Spring is here

The best part of living in the South is short time of year when the seasons change from winter to spring. Over the course of a couple of days the grass turns green, trees start to bloom and the temperature hits the mid-70s. It is almost impossible to stay inside and this is when I really enjoy my job. I spend several hours a day outside shooting baseball games, construction projects and finding complete strangers who are also enjoying the perfect South Carolina weather.

But in the past week I've come to find a new thing to celebrate in the spring time: the back yard.

First, let me give a short history lesson about the yard we inherited when we bought this house. Half of the backyard was poison ivy. Over the last few years we have fought it back and planted grass. It's not a perfect patch of green heaven but it's closer than I ever thought it would be. I cut the grass for the first time over the weekend and it looks great.

Leah likes it too. So far this week it has been nearly impossible to get her inside after she gets home from school. Somewhere in that little walk from the driveway to the backdoor she realizes how perfect the evening is and refuses to go inside.

Who are we to argue?

We just had our second dinner in the backyard this season. The grill is always ready to roll and happy hour is quickly becoming a tradition for us. I've thought about how we dealt with these first magical days of spring last year and realized that it's not too far off from this year. Leah wasn't mobile yet so Darcey and I would put her in the little sun tent we have and enjoyed happy hour together.

What's funny is that this is the first time I can point to where our plan for children has actually come to fruition. You see, we always said that we wanted the baby to join our life and not change it. Leah's absolute refusal to go inside in the evening makes me realize that she is truly her mother's daughter and I can see us spending so much time outdoors this spring and summer. It's so much fun too. We walk around the yard and talk about the plants. We play fetch with Daisy and hunt down the ball ourselves when she refuses to run after them. We go down the slide and twirl circles in the light of the setting sun.

I look forward to the evenings more and more each day. Darcey does too. She is considering taking the summer off from school so she can play with Leah everyday. I'm jealous of the thought since my work schedule will change soon and I will miss these wonderful moments.

I guess I will simply tighten my grip on those that I'm lucky enough to be a part of.

Enjoy the video.

-Sefton

Going Potty

It has begun.

We bought Leah a *potty* last week because she has shown interest in our using the bathroom. It has been a bit of a challenge when she wonders in while I'm in there because I have to kind of fend her off with one hand so she doesn't reach into the stream.

If that all works out, we wave goodbye to the *tinkle* as the toilet is flushed.

*Tinkle*. That's the word we've settled on. It's strange using words like that because we don't want to use baby words with Leah but none of the alternatives seem like very good options. *Potty* is the other new word in our vocabulary and it is starting to grow on me.

We have noticed for a while that Leah will *tinkle* as we draw her a bath. I'm sure it's the running water that is making her go and I find it interesting that the human reaction to urinate from the noise could be biological instead of learned. Anyway, Darcey and I thought the best time to start *potty* training would be just before we put her in the bath. We get her undressed, turn the water on, and ask if she needs to go *potty*. She already understands the concept and sits down on her own. We let her stay there for a while but there is yet to be any *tinkle* in the *potty* before we put her in the bath.

There is however *tinkle* in the bath after the *potty*.

-Sefton

White stuff…

Snow.

As a southerner, the concept is mostly foreign to me. I can count all of the times that I've ever been sledding on one hand. I'm not sure I have ever actually hit anyone with a snowball and I never would have tasted hot chocolate if I needed to use snow as an excuse.

My experience in the snow has of course grown drastically since meeting Darcey. An outsider like me has to get used to temperatures in the teens and the sight of snowplows on Wisconsin roads. Snow has made travel to visit family fun in some ways but difficult in others. I've shoveled sidewalks, we've had flights delayed, and once we almost got trapped at a Culver's in Tomah, Wisconsin.

But today was one of the fun times. I bundled Leah up in just about every piece of clothing in her suitcase and plopped her down in the backyard. We ran and slipped. We threw snowballs for Daisy to chase. We laughed together.

After a while we came inside where lunch was waiting. Darcey fed Leah and I put her down for a nap. She cried for a second or two but then exhaustion overtook her and she fell asleep.

The backyard is wrecked for snow. There are footprints running through the entire yard so there isn't really anywhere to play out there anymore.

We can only hope for another inch or so to accumulate tonight so we have something to do tomorrow.

-Sefton

Exploration

I remember a time when Leah was immobile. At the time it seemed like we were anchored down by this little person who couldn't do much more than squirm in the little vibrating chair that we kept her in. Now when I look back I realize how easy we had it without even knowing it.

Once Leah was able to roam the house, we spent so much time chasing her down that we couldn't get anything done for ourselves. Cooking dinner took forever, cleaning was an impossibility and putting our feet up was entirely out of the question.

