The big girl

Leah turned 2 last week and for some strange reason that means she is a big girl. The last two years seem like they went by in the blink of an eye and the past few months have gone by even quicker. Her development, both mentally and physically, has skyrocketed and her understanding of the world seems to expand more everyday.

The big girl transformation has come with a few adjustments on our part. We rearranged her room to make it less of a nursery. Gone are the changing table and mobile. In is the play kitchen. The baby toys are packed away in the attic as is the baby monitor. We are trading in rattles for crayons. The car seat has been replaced with a booster chair. We count to ten and say the alphabet. We sing together.

In our foyer is a picture I took of Leah the day she was born. She entered this world with what we call skidmarks; little abrasions on her head from the trauma of birth. Now her face gets marks from falling down while chasing Daisy through the backyard.

Two years old. I fear that the next time I blink I will be walking her down the aisle.

-Sefton

Our Trip to the Zoo

I was hit with a brilliant idea last week while trying to find a new addition to our list of possible weekend adventures. I suddenly remembered that there is a small zoo at a city park in Greenville. I emailed Darcey the link to the zoo's homepage and she was so excited by the idea that she didn't even look into it. The answer was a simple "yes."

There is a similar sized zoo in Fresno and I probably visited it four or five times in the two years I lived there. Most of those times were with Darcey and we enjoyed strolling through the exhibits on slow weekend days. The last time we were at a zoo Darcey was pregnant with Leah. It was more than two years ago when we visited the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia. It must have been in the middle of June because it was in the upper 80s when we arrived at around 9 a.m. and pushing 100 when we left at noon.

Yesterday was a perfect summer day for the zoo as thick layers of clouds kept the area a bit cooler than an usual day in early August. We told Leah on the way out the door that we were going to see elephants and she just repeated that word over and over on the drive to Greenville. Well not that word exactly, but her version of it which sounds like "Elliots." The giant animals are just inside the gate and as we turned the corner and they came into sight, Leah's mouth dropped wide open. She waved and said hi to them and then noticed the monkeys in a pen further down the walk. Off we went.

I was really surprised at how nice the little zoo is. There are a lot of animals to see ranging from giant snapping turtles to a pair of magnificent lions. Leah especially enjoyed those but also made a point to look in every display in the reptile building and spent several minutes studying a toucan.

Darcey and I just ended up following her as she did the toddler trot from exhibit to exhibit. We had as much fun watching her as she had watching the giraffes. It made me think of those afternoons at the Fresno Zoo and how long ago that was. We barely knew who we were and we had no idea who we would become.

And we had no idea that anyone else would enjoy those kinds of days as much as we do.

-Sefton

Leah's Sleeping Problem

Recently Leah's sleeping habits have been disrupted. We still have the same bedtime routine that includes reading books, singing and dancing. I've even added a few surefire calming tricks like rubbing her back and reading to her in bed instead of in my lap. But even though 7 p.m. is bedtime, there are nights where she won't be asleep until after 9 p.m.

About six weeks ago, we converted her crib into a toddler bed. The difference is that the high front railings of the crib come off and are replaced with a small rail that is designed to keep her from rolling out of bed while she is asleep. That new rail also doesn't stretch all the way across the crib, which allows Leah to get out of bed and play instead of going to sleep.

And play she does. She gets into her dirty clothes hamper and strings shirts and pants across the room. She pulls the diapers down from her changing table and piles them up on the floor. Toys are scattered from corner to corner. On more than one occasion Leah has actually come out of her room to come play with us. And then there are the books…

Sometimes in the evening she will start to cry and when we go to check on her we find that she is upset because she has covered her bed with books and has left nowhere for herself to lay down. We find random pages laying on the floor obviously torn from a book the night before. And on more than one occasion, we have found her asleep on the floor next to a stack of books.

Our nightly routine now involves a late-night check to make sure she is in fact in bed. We also take the time to pick up all of the items that need not be in bed with a sleeping child. The picture above was taken on the morning after her first night of toddler-bed freedom.

Somehow I don't think she looked that peaceful 10 minutes before she actually fell asleep.

-Sefton

New favorite snack

We have had a whirlwind summer so far. In the last six weeks or so Leah has been visited by all of her grandparents in Anderson and even had lunch with her great-grandmother Leah Ipock during a week-long trip to Morehead City, N.C. and Bogue Sound. Darcey and I are so happy to have spent so much time with family and are even happier that so much family has spent time with our princess.

