slackin'

so, a couple months ago ruby turned 15 months. and then a month after that she turned 16 months. (funny how that happens, eh?) and although i took her monthly pics, i sure did slack off on updating it on here. so, thanks for your patience. and here goes!

ruby, lately...
• she is obsessed with balls, balloons, snacks, movies, & sid the science kid. oh, and "doggies!!"
• loves noodles of any kind, knows "chocolate" (she is my kid, after all), and doesn't want anything cut up in little pieces anymore. she wants to take bites off of bigger pieces, thank you very much and if you don't respect this request, i will throw all of your food on the floor & laugh about it.
• she is constantly taking objects, laying them down on the floor, & covering them with a blanket or towel. i thought she wanted a doll, but I guess she just likes covering things up. little nerd.
• peek a boo is still the most amazing game ever. she also likes to wrestle with her dad.
• taking more & more steps gradually. walking is clearly not a priority for ruby. it appears that she knows what she's doing, she just hasn't mustered up the courage to take off and do it all the time. but she's making progress.
• ruby had her first play date & basically spent the three hours torturing or being tortured by her bestie, ava. she wasn't so sure about sharing HER toys in HER house. ava's mom, becky, & i had a blast watching the girls attempt to play, although it was mostly just two wee ones doing their own thing. but a big part of play dates is getting to hang with other adults who can carry on an entire conversation about, say, sippy cups without wanting to gag themselves. it's great making more mama friends, too.
• ruby has been biting lately. she thinks it's a game. we are working on putting a stop to that. wish us luck.
• we got a new big girl bed for her this last week. it is super sweet (bc it's from ikea. duh.) my favorite part is that it's the same width as a twin bed and extends three different lengths so she can essentially use it until she's all grown up (shut up now. she will never grow up.)
• right now ruby is obsessed with pens, markers, and anything involving drawing. her favorite thing to draw on is definitely herself.
• lately, she's been really into music. her favorite books are the ones we sing through and she claps and dances along.
• and can i just tell you how overjoyed i am to report that she's finally sleeping through the night a few times each week. seriously. sleeping through the night?! yes! hopefully this trend continues. again, wish us luck. :)

and now, for the pictures. happy sweet-baby-ruby day! :)

trying to keep it together...

this is the email that i just received:





and now i'm sitting at my desk at work, holding back tears. i can. not. believe. ruby is almost one. my heart aches and i'm so proud and i'm a little scared all at the same time. parenting... oy. (see, i'm so tweaked out i can barely speak in full sentences!) it's going to be an interesting couple of weeks, me thinks.  

she's 10 - scratch that - 10 1/2 months!!!!!

well, i'm a bit behind on posting ruby's 10 month pictures. as you can see the we've been busy - busy keeping after this crazy crawling chica! she is on the move for reals. it all happened pretty quickly. ruby seems to tackle all milestones the same way. meaning that she doesn't do a darn thing until she has figured out exactly what she's going to do in her head first. and then when she takes the first move, she pretty much does it like she's been doing it for years. it's pretty awesome to see her figure stuff out and try something new. so, now she is crawling. fast. and pulling herself up on to everything. once she gets up, she starts moving around the furniture and all of her toys. she's cruising right along. she loves a bike that my co-workers bought her. we have it set up so that it's more like a rocker right now than a bike. she loves it. she gets on that thing and rocks it like crazy. and she may or may not have fallen off. more than once. and fake-cried after like she was terrified of the thing. it's pretty hilarious to see. i imagine that ruby will be walking within a month or so.

let's see, what else is new? ah yes, here are her specs: i suspect she's approaching 20 lbs and she's is wearing sizes 9 months - 12 months clothes. she's still in size 3 diapers. she (we) are still nursing! she's been getting a little bit of formula on some days, depending on how often i'm able to pump at work. i'm still pumping 3 (!) times a day at work and counting the days (ahem, 22!) until i can drop the work pumps. she usually nurses when she wakes up in the morning (early, around 6) and then has three 4 ounce bottles at daycare. then she nurses sometime around dinner and before she goes to bed. she's been eating pretty much everything we eat now, too, which is fun. she still loves pretty much everything she tries which makes me happy. ruby's pediatrician wants her to start on cow's milk a few weeks prior to her one year appointment so towards the end of march, we'll start offering her whole milk and see how it goes. *sigh* new milestones left and right.

