Ruby -- 14 Months

This kid is pure delight. I mean, seriously, she is the best.
I know I'm her mom and I'm supposed to think that, but its true.

I'm loving this age. Ruby is a little person. She's "talking" up a storm and has quite the personality. Her teachers at daycare have declared her their little helper, as she knows everyone's name in the class, whose bottle/pacifier/lovey is whose, and will help distribute them when asked. I had a pretty serious talk with the daycare director about reducing our monthly fee on account of my daughter being put to work every day. ;) Every time I pick her up from daycare she is either perched on something she's not supposed to be on top of, or under something she's not supposed to be under. She's a mess, and everyone loves her for it.

Ruby can totally walk now. Does she? Heck no. She still prefers to be carried, or crawling. She recently has really started loving walking as long as she has one of my fingers to hold onto. I really don't mind that she is taking it slow on the walking front, besides the fact that she's heavy, and demanding about what direction she wishes to be going in. I think once more kids in her class start walking, she'll want to keep up and do it more often.

We've gotten her completely off bottles now. The transition was so much easier than I expected it to be. She sailed through it like a champ and never looked back. She's drinking sippy cups of whole milk at school, and nursing 1-2 times in the evenings. Now nursing, that's another story. She's an addict, and I don't see her giving up any time soon. I'm not pushing it yet, but I'm planning on trying to wean her completely by 18 months (we'll see...). Rubes is still SUUUUPER picky when it comes to table food, and turns her nose up at things that she once adored. I can't understand this girl and her palate. The one thing that has changed is I am able to ask her what she wants to eat, hold up some options, and she can pick. This has helped SO much in decreasing the amount of food we waste because I can just give her what she wants (within reason...because she would eat 10 bananas a day if I let her). She's really enjoying those fancy squeeze pouches of apple sauce, or other pureed foods, which is odd because she started despising purees around 9 months old. Oh well, we go with the flow around here, and she's definitely not malnourished!

Like I said, this girl has quite the personality, and with lots of personality comes lots of EMOTIONS. Oh the drama! She can go from smiling, clapping, and having a grand ole time to head on the floor screaming like her leg was just cut off in seconds. She has started putting her hands over her mouth when she laughs/cries/thinks something is funny/is surprised and it is just the cutest most dramatic thing ever. Lets just say, Ruby knows what she wants, and she makes her needs and wants very clear...

We finally had a month of NO doctors appointments! She still has a consistently snotty nose every morning, but I think she just has terrible allergies like her mama (sorry, baby!). This has been our healthiest month so far (since last December). I'm hoping this is a trend. 

We still have a great sleeper on our hands! Thank goodness. She goes so hard during the day that her little body needs all the rest it can get. We've had to change our nighttime routine a little bit because Ruby no longer likes to nurse to sleep (kind of sad...). She will nurse and then want to play for a little while. She has kind of stopped showing her normal sleepy signs when she's all wrapped up in playing before bed, so we usually have to cut her off around 8-8:30. Daddy takes her to her crib where she will now lay down by herself, let out a few little cries and fall asleep on her own. She usually sleeps until around 7:30. 

Speaking of playing, Ruby LOVES to play! She is go, go, go when we are outside (hence the lack of pictures on her quilt this month...and the ones I did get are WAY over exposed...). She really loves to play up in the little play house in the back yard. She watches the boys and Banjo run around and screams and laughs at them. It's adorable. I think she kind of feels like queen of the world up there. 

Other cute things Ruby has added to her repertoire this month? Her cheese face. Oh, it's so darn cute. She squints her eyes and gets the biggest grin. It's destined to make you swoon if you should meet it. She has also started to fake closing her eyes during prayer. She will squint her eyes as tight as she can while still keeping a tiny slit to see out of while we pray. She looks around, tilting her head in every direction possible to get the best view out of her tiny eye slits. Hilarious. She has mastered the dance moves to the song "My God is So Big", and she does them with such passion and enthusiasm.  She still gives amazing hugs and kisses, and is very generous with them. She also still loves to blow raspberries on my belly. Andrew and I cannot get over how much she makes us laugh. It's the best.

Ruby's 14 Month Favorite Things:
-Bananas. So. Many. "nanas"
-Bath time
-Playing outside
-Carbs
-Laughing at Banjo
-Kisses and hugs
-Eating dog food
-Dancing, singing, being cute
-Pointing at everything
-Taking her shoes and socks off
-Climbing
-"blowing" her nose. She makes a fart sound with her lips when you hold a tissue up to her nose. So cute.

Ruby's 14 Month Not-So-Favorite Things:
-Wearing shoes or socks
-Being told "no"
-Falling down when trying to walk (instant meltdown every time)
-Sharing...need to work on this.
-Not having everyone's undivided attention
-Meat. My little vegetarian.
-Getting in the car seat.

