Ruby D at Eleven Months

At eleven months you:

-weigh eighteen pounds nine ounces. You had your regular six month check up at Riley yesterday. Your daily dosage has recently been upped to fifty micrograms. You still need a monthly blood draw until your levels are better regulated. You are a very difficult patient to get blood from and they have to do your blood draw in your forehead. Your doctor at Riley was very pleased with your growth and development. Your next appointment is in January.
-are standing up all the time. You have a very good sense of balance and can even lean down and get things and then stand back up. You are cruising on furniture, but I don't think you will walk for awhile still. When we hold your hands for you to walk you seem to have problems understanding what you are supposed to do.
-love baby dolls.
-are getting better with strangers as long as they don't hold you. You will smile and flirt with people, but you cling to me if they try to reach out for you.
-wore pig tails for the very first time the other day!
-love your sister, your Mommy, kitties, the water table, and eating.
-still take two naps a day (around 9:30 and around 12:30)
-go to bed anytime between 8:30 and 10:00. You sleep in the bed with me. I really don't pay attention to when you wake up at night. Usually you eat (from one side) at some point during the night. You will pull my shirt down yourself if you don't think I'm going to feed you.
-are a hambone. You get so proud of yourself and have the biggest smile (with your head tipped back).
-love swimming now that you have warmed up to the pool. You also love swinging on the swingset and riding in your stroller.
-can blow kisses. Cutest thing ever! You also give kisses, but only to Mommy.
-eat anything and everything. Your favorites: cheese, strawberries, vanilla wafers, pasta, ham. I have started giving you whole milk in a cup. You drink a few sips then throw the cup. We are working on it.
-Understand what "out of mouth" means and respond appropriately.
-Words: mama/mommy, daddy (you very rarely say dada), ru ru (ruby), sissy, kitty, "i need", dat, hi, hey, yes
-crawl on anything and everything. I have another monkey on my hands.
-Nicknames: Ruby D, Ruby D D, Ruby D Wilakeers, Baby Love, Sister

How is my baby going to be one in a month? I just can't believe it. You are the cutest, the funniest, the sweetest, the smartest little lady. You make us all so happy and proud of you. I love you to the moon and back.

Eating lasagna (and smearing it in your hair). Baths right after suppertime are not an uncommon occurrence around here.

Practicing standing up. You love the wind.

I love this picture. She is such a happy baby.

Monkey

I left the room for a minute and came back to find her in the drawer. Silly girl!

Playing Catch Up

Long time no blog. Dick and Mary Ann left last Friday, and I have been trying to catch up on the house and get Gracie and Ruby back into a schedule. Yesterday we had to take Ruby to Riley (Gracie had a "girl party" with Mimi). Scott and Becky are visiting next month, but I don't think anything else is going on before then. Auntie Ann moves this weekend, but I don't know when we will be visiting her. Poor Gracie likes to go go go. After Grandmama left she asked me, "Are Scott and Becky sleeping here tomorrow?" After I told her she had to wait for another month she asked me, "Can we go see Auntie Ann then?" No silly girl, Mommy needs a break. Considering how long a nap she took that day I think she needed a break also.

We have been:
-playing on the swingset every day, sometimes twice a day. Ruby loves the water table and being pushed in her baby swing when it is windy. Gracie loves to take her Gabbas and push them down the slide with her bottom. Gracie really wants to have a picnic lunch outside, but I haven't gotten around to doing that yet.
-catching up on laundry. Having house guests sure makes a lot of loads! I finally put everything up today. I even got all the spaghetti stains out of Andrew's dress shirt and tie.
-going through clothing. I finally sorted Ruby's drawer/closet and my and Gracie's closet. I have a huge pile I have to further sort into Goodwill/keep as hand me downs, but the hard part is done. I bought a few new sweaters/shirts with my birthday money yesterday, and I had lots of room to hang them. I try to go through my closet once every year or so, and it always amazes me what I have to get rid of. Luckily I buy really cheap clothing (which is probably why it doesn't hold up for long).
-playing Apples to Apples. One of my favorite parts of Dick and Mary Ann being here. We played Apples to Apples and had snacks quite a few nights. So much fun.
-thinking of ideas for Ruby's first birthday party. So far I have decided on a rainbow theme and what most of the food will be. I have an idea for her invites, but I need to go take pictures. Hopefully next week on one of Andrew's days off I can work on that.