ruby has started practicing some new words, too. she still says "mama" the most, but has added "bye" and sometimes tries to say "dad" which usually comes out as "da". it's pretty adorable. i can really tell that she's starting to understand more and more what we're saying to her. i can tell her to crawl to me in the kitchen or living room and she will. it's such a blast to interact with her and to watch her play games with T. they wrestle each other and this giant teddy bear she has and she ca-racks up! she considers herself quite the comedian. she will grab any small object and toss it acrosss the room, then break out into giggles, then crawl over to it and do it all over again. she totally rocks and is more fun every day.

ruby still loves to read. she was given a baby, baby grand piano for christmas from her sun grandparents and she often crawls over to pound on the keys. she has started dancing when the music starts up on any of her toys and she claps her hands. her laugh is infectious. her smile is huge and until very recently, just a gummy one. that's right, boys and girls, ruby has her first tooth! we had seen the beginnings of it, red and swollen just under her gums. (and certainly noticed how it was disrupting her sleep!) and then today, i finally felt it peeking through. gah! like i said, *milestones* (!!!) and i have to admit, i am a little terrified that it's only her first one and there's a whole slew of them to follow. so, i'm preparing for more teething-induced craziness and interrupted sleep.

well, i better finish this is up. until i post next, i'll be working on my next big project: ruby's first birthday party!! only hint is: rainbow theme party. hecks yeah, people, it's gonna be so dope!

and now, some sweet ruby-love...

officially as much time on the outside as on the inside

well, ruby is 9 months old. so technically she hasn't quite been on the outside as long as she was on the inside since she was really on the inside for more like 9 1/2 months, but close enough!

in the past few days, she has really started moving. in her 8-month birthday post, i said that she seemed to be focusing a lot of her energy on getting moving and that has sure been the story this last month, too. on the 14th, she pulled herself up from sitting to standing and on the 15th, she started rolling repeatedly from her back to her stomach and stomach to back until she was just rotating in a circle on the floor. it was pretty funny to watch. then before i realized it, within a few minutes of starting that, she figured out how to get into sitting position. that kinda sent me over the edge of "what-the-heck-kid-settle-down-&-slow-your-crazy-growing-self" and just when i was about to get weepy, she got up on her knees and started rocking back and forth. what the?! seriously, i was starting to think she was going to pull herself up to standing again and just start walking. it was a little mind boggling how quickly she went from one thing to the next. like she knew how to do it all along in her head but was just waiting to execute her mad skills. so, yeah. now i really need to get the house ruby-proofed. oy.

i haven't weighed/measured her lately so i'm not sure of those details but she doesn't look/feel all that much bigger to me. she's definitely slowed down in that department. when we were at the pediatrician a couple weeks ago because of a cough she had, she was in the 25% for weight and the pediatrician said that was fine because "she's not really that tall." yup, sorry little peanut. tall genes aren't really your friends. :)

she's still in size 3 diapers. she's in mostly 6 - 9 month clothes, but still fits into some 6 month stuff and is also wearing some 12 months clothes, too.

she goes to sleep each night at about 7 pm and wakes up usually b/w 6 - 7 am. the last few days she's been up for an hour or two in the middle of the night. i'm not sure what that's all about but i assume she'll grow out of it, so whatevs. aside from that tho, she still wakes up a few times. all in all, sleep is going fine. and altho i am tired most of the time (read: always), the exhaustion is not as bad as i thought it was going to be. i cannot imagine being pregnant again right now, tho. oh, no. no way. oh, the torture. i can't even think about it. ok, moving on.

let's see. ruby doesn't say much more than "mama" that you can make out, that is. she is still pretty loud and babbles a lot. she has started kind of yelling at me if i don't respond to her. it's pretty funny. at first, she'll just be happily saying "mama mama mama mama" and if i don't answer, all of the sudden it's "ma-MAAA! ma-MAAA!" i usually respond with "yes, ruby?" and she just smiles. stinker.

overall, ruby is a very happy little girl. she is quite the flirt with just about everyone. although she's happiest when she's in my arms, she is getting to know her extended family better and is more comfortable visiting with others. it's so sweet. she is full of smiles (almost) all the time.

