Ruby is 8 months old!

Here she is giggling at me, I'm not sure why, but it is such a good sound.

craft fair

A better picture of Ruby's tooth that now seems to be going back down into her gum a bit. What is with her crazy teeth? We took this picture on photo booth on the mac with the cool effects. That is some time-wasting fun right there.


I'm going to be in a craft fair! Woo hoo!
It will be in Eugene on Feb. 9th from 9-4 at the St. Thomas More Newman Center. If you live nearby, you should come visit. I'll have cookies....

This past fall, I went to the Corvallis Fall Festival and met Amy from Knitty Bitty. She is a stay-at-home mom who sells adorable kids' clothes. Some of her stuff is knit and some of it is silk-screened. I got to talking with her about her wares and how she does it all. I mentioned to her that when Ruby got a bit bigger and we had settled into our house, I was hoping to start an etsy site selling natural bath & beauty products. She gave me a lot of encouragement and told me to let her know if I had any questions along the way. So a couple days ago, I emailed her and shared my etsy site with her. She and I are going to trade some things. Then she told me about this craft fair and thought there was still room for someone with bath products. She emailed the coordinator and I'm in!

Of course, at first, I thought, "I can't do this - what about Ruby? Is my stuff good enough to sell...." But John jumped right in and got all excited. He's going to hang out with Ruby all day in Eugene and bring me food and bring Ruby to food (me) and help me make a bunch of stuff before the 9th. He's the best.

its snowing!

We woke up to snow this morning. It was completely unexpected, so it made it that much better. It snowed hard for hours. We accumulated several inches and it was soooooo beautiful. We interrupted our breakfast to take Ruby on a walk. When we came back, John & I took turns biking & walking down to the river. It was like being in New England, I imagine. Our neighborhood is full of historic houses & buildings, so that added to beauty of it all. It stopped snowing later, but has started again. We still have at least an inch outside. I'm now hoping that John won't have to go to work tomorrow! We'll see...
Here are a bunch of pictures. If you don't live here, I wish you could have seen it.

tarty

John & I made a pear & almond tart last night in a fit of a sweet attack. Come on over and help us eat it! If you come in the next couple days and its gone, we'll make you something else yummy to eat.



We found a bit of a gift certificate to a restaurant that was left over today. So we all went out to lunch. Ruby had peas. It was her first time eating out. She did very well! She ate a lot and wasn't too distracted by it all, which I thought she would be. I kind of thought that the food would be a joke, but she loved eating with us.


Ruby stuck her finger in an electric outlet.


Just kidding. She has a lot of dry skin on her scalp, so we rubbed some oil on her before her bath.

cold flamingos

It snowed! We had a dusting last night that was so pretty to watch. Ruby noticed it this time. We stood at the window and she had her mouth open, watching the flakes fall. It will probably all melt by this afternoon. But it was really nice to wake up to 1/2" of snow or so on the ground.

Last night we got some pictures of Ruby feeding herself. I will warn you, there is a pouty picture of Ruby in here. I know some of you (grandparents) don't want to admit that she is ever sad, but here is proof. There are a bunch of pictures to make up for yesterday (E.K.) and to show you the whole sequence of events.
Without further rambling, here is the dinner of rice, apples & pears:


Oh, forget the spoon, just give me the whole bowl.


No, no, I want to do it myself!!!


See, I can do it. No one's taking my spoon away from me.

play date

Ruby & I had friends over today. Henry is 2 months older than Ruby and much more active. Ruby is kind of stuck in one spot still. She watched Henry scoot around and go after toys in awe. They shared toys nicely and Henry even gave Ruby kisses on her head, which she really liked. Henry's mom, Jess is really nice and a very crafty lady, so she gave me some good advice.
No pictures though. I tried to take some, but Henry's so quick and the camera is so slow.
Henry drinks water and then spits it out, like Ruby. He ended up soaking wet. I offered him so dry clothes but we only had 1 outfit that wasn't pink in his size!
It might snow tonight, keep your fingers crossed!

rocking ruby

Ruby got to sit in her rocking chair for the first time today. It was made for my mom by her great-grandfather. My mom has a matching one that is adult-sized.

Ruby woke up this morning at 5:30 screaming. I think she was trying to move around in her sleep, because her head was all the way up in the corner of her bed. I got her up and we sat together on the couch nursing. She still wasn't ready to go back to sleep, so I opened up the curtains of our front window and we looked at the full moon. We did this for awhile. I whispered to her, she stood on the couch staring at the moon and me at her moonlit face. We read Time for Bed a couple times and back to sleep she went. It was a really peaceful moment together. As much as I love my sleep, I am grateful for these quiet times that happen at night occasionally, especially as Ruby gets squirmier. I know I will hold on to these memories for a long time.

target, my favorite store

It is bitter cold here. Its supposed to get into the teens tonight. Its clear too, which is so nice. We have this beautiful, enormous full moon that we can actually see because there aren't any clouds in the way. It is a rare thing to see the moon in the winter here.

Yesterday, since John had the day off, we went to yoga. It was so nice to have someone to share the baby wrestling with there. We both actually got to do some yoga! The yoga class is at the same studio where we took our prenatal class, so we felt like we had come full circle, being there with Ruby. I remember one class, we were trying to open up our hips by laying on our backs with our feet up in the air pointing toward the ceiling. We used our feet to "write" our babies name in the air. Then we went around the room and shared the names we wrote. I didn't know! We didn't have a name chosen yet. We didn't until just a day or two before Ruby was born. It seems so strange to have not know Ruby.