Some pictures from the last few weeks:

The cutest baby in the cutest swimsuit cover up (Gymboree). Swim time at Grandmama's hotel.

This girl loves to jump. No fear at all.

This girl loves to stand. She is so proud of herself.

These girls love each other.

Busy Busy Buzzy

It's been a whirlwind week. Andrew's parents got here on Monday evening. Monday morning they repaired the drywall in my bedroom (still waiting for paiting/carpet to be finished). I spent the rest of the day cleaning/preparing for visitors. Andrew and his dad worked on putting together Gracie's swingset almost all of Tuesday and part of Wednesday. Grace saw her new swingset, ran towards it, looked at it, and told us, "Where is the steering wheel? The swingsets at Menards have steering wheels." Oh lord. Grandmama wanted Gracie to have the swingset she had envisioned in her head and purchased her a steering wheel at Menards. Thursday afternoon we went swimming at the hotel (Richard and Mary Ann are spending part of their vacation at our house/part at a hotel). Friday Gracie took Grandmama to the "cookie restaurant." I do not know another year old who would pick out a Chinese buffet as their favorite place to eat, but boy can she eat there. Saturday and Sunday we took a mini vacation to Marengo Cave, IN and Louisville, KY. Gracie got a new spelunking hat, mined for gemstones, ate chocolate cake, swam in a hotel pool, had hotel breakfast (her favorite), fed an ostrich, picked out new clothes, and ate an Oreo ice cream sandwich. My happy traveling girl. Ruby also had a good time. She loved being in her carrier throughout the cave, sharing all our food (especially Grandpa Richard's carrot cake), swimming in the pool, seeing other little girls and boys, and playing with her sister. Our plans for this week are to finish painting my television cabinet, go to HomeGoods in Indy, make lasagna (me), drink wine (Richard and Mary Ann), play on the swingset, and go swimming again. If we get overly ambitious we may work on painting the girls wooden ride on horse. I can't believe a whole week has already gone by. I think I need a vacation from my vacation though.

I'da Baked a Cake

This week my husband brought me home a lock for the fridge. AWESOME. Gracie has a sweet tooth maybe even worse than mine (and that's a bad thing). I made a chocolate peanut cheesecake pie the other day, and she kept opening the fridge to sneak bites of it. Even after I got it through her head that she couldn't keep eating it she still would open the fridge just "to look at it, Mommy, because I love it." Oh Lord. Now that the the lock is one the fridge she isn't getting into trouble in the kitchen as often. Of course I made a hot chocolate pudding cake the other day and left it on the counter only for her to dig her fingers into it. Sigh. I know chocolate is yummy, but at least I wait to eat my dessert after supper.

I probably should mix up cookies or something else today, because Andrew's parents are coming to visit for ten or so days tomorrow. We still need to buy an air mattress, because they are staying at our place part of the time and at a hotel the rest. Gracie's swing set is waiting in the garage to be built, I have furniture Mary Ann is going to help me paint, and we will probably go to Indy to shop one day. Gracie wants to go to a cave so we will have to see about that. I need to spend the rest of today finishing cleaning the house. Andrew has finished up a lot of projects in the last week. YEAH! My yellow side table is painted (it got a huge scratch in the move) and in the living room, my window/mirror is hanging by the front door, pictures are up in the laundry room, and last night I painted my white mirror yellow. Hopefully tonight Andrew will get that and one of my windows hung (I collect old windows).