she's the best part of everyday and the absolute light of our lives. i can't believe she's already 9 month old. we have her 9 month check-up (a little late) in two weeks and then the next appt i make for her will be here 12 month. holy shmoly. a year old? craziness.

okay, favorite part - cuteness overload:

someone's a little happy :)

she's such a mover - so this is a little blurry. but look how
long she is getting!

whoops! oh, there she goes.

i love her little chicken legs.

this girl is ripped! look at her little muscles. :)

picture time was a lot of work. time to relax in the tub and
play with dad's shaving gel. happy 9 month old little lady. :)

7 months! go on with yo bad self, rubinski!

here we are. 7 months in. parenting is wonderful. and exhausting. and a comedy show repeating every day. ruby is constantly changing. while i know her so well now that i can predict what she is going to do before she does it and what kind of cry she's going to have before she opens her little mouth, she keeps coming up with new tricks and i am loving it! 

so, here are the 7 month highlights:

ruby is a great eater. she continues to like pretty much everything we give to her. she makes some crazy faces when she eats peaches but keeps right on eating. 

she still hasn't rolled over from her back to her stomach, and now that i think of it, she hasn't rolled over from her stomach to her back in a while, either. right now, she just loves to be sitting up. she'll spend more time on her back than her stomach but she has really been getting good at keeping herself upright. a few nights ago, she almost pulled herself up on to her knees from sitting position when she pulled on a laundry basket. and my immediate thought was something along the lines of "oh crap. we need to baby-proof the heck outta this joint pronto!" hopefully she doesn't go mobile for a few more months b/c we don't even have all our stuff unpacked yet. (yeah, we moved in almost two months ago. whoops.)

she's almost in size 3 diapers and my guess would be that she's around 17 lbs. 

she will dance immediately if you start to sing to her and bounce her on your hip. she went to her first wedding and i just have to say, made her mama very proud at how excited she was when they played madonna. from the stories my big sisters have told me, i think she comes by her love of madonna honestly. 

we don't need to talk about how she's sleeping. ha ha. nah, really, she sleeps pretty well at night...as long as she's sleeping with us. that started about a month ago after she got her 6 months shots. it seemed her shots coincided with some serious separation anxiety. i know many will say that we're going to have a battle on our hands when it comes time to moving her back into her crib, but i'm not convinced of that. her sleep, like everything else, is constantly changing. we'll figure it out. and in the meantime, we are stocking up on some serious snuggles. i love it. 

she is quite the talker and is often hollering whatever it is that she wants to communicate to you. she started to say "mama" a few weeks back but only when she cries. and she's been saying it more often lately. particularly when she's in her carseat and screaming to be released from her restraints. she had a nice week where she didn't mind the carseat, but alas, apparently it sucks again. poor thing. oh, and speaking of car seats - she's graduated to the bigger carseat. and i must say, she looks too cool for school in it. 

and now for the fun part, picture time!



her 7 month photo shoot started out as normal - this is her usual arm-out, shake-it-like-a-polariod-picture pose...




...but it quickly turned into this. :) so, we switched it up...




and she's much happier this way. :) notice her holding on to her toes. too cute.

 

looking at her daddy.
this girl just kills me.

..:: wordless-ish wednesday ::.. (because we're too busy stuffing our faces)

okay, so actually, i do have a few words. (it's ruby whose face is being stuffed, as you'll see)

it has been a trying few weeks, let me tell you.  i'm quickly learning that the reason parenting is so wonderful and, at the same time, so challenging, is because you just never know what you're gonna get any given day.  ruby's sleep was gradually getting better and better up to her six month check-up.  she'd actually slept 7 hours a few days before her appointment and had been staying in her crib longer and longer each night before she'd end up in our bed.  i was feeling optimistic.  that was my first mistake. haha. she got her shots, ran a fever over 101 for two days and it's been downhill since then.  she's recently started exhibiting some serious separation anxiety from me and now cries when i drop her off at day care (unless she's with her favorite teacher, ms misty). i love that she wants to be with me so much but it also breaks my heart that she gets so sad without me sometimes. anyway, i know that everything is just a phase and she'll soon be out of this one. but, don't let me fool you - as always, there are a million more sweet/funny/happy times each day than there are challenging ones.  and the best examples of the fun moments lately have had a lot ot do with ruby starting to eat solid foods. she likes pretty much everything she's tried - especially sweet potatoes, squash, and green beans. 

