Saturday, January 29, 2011

Black Beans

Ruby has gotten really good at feeding herself. And she enjoys most foods and will eat just about anything. I made some black beans for dinner one night and she loved them...and the cornbread that went with them. I think this girl is a carb-lover. It's so fun to watch her eat, or should I say, listen to her eat when she really enjoys something. There's lots of "mmmmm"s that go on. And of course, when you have something as squishy as black beans to eat and you're a 10 month old, you're bound to make a mess.


So cute. Yeah, what isn't so cute is how much fun she's having dropping her food on the floor. She'll pick up a piece so delicately in her little fingers and lean over in her highchair and watch as it falls to the floor. Then she hangs over the side staring at her achievement. It's driving me crazy.

And remember how she would dig any bits of food out of her bib and eat them? Well, she's figured out she can now put them into her bib, or leave bits in the seat of her chair and save them for later. Gross. I have to be really careful now to clean out her seat and her bib, or as soon as she sits down for her next meal she's looking for hors d'ouvres.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Groovin'

When the music plays, our girl grooves. Head bopping, hip shaking she does it all. Bobby put on a little Feist when he was going to take a shower and Ruby took over the bathroom and turned it into her own private dance floor. Here's a little collection of her best moves.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Playing video games with Daddy

Ruby has to be doing what we're doing or she gets cranky. If we're on the computer or the phone she has to be in on the action too. And this includes playing video games. She has to have her own controller. And then she realizes her controller isn't as fun as the one we're using, so she ditches hers and mobs us until we give up.



Sunday, January 23, 2011

Fun with Daddy

Ruby loves to play with her dad. And Daddy sure loves to play with his girl. One of her favorite things to do is sit on Daddy's shoulders. Nothing could be sweeter than watching this man that I love being a good Daddy.


Friday, January 21, 2011

Another Haircut


So our girl just got her third haircut and she's only ten months old! I wasn't going to bother, but the last few days she's been incessantly ripping her clippies out of her hair and trying to eat them. So since we've had to keep away from the clips, she's been looking so scraggly with her hair in her eyes. Finally we cut it. It was just as traumatic as the first time. But at least she can see.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

For Sale

So our house is officially on the market. The sign is in the front yard and we have our first showing today. We have mixed feelings about this. First and foremost, we really want to sell our house quickly and for a great price. We've got three other homes (Bobby's mom's house and Xax's house and a rental property) that we need to worry about and it would be great if we didn't have to be so concerned with ours. However, the thought of moving into an apartment, just to move again when Bobby graduates is not sounding fun. So we're hoping beyond hope that if our home sells soon the people who buy it would be so kind and so generous as to let us rent it until we need to move. Here's hoping.

We've started packing up some non-essentials so that we're not totally overwhelmed when we're down to the wire and need to move. Let's just say that I'm even less motivated to pack when I know I don't need to. But we've made some progress: the kitchen has been cleared of everything we won't use and the attic is almost packed and ready too. At some point in the next few weeks we'll need to clear out the storage room...again. We've also started listing some of the furniture we won't be taking with us on Craigslist.

I can't wait until Bobby's done with school and we can head out into the real world, but I sure wish it didn't involve moving. I hate moving. Maybe I'd like it if we had a million dollars and could pay someone to do the whole thing for us. Yeah, that would be nice. Anyone want to donate?

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Random Photo Shoot

We take pictures of Ruby all the time. There's probably five times as many pictures of her on our computer than what makes it to the blog. Here are some of those random pictures that I wasn't planning on putting on the blog but had to just to demonstrate her perpetual cuteness. I can't get over how absolutely cute she is sometimes. I just want to squeeze her til she pops. That can't be too bad...right?

Classic Ruby...missing one sock. Sometimes the end of the night consists of a sock hunt just to figure out where she took them off. Sometimes she hides them. We've found them under the furniture and rugs before.


Oh those baby blues!


This is Ruby's personality right here: excited about everything, ready to sing and shout and absolutely happy.


Gosh we love this girl!

Monday, January 17, 2011

A Good Read

Daddy's dental magazines may not make for the most entertaining reading ever, but Ruby sure likes them. Maybe this girl will grow up to be a dentist like her dad. Whatever happens, she was utterly fascinated by the pictures...they usually gross me out, but she loved them.



