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That’s exactly what Ruby said tonight while she was eating a slice of mommy’s birthday cake — “Happy, so happy.”
Cute, so cute.
Andy and I recently chatted about how it’s funny to see Ruby’s little shoes laying around the house. It’s true that her feet are getting better, but her shoes are still little and cute.
I don’t even know what to say about this one, except who knew Play-Doh smelled so good?? That classic combination of water, salt, wheat flour, lubricants and preservatives just needs to be smelled over and over and over …
(This “smelling” went on for a long time, but we edited the video down)
It wasn’t too long ago that Ruby wasn’t totally sure about her Elmo Live doll. She would hit a button to “bring him to life,” but would rush to sit in my lap or stand behind me because she was a little nervous. I guess she just wanted to be sure if Elmo made any sudden moves, she was going to be okay.
I think we can safely say Ruby has overcome her Elmo uneasiness the past few days! Dancing, hugs and kisses all around!
Ruby loves the library. We never stay all that long because they ask that all children respect library etiquette and Ruby can get a little hard to chase around after just a little while. She likes to pull books off the shelves, which we can’t allow of course. We stay just long enough that I have time to locate some of her favorite books, or can search out some new sure to be favorites.
But Ruby likes to imitate the older children she sees at the library and so she will sit in the little chairs to read books, and also is fascinated by the computer.
Ruby sees Andy working at home and using his laptop and she definitely knows computers are used for working (as well as watching Little People videos!).
On our most recent library visit, I snapped these pics of Ruby at the computer. She kept telling me she was busy working when she really was just goofing off playing a Sesame Street word game. Working — yeah right!
Ruby is definitely going to love the pool this summer. As soon as I mention the pool, she’s off running to get her suit.
We’ve only been twice so far because it’s not been warm enough for my liking, and we’ve had a lot of rain. The baby pool is really fun for her though and she was laughing, splashing and having a blast in the big pool with me.
Looks like it’s time for some swimming lessons!
Ruby has really started getting into dressing up. I’m a bit shocked at how soon she’s shown interest in dressing up, but she’s into it all the same. It’s just a shame that the shoes and clothes sold for dress up are generally created for older kids and would totally bury her.
We visited Jenn, Dorothy and Debbin this past Memorial Day. Dot has tons of dress up clothes and wanted to help Ruby get kitted out.
Of course Ruby was game and I got these cute pictures…
Dear Ruby has so much fun when anyone visits, but she LOVES it when Grandma Donna comes to stay.
On this most recent trip, Ruby started calling her Grandma Da-Don. The entire week Donna was here, all we could hear through the house was Da-Don, Da-Don, Da-Don!!!! Ruby didn’t want to do anything without Da-Don.
As always, Ruby was spoiled. Mama was spoiled as well because Donna was sweet enough to get up with little Ruby most of the mornings she was here allowing Mama to lie in a little. I don’t think I’ve felt that well rested since Ruby was born! It was heaven.
Da-Don was supposed to be working full-time while she was here, but she couldn’t resisted taking many mini-breaks to come see what Ruby was up to.
Of course there were a million cute interactions between Ruby and her Da-Don during the visit, but the cutest one I hope always to remember is the night-night/morning game. Donna sleeps in Andy’s office on the aerobed — as does any overnight visitor to our house so be forewarned if you want to visit. We love having people to stay, but don’t currently have an official guestroom since Ruby came along… — and Ruby loved to visit with Donna in the office each day. Since the mattress was on the floor, it was an obvious place for Ruby to want to hang out.
Randomly one day, she decided it was night night time and laid on the bed and directed Da-Don to lie next to her. Ruby would rest for a few moments, then announce she was “awake,” before telling everyone “morning.” Of course, the game could continue endlessly and Grandma was sweet enough to play along until Ruby got bored.
When we got to the airport, Ruby was sad to say goodbye. But she told me Da-Don would be back in a week — a connection obviously made because we had just dropped her Uncle Jon at the airport a few weeks earlier, and then of course he announced he was moving back to the ATL. We had told Ruby Jon Jon would be back in two weeks, but not understanding two weeks (or a week for that matter), Ruby had been telling everyone since she found out that Jon Jon would be here in a week.
Ruby’s sweet Dada is currently in Europe. He went to Germany and then the UK to help with some training at IBM. Ruby misses him dearly, but tells me he will be back in a week. Certainly, having people she dearly loves come visit then leave, then come back, then leave, has helped little Ruby understand (maybe??) that when people leave, it’s not forever!
I’m sure Ruby can’t wait to see Da-Don again. I tell her we will visit soon, and she lights up. She loves to tell me that shoes or clothes she knows Da-Don gave her are from Da-Don.
I’m sad that Ruby lives so far away from Da-Don, but am so happy that Donna can come visit frequently and Ruby loves for her to visit. I always adored my grandmother — my mom’s mom because my dad’s mom unfortunately passed away before I was born and I never knew her — and know that Ruby loves her Da-Don and Nana to bits. So sweet.
Our neighborhood is full of little children. It seems every week we hear another family announcing a pregnancy.
As an aside to my main topic here, we ran into a neighbor at Target recently. As we were chatting, discussion turned to how Andrew used to live in Utah and how he’s always thought if the women in our neighborhood started wearing floor-length modest dresses with bonnets, we could instantly have our own polygamist compound with so many children running around. Andy then asked how we would determine which men got sent away to become lost boys because of course it wouldn’t really be a polygamist group with equal numbers of men and women — a joke I thought was pretty funny, but I think fell a little flat with Andrew. Not sure he got it immediately. Anyway…
Ruby has lots of little friends to spend time with, but her favorite people are Grant and Selah (Se-Se). Grant is just three weeks older than Ruby and since his mommy Jill stays home with him, we spend a little time with them at least once a week. Ruby always talks about and asks after Grant. And according to Jill, Grant does the same. The two of them seem to have similar personalities and like to hang out and play together. They actually interact well and really seem to play together, which is unusual for such young toddlers. They don’t fight over much and it’s great for Ruby to have an easy going friend that she can learn from and share with.
Selah is five months older than Ruby, but she’s a tall girl and looks like she could be her big sister. They are totally cute together, always holding hands and hugging. They generally always also play nice and like to share things. I wish we got to spend more time with them, but Angel, Selah’s mommy, works just about full time and so they don’t have time to hang out during the day. But Angel is hoping when Selah’s new sister arrives late summer that she will work less (or even maybe not at all!). Angel will have even less time for socializing once the new baby arrives I’m sure, but if Selah is around more, hopefully we can have her over for some playdates!
