Ruby has been a bit sick off and on lately and has turned into a multiple personality gal. She can't just be a mix of anything - it's one or the other and can change on you at the drop of a hat. One minute she's wailing and inconsolable and the second someone walks in the room she turns around with a chipper, "Hi!" and a smile. She kills me.
This last week she has suddenly found an obsession with books (Yay!). In her moodiness and in between screaming, she will find a book, pick it up, waddle on over to me holding it out with her "I'm serious" face, squawk at me pulling on me to sit down. If I comply, she's turns her little self around, backs up (I can almost hear the beeping) - if she's too far away she forgets how to go backward and does a big u-turn instead before turning back around and plopping down right in my lap with a few little wiggles to find the comfy spot. I open the book and we both read it to each other. She's very animated with pointing and poking her finger into the book, jabbering, and then grabbing at the next page. Her very favorite book at the moment is one called Easter because there are little windows you can slide back and forth as well as her favorite page with the mommy animals and the babies. I think it's mostly because she can say those words. Another favorite is No David! also because she knows the word, "No no!"
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| Any book that can be sung is even better - at least Ruby thinks so. |
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| We probably spend at least a quarter of our day doing this... |
She loves trying lots of words now - Ra - for Ross, Boo - for book, "A bye" for a bite when she wants more or something of yours - also she uses the word "Too!" or "More" also if she wants something. Potty, Pee, Poop, Ni-Ni for Nite-nite. She'll also fold him arms for prayer most of the time and loves to say, "Amay" for Amen at the end. She loves to play peek-a-boo and will cover her eyes with her hands and say, "Where are you?" and "Pee-a-boo!" She loves to play "I'm gonna get you!" and runs away while chanting "I'm ge you!" She loves the Itsy Bitsy Spider song - which was the only thing that would allow me to feed her without her blocking my spoon or spitting it out. She likes to put her fingers together for the spider. She likes to say, "How are ya" and "Hello" "Hey" and "Hi" while pretending to be on the phone - she'll use anything to be a phone. She's obsessed with my phone - if I ever get a call she's always squawking in the background demanding that I hand over my phone. Just a heads up if you ever think about calling me. She still loves Ross's monkey too. I keep finding it in random places.
Here's a little gem of a song that's a favorite of Ruby's too.
She loves blueberries, strawberries, gnawing on carrots and celery, frozen peas, cheese, oranges, pears, bananas (only if you let her eat it out of the peel though), goldfish, pretzels, spaghetti, and cheerios. She goes through phases of wanting to do all the feeding herself and then letting you do it because it's faster. She's also in a phase of throwing everything off her tray...sigh...that one always seems to last forever. With her screaming at me more, I decided to attempt the spray-water-in-her-face method I had tried with Ross when he had a weird screaming phase. The results for each child seem to fit their personality. With Ross, it seemed to shock him and stop him mid-scream, but after a morning of it, he just kept screaming...and ended up with a dripping wet face and an empty spray bottle. I tried it once with Ruby which shocked her and then led to an immense amount of tears - she was completely devastated that I would do something like that to her...so I got more screaming instead. Oh the things you'll try as a parent!
Lately Ruby has been looking so much taller to me, and she has been so sassy! She's a woman on a mission and is not so in to you messing with her plans. She'll stop anything though if there's a dance party going on. She LOVES music and stamps her feet and bounces her little bottom to any tune. She tends to put her arms out straight in front of her with her hands connected and bounces them while stamping her feet. It reminds me of Ross's chicken wing dance he would do while turning in a circle. There really is nothing so cute as little kids groovin' with their bodies. It just makes it obvious how music really speaks to all of us.
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| Ruby LOVES dance parties! With Daddy is even more fun! |
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| Ross's dancing lately must involve this dump truck - he runs around pushing it everywhere. |
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| This girl is WAY into dancing! |
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| You go girl! |
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| Beautiful :) |
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| Camera...spotted. |
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| Too busy dancing to hold still for the camera |
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| Taking a dance break...in the bumbo we're loaning to my nephew. |
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| Stuck |
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| Oh well |
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| Epic dump truck dancing |
Ross is always making me laugh. If he's ever unsure of something or doesn't think it's a good idea he'll say, "No mom, that's too dangerous!" He never says he "peed" in the potty. It's, "I tooted!" He's gotten a recent obsession with Harold and the Purple Crayon, and was star stricken when I told him (after reading it 4 times in a row) that I had a movie of it (thank-you scholastic book orders!). He also loves the book Me Too by Mercer Mayer which is adorable. Ruby likes reading it too. Hop on Pop is one he likes to read with his daddy. It's called, "Hop Ooooonn Pop" though - you have to say it right. It's funny if I'm reading to Ross, she'll come up and do her backing up deal and try to plop herself in the middle of it even though there's no room. Oh it does my heart good that my children love books.
