Playing and Hagg Lake

We've been feeling the doom of responsibility's shadow beginning to present itself this last week.  The carefree-ness of a whole summer ahead is starting to fade and while we're still skipping down the lane of summer fun...we're casting the occasional glance over the shoulder with the feeling of someone watching us, waiting for the prime time to ambush us with real life once again.  I figured it would happen soon...this has been our last summer of little responsibility (okay I guess taking care of our children has something to do with responsibility too).  While Steve doesn't have to start classes again this fall, he'll be starting his internship at St. Vincent's hospital and he's been feeling the angst to be ready for what he'll be asked to do.  I have been trying to remember what it's like to take care of two children by myself during the day.  The same thing happened to me these last three summers.  I get used to Steve being around and helping within about 2 days and completely forget how to do it by myself.  So it's like relearning how to swim every time by just throwing me in the pond and letting me either drown or figure out how to survive.  Oh yes - nothing but fun in this household. ;)

Ross and his daddy have been getting in the routine of playing ball outside quite a bit.  This is what my cute boy looks like when he's trying to get Daddy out the door. :)  

How can you say no to this?

And he's off :)

Ross will say, "Hey Dad!  Hey Dad, come on!  Play ball!" - pause for Daddy to follow orders, and if Daddy hasn't stopped whatever he's doing or gotten up fast enough, the same command will be issued again and again until Daddy complies.  Playing ball consists of bouncing it as hard as you possibly can and watching it go high up in the air, kicking it around, or throwing it to each other.  Ross loves it.  Playing ball has entered the "ways to distract Ross and getting him to comply list" along with watching a show, having a snack, feeding the ducks, going to the park, seeing some fish, playing trucks, and if you just sit down and start reading a book out loud to yourself.  He will immediately stop what he is doing and do whatever it is you want so he can do one of those things.  Love it.

This is how we usually find this boy :)

We got to watch our friend Paige for a little while.  She and Ross had quite the little chat over snacks - they always have something to talk about. :)

This is what happened when I asked them to say "Cheese!"

Ruby has been eating a few more prunes lately - I'm sure you can figure out why - and is not a big fan of them.  We can't blame her though - straight prunes just aren't a favorite of ours either.  Hence her VERY messy face since she tries to block the spoon with her hands or even her face.  Silly girl.  
 

Do you see how the prune battle turned out?

We went to her 6 month check up and has reconfirmed that she takes shots a bit more bravely than her brother did at her age...well - he was sick for his 6 month well check so we'll give him that. :)  And look what else this little girl can do now....
 

I love her "posed" face here. :)

She doesn't do it for very long, but she can do it for a little while at a time.  I love the sitting up phase - it's so fun for her to be able to see what's going on without any support!

We had Ross's friend Davin over the other day and did what all real boys seem to like to do...

Can you imagine what this is going to turn into?

If this is what you thought - you were right. 

You always need pretzels after wrestling.  Ross was trying to show us some sort of new trick at the same time.

These faces are hilarious - also - note music being played (from the toy on Davin's knee) while said pretzels were being consumed.  Also a must if you want to enjoy the finer things in life.

Our friends, the Jaggi's, invited us to go with them to Hagg lake last weekend.  We had a lot of fun just hanging out there for an hour.  Between us all we savored some sandwiches, apples, string cheese, dirt, string beans, rocks, and sugar snap peas.  I'll let you guess who ate what. ;)  Steve J tried for some fishing, but we mostly just chatted, ate, and let Ross and Jack explore.  Ruby hung around and enjoyed her green beans.

Haggin' it up. :)

Ross and Jack tried to help with the fishing - too bad there weren't any biting.

 
I have been trying out this Insanity workout and - boy does it make you sore!  It's good though - oh how good it is.  Though I seemed to have ruined it a bit with our little trip to Seattle we took these last couple days.  That post is next! 

