little nerd in the house!

since she was about 3 months old, ruby has loved books in every way; being read to, turning the pages, pointing at the pictures and words, chewing on the covers and babbling along as I read to her. books are her go-to activity, for sure. see exhibit A below. :)

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.  

the big 1-1

well, i'm behind on this post. which means that in just two short weeks, my little baby will be one year old. holy moly. i can't think about that now, tho. i have two more weeks to be in denial about it. ;)

what can i say about our little lady? well, i do have to admit that she's got a bit of a flair for the dramatics. i am certainly intrigued with where exactly this will end up, in terms of her ever-changing personality. for now she is mastering the fake-cry and one short, high-pitched scream to get my attention. if i don't give her the attention she's looking for, after a little while she just crawls away and starts playing with her toys. she can be quite the little faker. it's easy to spot, though. when she really needs something, trust me, you'll know.

she is almost 19 lbs and around 29 inches long. still a little peanut. she fits in 9 and 12 month clothes. and she is still in size 3 diapers.

ruby's absolute favorite pastime is reading books. with us or on her own, she just loves them. she melts my heart the way she turns the pages and points at the pictures and words. ruby also really seems to like singing and has started babbling away something that sounds a heck of a lot like "up above the world so high" when i'm singing "twinkle, twinkle" to her. talk about making her mama proud. singing and reading? oy, i've died and gone to heaven. :)

right now, ruby has her second tooth coming in. as a result, her sleep has kinda sucked at times, but in an odd twist, she's also slept through the night twice in the last month. which is total bananas. and i thank my lucky stars every time she does it. someday when she's done having colds, getting shots, going through growth spurts, mastering gross and fine motor skills, and getting teeth, maybe she will sleep all night.

she is not doing much new talking that we can understand. she is very good at waving and saying "bye-bye" and also "mama", of course. that's pretty much all she consistently says. she tries to say "dad" but not as often. mostly she babbles and yells, which is equally entertaining.

she destroys our house and keeps us up at night, interrupts most phone calls, and i almost never get the chance to pee in peace. but we wouldn't want it any other way. she pretty much rocks.

(ruby's recently become interested in putting all my clothes and scarves around he neck
and wearing them around the house. it's pretty hi-larious.)

wordless(ish) wednesday: the great inquisitor

top left: "hey, what's this?"
top right: "hey, who's in here?"
bottom left: "oh, hi dad! what are you doing in here? what happens if I pull the shower curtain all the way out? why is it raining? oh, you don't like that?"
bottom right: (cue ruby's trickster laugh)

good times with growing girl. :)

fevers and coughs and snot, oh crap!

yup, that's the name of the game around here the last couple days. it's the pits and makes for some pretty horrible nights of sleep (if you can call I that). but if I'm being honest, I kinda love all the snuggles I get from miss ruby when she's sick. she's more of an independent chica and not much for hugs and cuddles. usually. except for when she's feeling like total crap. then, it's lots of this...

our little reader

tonight, after i got ruby changed and ready for bed, she was crawling around her room getting into everything she could find. i said to her "ruby, want to read some books?" and this is what she did...

she crawled across the room, stood up, grabbed a book, sat down, and started to "read". it is so incredible to see her begin to understand more and more of what we're saying to her. and as an aside, i couldn't be any happier that ruby loves books so much. :)

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...