Author: Carrie Spritzer

I put these on her head and waited for her to pull them off, because that’s what you do with hats–get them off your head as soon as possible because heaven forbid mom wants to block the sun out of your eyes or protect your fair skin.

Please pardon the mess in the background. A toddler hurricane has been spotted in Spritzer Leyba Land.

Where was I?

So she’s unloading the laundry basket and I put them on her head. And she looks at me and smiles and continues to unload the basket.

And continues to unload the basket.

And continues to unload the basket.

I am positive this was a one time occurrence, but if I try it again tomorrow she may keep them on just to prove me wrong. I mean, just to surprise me.

Because Miss Leyba likes to keep me on my toes.

until we know for sure (ha!) what her eye color will be. They say the color sticks once babies hit one year old.

Right now they are looking BLUE:

David thinks they change color in the light and are more green like mine.

I’m very excited about this because sometimes I think Miss Leyba is David’s clone in female form.

But when I was a kid my eyes would change color based on what I was wearing too.
And she has my hair color.
And my fair complexion.

I love genetics. Look, she’s my daughter! You can tell!

– – – – –

Wait a minute. Let’s backtrack and flip out. My baby toddler is about to turn one! I can’t believe it. Where has the time gone?! She’s going to be a teenager before we know it:

See, she’s already idolizing older boys. She’s so captivated by Jules and Jesse that she won’t even look up at me when I’m taking a picture. Those boys are just too cute.

We keep finding three’s all over our house.

– – – – –

In the bathroom:

We knew it was only a mater of time.

We now have three toothbrushes in the bathroom cabinet!
All made from recycled yogurt containers.

Miss Leyba’s even helps protect wildlife too (she has the PINK St. Lucia Parrot style). After keeping us company while we brush our teeth for the past few months, she was initially confused but ultimately excited to have her own tooth brush.

She’s very into brushing her teeth, although she prefers to help us brush our teeth with her toothbrush.

– – – – –

By the front door:

Gosh, her little shoes are so darling.

The only reason the shoe rack is so empty is because Miss Leyba LOVES to unload it and then carry our shoes off around the room. And she’ll try to taste them all too if I fail to intervene. Mamas can be so mean. They just don’t understand how tasty shoes can be or appreciate how good leather feels on teething gums.

– – – – –

For the time being, three’s are all around.

Here’s an excerpt from a great children’s song about three’s:

Three is a magic number.
Yes it is, it’s a magic number.

It takes three legs to make a tri-pod or to make a table stand.
It takes three wheels to make a vehicle called a tricycle.
Every triangle has three corners,
Every triangle has three sides,
No more, no less.
You don’t have to guess.
When it’s three you can see it’s a magic number.

A man and a woman had a little baby.
Yes, they did.
They had three in the family.
That’s a magic number.

– Lyrics by Robert Dorough.

We like the Elizabeth Mitchell version of this song from her album, You Are My Sunshine. This CD, which we take out of the library pretty regularly, gets lots of airtime in our house.