Ruby Meets Geneva

We got a surprise visit from one of my cousins, Geneva, last week who was passing through town before she heads back to Europe. It was great fun to see her and to hear about what she's been doing the past year. She is brilliantly talented so she gets to travel all over the world which is just so awesome. Check out her website! And here's a sweet picture of Geneva and Ruby together....they look a lot alike!

Guess Who's Walking?!??

So, we met some folks at Barnes and Noble this morning to play since it was so gloomy and cold outside. Ruby took her first steps! She was SO proud! And we were cheering and whooping it up -- good thing we weren't at the library! Here's a quick video of some of her steps - it was all I could capture:

Hives!

This morning, Ruby woke up covered head to toe in hives. At first I just noticed it on her face. We thought maybe she'd been bit by something but then it got worse -- she looked like she'd been beat up! Then, when I pulled off her jammies to change her diaper I saw that she had a red rash all over her legs, armpits and arms. It soon spread to her belly. Since she didn't seem to act sick and wasn't having any trouble breathing, I wasn't too worried that she was in danger, just worried about what was going on and why. She hadn't eaten anything she hasn't eaten a million times before or gone anywhere new...a mystery.

We got in to see our doctor and she, at first, thought Ruby had been bitten by a dog because her face looked so bad. She recommended we go see an allergist so that's on the calendar later next month and prescribed some benadryl so hopefully that will work. Sigh...poor little monkey.

Here are some pictures so you can see what she looks like. Thankfully, as you can see by the pictures, she doesn't seem to affected by it.

Visit From Grandma & Other Tales

We just finished up a really fun visit with Grandma Genie. She drove up bringing us all kinds of goodness (jelly, meat, bread, spaghetti sauce - mmmmm!) and we had lots of fun. She brought Ruby an adorable Strawberry Hat as you can see in the photos. Friday, after a fun trip to Trader Joe's , we prepped for our trip to Skagit Valley. Side note: Ruby is/was still in the bucket convertible car seat but it was clear that we were going to need to do some research and get a new, bigger one very very soon) I went to move Ruby's car seat to my mom's car and for some reason, the car seat became hopelessly jammed in the base. What the? I tried unhooking the seatbelt. Big mistake as the belt then also became wedged in there somewhere. I spent a good 15 minutes sweating, cursing and grunting trying to get that $#%^&^% carseat out of the car, and then I gave up. I drove over to Target, looked at their teeny tiny selection, grabbed one that looked good and wasn't too too pricey and headed home. Got home. No instructions in the box. None. No idea how to put the darn thing in the car. Back to Target to get another carseat and return the first one. Sweating profusely now. Really irritated. Put carseat in car following instructions. Not strong enough to tighten belt. Really sweating, really irritated and lots of bad words coming out of my mouth. Asked neighbor to help with carseat as he's much stronger. More bad words..finally it's in. Seat is ramrod straight up and down. How do you recline it? BY UNLATCHING THE *&%$&%$& thing and taking it out of the car!! Ok, finally...seat is in, it's tight (thank you thank you Tyler!) and Miss Ruby has a ugly brown monstrosity of a seat with a cup holder (really? A cup holder?) to ride in style and her mom has a new wrinkle named Evenflo. We are really really going to have to get a different one at some point because I can't see how moving this one from car to car is even a possibility. Ok ok, aside from that blip, the rest of the day and visit with Grandma were wonderful. Ruby enjoyed getting her good night story and last tuck-in of the day from Grandma and all of the extra snuggles and tickles. Some new stuff: She thinks it is HYSTERICAL when you wave your hand in front of your face and say "Pee-U!" She is sooooo close to walking. Grandma got her this neat pushing toy (kind of like the corn popper but wood) from Ikea and she will push it along without any other human help. It's much like Dumbo's magic feather. Soon she will realize she doesn't need it and she and Timothy can go walking all over together. Her words are definitely "cat" and "dog" and she loves them both. She is surprisingly gentle for an almost 15 month old and I often find her hugging Saffron. One day I'll get a picture. Seeing dogs always elicits a squeal and laugh. She's really active but at the same time, sometimes I will find her just sitting and looking through a book. Last night she fell asleep with her face on a book. More proof that she is my child :-) Well, that's the scoop for now. Looking forward to some more spring weather, a visit from the Watts contingent and a visit from Stellie and Sienna. Yay!

Tulips Tulips Tulips

On Friday, we took a trip out to the Tulip Festival with Grandma Genie and Auntie Kathy. The weather was gorgeous and though some of the tulips are late to bloom, there were enough out to get the full effect. We had some cheese and crackers and homemade cookies and then headed back to the city. We did make a pit stop in Mount Vernon for some coffee and found a great little toy shop where Grandma bought Ruby a Lambchop puppet. Too cute! Now I can pretend to be Shari Lewis all I want. Ha ha! Well, Ruby thinks I am funny anyway... Here are some pics from our trip!

Grandma Genie, Ruby and Auntie Kathy

Ruby amongst the bark

Grandma Genie and Ruby

A Few Cute Photos

Cinderella

Ruby helps with the cleaning....