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.

October - 8 months

Random ramblings on all things October:


Another trip to the zoo, just with dad this time while I was at work.



I worked A LOT this month. I worked 74 hours in one week, basically just coming home to sleep for a few days in a row. Up and out before Brian and Ruby woke up and back home again once they were already in bed. That sucked. But it was worth it. I'm really proud of the local food festival I planned and pulled off. It went pretty much perfect. And really, it was a lot like the flip side of when Brian was in Boston. I'm not going to say I'm mommy-guilt-free about work. But, since I have to work, I'm glad that I have a job to go to that I love. And that most of the time, it's only 3 or 3 and a half days a week away from Ruby.

My former boss, Tee, was in town for my festival, and when we went out to dinner at Pueblo Solis, Ruby smashed a plate. It's the only thing so far that we saved as a momento of her "firsts" of her first year.

Ruby is getting longer and leaner, but maintained the same weight for a couple months now. Her face keeps changing. It seems like I can start to see what she is going to look like when she gets a little older. Very neat.



She caught her first cold. We got sick together, and I made us some chicken soup. She recovered in one day.

She says Mama now and she learned how to switch the light on and off.

When she is really happy and excited she giggles like crazy and squeezes her arms forward like this



Two times, we babysat Cameron over here. It went pretty well, but honestly was tougher than I thought. I'm always so over-confident because of all my babysitting and daycare experience. Too bad that was from 15 years ago. I'm old and tired now, so getting up off the floor while holding two babies isn't as easy as it used to be.




Ruby still loves walking. She's walking on the furniture a lot and is taking more and more risks. Consequently, she's starting to fall a lot, which can be a little scary.






She still loves water. She would sit in her little tub forever if I let her. I have learned to have some work to do beside her on the kitchen counter at bath time, just to help her drag it out. She is starting to outgrow her tub though. She can reach out for too many dangerous things. She tries turning the hot and cold water on and off. And tonight, she pulled a houseplant right into the tub on top of herself. It was a big gross mess and it totally freaked her out.


She is so observant now - on both macro and micro levels. She checks out her surroundings in detail wherever she is. And she loves to trace the fine details of objects with her fingers. I can remember very much Tyler going through the same phase, and it's neat to see it in her now.


She loves her little interactive desk

And her favorite playtime activity is to dump out bins of toys.




She loves playing with Daisy

She still shows no sign of stranger danger. She still will go to anyone that wants to hold her and loves pretty much anyone that gives her attention. She loves getting complements. Somehow she can distinguish it in conversation and lights up every time. No one really turns her off. But she definitely responds with extra joy to a handful of people. The people she sees the most obviously, but then there are a few people that she rarely sees that she always is super excited to see. It's really interesting. I guess they are all people that have a really positive vibe about them in general. It's neat to know that she can already discern that. One of them is literally one of the checkout guys at the grocery store. She gets so excited when she sees him that she stiffens up, claps her hands, and gasps. It's very cute.

This month, Brian and I celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary. We originally wanted to take a trip somewhere, but the timing with work was too crazy, so we upgraded from a full-size to a KING-size bed. It's the first new bed we've ever had. Over the years, we just keep lucking (I guess) into other people's practically new but no longer wanted beds. Having the two of us and oftentimes Ruby and Daisy all in one full size bed has been trying. The new bed rocks the house! My mom is horrified that we are keeping the set on the floor. I figure it's less far for Ruby to fall when she eventually rolls off. It's bound to happen sooner or later despite our best intentions. Also, we want to get a platform bed eventually, so we're holding out for that for now.

We also celebrated by going to see Ween. It was a good show, but probably not the best we've seen of ween. That night, we stayed out pretty late, so we had my folks keep Ruby overnight for the first time. She did great. Another day this month, my grandparents watched Ruby for a few hours for the first time, and she did really well for them too.

We had a big lull in going out on dates, but we're trying hard to get back into the swing. This month - 1 date. I'm going to try for at least 3 next month.

While she did sleep through the night for my folks, it was unfortunately still a rare occasion. In fact, she sometimes she wakes up for one or two or more hours in the middle of the night just to hang out and play. We're trying to break this cycle. I'm pretty exhausted.

October also means hockey season is in effect. When Brian gets excited, he yells. When he suddenly bursts out with some random celebratory exclamation, Ruby freaks out and cries. It's going to be a loooong season if she doesn't get used to it.

Halloween came and went. Everyone kept asking what Ruby was going to be for Halloween. Since she can't walk or talk or eat candy, I thought it was only logical to not waste money or energy observing the holiday. So many people kept asking, I finally started replying "a Jehovah's Witness". Someone actually said to me puzzled - "so is she going to wear a navy pleated skirt or what?" arghh. We ended up going over to Tom and Mindy's new house and handed out candy while Tyler and Cameron made the rounds. Afterwards, we ate chili for dinner and had bonfire in the backyard. It was just right. My favorite part of the night was when Mindy recounted how earlier in the evening, Tom told her that Matt was going to come over too. And Tyler added "Gonna drink a couple beers."





Since halloween is over, that means I've officially not cut my hair for over two years now. I really do want to get it cut because Ruby pulls it so often, and now, so hard. But selfishly, or I guess vainly, I'm waiting to get a picture of me and her that shows how crazy long my hair is at this stage in her life. I'm always the one taking the pictures, so there are very few of me and her together. And they are all on here. Everyone takes them up close - just faces. Hopefully, we'll get a good one soon so I can finally get a haircut.