Today Ruby and I spent quite a lot of time in and out of the car, mostly going to Target. We went this morning and I bought a treat to give to a friend. Then I got home and realized that it was expired. So, back we went this afternoon. Ruby was not too keen on all this time in the car and the cart. Neither was I. But she still managed to smile for the camera. Of course.


much &hearts to christy & her family

mail call

When I get the mail off our porch, Ruby is usually awake. She seems to really enjoy looking at everything and getting her hands on all the paper. She LOVES catalogs. They have fun pictures and they're fun to tear and throw around.

Today I got the mail and sorted it all, but I forgot to let Ruby have something to play with. Ruby started waving her arms and screeching, so I gave her a card and she was so happy. She played with it for 20 min. or so.

Serious business:


Just kidding!

sorry, no pictures

Ruby is still trying so hard to crawl. She has all this energy now. She seems to be moving constantly. She's hard to hold on to! We went to parent & baby yoga on Monday. Ruby wanted to play with the other babies so badly. She started "talking" to them all and finally a boy about her age answered her back. He was across the room, but they continued to have their own little conversation.

I've tried posting a picture of Ruby. I was told that the only entries worth reading are the ones with pictures. But, blogger is not letting me right now. I'll try again later. Thanks for reading even without the pictures.

I know its hard to imagine that John and I are doing other things besides playing with Ruby but we are. Here are some of our latest activities:

John has his first publication coming out soon! His graduate professor, another professor and he wrote an extension article about the research he did while working on his degree. How exciting! A published author!
I've got my etsy site going now selling some bath products. You can find a link on the right side of our blog.

tooth

here's a better picture of her tooth

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

quack

We had a beautiful, sunny day today. This is a rarity here in the winter. When its sunny its COLD. I don't know if it got above 40 today, but I just had to get outside. Ruby and I bundled up and went for a quick walk to visit the ducks. We hadn't seen them in awhile. This is what Ruby did when she saw them.

If you look closely, you might be able to see Ruby's little tooth coming in on the bottom.
I'll post more when I don't have a wiggly baby in my lap, typing on the keyboard.

gift of nothing

My dear friend, Christy, sent us this book for Christmas and we just love it. John & I read it constantly to Ruby. You should buy this book and read it around Christmas or birthdays, and especially to kids.

Ruby has been making this really funny crazy face lately. Every time she does it John & I have to laugh, which just makes her do it again. I'm trying to get a good picture of it, but the camera is too distracting so far. This is the closest I've been able to get.

peace

A double rainbow. A long walk between rain showers. The sun shining. A napping baby. A tooth that has finally cut through the gum. A cup of tea and warm almond biscotti.

and so it goes

it all continues...
the snow! just a little still, but enough to make me excited

the separation anxiety which is still going on at night. Ruby falls asleep, well. She just wakes up at night and is up for hours

the cuteness

Here are the pictures as promised. John found the cable we needed. Where? In the basement in the box of cables, of course. I didn't even know this box existed!

Look how big Ruby looks, hanging out on the couch.


She has scooted herself into a corner and is so proud!


Adventures with pasta


Daddy teaching Ruby a great new trick


Not so sure about this, but I know I'm supposed to smile when there's a camera in my face...

scooting

So sorry for the long delay. I've been waiting to post pictures that are stuck on our camera. I didn't realized that our memory card wasn't in the camera and I've been taking pictures. But now we can't find the cord to connect our camera to the computer, so the pictures are stuck. I will post them when we find the cord.

Ruby has figured out how to scoot around. Its so cute! All of a sudden, she just started pushing herself around and she's getting pretty good at it. The only problem (for her) is that she can only go backwards right now. She loves it though. She's trying so hard to figure out how to go forwards. She can't quite get it yet. It cracks us up. She'll lay on her belly and hold up her arms and legs in the air and move them around like she's swimming. Then she gets frustrated because she didn't move. I LOVE that I can now let her hang out on the floor for a little bit. She can't get too far yet and my aching back can get a break. This kid weighs a ton. 19 1/2 lbs. at the last check.

She's also teething right now. She has a big swollen bump on her bottom gum. We've had a sleepless week. Ruby has always been an incredible sleeper, we've been very spoiled. So now, we're a mess, trying to function on a bit of sleep - especially me. Ruby also has figured out some object permanence and when Mama's not right next to her, she's not happy. She loves hanging out in Daddy's arms until she's super tired or in pain. Last night, John got up to sooth Ruby back to sleep and she just screamed until I came in. Ugh! She has totally screwed up her routine too. So now she thinks she should be up until midnight or so. Not okay!

Ruby's trying out new laughs and sounds now, which have us laughing constantly. Usually her new laughs come out as coughs, which she thinks is great. Other times she screeches and it sounds like a zoo in our house. She seems to get funnier and cuter every day. Besides the teething, she is by far, at her best yet.

It snowed here this morning! We had big flakes that didn't technically stick, but there's still some snow hanging out on the top of our tent and some plants out front. There are even icicles hanging off of Ruby's bird feeder.