Ruby's 1st Birthday

So.... I'm in the slow process of dropping photos into all my blog draft posts and someday I will be caught up. Until that day, if you want to know what looks like now (or at least what she did a month ago), Brian posted a hilarious video of her birthday party. Check it out when you have a little while.

Novebember 9 months

Finally - Hoodie weather! I love this little hoodie. It barely still fits her as it's a size 3 months. It's super sweet and has little elbow patches. I wish I would have bought one in every size.


Ruby with Ike at Pat and Nellie's - This is the only pic of them both facing me. They played together really well. Ruby's wearing a dress that was mine when I was a baby. My grandpa's sister in Austria knitted it.





Ruby is super happy any time she has a breeze in her face. She sticks out her tongue to taste the air and giggles. That fact plus with my desire to shape up prompted me to get her a bike seat and helmet. The bike seat was kind of an impulse buy when I had to stop in at REI to talk to someone there about some green building stuff Whole Foods and REI are doing in partnership. The helmet I found on ebay.






Brian got it all hooked up. He set it up on his bike so we could all go together. She does like bikerides, but I guess I expected her to be head over heels for it. She basically just chills out and checks out everything around. Pretty much the same exact reaction as the stroller. We've only taken a few short rides so far, because of the weather, but in the spring we want to take her on some longer trails. I hope we can go on grant's trail to Drew and Erin's with her, hang out, and then ride back. It all depends on the weather really.




Still with no real interest in crawling, Ruby is really starting to cruise all around the furniture now. So, I went out and bought her a new little wagon to help her gain a little more mobility. Definitely, a little pricier than all the other walk-behind toys out there, but this one seems like it will get used for years to come. She LOVES it. She can't turn it, but she can walk from one end of the house to the other if we aim her right. We also have tons of fun pushing her around the house FAST in it, like it's her little race car. She also likes giving the other kids, even Tyler who barely fits, rides.


We went away for another weekend, leaving her with my folks overnight and all things went well again. This time it was for Brent's murder mystery B&B birthday in Hermann - a super fun kid-free get away with a big bunch of our friends. The weekend had a 70's theme, so all the boys showed up with NASTY mustaches. Of course Brian's was the most foul.


And yes, Matt did wear that afro all weekend.









Thanksgiving was nice and easy. Love this pic of Brian and Ruby on our way out the door.

And of course my family of A-B retirees thinks Ruby should be their next posterchild.


By the end of November, I stopped nursing Ruby. I did it exclusively for 3 months, then supplemented with formula (less than half the time) for the next three months because it was so hard to keep up after I went back to work. And for the last three months, she's definitely been working her way from half formula to 2/3 or 3/4. She doesn't seem to miss it at all. I guess it was time. I'm glad I got to keep it going as long as I did. She's been really healthy - just having the sniffles for two days so far and no fevers ever.

At the same time, we've been introducing baby food. It's been tough to get past jars of liquidy food though, because she still has no teeth. My folks keep predicting that she'll get teeth "next week" every week because my brother and I both had teeth by six months, but it never happens. I'm not worried at all. She'll get there when she gets there. Same thing about walking - everyone seems to think she'll walk before xmas because I walked before a year. What's the rush. They say later teeth are healthier and babies that walk early are uptight. But even those generalizations are probably meaningless.

Still no signs of stranger danger. Ruby is a really good/easy/low maintenance baby. We are so lucky.