My Girl, 

Your sweet, spunky, quirky personality melts me. I love how at only 14 months old you are already so full of passionate opinions about how things should be. Some may call it trouble, or hard headed, but I think it's great. You're becoming your own person. A wonderful, silly, creative little person that is so full of life. I am so proud of that. I don't think it's anything your dad and I have done, or haven't done, I think it's all you. I love that. I am so thankful for you, sweet girl. Your hugs, slobbery kisses, and sweet raspy voice can turn a horrible day into a great one. I know God is going to use you in a mighty way, and I'm so happy that we get a front row seat to watch it all unfold. 

You're loved. So very much. 

Mama

Ruby-- 13 Months

Finally getting around to adding pictures to this post that was written in September...

It's hard to believe I have a toddler. Ruby still feels very much like a baby in a lot of ways, who am I kidding, she still IS a baby...my baby. She is definitely growing and changing at a rapid rate at this point. She is learning SO much every day, it is so fun to watch her change.

Our girl is not interested in walking...at all! She will take a few steps to us if we force her to, but that quickly turns into a meltdown if we don't reward her with some holds and cuddles. What can I say? She's spoiled, and loves to be held. I oblige because I love to hold her. It's win, win really. Until my arms start to feel like they are about to fall of. She's crawling at lightening fast speeds and cruising around furniture like it's her job so there's really no point in her walking. I get it, Rubes.

Speaking of her love of being held, this girl can give a great hug, and it's one of her favorite things to do. Just say "Ruby, can I have a hug?" and she will wrap her chubby arms around your neck and rest her sweet little head on your shoulder. Occasionally she'll make this adorable "awwwww" sound while she's hugging, too. It's the best. Seriously. She's also mastered the open mouth kiss, full of slobbery love.

Ruby got a really cute little tea set from our friends for her birthday, and she LOVES to pretend to drink out of her tea cups (and the kettle). She makes sucking sounds as she tilts the cup back and always offers it to others with a cute little "huh?" as if she's saying "would you like some tea?" (in a fancy British accent of course). Playing with her is SO fun these days. She is imaginative and silly. She's still a huge fan of music and dancing, and can always be cheered up by getting her groove on.

We finally have Ruby eating some solid food! This girl loves carbs just like her mama and can devour a piece of bread like a grown man. She's currently a vegetarian and turns her nose up to any meat that I place in front of her. One time she mistook a piece of ground beef for a chocolate chip (because everyone eats their spaghetti and cookie at the same time, right?), and her face was priceless. She slapped her tongue over and over again like I had just tried to poison her. She loves fruit, especially bananas, mangoes, and peaches. She will sometimes eat veggies, but only when the mood is right. My little cajun baby really enjoys jambalaya, red beans & rice, and french bread. She loves greek yogurt, apple sauce, and oatmeal, but ONLY if she can feed it to herself. Cue: huge mess. I'm practicing letting go of control and letting her explore and make a mess with her food. Baths have been bumped up from 3 times a week to a nightly occurence because of this, though. We've gotten her down to nursing just once a day (at night) on school days and 2-3 times a day on the weekends. She still takes one bottle (of whole milk) in the morning when I would usually nurse her, but am normally gone before she wakes up, and is drinking the rest of the day out of a sippy cup. She still asks for "na-na" (milk) pretty regularly, but her requests can be deflected by playtime or a cracker.

Unfortunately, my wish for a healthy month did not come true. We dealt with pink eye, a infectious booty rash, and a constant snotty nose/cough this month. Still no ear infections though...praise the Lord for tubes! This girl doesn't let a little cold or pink eye slow her down though. Just like I always have said, she rolls with the punches, and is still her happy little self for the most part.

Ruby is still sleeping like a champ. I'm grateful for a good sleeper. The only thing we need to work on getting away from is the fact that I still nurse her to sleep. If she's too riled up, I will put her in her crib to fall asleep by herself, but that always means at least 10 minutes of crying. I would really like to get to the point where I can put her in her bed and she will just lay down and go to sleep. I'm sure we will get
there!

Ruby can now identify most of her body parts, and she is so proud of herself for it, too! Her favorite thing to show off is her belly. When you say "where's your belly?" she lifts up her shirt with the biggest smile and rubs her belly over and over again. She's also started copying our copious amounts of raspberry blowing on her belly and will randomly lean over and blow raspberries on random body parts, and will eventually get to your belly if you'll let her. Watch out, this girl knows how to raise a shirt! ;)

Have a accurately described how absolutely awesome Ruby is? I hope so! She is SO fun. I am loving this age. I know that with growing, learning and becoming her own little person she is also gaining opinions, likes, and dislikes. I think just because she can't put into words quite yet exactly what she wants (and her wants and opinions are increasing by the day), this has resulted in a whole new level of temper tantrums. She now throws herself on the ground with her head resting on her arms and just cries. It's quite dramatic, and I usually have to hold back the laughter. It's usually over not getting something that she wants, us not being able to understand what she wants, or just random emotional breakdowns (I get those, too!). Overall though, she's still an absolute delight. Even in her crabby moments, all she really needs are a few cuddles and she's back to her normal self. We are blessed with such a sweet girl!

