join us for story time!
Miss Leyba loves reading her books aloud! Not only does she like to sit in our laps for story time, but she frequently reads aloud to herself (and to anyone else who will listen!). She is especially partial to reading in bed, something David and I are quite fond of too.
Since we read to her every day, and often read the same books over and over again at her request, she has several favorites memorized (such as Goodnight Moon
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
Video: Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See? from Carrie on Vimeo.
Video: Where is Spot? from Carrie on Vimeo.
We could read and discuss books all day.
Oh, yeah, we frequently do.
What books are you enjoying right now?