Weekly Update

-We have a new couch. I don't normally look for upholstered furniture on Craigslist, but a new couch just wasn't in the budget for right now. The couch we purchased was cheap, clean, comfortable, and cheap. I don't really love how the furniture is set up in the living room, but for now it works.
-The carpet is dry. There is a wood stain from my dresser. Apparently this can happen very quickly according to the carpet cleaner who came to my house. He sent a picture to Fred (our builder). Probably we will have to have the carpet replaced in our bedroom. The only other option is for another company to come in, bleach the spot, and redye it. It all just sounds like a pain the butt to me. The carpet cleaner was very impressed with the amount of water I had already sucked out of the carpet. Go me or something.
-Andrew has bought and installed locks for all of the drawers/cabinets in the kitchen except for one. Yesterday he brought home a lock for the fridge. Thank freaking goodness!
-Ruby is pulling up to everything and standing by herself for very short periods of time. She also is no longer afraid of grass! Big girl.
-Gracie wants a sprinkler bath every day. She also wants to ride Sparky (her trike). Unfortunately she can pedal, but she can't keep the trike going straight. We are working on it.
-I have started sending Gracie to her room for three minute time outs. She gets really mad, but I'm not sure it's really helping her behavior. If she tries to play with the toys in her closet or turns the radio on she gets three more minutes. I just don't understand why she continues to grab Ruby and pull her over when I have been telling her for months to STOP. It's not like Ruby enjoys it, she starts screaming every time. Sigh.
-I really need to buy a tension rod and curtain for the opening to our master closet. I hate seeing Andrew's crap just sitting on the floor. Why can't he unpack his one box? Why? I've at least gone through my scrapbook boxes and am just looking for a better storage option to put them in.
-Lack of sleep and the heat (and my totally messed up bedroom) are making me extremely cranky. I may just have to crack open the bottle of Cupcake wine (Chardonnay) I bought the other day. It may help. Hopefully.

What we've been up to:

Being cute. 

"Maybe grass isn't quite so bad Mommy as long as you hold me."

Gracie riding her trike. Andrew only looks mean because the sun was in his eyes. 

The new couch (I actually hate the plaid on the back of the pillows, but I don't have to show that side). Gracie with her Gabbas (both sets) like always. 

One of the pipes in our master bathroom broke. Sucks. HARDCORE. Luckily we have a home warranty, but dealing with a soaking floor at two in the morning is no fun. Both Ruby and Gracie woke up and wanted to have a party. Me? Not so much. We moved my dresser as soon as we noticed the leak, but unfortuantely the damage was already done. There is a wood stain that I'm not sure will come up. Tomorrow a carpet cleaner will be coming to extract the water and evaluate whether he thinks he can take care of the stain. I have a huge hole in my wall (no date to replace the drywall yet), a stained still wet carpet, and my furniture is basically shoved wherever it will go. I have been running my carpet cleaner just to pull up the water, and I had a heater running on the worst area, but that just made it hot and it didn't smell particularly great. Sigh.

In the past few weeks we have had to replace the battery in the van and now our main computer stopped working. Gracie tripped on the cord causing the computer to drop HARD. The case cracked and although you could push the power buttons for a few weeks it finally stopped working the other night. Andrew ordered the new piece to fix (hopefully) the power button, but it won't be here for awhile. At least we have Glimmer to use until the other computer is back up and running. We have a something (I'm not technical in the least) that we can hook the hard drive to and retrieve everything from the computer just in case we couldn't get it up so it could be worse-it's just an inconvenience. They start to add up after awhile. My pocketbook doesn't like that.

But like I said-things could definitely suck a lot more. Luckily all the van needed was a new battery not a new alternator or engine. Luckily we have a home warranty so that we aren't paying for the pipes to be fixed or the drywall or even the carpet cleaning. Luckily we were home when the leak happened so we weren't dealing with a house full of water and much more damage. Luckily we have another computer for Andrew to do his homework on. Luckily we have backups of all of our pictures and a way to retrieve everything else we would want/need from the computer. It helps to look on the sunny side.

I'm Dreaming

Of the one I love. To buy, to buy me, someday:



Did you know Disney makes engagement rings? This is the Sleeping Beauty one. It is probably my favorite. I also like Snow Whites.



Ohh pretty. We plan on replacing my rings at some point in the (distant) future. Not that there is anything wrong with the rings I have now, but for reasons unnamed it would be symbolic. I hope I don't have to wait until my 25th anniversary though, because if we haven't been by then that is when we plan on staying at the Grand Floridian. We will definitely be taking the girls in the next few years, but we probably won't get a trip alone until then. I guess it's a good thing we got married young, although there is a lot to do at Disney besides the rides. Like shop. Oh and eat. And there is a spa.