Ruby's 13 month favorite things:
-Bath time! It's back on the favorites list! Last month she HATED baths...would scream like it was torture. Now she loves it. Babies are so weird.
-Banjo, Mama, Dada, J & J (foster brothers...she really does love them despite her occasional bouts of jealousy)
-Books
-Music
-Playing with her baby dolls and tea set (how girly! haha)
-Being outside
-Milk
-Pulling all of little J's clothes out of his dresser every night while we read stories and pray
-Identifying her body parts
-Putting on and taking off shoes. She could do it all day long. It drives her daycare teachers nuts.
-Giving hugs

Ruby's 13 month not-so-favorite things:
-Leaving mama or dada
-Being told "not right now" or "no"
-Meat
-Mama giving foster brothers too much attention (she's started trying to hit the little one when I am holding him...yikes!)
-Still hates being changed, but it's becoming a little easier to distract her with a book or a toy.
-Trying to walk

Our sweet Ruby, 

If I had to come up with 5 words to describe you they would be sweet, independent, determined, funny, and smart. You have such a great personality that is coming out more and more every day. Your teachers at daycare always comment on how smart and funny you are, and you have everyone wrapped around your little finger! We are so proud of you, and love you more than we could ever say. Your daddy and I often say that if we could be guaranteed babies as great as you, we might never stop having them. That's not true (because there is definitely a point where enough is enough), but that's just how great you are! I am so happy that you came into our lives 13 months ago...life would not be quite as sweet without you in it. 

We love you, baby girl!

Mama 

Grace.

I have had one of those nights weeks where I feel like I am doing nothing right in this role as a mama. I have recently (although it's something that I struggle with very often) become ridden with guilt over not being able to stay home with Ruby. I often feel like I'm not being the best mom that I could be for her because I only get to see her for 3-4 hours every day, and when we are together I'm usually tired, making dinner, cleaning, doing laundry, and disciplining and teaching the other two kiddos we have in our home right now. Every night when I lay her in her crib, kiss her cheek and walk out of the room I feel like I'm going to cry. Feeling like you're not doing your best at what you view as your most important job ever is pretty gut wrenching. I have noticed this week in my exhaustion that these feelings of not being good enough are consuming me, and making me even more into a person that I do not want to be (how about that?!). I have been impatient and not very graceful with the boys, when all they need is constant patience, love, and support, and I can see it starting to affect all of us in small ways.
Then I sit down after a long, hard day of work, kids, LIFE and reflect on all of these ugly feelings. You know what? The grace that I'm kicking myself for not giving to the boys when they lied about who spilled the juice, or my screaming one year old who just cannot be put down for one second, is what I really need to be giving to myself. That's always good place to start, and finish. Grace. And goodness knows that I'm not great at extending that grace to myself. I'm grateful for a husband that is filled with this grace, and is able to speaks truth to me continuously, reminding me that Ruby is loved and she knows it. She's loved at home, she's loved at daycare, and she already at the ripe old age of 13 months exudes the love she receives and dishes it out so well. She is a thriving, happy, and smart little girl who is well taken care of. I am blessed to have a job that helps us feed our family, allows us to have health insurance, and welcome other children that do not have a place to call home into our home to love them, care for them, buy them clothes and teach them about Jesus. Sometimes though? It's hard to keep those thoughts in the forefront. This guilt, this "mom guilt", is crippling.

But he said to me, "my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I will delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Cor. 12:9&10)

His grace is sufficient. His grace is waiting for me in the morning when I wake up in a dark house to the sounds of the ones I love sleeping peacefully around me. His grace is there when I softly kiss my sleeping baby good-bye for the day. His grace is there as I drive to work wishing I could have more time with my girl. His grace reminds me that this life, this crazy wonderful journey is a long winding road of figuring out how get better at trusting Him. "Trusting that the God who built our kids will parent them in our absence, will grow them in courage, and teach them over time that this is what love looks like. Gritty, committed, and determined to do what is necessary."*

And drenched in grace, friends. Drenched in grace.  

*(taken from this amazing blog)

Ruby -- TWELVE Months

I still can't believe I have a one year old. A tiny part of me wants to mourn the fact that my baby's infanthood has quickly vanished, but I'm having way too much fun enjoying her becoming a fun, interactive, hilarious, crazy little person to be sad.