Our Half Year Baby Rubes

This little 6 month old girl is just flying in the growth department.  I can't believe it's already her half birthday!  Her present was green beans. :)  This is how she felt about it....

She polished off the whole thing!

And loved it :)

She is just moving like crazy these days.  She's 20lbs, 96th percentile 27 1/2 inches long - 93rd percentile, and 17 3/8inches head circumference, 85th percentile.  Oh Ruby - stop growing!! Rolling around seems to be Ruby's specialty.  I think she does it just for fun.  We were skyping with my family, and I think having more of an audience, she just kept rolling back and forth showing her mad rolling skills.  But, when it's just mom - she'll do it her own way and in her own time. ;)

 She loves saying "dadada," but seems to get camera shy when I try to record it.  She is pretty good at eating from her spoon when she's not distracted by her favorite person in the world - Ross who's always entertaining her and getting her to laugh.  When he's not distracting her she is either acing the spoon or blowing raspberries with her food all over me....JUST like Ross did....I think he pulled her aside and told her how funny he thought it was and that she should try it.  Fabulous.  
 

Our little cutie sporting some overalls :)

Love this face!

Just about too long for her overalls

Haha!

I attempted another outfit...but she decided she'd rather spit out some green beans instead...

As you can see....

Ruby just started to get into the stranger danger phase - it kind of depends on her mood we've decided, but if we're not around - especially after a nap - she's not okay with it.  She's usually my smiley happy little baby - so this kind of threw us through a loop.  

She loves cooing to herself, examining and sucking on her hands, or whatever is in her hands, and laughing at her brother whenever he's mucking around.  Seriously - if he's jumping or bounding around - she's dying of laughter.  He is the coolest thing that ever walked the earth (I totally agree).  
Ruby likes patting faces, getting out of swaddles and also playing with her binky.  So we've had major issues with her staying swaddled...and she's JUST barely not ready to not be swaddled anymore - so we've been racking our brains trying to figure out what to do.  So...we grabbed 2 yards of fabric from the store and fashioned ourselves a little straight jacket.  Now we're all happy sleepers! 

A Ruby red swaddle - we're all happy!

Her routine consists of waking up around 8ish, nursing, eating some oatmeal and then playing until 9:30-10 when she goes down for a nap.  She'll wake up between 11:30 and 12, nurse, eat green beans or squash so far (also prunes which she, as said before, despises), plays/rolls around till 1:45-2 when she goes down for another nap until around 4.  If both her naps were decent ones, I may just keep her up until bedtime, but if not, she usually goes down for a 45 minute nap around 5:30-6.  She nurses at 4:30ish and eats another round of green beans or squash before enjoying some more play.  Then she eats again between 7:30-8 before bed at 8.  Since it's summer late bedtime keeps seeming to take place though!  Sometimes she'll wake up around 11 and sneak one more feeding in, but we're trying to get rid of that on these days. 
I've noticed that Ruby loves to observe you and looks so inquisitively at things.  She likes to try and mimic things you do as well.  Even with her voice - she likes to play with her chords, and sometimes it seems like we catch her saying something like "Hi daddy" - like Ross does.  
Steve caught her doing a little bit of scooting on her belly at church yesterday...I think she just thinks she's got to hurry up and get going so she can go play with Ross.  He's just so cool. ;)
We we're just growing over in this little Oregon house and nothing seems to slow it down! 

This girl knows what's up!

More Obsessions with Berries and Updates

Well we did some legendary berry picking.  It was a beautiful morning and Ross and Ruby did great!  Ruby was strapped to Steve and snoozed most of the time, and Ross, after eating about 40 marionberries, actually helped pick them.  I reminded him to only pick the dark ones so he kept telling me the entire time "Only dark ones! Only dark ones!" and he did a great job getting all the good ones.  Also that meant I didn't have to bend over to get them since he had the lower area covered.  We went to town on marionberries and then filled a second bucket with raspberries and blackberries.  Ross and I had to take a break after a while and explored the farm animals and toys outside.  Our hands got all stained - those marionberries have quite the juice stain.  We loved it though - and you can guess when we did that night!  We're berry crazy I tell you!  We made a batch of marionberry jam and one of a quadruple berry - strawberry, blueberry, blackberry, and raspberry.  DELICIOUS.  We had one casualty of the quad berry jam.  Steve sustained a burned finger thus dropping the newly filled jar all over the floor....it melted a little paint of the wall too...hmmmm.  Oh well - good memory right?  It was a good excuse to mop the floor that needed it desperately anyway.  

