Miss Leyba – Page 22 – The Creative Salad

San Diego Zoo

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.

THE Haircut

We’ve been putting off her first real haircut for some time now.

Both David and I just adored her curls, but they have been so hard to take care of! Easily knotted and such a flyaway mess.

This is definitely more neat and tidy.

And grown up.

Even if I forgot to comb her hair before taking these pictures. Whoops.

Besides, she has two curls left, so I can’t really feel sad that they are all gone.

Those lovely curls appear to be untameable…

Puzzle Addict

I already know that my biggest hurdle as a parent will be to keep Miss Leyba challenged. At two years old, she already speaks in full sentences, shows a strong interest in learning to read right now, and loves her puzzles. Not little 4 or 12 piece puzzles.

16, 24, 35, 63… 100 piece puzzles!

You know, the ones that say 6 years and up on the side:

I should make a movie so you can see her at work. After all, you may need documented proof of her in action to believe me. She’s truly amazing.

And she knows it.

I do think she’s also screaming, “Mom, come on! Challenge me already!”

Sleeping Loves

Frequently we put Miss Leyba to bed and then read for a while ourselves before turning in.

This is a common scene around here:

However, this is an even more typical sight:

Sometimes I even hear them snoring together! (Okay, breathing loudly! Thankfully they don’t snore!) That’s the sign that Mama needs to put away her book or get off the computer and come to bed.

My cuddly and cozy loves!

Hair Clips

I’ve tried to style my daughter’s hair.

She lets me comb her hair every day now, a routine that was a long time coming. No more screaming or crying, she just sits and lets me comb it. Thank you, sweetie.

Man, those curls get so tangled!

She lets me cut her bangs every few weeks. She was so tired of her hair in her eyes. I usually have to plop her down on David’s lap so she’ll face me and sit still and then I try to cut them in about 30 seconds flat.

I think they are super cute even if they are a bit short right now (her hair grows so fast, I’m trying not to have to cut her hair so often).

Here she is trying to comb my hair while I take her picture. Note: she’s also saying “Cheese!”

I’ve tried using bows, ribbons, hair clips, hair ties. I want to braid it, put it in pigtails, and clip it up.

Today she let me play with it and, oh my, ADORABLE!

She looked in the mirror and smiled and posed and LOVED her hair accessories!

But it only lasted five minutes and then they were out.

Her curls of hair down long on her back.

And we headed out.

Come back to our house tomorrow for a repeat performance.

But no clapping or encouraging this behavior, you hear?!