Now on to the reason for this post. We have found Leah's new favorite food. She simply can't get enough blueberries. We have been picking them up all summer and not only are the perfect size snack for her little hands, they are good for her and she thinks they are delicious. I have found that blueberries in a bowl is about the easiest breakfast to make for Leah during the week and I usually enjoy a handful or two while I'm pouring her milk.

On the way to the beach we stopped at a blueberry field outside of Burgaw, N.C. where they sold two sizes of boxes of blueberries: five pounds and 10 pounds. We bought the 10-pound box. Leah ate most of the first half during the week at Dad and Barbara's and most of the second half in the week since we have been home. She had blueberries at dinner last night and Darcey bought more at the farmer's market today.

During our trip to the beach, Leah also figured out the source of the blueberries when Uncle David turned us loose on the bushes behind his barn. Just like when she went strawberry picking, Leah started off strong and helped fill our little buckets. But she was soon eating more than she was picking and eventually retired to the comfort of the golf cart to continue munching on the delicious fruit.

I am overjoyed that Leah eats so many fresh fruits and vegetables. I hope it helps train her to enjoy a healthy diet throughout her life. Now if only we could finish her potty training so we don't have to deal with the "blueberry diapers" anymore…

-Sefton

The monster in the yard

There is a word that Leah learned early in her life. It was from Where's Spot, one of her favorite books. It is probably the longest word she knows and definitely the longest word she can say. At some point she became convinced that one of these creatures was in the backyard. Darcey and I aren't so sure and hope she is wrong…

-Sefton

Splash!

Last Sunday was a treat for our whole family. I had to work but got a great break in my day when Darcey called to tell me that she was taking Leah to the Sheppard Swim Center, our city pool, for the afternoon. The pool has this area called the Splash Zone which is essentially a wading pool that has several imaginative ways of dumping water on kids' heads. I go to the pool in the summer to find fun pictures for the newspaper of people playing in the water to stay cool.

Well, the Ipocks visiting the Splash Zone was as good a reason for me to head that way to find just such a picture for the paper. I had a nice one of a girl's goggles ending up in her mouth from the force of the water landing on her head before my girls even arrived.

I planned on staying as far away from Leah as possible so she would just play with Darcey without distraction. I had the longest lens I carry, which is primarily used to shoot football and baseball games, a large-brimmed hat pulled down low over my head, and a shooting position that allowed me to squat down into a ball where I hoped not to be noticed.

Well, Leah found me. Quickly.

Despite my best intentions I became part of the family outing and had a wet toddler pressed against me. Darcey did her best to distract her and led her around the area to play. Taking Leah swimming is a goal Darcey has had for a long time and she actually got the chance some weeks ago when she visited Kate and Ellie in Atlanta for a night. The four of them had a blast in the hotel pool. Since then Darcey and Leah have practiced swimming around our kitchen island by Darcey carrying her parallel to the floor and encouraging Leah to "kick, kick, kick." It is a joy to watch Leah take to the water and I look forward to more outings like this one.

Maybe I will actually get to wear a swimsuit.

-Sefton

Strawberries

Darcey and I have been trying to figure out how to get the family out in public more often. It's hard to do much more than go on a walk around the block because of my work schedule and Darcey's school schedule. We look forward to our weekends, but usually end up trying to reconnect as a family and are reluctant to share ourselves with anybody else because of it.

We worry that Leah, like Daisy, won't get enough socialization outside of her little circle and it makes us nervous. I know it sounds strange to compare the upbringing of our daughter to how we raised our dog, but those of you who know Daisy know exactly what I'm talking about. She just doesn't do new people and we want to avoid that with Leah as much as possible.

So yesterday we went on a little adventure to the strawberry patch. We had done a story on strawberry season at the paper and some benevolent reporter brought a gallon of fresh strawberries back to the newsroom which I enjoyed. So out the door we went in search of fruit and new friends.

Once we were in our row, we started to give Leah an idea of what we were doing. I would pick a strawberry, hand it to her and ask her to put it in the bucket. This worked for about half-a-dozen berries before she put one in her mouth. From then on out, Darcey and I were on our own picking and depositing while also trying to make sure Leah wasn't eating stems or unripe berries. By the time we had filled our containers, Leah had become an expert picker but had not mastered the art of getting the strawberries into the basket.

As Leah and I waited for to Darcey to pay at the store, she was waving to people coming in to the farm as well as people leaving. Leah laughed at the farm dogs wandering the property. We made friends with a mother sitting with her newborn in a rocking chair on the front porch. It was a perfect way to spend a morning as a family.

Mission accomplished.

-Sefton