so, behold, ruby stuffing her face. and learning to use a sippy cup! what has happened to our little girl? 



this was the face we got a lot the first few times ruby at solid food.



ruby usually sits in a high chair now when we go out and i must say she's getting very good at it.

using the sippy cup with two hands!
still working on the idea that you have to tip it up to get any water to come out,
 but she's making progress. 

and this is what happends when ruby get a hold of the spoon and attempts to feed herself.

enjoying our new normal because "babies don't keep"

yeah, i'm pretty sure it's official. we are getting the hang of parenting and becoming a family of three, instead of just T & i.  for starters, we're pretty much good with the new routine that is our life now. this includes (to my chagrin), ruby making us start our day at roughly 6 am each morning. on a much happier note, it also includes her nighttime bath which she loves and reading books before bed, another new activity that she's recently taken to. so, yeah, all this is becoming old hat to us.  but i hope i never take any of it for granted.

i'm grateful that i've finally reached the point that, for the most part, i don't worry about every little thing.  i've decided to stop obsessing about her sleep schedule and whether i nurse her to sleep or not, if she's held "too much", and least of all, the state of our house. we've still got a slew of boxes to unpack, but the way i see it, these last six months absolutely flew by. i don't want to miss a minute with our little family.

i've recently become addicted to "pinterest" (thank you, SIL candice! but that's a whole other post). anyway, as i was saying, i'm pretty much obsessed with pinterest now and last week i came across this print -

yeah, that pretty much sums it up.  i was actually on the phone with my mom a few days after i found this and we were talking about parenting, in general, when she started reciting parts of this poem.  i told her i'd just seen it myself.  before you knew it, we were both crying.  later that night, as i was nursing ruby, i was thinking about how much love i have for her and of my mom, getting choked up thinking of her babies that aren't babies at all anymore.  i know she's proud of all of us for the people that we've become, but i imagine she misses the days she could hold us in her arms and protect us from all of the harm and hurt in the world.  

we've come a long way in 6 months.  it's hard to believe how much we've grown as a family and i cannot wait to see what our lives will look like in another 6 months.

where does the time go?

ruby is 6 months old today.  yeah, that's right.  6 months.  for some reason, six months always seemed like some serious milestone for us to hit.  and now that it's here, it definitely feels like the big milestone i thought it would.  it really has taken about 6 months for me to feel settled into my role as a mom.  breastfeeding is no problem anymore.  i'm confident in knowing what ruby needs or wants at any given time and i don't question the decisions we make for her nearly as much as i used to.  i'm sure it helps that after 4 months, ruby became more interactive and in many ways, just easier to take care of.  and she is growing by leaps and bounds; doing something new every day and i never imagined that i could spend the day just watching someone and be absolutely content and thoroughly entertained.

here's a rundown of ruby right now:

• she rolls onto her back from her tummy quickly and easily
• she tries to sit up from laying on her back ("tries" is the operative word here)
• she is almost growing out of her size 2 diapers
• she is starting solid foods next weekend after her 6 month appt
• she is grabbing at absolutely everything and putting it in her mouth
• her bedtime is 7 pm and she still wakes up 2 or 3 times a night (sometimes more - whoops!). she gets up each day around 6 or 6:30 am
• she sits up on her own for short periods of time
• she loves to swing at the park
• she no longer views her car seat as a torture device and spends most of her time in it talking to herself
• she spins arounnd on her tummy, to grab at things on the floor
• she loves to take baths & splash the water everywhere
• she really likes to be with her cousins. she smiles and laughs at them and looks very content to be sitting between them, just watching tv or "talking". and she loves their hugs.
• she recently started sitting in the shopping cart seat when we go to the store
• today she got her first high chair and she absolutely loves sitting at the table 
• she smiles at strangers and then will bury her head in my shoulder like a little flirt.
• and she is hands down one of the most fun and funniest kids i've ever met

and lastly, i went a little crazy with pictures today. lucky you. :)

look mom, i can grab these toys all by myself!

see, i told you - she loves her new seat!

getting seriously good at sitting up on her own

this pic doesn't show much except for that she's got a cute little booty! and that she pushes her self all the way up with her arms now. go on with 'yo bad self, rubinski! 



and her monthly pic - growing girl :)




what up, 5-month-old??!