Ruby's first birthday fell on a Saturday, which was perfect. We were able to take her out to breakfast to one of our favorite local spots, The Ruby Slipper (fitting, huh?). Ruby and I shared some bananas foster french toast, and she made quite the scene by spilling a glass of water all over the place, then gagging on some french toast and throwing up on the table. She also made friends with everyone around us by waving and showing off her precious grin. She's such a people person, always saying hi to every single person that passes us by. I just love her so much.

I can't say that Ruby has changed a ton since our month 11 update. Maybe that's because I did the month 11 post about 2 weeks late. She's definitely become more mobile, and is super close to walking. She will stand by herself for as long as she wants and has amazing balance, but is just not interested in taking steps. I'm not pushing the subject, because I know once she starts, there is no going back! She gets into enough trouble just being able to crawl at lightening fast speeds, I can't imagine what it's going to be like when she starts walking.

Our girl still has not had a month where she has been completely healthy. I think we've been dealing with some sort of sickness at least once a month since December. Thankfully, she has not had anymore ear infections since her surgery last month. She did get hand foot and mouth, another random virus, and is now dealing with some sort of respiratory infection and strange rash. Maybe next month she'll be healthy the entire month? I sure hope so. She deserves the break!

Ruby is still sleeping like a champ! I am so glad we have finally reached the point where I can put her to bed and know that it's about a 99.9% chance that she will not wake up until morning. Most nights she goes to bed around 8:00-8:30 (sometimes earlier, sometimes later...we follow her cues) and wakes up anywhere from 6:30-7:30. If we're lucky on Saturdays (our only chance to sleep in at all), she will come snuggle in bed, nurse, and fall back asleep for a while.

We're still going strong in the breastfeeding department. So far, I have gotten ZERO cues from Ruby that she is ready to be done. She is getting a lot better about accepting solid foods, and has definitely increased her intake of food pretty significantly. However, she still wants to nurse whenever the opportunity is presented to her. She knows how to ask for it and has even started saying "muk???" with the sign for milk when she's ready. The only downside is she doesn't yet understand "not right now" or "in a little while". She quickly escalates from politely asking for milk to a total meltdown if I don't deliver. This is just one example of how she is getting much more opinionated and persistent about her needs and wants.

We haven't taken her in for her 12 month appointment yet, but if I were to guess, I would say that she has finally gained a little weight. Now that she is actually eating things other than breastmilk, I'm sure she is at least up to 21lbs. I packed away most of her 9 month outfits, and busted out the few 12 month things that we have. Some of the 12-18 month stuff still swallows/falls off of her, but I know it will be fitting her soon.

Ruby hasn't added many words to her vocabulary this month, but we can tell she understands much more than we thought she did. She knows "what does a dog say?" "what does a cat say?" and "what does a sheep say?" her favorite response is "woof woof" and any time we see a dog (tv, books, and in person) she likes to show off her barking skills. She is still signing more, milk, and all done. She says mama, dada, milk (muk, or nah-nah), dog (dah), and points to herself for Ruby.

Ruby's 12 month favorite things:
-Mama, Dada, Banjo
-Swinging
-Pointing and asking "huh?"
-Bananas
-Dancing. We got her a little piano for her birthday and she LOVES pressing the buttons and dancing to the songs. Cutest thing ever.
-Playing "catch": rolling the ball back and forth. She has quite the arm on her.
-Walking with her new radio flyer walker wagon.
-Being outside.
-Blowing kisses
-Clapping and saying "yay!"
-Milk (by far Ruby's favorite thing ever).
-Reading books. Ruby LOVES books.

Ruby's 12 month not-so-favorite things:
-Saying bye to mommy and daddy in the mornings
-Bath time. Some how this has turned from a favorite thing to a not-so-favorite thing. We have to keep her distracted the entire type she's in the bath or she screams and cries.
-Changing. Still awful, but getting better. She likes to read books now while you're changing her, and can usually be distracted long enough to get through a diaper change successfully.

Ruby, 

Oh, beautiful girl, you continue to amaze us with your sweetness, silliness, and smarts! Every day you learn something new, and your daddy and I feel so privileged to be apart of this journey with you. It's been a year since you came into our lives, and it has been the best year ever. Life with you in it is so much more fun and full of love. You've added so much to our lives, baby girl. Being your mom and dad is such a gift, and this year with you has been the biggest blessing. We love you more than words could ever say. Keep shining, little love. Happy first birthday.

Mama 

Ruby's First Birthday

We had a great time celebrating our girl's first birthday today! I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. 

Happy birthday Ruby!! You're the best.