Ruby's First Easter Basket

A couple of weeks ago a sad realization hit me.  Easter is Ruby's last "first" holiday!  While it's kind of sad that my baby girl is growing up, it also kind of got me excited about Easter.  Really excited!  I was determined to make her first Easter and last first holiday fantastic.

So, of course, I turned to Pinterest for some basket inspiration.  While there is a lot there, most of it is geared toward older kids.  So, what do you put in the Easter basket of an almost-one year old?  Let me show you!

Obviously, you've got to start with the basics.  A basket.  Easter grass.  And Easter eggs.  When I was growing up, we got a new basket every year.  While that was cool, I really wanted Ruby to have a personalized basket.  And personalized baskets aren't super cheap, so this will be her basket every year. I bought a plain white basket at Michael's, and ordered a personalized liner from Etsy seller LeeLynn Crafts. 

I love it!  There were about a billion fabric choices, and then I got to pick the ribbon and embroidery color and font.  The quality is fantastic, it shipped out fast, and the seller posts her finished work on her Facebook page, so if you're looking, you can catch a little sneak preview of your liner before it even gets to you!  Love.  I can't wait to pull this out every year when I go to play Easter bunny.

For my eggs and grass, I turned to my go-to: Target.  Since Ruby is a girl, I bought the "girly" packs (pinks, purple, yellow, and orange) of small and large eggs.  And I chose yellow grass to coordinate with her basket.

But what to fill the basket with?  I obviously wasn't going to give an 11-month old Easter candy.  Here's what I came up with:

1.) Ruby doesn't eat much in the way of "processed" food.  I make her baby food, or she eats what we eat.  But as a treat, I got her Annie's Cheddar Bunnies.  They don't have too many ingredients, and they're organic, and she'll get a kick out of the bunnies.  I'll put some of these in her plastic eggs.

Also?  Annie's has been around since I was a kid (I think they only had the mac cheese then), and I definitely named a pet rabbit "Bernie" after the Annie's bunny.

2.) HappyBaby Happy Creamies.  These are another "treat", and were kind of an impulse purchase at Whole Foods (they were on the shelf below the Nosefrida I was buying, but that's a whole other story...).  I was interested in these little melts because they contain probiotics.  I actually wanted the yogurt ones, but they all contained strawberry - which I am allergic to, so we're holding off on introducing to Ruby.  So she gets this carrot, mango, and orange one, which should be great because she loves mango and carrot.  These will also go inside her little Easter eggs.

3.) Bubbles!  Ok, so she won't really be able to blow them herself.  But she LOVES bubbles when they have them at library story time, so I'd be happy to sit outside with her on a nice day and blow bubbles for her to point at.

4.) A beach ball.  Ruby really loves to bat around balloons, but they can be a choking hazard if they pop.  To me, a beach ball is just a rounder, safer balloon!  

5.) Sidewalk chalk with holder.  I had visions of us sitting on the driveway, drawing with big fat sidewalk chalk this summer.  It is messy, so I'm hoping the cute bunny holder will help tone down the mess, and also keep her mouth off the chalk. ;)  This adorable little set came from the Target dollar bin.

6.) Sparkly hair clippies.  Ruby actually picked these out herself, but thankfully, she doesn't remember. Really, she grabbed them off the hook when we were out shopping one day.  These sparkly stars have alligator clips on the back, so they'll be perfect for hooking to her headbands until her hair is thick enough to hold them in.

7.) A fancy Etsy headband.  I make a lot of Ruby's hair accessories, but every once in a while I love a good excuse to splurge on something handcrafted by someone else!  Thanks to my love of all things neon, I sought out this beauty!  It came from Etsy shop Small Wonders Boutique, and it is fantastic!  Well made, and she even shipped it out in a hot pink mailing envelope.  It has been really hard for me to wait until Sunday to let her wear it!

8.) Bunny sippy.  I couldn't resist this bunny sippy from Target, even though it is a straw sippy.  Ruby hasn't quite figured out the straw yet, but I'm hopeful she will soon (she will suck things from a straw if I take it out and hold the end and put it in her mouth).

9.) Wooden iPhone teether.  This is probably the one item that excites me the most in her basket!  Ruby, like any other baby, is obsessed with my phone.  And of course, that means she wants to put it in her mouth.  My brother is an Apple Genius, and he freaks when he sees babies with phones in their mouths.  Apparently baby spit is a common culprit for broken phones!  So, I got her one that she can put in her mouth.

I just love the little carved apps, and the home button, and it even has the "camera" on the back.  And it is personalized with her name on the back, too!  I caught it on sale for only $12, but they still have them for $15 at Etsy shop 3PrincessesStore.  It shipped to me super quick, even coming from Canada.  I have a feeling that Ruby will be starting a trend with her phone, as we don't know a single baby that doesn't like to chew on their parents'. 

