Baby Tip #247

When giving your cats some catnip, don't let your baby proceed to crawl through the catnip thereby getting catnip on her pj's. It can get ugly.

The Duke and Duchess of Drool

Here's a picture from Ruby and Blix's playdate a few weeks back. Golly they were cute!

Catching up!

Well, the computer is somewhat fixed though it's still having problems but I have lots to report so here goes.

Ruby's first thanksgiving was a lot of fun for all of us. We headed back East to visit Papa and Grandma for several days. We took the red-eye out and Ruby was a sleepy princess for the whole trip and we didn't have any problems...other than I was exhausted by the time we got there but the good thing about family and babies is no one has any problem playing with the baby while you catch some zzzz's :-)

Ruby with Grandma

Ruby had a wonderful time visiting with Grandma and Papa. They outfitted her with her name on her door, a deluxe high chair, pack-n-play and jumper and Papa took her for a long walk in the stroller they got, for which Grandma bundled her up so that no little frosties could get her. She also got her first lick of a beater with whipped cream on it thanks to her grandma and she sat next to an 11 lb lobster. She also got to meet her Uncle Aaron & Auntie Carol as well as her other Great-Grandma Marion. In addition, Ruby's Great-Grandma Bette and Great-Aunt Kathy came to visit for an afternoon as well. Lucky lucky girl! We felt pampered and loved while out there and had such a lovely time enjoying the holiday together.

Our trip back was a little more difficult. Ruby was awake and WIGGLY plus, we had delays on our first leg which caused us to miss our connection so we had to come to Seattle via Vegas and got home about 7 hours later than planned. Ugh.

Interesting note about stupid security at the airport. I had Ruby in the Moby carrier and was ready to go through the metal detector gate. The lady stopped me from going through. Ruby was wearing those socks that look like sneakers and she wanted me to take off her shoes. Seriously??? When she realized that they were just socks, she let me through but...seriously? So what's going on with Ruby since my last post, you ask? Well, a whole lot!

• She crawls like a mad-woman. Nothing is safe from here that is less than 2 feet off the floor. She's getting fast and furious and loves being able to cruise around the house finding stale cheerios and catfood.
• She's getting her 2nd tooth - hooray!
• She has started pointing at things she wants.
• She loves standing up while holding onto things. She's a little like Dumbo and the magic feather though. If she's holding onto your fingers she's happy as a clam. If you put her hands on a table or chair and let go she starts to cry and sits down as soon as she can figure that out.
• She loves to ride her rocking horse.
• Her babbling sounds more and more like words.
• She clearly understands certain words, most notably the word "no."
• Some nights she sleeps, some nights she doesn't. Go figure. Just like her mom.
• She got a fat lip when she slipped while crawling and landed on her face. Poor thing!

Well, this is the news for now. More forthcoming!

Buh - Bye!

It's time to say au revoir to my friend Medela Pump-in-Style and this is one good-bye that I am not sad to make. She did her job well (though she did start slacking there towards the end, if you ask me!) though she was more like a co-worker than a friend-friend...you know, the one who you'd never want to spend a minute with outside of work but that you can get along with well enough for the sake of getting things done in the office. (not to be confused with the co-worker-turned-friend who you do enjoy spending time with outside the office and in fact would still hang out with even after you no longer work there - I'm talking about you Space Grant!) At any rate, after 9 1/2 months, I have given up the pump. I gave myself until Thanksgiving to tough it out and yesterday I was so excited to have only 2 days left of pumping I could hardly stand it. Then, I spent 45 minutes pumping (in sessions of 30 min and 15 min) and got nothing so I gave it up a day early. Yah! Freedom! The chains (or tubes) of pumping are no more! The happiness is bittersweet of course (as everything seems to be these days) because I know it also means that my days of breastfeeding are numbered..still...it's a good feeling in a lot of other ways. So good-by Ms Medela. Enjoy your time in the basement. Until next time...I bid you adieu.