did i go a little overboard? yeah. but whatev. she'll only turn 5 months once. :) 

the last one is definitely my favorite. the caption is "i'm 5 months old. like, whoa!"

we've got a little bookworm on our hands!

and this little geek mama couldn't be more excited! :) we don't have a lot of books...yet. i'm working on building up ruby's book collection. it's still missing classics like "where the wild things are" and "the cat in the hat" but we've got a few favorites. i am a big fan of sandra boynton and ruby loves "the belly button book". most nights we read "blueberry girl" - a book that took me about three weeks worth of reading each night before i managed not to cry through the whole thing. :) it's a great book. i don't think ruby's really picky about which book we read, she just loves to lean forward (she's really working on her sitting-up skills) and touch the pages, looking closer at the pictures. it's definitely one of my absolute favorite parts of the day. check out the cutest thing ever ~ ~ ~



i just love how she sucks on her bottom lip when she's really focused on something. :)



: : flashback friday : : a brand new baby : : and a growing ruby : :

this is one of my favorite pictures of ruby & i. she was 4 days old here and already she'd captured our hearts. look at how tiny she was - not even 6 lbs yet. she was so alert. she always has been a very engaged baby. i hear it all the time "look at her big eyes. she's so alert" from strangers, friends, and family. she was also very expressive and, although i don't have any other babies to compare her to, she's always seemed to be very socially engaged. she prefers to be talking or smiling at someone over hanging out on her own. i realize that this could cause some issues at times later, but i'm a chatterbox (and yes, i do realize that this is a primary reason that ruby is such a social butterfly) and i just love to just hang out and "chat" with her. 

anyway, back to baby rubinski...she was such a peanut. i used to walk around while i fed her. with one hand. now my back hurts just swaying back and forth with her and that's with two hands and arms holding her up. now she squirms around when i change her and tries to flip onto her tummy when she's on her reclining chair in the tub. 

i remember long afternoon naps with her on my chest, watching endless episodes of grey's anatomy while i was on maternity leave. i also remember what felt like endless hours of crying in the evening when she was around 8 weeks old. now she rarely really cries unless she's tired, hungry, or just bored. she talks to herself and to us when she's hanging out in her carseat (which she used to absolutely hate). in the morning, when i wake up and she's looking at me, still yawning and waking up herself, i always lean over and kiss her little lips and she immediately breaks out into a smile - the one she only gives her mama. there's nothing like it and it starts every day out right (no matter how many hours she did - or rather, didn't - sleep the night before). 

i've been especially nostalgic about the days surrounding ruby's birth today because my good friend, hillary, had her baby boy late last night (or this very early today - i'm not even sure yet). looking at the few pics i've seen of her, jeff, and danielle with baby eli - holding him so close, kissing his head - got me thinking of those precious moments with ruby. to be honest, the whole process of labor and delivery was a bit traumatic and much of it was a blur, but there are moments that are crystal clear in my mind - looking to my left and seeing her, finally screaming and a sense of relief washing over me -- holding her the first few times i breastfed her the night she was born, just her and i, singing her a song, the same song i'd sung to her a million times while rubbing my belly for months beforehand -- and feeling her warm on my chest, sleeping in my arms.

each day we're making new memories and she's constanty learning something new and doing some new trick that makes her dad and i laugh. every stage she goes through has it's difficulties, but they are greatly outweighed by the sheer happiness that she brings to our lives. and...just when i think she can't get any cuter...

ruby at 4 months old

*wordless-ish wednesday*

i like the idea of wordless-ish wednesdays that i've seen on other blogs - posting a pic (or a few) with a caption. so...enjoy my first wordless-ish wednesday post!

i feel like i'm constantly saying "ruby is getting so big" these days. as you can see, on the left, she's not too in to lying on her back anymore. if you put her on her back, she'll start to lift her head up towards you, as if to say "help me out, would ya?" and she rolled over again today. when she's in tummy time now, she keeps her head up for most of the time and just looks around at the room, the mirror, and me, then rests it on one of her chubby cheeks for a bit before she does it all over again. she's starting to suck her fingers at night to get herself to fall asleep, too. it's amazing and wonderful to see her learning, but also a little sad as i put away her newborn clothes and get ready to move her into her own room in her own crib. wow. yeah, i'm a little freaked out about it, but mostly i'm just over-the-moon proud of our little girl.