*these pictures weren't posed at all. We gave her the magazine to keep her occupied and this is what she did.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

The Art of Getting Down

Ruby has finally figured how to get down from standing up. Took her long enough. For the last week we've endured first the whining, then thumb sucking, then screaming and crying when she's had enough standing and wants to get down. Only problem was she had no idea how to do it. I've been at home all day with one cranky girl who absolutely reveled in her new found ability to stand and cruise around but got stuck that way...revelry turned to frustration in no time flat. No longer!

Let's just say Ruby is a happy camper. And that makes Mommy one too.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Computer Hog

So Ruby loves the computer. Pushing those buttons just makes her day. And if one of us is sitting on the couch using the lap top, she crawls on over, pulls herself up and whines until we bring her up with us. We should know better. Anytime she can reach the computer, she takes it over, mashes the keys incessantly and doesn't let us get a word in edge-wise. She's a computer hog.


Monday, January 10, 2011

Music

When we were visiting my sister and her family for Christmas, Ruby had a blast playing with a music table they have. She loved the buttons, toys and sounds it made. Bobby immediately informed me that we had to get her one when got home. So we did, and she absolutely loves it. This is one toy that she will play with every day for quite some time before she moves on to something else. And then she always comes back to it.

Friday, January 7, 2011

Standing


Ruby has finally mastered the art of pulling herself up to standing! For a few weeks now she's been able to pull herself to her knees, but that was the extent of those shenanigans. The other day I was playing the PS3 and left the controller on the couch, just out of her reach. She decided to take matters into her own hands and with a lot of yelling out of frustration, she finally stood up and claimed her prize. Bobby wasn't in the room, so I called for him to come and see and we made her repeat the performance again. I'm sure she thought we were the meanest parents to make her work so hard again and she let us know it!

Now she just pulls herself up with out a problem but the obstacle now is getting down. She hasn't quite figured that part out yet and when she gets tired of standing up she gets mad and let's us know it. Hopefully she'll figure it out soon, because I can't handle mad Ruby...I prefer sweet, laughing Ruby better.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

True Love

Quite often I mindlessly piddle around on the internet, not looking at anything in particular, probably wasting brain cells and hours of my life away. I also have a lot of sites that I look at that are important to me, I find them inspiring...they're about design, cooking, family....and I love browsing through them getting ideas and learning more about things I'm interested in and affirming what I know I like and don't like. I also stumble across little hidden gems that make me smile and appreciate my life.

Today that happened. One of the blogs I follow had a video someone had made about their experience adopting a boy from Ethiopia. They already had two children and thought their family was complete. But they felt they needed to do something to help a child, and so they decided to adopt. The video brought tears to my eyes, because that one little child was so happy. When he saw his adoptive parents return to the orphanage to take him home, he ran to them with a huge smile on his face. I am in awe of anyone who will sacrifice the time, expense and bureaucratic hassle to adopt a child. It's not an easy process, but it changes a child's life forever.

After Ruby was born both Bobby and I have talked about how much more sensitive we are to situations involving children. Shows, movies or news that involve children being hurt for whatever reason, ruffle our feathers and we get angry. Ruby has just emphasized to us how precious these little ones are and that so many of these little children of our Heavenly Father don't have anything going for them.

I'm so grateful that our little girl has us to love her, support her and provide her with a good life. We always wonder if what we're doing is enough for her, if she'll grow up to be a lovely, kind, spiritual woman who makes good choices and will be strong enough to take whatever life throws at her. I know both our parents did that for us and we're forever in their debt. Whatever this life may bring us, Ruby will always know that she had two parents who love each other and love her unconditionally.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Blueberries and French Toast

So, I may have mentioned that Ruby enjoys eating. Especially now that she's trying more and more new finger foods. We had french toast with blueberries for dinner one night and inhaled might be a better word for how she ate. She couldn't get enough of it...let's just say our little girl ate an entire piece of french toast plus about a fourth cup of blueberries all by her little skinny self. Where does a stomach that tiny put all that food?!



Needless to say, Ruby made a huge mess and despite a nice soapy bath from Daddy, her hands still have a purple tinge.

She's also perfected another trick. Her bib has a pocket at the bottom to catch any wayward crumbs and helps make my job of cleaning up a little easier. Ruby has caught onto this, and now when her tray is empty she'll start cleaning out her bib. Seriously, we really do feed this girl enough!

Saturday, January 1, 2011