This was from our strawberry craze a few weeks ago.  I made Steve lug these babies around while I socialized with all our friends we ran into. :)

Ross ready to do some berry picking - all these pics are from my cheapo phone since I forgot my camera.

Getting "the dark" berries.

Our great little helper. :)

 

Our stained hands...that sort of rubbed off and didn't show up well in the camera.

The marionberries...mmmmm

Steve and Ruby both NOT looking at the camera

Ruby looking.  Steve trying to tell me that Ross has run off.  Love the concern in his face.

We saw some piggies...it was extremely stinky in the barn - I only lasted maybe 2 minutes.

Bawking at some chickens

Swingin' - Ross wanted to go back and see the chickens.

The farm - Steve and Ross are back there.

 

The fruits...mmmm - jam!

Yes - there are two rows of these babies :)

More news...we've been attempting to get Ross a little more excited about potty training.  I'm pretty sure we're not going to fully do it until after we get back from my sister's wedding in August, but we've at least got to get him warmed up to the idea.  He doesn't even like having his pants off let alone his diaper!  We checked out a potty kit from the library that has lots of books and a DVD about using the potty.  The books were okay - but he has a new love for "Go Potty Go" and Parker Panda who sings songs that will NEVER get out of your head.  I've teased Stephen that he has a new favorite song, because he's gone around all week singing "Babies use diapers...and that's okay....Go, Potty, Go! Go, Potty Go!".  Haha - seriously - he's always singing it.  The rule with Ross is that he can only watch it if he sits on his potty without his pants or diaper the whole time.  He's agreed to this - and even went in it one time!  He wasn't really thrilled about it until I told him he did it just like Parker Panda...his new best friend.  He still prefers to do his business in his diaper, but likes to tell us right after and get changed.  The signs are presenting themselves!  It will be interesting seeing how this goes as first time potty trainers.

I love how he has his tractors giving him some moral support. ;)

Money shot...blackmail money that is. ;)

Ruby continues to enjoy any and every form of socializing.  If she ever catches my eye she is just bursting at the seams - she LOVES talking with you, being tickled, and kissed.  She rolls all over the place now and even looks like she's trying to use it for transportation.  I have a feeling she'll be all over the place when she's mobile - oh dear.  She's been eating rice cereal and oatmeal the last couple weeks, but it got a bit stopped up the other day.  It was SO sad.  She was her happy ol' self until she had to go and then it was NOT fun.  We took a little break from solids (which was kind of nice actually - I miss JUST nursing) and are working our way back up again.  We're going to try some veggies this week.  This last Sunday I pulled out a beautiful little Mexican dress Steve and I bought on our honeymoon for whenever we had a baby girl someday.  Just short of five years later...we have an adorable baby girl modeling it for us now. :)  
 

She looks ADORABLE in this dress :)

Ross also looked extremely handsome in his shirt and tie.  When his shirt was tucked in he looked like a little missionary...oh my heart!

Doing some serious studying :)

Sibling study time

Staring contest!

Ruby one - Ross gave her a brother victory kiss.

Steve LOVING his stethoscope. :)

Steve has been keeping up with he PT reading (amazing he has that dedication during the summer!) and is getting pretty dedicated to working out - he even completed 5 1/2 miles tonight.  I did some Insanity workouts with him earlier today and about died, but it feels good. :) Life is good - oh so good.