HOW?!

How has my baby gone from this:

to this:

So darn quickly?!?!

excuse my while I go cry...

Ruby-- Ten Months

Double digits, baby! 

It's starting to sink in that this growing up business is real, and in just two short months my sweet, tiny, infant, newborn daughter will be ONE YEAR OLD. How? I'm not quite sure, because it certainly feels like we were just bringing her home from the hospital evacuating for hurricane Isaac.

Like I stated in the previous post, these pictures were not easy to come by. Ruby is becoming less and less a fan of sitting still and posing for pictures. She's still adorable (duh) and gave me a few good signature Ruby grins.

We've been battling yet another crumby ear infection this month! I think we're all fed up, and decided to start talking next steps to get this girl well. Ruby rarely seems majorly phased by the constant infections. Sadly, I think the discomfort has become her normal, and it doesn't really bother her often. Her sleep habits have been a little screwy this month, but I'm not sure if I'm ready to attribute that to the ear infections, or just how crazy out of whack our schedule has been.

Our girl is still as entertaining as ever and keeps us on our toes and laughing. She is such a show off and will perform for anyone that is willing to watch. She has really taken to pointing this month. She stretches her pudgy little arm out with her pointer finger tight and straight and says "huh???" at random things as to say "what is that?". I try and figure out what she is pointing to every time and say the word.  She loves it. She points at every little thing. It's amazing to watch her discover the world and begin communicating effectively. She is able to tell me when she's hungry, or thirsty and uses it adamantly. If I don't respond to her request immediately she gets very frustrated and upset. I'm sure she just thinks I'm ignoring her or don't understand what she's asking for, but in reality I can't always drop what we are doing to get her what she wants. It's hard because at this point in her life I can say "I'll feed you in a just a few minutes, baby" until I'm blue in the face and all she cares about is that fact that she's signing "FOOD, DRINK, HUNGRY, THIRSTY, NOOWWWW!!!" and I'm ignoring her. She still loves to communicate, and I love watching her grow and learn. It's so fun and neat.

She's still crawling faster than a speeding bullet, and is not showing much interest in walking. She enjoys cruising around furniture, and has let go and stood unassisted for brief moments, but has not attempted to take any steps that we know of. She is growing more independent by the day though, and I foresee her walking relatively soon. Who knows though! She could wait until she's a year and a half! Crawling if effective for her and she doesn't seem to be in a rush.

When we went to the Dr. this month for a follow-up for the ear infection, Ruby was maintaining her weight at 20lbs. She may have gained a couple ounces, but wasn't over the 20lb mark yet. Our doctor said this is very typical of babies, and she could maintain this weight until her first birthday (although I don't see that happening). The girl loves to nurse still, and I plan on continuing to nurse her beyond her first birthday if she wants to. I don't have a set plan for weaning, mostly because I don't really see the point in planning it out. My plan is to do what seems best for her. I do know that I really do not want to continue pumping at work (I am beyond ready to have a normal lunch break that does not entail being hooked up to a machine), so we will probably introduce cows milk at some point after her first birthday for daytime drinking.

Sleep has been a little bit rough this month. For some reason she has regressed to waking up once a night again, usually around 2am. She acts hungry (even though I know she's most likely not) and will not calm down for Andrew. I usually always cave and nurse her back to sleep. We'll see if this comes back to bite me later. At this point, since I am on summer break and can function with less sleep, I'm not super concerned about fixing her sleep. I'm hoping and praying this is just a quick phase and she will be back to sleeping through the night very soon.

Ruby's Month 10 Favorite Things:

-Mama, Dada, Banjo and T (foster brother)
-Baby dolls. She LOVES to snuggle, hold, and kiss her babies. It's the sweetest and cutest thing ever, y'all.
-Puffs
-Signing "more". Does it ALL. THE. TIME.
-Clapping
-Dancing
-Being held
-Outside (swinging, eating grass, playing in the dog's water)
-Finding whatever it is in our house that she can't have and could hurt her (cords, T's small toys) and playing with them even though she knows she's not supposed to.
-Playing peek-a-boo or "where's Ruby?!"

Ruby's Month 10 Not-so-favorite Things:

-Diaper changes have become her worst enemy. She twists and shouts like it's the worst possible thing ever.
- ^ Besides sleeves of course, those are DEFINITELY the worst things ever.
- Wearing hair bows, clips, or headbands. This one makes me sad because we have quite the collection. She almost immediately rips it off and proceeds to make it her chew toy. Oi.

Aaaand, it's a wrap!

Precious One, 

Even though time is flying by much too quickly for your mama's liking, this stage of your life is so incredibly fun! You are funny, sweet, mischievous, and just straight up enjoyable to be around. I genuinely love spending time with you and we are getting lots of it with me being on Summer Break from work. You are the sweetest, most joyful person I've ever known and I am so proud of the little person you're becoming. Life with you in it is so much sweeter.

I love you x infinity, 

Mama

Ruby is 10 Months!

The blog has really fallen by the wayside recently. I'm sorry. 

I really have no excuse other than I've been soaking up this Summer break (hello, awesome perk of being a school nurse!) with my sweet babies.
I did get around to snapping a few 10 month pictures of Ruby-girl the other day, and it was by far the hardest month to capture her. She's all over the place, and really just wanted to snack on some grass.

I'll be back soon to write her 10 month post. Until then, here's a little snapshot of how our 10 month photoshoot went down.