I'm seriously dying over this picture. It's like, "Another month older? Oh, man!". I kind of feel the same way. I just can't believe what a grown-up my little lady is becoming. Especially with her little pony tail, she just seems so much more kid than baby. Stop it, Ruby!
Ruby has become such a little love. She still has much love for her "buddies". This month, I caught her "feeding" them bites of her food, or drinks from her sippy. She even tried feeding the doggie head of her sippy bites of pancake! It was pretty adorable. And, be still my mama heart! On January 7th (yes, I wrote the date down), Ruby said, "I wuv you" back to me and gave me a hug. Yes, I nearly cried. Isn't that just a day that every mother dreams of? Dream come true.
On the flip side... There's this ^. The "stinky eye". Ruby has become master of the stink eye!!! Actually, it's not so bad. She does it purely for comic purposes, as she knows it's sure to get a laugh out of us. My brother thought it was SO hilarious, that he really just couldn't contain himself with laughter. Which, of course, made her do it over and over, and now she calls it "Tony stinky-eye", after my brother!
This month, Ruby has been very into playing with her toys (which has been awesome for us!). All of her new Christmas toys are a huge hit. The play kitchen being the biggest! She plays with it every day. Her favorites to cook are "eggies for Daddy" and "pizzie" (pizza). I won't lie - the play food gets everywhere, and it drives me nuts, but she has so much fun!
Other loves in the toy department are her Little People farm/farmer, the deer family from her Playmobil 1*2*3 park (which she calls mommy/daddy/Ruby reindeer), and the books "Little Owl Lost" and "The Little Engine that Could". Back to those reindeer. We lost mommy reindeer for like a week, and it was such an ordeal. She looked everywhere for that thing. We looked everywhere. We could not find it. Then one day I found it randomly under the stove (?!?) and all was well with the world.
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| We saw about 8 million "hairplanes" on this day... |
If last month was for verbs, this month was for adjectives. Ruby's been labeling everything with colors (purple jacket, white car). She also frequently tells us when things are wet, and asks to dry them. Her longtime love of helping me empty the dishwasher is the perfect example. If she takes out a pan and it still has water droplets on it, she tells me it's "all wet" and asks for a towel to dry it. Also, when I get out of the shower, "Mommy all wet". She's also started noticing shiny things, and has a favorite hairbow that she's labeled "shiny bow", which she asks for frequently.
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| Those baby blues! |
As she puts more and more words together, she also refers to herself in the third person a lot to tell us things she wants or is doing. Even better, she now usually calls herself "Ruby Jo". As in, "Ruby Jo eat food?" "Ruby Jo help Mommy?" "Ruby Jo animal cracker?". It is pretty darn adorable. One morning she woke up out of a sound sleep, whine/yelled "Ruby JO!!!" while stretching, then just fell back to sleep. Hahaha.
Ruby continues to recognize feelings. This month, it was scared. At the hospital when we are volunteering, if a stranger (especially a man) comes to close to her, or out of a nearby door suddenly, she runs to me saying, "scared!". If cars are moving too close to her (like in a parking lot), she will startle, then snuggle into me and say, "scared". And when she hears our neighbor's dog, which is a lot, since our townhouse shares a wall with them, she tells me, "scared Rudy" (that's his name). It kind of makes me sad that she is scared (well, except of the cars, I like that self-preservation instinct!), but I'm glad that she's able to tell me about it!
Speaking of her ability to communicate, I think both we and she are really lucky that she is so competent in that department. I may kick myself for even typing this out, but temper tantrums are just not a part of Ruby's world. I think this is hugely in part because she's able to tell us her needs/wants. Of course, the other part would be temperament, and I guess we won the toddler lottery there. It takes a lot to ruffle Ruby's feathers. And I've been employing all of my Montessori teacher tricks to help her feel empowered, but not just giving her what she wants all the time. I try to really limit my "no"s with her, instead telling her something she CAN do (like, instead of "no, don't hit the dog" I'd tell her, "you can use your gentle hands on the dog"). This seems to work really well with her, as does distraction. Of course, she has plenty of time to be a toddler, and I'm kind of just waiting for the other shoe to drop, but so far I haven't had the experience of carrying her screaming out of a public place. ;) She's generally pretty chill.
I try to only "work" when Ruby is sleeping, but she often sees finished things I've made, or I'll make something for her as a sample/prototype. I also am getting quite the addiction to handmade goodies that other people have made (thank goodness for trades!), and sometimes participate in swaps. Ruby's got a good eye for the handmade, and this month, she has started to frequently ask me, "Mommy make? Mommy make you?". If I didn't make the item, and I know the name of the child whose mama did make it, I usually tell her that. Like, "No, Mommy didn't make that for you, Annelise's mommy did." That particular example is my favorite, because she pronounces Annelise as, "Animal-eese". "Animal-eese mommy make you???". She gets more excited when other people's mommies make her stuff, and she loooooooooves getting packages in the mail. Oops!
I think it's safe to say, that 21 months is kind of my favorite age. I know, I say that every month. But really. She talks so much now, gets excited about things. The older she gets, she just gets more fun! I sure don't want her to grow up too fast, but I also can't wait to see what she does tomorrow.
P.S. Ruby's adorable fox collar is from Shop Mini Chuck (https://www.etsy.com/shop/minichuck), and her sweet little hairbow is from Un Petit Meow (http://www.unpetitmeow.bigcartel.com/)
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