All Kinds of Messes This Week

Well, it's evidently "Screw With Ruby's Parents" week as we have our computer infected with spyware, someone used my debit card to purchase a plane ticket and someone broke into Dustin's work truck over the weekend. I hope that the power of three holds and we are done with this nonsense!Thankfully, it's two cases of "all is well that ends well" and things seem to be righted. We do have to figure out what to do with the computer which means that in the meantime, there will be a moratorium on photos posted - boo! Never fear, I'll make up for it when everything is fixed! It's not like I've stopped taking photos afterall -- ha ha! Ruby has had an interesting week or so. She lost a fight with the couch and another with the floor and thus has a little shiner on her left eye and a slightly fat lip. I took photos of the poor little thing for posterity knowing that it's only the beginning as she discovers all the ways she can get around and pushes the limits of her coordination. We are looking forward to the upcoming holidays as the firsts with our wee babe though it's also bittersweet as it is also a series of the first holidays without our dear Daddy and Grandpa. We will muddle through though and try to focus on the postives as much as possible. My posts will be sporadic due to the limited computer time but we'll keep y'all posted as soon as possible. In the meantime, a wonderful holiday to all of you! Cheers!

The Reign is Over

Our champion sleeper is no more. We have had two weeks straight of Ruby waking up at least once in the night and not wanting to go back to sleep. Part of it was due to her having the sniffles and not being able to breathe so we had some nights of me sleeping sitting on the couch so she was upright which meant she slept great and I did not. There were two nights of her being up every hour -(oh fond memories of when she slept all night) but now the sniffles are over and I can only explain her new sleeping pattern as being part of her going through some milestones, namely CRAWLING! Yes, this past Thursday evening (November 8th) she started crawling and now everthing at that level is fair game for our intrepid little explorer. My beloved Auntie Marie visited this weekend and we had such a lovely time and went on some great walks and Ruby enjoyed the extra attention at home. She started crawling and getting herself into a sitting position from her stomach the day Aunt Marie arrived -- I think she'd been saving it up so she could show off to someone besides us! Ha ha! In "Things You Never Knew Before You Had a Baby Around" news, I learned that calling a company whose automated message asks you to "Press or Say XXX" is IMPOSSIBLE with a squawky baby and when the lovely recorded voice said "I am sorry you cannot enter the information correctly. Please try again another time when you have looked over your information," and then disconnected, I nearly had a psychotic break. I definitely got my hate back today. I could go on and on about how much I hate those phone menus............ Anyway, in nice news, our neighbors had a beautiful baby boy on Saturday so congrats to them! Also, our thoughts are with Auntie Snax today! We love you! xoxox

9 Months!

Oh our dear Ruby has now turned 9 months old and I have discovered that this is, so far, my favorite stage. It's amazing to me how much she has learned and you can literally see her learning and growing. It's crazy. Plus she doesn't move too much yet so I am not going to crazy = ha ha!

Ruby had a fun halloween, trick or treating at the neighbors, visiting friends and carving pumpkins. Evidently, she's a bit of a princess because she didn't want to have anything to do with the pumpkin guts. She'll learn.... Our new childcare situation is working out WONDERFULLY and in fact, the nanny and her 3 kids came over for a fun evening of pizza and pumpkin carving. We feel so fortunate to have found such a great person to watch our little cricket!

Ruby had her 9 month appointment where she weighed in at a whopping 16.7 lbs and measured 25.5 inches. This puts her in the 25th percentile for weight and 10th for length. She also got a shot and her blood drawn. I expected lots of tears but when they pricked her toe to get the blood draw she barely even blinked. Tough chick!

She is very vocal, making a wide range of noises including cooing, growling, yelling, babbling and squawking. She likes to wave her hands in the air, loves playing the piano and banging on anything like it's a drum. She rolls over and sleeps on her belly. She fell off the bed for the first time a couple of weeks ago...no more leaving her on the bed for us! She sits on her hands and knees and rocks back and forth. She loves books and even better, loves taking books off the shelf. Fun! She is also fascinated with the light switch and loves to try to turn it off and on. She loves to watch Sparrow chase after the laser pointer and laughs with glee the whole time. I like that I can entertain both of them at once!

We are sending our love to cousin Jack who has been sick with an ear infection for the past 2 months and hope he's feeling better soon!