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| Cutie :) |
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| Ross's cheesy "Cheese!" face :) |
We've been reading about the stories of Moses in the scriptures with Ross and I've got him where if I ask him what Moses says he recites, "Let My People Goooo!" and Pharaoh says, "No, no, no!" Ruby likes to chant that one. Ross will say the prayers if we tell him he's doing it. If he's ever asked he points to you and says, "No you pray!" He always remembers to bless grandmas and grandpas in his prayers without fail - they're keepers in his book. :)
Ross has been a bit more interested in his tricycle lately. With it getting warmer it's encouraging. He prefers the slightly downhill paths though, otherwise I find myself just pushing him off and on with my foot.
Yesterday we were playing outside and took on the task of gathering and breaking up fallen branches, filling a loader, and dumping them in a play truck to take to the garbage. Ross loved every second. I'm pretty sure he was imagining being on a Mighty Machines episode while we did it. He loves climbing up and down ladders these days too - instead of just taking the slide down. He's never been one for slides really.
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| Just workin' |
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| Loading the truck |
In other news, I went down to Snow College with my mom and sis to see a play, "Seven Bride for Seven Brothers" which was hilarious and adorable and even more endearing when I realized it took place in Oregon. It's so fun being with the girls, we chatter like crazy, laugh at everything, and love every second.
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| On our way to the play! |
I also got the calling in my ward to be the Primary pianist. I'm glad - it will make me practice a little more and I get to enjoy the primary kids again. It's only one of the hours too since our Primary is so small. Steve is the Elder's Quorum secretary and is doing well there too.
This weekend we somehow managed to squeeze in three dates in a row (the blessing of grandparents who live near their grandchildren). We were going to go to the temple Friday night, but left too late, so we ended up grabbing dinner and seeing the second Hobbit again which was fun...and a reminder that I'm old. We saw the 10 o'clock showing...three hour movie...we fell asleep through half of it. The next morning we went early to the Temple and enjoyed the wonderful peace and blessings that come from serving there.
On the way back home I had gotten my times mixed up for my cousin Ashley's baby shower...so Steve dropped me off - totally not ready - at her place instead of going home and getting ready. It was so fun to see my aunties and cousins and Ashley's little girl, Ellie. The shower was perfect timing since she went into labor early the next morning and had a beautiful boy, Benji, at 3:30 that afternoon.
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| Organizing the french dips... |
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| Random three generation pic. :) Me, Mom, and Grams! |
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| The bunch! Left to right: My mom, me, Ashley, Cara, my Aunt Celia, Aislinn, Aunt Renee, Ashley's neighbor Audrey, my Grams, and Aunt Robin. |
We also celebrated my mom's birthday. Woot woot! We went down on Sunday and had my dad's delicious hamburgers, strawberry shortcake, played a GREAT game called Rollicks that's a spin off charades making there by only one guesser and the rest the actors for the different words. The kids only lasted so long though so we cut to presents. We got my mom tickets to go see Pride and Prejudice at BYU this month. It should be a ton of fun! (Happy Birthday to me too!) ;) It was so fun to be with family.
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| Happy Birthday Mom! |
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| Party Dad! |
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| Deer in the headlights! |
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| Cutie :) |
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| Sis :) |
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| Dain mid-bite! |
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| Janae - beautiful as usual :) |
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| Ross excited for presents :) |
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| Grams enjoying the great grandkiddies |
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| I have no label for Steve's face.... :) |
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| Random... |
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| Presents! |
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| Ross serenading Grandma with "Happy Birthday" |
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| The boys taking their turn playing Rollick - hilarious. |
And last Sunday was actually quite easy taking care of two kids with 2:30PM for a Sacrament meeting. This kid was driving a truck on the floor...and completely fell asleep. He's adorable. :)
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| Sleepy boy |
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