The irony of the situation was not lost on me. On one hand there is this tiny thing that isn't going anywhere that we felt had to be watched 24 hours a day, and on the other is a stealthy toddler who at any second could start playing with a power outlet or pull a carelessly-placed knife off of the counter. It's a lesson I learned entirely too late but one that I hope to pass on to other first-time parents. I'm not suggesting that anyone should neglect a newborn, just that a parent can be productive regardless of having a baby.

Now since Darcey and I both felt that we couldn't accomplish anything and keep Leah within sight, we sort of adopted a new policy: we just let her go. Most of the time she stays nearby on her own but she will often leave the room and explore her world. We listen for clues as to what she is doing and where she is. The Christmas piano has turned out to be a great tool for keeping tabs on her as has Daisy. If she has been quiet for a minute or two we will go find her. I've noticed that she can usually be found in her room reading a book on the floor or in the den sitting in her rocking chair.

Sometimes though she is getting into things that you wouldn't expect. She pulls Darcey's sweaters out of the storage bin under our bed and carries them all over the house. She will take any television remote within reach to any other room where it will remain lost for a day. And sometimes we don't realize how quiet she has been until there is a thump and she starts crying. A quick hug and a little reassurance and everything is back to normal.

Leah's exploring is fascinating to watch. She is not only drawn to some new thing that she has noticed, but she is constantly going back to things she has touched before. I think it's kind of like using flash cards to learn math. She is gaining knowledge and understanding by increased frequency and interactions.

And sometimes she just does something funny.

- Sefton

Fun in Kmart

Over the weekend Darcey and I had to go shopping for, of all things, a sleeping bag for Leah. We aren't sending her on a camping trip or a sleepover. We needed the sleeping bag because she moved to a new classroom this week which doesn't use cribs for nap time. Instead they lay out a bunch of sleeping bags on the floor and have the kids lay down for their naps.

Now for those of you who haven't been around Leah for a while, let me explain something to you. She doesn't sit still. Period. She never stops…well anything. She pulls toys out and spills them all over the floor. She pulls things that aren't toys out and spills them all over the floor. She dances. She runs. She squirms. Man, does she squirm.

So on our quest to find a sleeping bag we went from store to store, always putting her in the seat of a shopping cart so we wouldn't have to chase her through the aisles. She won't let us carry her (see the note about squirming above) and we wouldn't want to anyway because she has gotten so heavy. So after three or four stores, she was just done with the shopping cart. We had to let her go.

And we had fun. One of the things that Darcey and I have both struggled with since she was born is how to take her out in public and keep her from being a bother to other people. We have both gotten a lot better about going out with her, but I know that we needed that little reminder that toddlers belong out in the world too.

As for the sleeping bag, we found a fun colorful retro-looking one with a sort of abstract flower pattern on it. And, needless to say, I was shocked when her daycare report came home noting that she had taken a 90-minute nap on her first day in the new class.

-Sefton

Merry Christmas

First of all, I owe everyone an apology for not updating this blog in more than a month. Christmas was complicated this year. Darcey's classes, my week of H1N1, shopping, work, home repair, and caring for Leah all kind of slowed us down. Frankly, I felt pretty lucky that we could put up the few decorations that we did.

Of course the best of those decorations was our Christmas tree. We keep it in our den every year and walking into that room is like walking into the holiday season. Darcey and I have always enjoyed sitting in there together and catching up on each others day. But this year, somebody else seemed to enjoy it more. Leah would run in there, sit in her rocking chair and look at the tree. She didn't mess with the presents underneath too much, although we quickly learned that bows were out this year. She also didn't mess with the tree too much except to pull off some of the toddler-friendly ornaments we strategically placed at her level.

Darcey and I were amazed at how well Leah did when it finally came time to open presents. Sure it was slow as she tore one tiny piece of wrapping paper off at a time, but she was very into finding out what was inside each package. And boy did Leah hit the mother lode. She got toys of all shapes and sizes, she got books, she got giant Legos, she got clothes, and she got more Elmo stuff than she knows what to do with. But I think the present that Darcey and I were most excited to give her was the one that will make the most noise off all of them. See her play with it in the video below.

Merry Christmas to all of you.

-Sefton

Working with a spoon

Leah has always been a great eater. I can think of only a handful of times that I thought she might not take another bite at a meal. The problem with her eating times though is that Darcey and I can rarely be productive because we are usually active participants in the meal.

I know that it sounds odd that we would try to do other things while Leah eats dinner, but with my work schedule and Darcey's classes, we have very little time to do those normal family activities like catching up with each other, making dinner, eating, and whatever else "normal" families do in the evenings.

So at a recent dinner I gave Leah the spoon in an effort to reclaim some of those few precious moments at the end of the day. Now the problem with most of the food toddlers eat is that they are soupy, runny, drippy, messy, saucy…you name it. This of course led to hilarious results.

They were also surprisingly productive. Check it out.

-Sefton