Out of hibernation

So many awesome things (good and bad) too easily forgotten. Need to get them on the record. No expectations beyond that.

Now, Ruby is 2 years and nine months. She does amazing/funny/frustrating stuff daily. Last week she jumped out of the cart at Target simultaneously and accidentally knocking Henry, carseat and all, face down on the floor. It was mortifying. But luckily no one was injured.

Later the same day while henry was asleep in the swing and ruby was quietly playing with her dolls (a sure sign that she is about to do something crazy), i was in the kitchen prepping for dinner. I called into the living room asking if henry was still asleep. she replied "he woke up when i gave him his medicine." turns out she climbed up on the diaper pail and got a bottle of homopathic cold medicine down and assured me she only gave him one pill. I seriously do my best, but I am sure the knock on the door from dcfs is coming any day now.

On the positive side, she started using the words actually, meanwhile, and literally appropriately in sentences this week.

i was really proud today when I asked her gymnastics teacher if i should keep her in the twos or move her up to the threes for the next session. her response was definitely move her up. it rates right up there with the first day of preschool a couple months back when the teacher walked up to me and said "it's really nice for the other children to have a role model like ruby in the class". Those little moments of reassurance almost make up for that carseat tossing/little brother almost poisoning business.

In a lot of ways, she's like a mini teenager - slamming doors when not getting her way, etc. She's picking out her clothes regularly - the whole outfit from barrets to shoes almost every day and sometimes really has a hard time choosing. A real girlie girl who loves to apply chapstick and smack her lips afterwards .

She likes our new house a lot but says reguarly that me and Brian and Henry should all move across the street because she wants to live in our house by herself. She's confident that she can take care of everything cooking and all. And when I ask her if she'll get lonely, she says she'll come visit us because it's just across the street.

Last night, she watched the extended version of that youtube video about the guys who owned a pet lion and then released it and reunited with it in the wild in africa and sobbed afterwards.

She loves our backyard and spends lots and lots of time under our big oak tree. Brian tells her made up stories about Steve the Squirrel and all the other critters that live in our yard and so now she's super tuned in to nature. so amazing and cool.

last weekend, we found a dead bird in our backyard that obviously flew into our sunporch. Brian put it in a shoebox and got rid of it. Later, they were at the daily trip to the hardware store (since we just moved), and Ruby made him call me to check on the bird to see if it was better yet. I of course reported that it did get better and flew away. there was an episode of her favorite show, nanalan, where something similar had happened.

She's finally really into potty training. Last night, I told her that Target ran out of diapers and that it's all pull ups from here on out. My mom started a treasure box thing today where every time she goes on the potty she gets something new for her treasure. When brian went to pick her up she was completely into it. Oh how nice it will be to only have one in diapers.

Henry is also amazing. He is SUCH a good natured baby. He just smiles and rolls with the crappy cards he's dealt almost everyday. Ruby is such an attention hog that henry often just seems to be along for the ride. But luckily he is in love with the view.

He's 8 months now and can barely sit up. I'm always holding him or he's strapped in somewhere. Especially since we've been packing and unpacking since september.

He loves to snuggle and thinks everything is hilarious. Really cute! But looks hauntingly like Brian's dad when he's happy and Brian's brother when he's not.

I just had to put away all his six months clothes last week and get out the 9 months. So sad to say good bye for good to more of the tiny cute things.

Everyday I have do this mental exercise of remembering distinctly what it felt like to hold him when he was a tiny little baby. There is such a flood of new memories daily that the older ones fade so fast. It's already hard for me to remember Ruby as a baby. So I'm doing the little meditation on remembering Henry in order to never forget the awesome warm fuzzy feeling of holding such a little baby that's all mine.