10.) Ball.  Big enough to not be a choking hazard, small enough for little hands.  Ruby only has an O-ball right now, so I often find her playing with our wool dryer balls.  I don't really mind, but now she has a pretty pink faceted one of her own.

11.) Guess How Much I Love You.  No, really, guess.  Haha, just kidding.  What is Easter without a book about bunnies?  Can you believe we don't have this in our library yet?  I can't either.  Which meant that I knew it HAD to go in her basket.  Other great bunny books to include would be the Runaway Bunny, or A Home for a Bunny (which we have already, and Ruby is obsessed with!).

12.) Goodnight Moon.  I know!  We didn't have this one either!  Insane.  But guess what?  There are bunnies in this too!  So it loosely fits the Easter theme, and it definitely fits the "we need this in our book collection" theme.  

Not pictured:  Cheerios.  I'll grab a handful from our box and put some into one of her plastic eggs.  The second she sees that yellow box, she starts pointing vigorously.  She'll be pleasantly surprised to find them in an egg!

So there you have it.  An Easter basket fit for a one year old.  I also intended to include some Fisher Price Little People, as we have one that Ruby plays with every single day.  However, when I went to go buy them, I could only find Disney Princesses and licensed super heros.  Not really my thing.  However, if I find just regular Little People people before Sunday, they may get hidden in some large eggs in her basket!

Need more ideas?  Other items I considered, but didn't buy because I ran out of space, we already had it, or I knew grandma had already bought it for her:

*Rubber ducks (Ruby love love LOVES these)

*Small stuffed animals or loveys

*Bath toys

*Socks

*Teething toys

*Sunglasses or sun hat

*Sandals for the upcoming warm weather

*Pinwheels

*Freeze-dried fruit (Trader Joe's has a great selection)

*Toy tethers for the stroller, like this

*Munchkin Snack Catchers

*Bibs

*Toddler utensils

*"Springy" onesies (because there are never enough onesies in size 12mo and up)

*Beach/sand or garden toys 

Hopefully that list helps!  With Ruby having a spring birthday I tried not to go too crazy, and I also tried to stick to my unofficial New Year's resolution to shop more on Etsy.  I can't wait to see my little girl paw through her (completely adorable) basket on Sunday!

Week in iPhone Pictures

Yeah, punctuality!  Here's our week that just happened!

March 17-23

Sunday:  Lazy little leprechaun.  Monday:  Napstagram.  A very ominous looking sky (don't worry, the light turned green right as I snapped the pic).  Grouchy carseat baby.  Yesssss!  Diaper detergent!  Tuesday:  One sock and a beggar dog.  First time on the swings, and she was totally doing the "look Ma, no hands!".  Onward, pony!

Wednesday:  Time to get serious about some birthday party crafting.  Jingling the bells at library story-time.  Thursday:  New development: she can army crawl backwards (she backed herself under this chair)!  Another day, another car seat nap.  Dishwasher drama.  Friday:  Ugly brackets.  Modeling her new Block O onesie that I finished making just in time for the game.  Saturday:  A passel of tassels.  Crazy hair and a hummus soul patch.

Saturday afternoon Ruby came down with a cold.  Poor poor baby!  And poor poor us, nobody slept last night.  I'll be heading out for a Nosefrida shortly.  =(

Week(s) in iPhone Pictures

Bad blogger, bad.  I am so behind on these!  I know, no one is surprised.  Don't mind me while I play a little catch-up!

February 24-March 2

Sunday:  She just cannot be near me while I put on makeup without getting into the bag.  Thanks to Pinterest, cookies & cream puppy chow ended up in my house.  Monday:  Disco baby!  BabyLegs and baby feet are the cutest.  Tuesday:  This is what happens if the pantry door is not completely clicked shut (that was a dog food bag).  So excited that Daddy brought home a mango!!!  Wednesday:  Laundry basket ride.  My Printstagram prints arrived!  She begged me to share my smoothie, so I was feeding it to her baby-bird style with a straw, and I, um... missed.

Thursday:  All by her lonesome as the only non-mover on a blanket at baby class.  Trying out her strong-armed tactics with the dog.  Friday:  The claws come out when we have to wait on our loaner car at the dealership.  My baking assistant.  First batch of cupcakes I've ever made (ever!) and they were amazing.  We FINALLY got our tv back!!!  Saturday:  We needed to get out of the house, so we took a little walk.  Playing with her big girl toys.  Needed to get out again, so we perused the local party store - Ruby was completely enamored with it.

March 3-9

Sunday:  Breakfasting with Grandpa.  Uh oh, she discovered the tv.  What I did with my Printstagrams.  Family couch time.  Monday:  Jumpies!  My blue-eyed ten month old (sniff sniff).  Tuesday:  Just hanging out in jammies.  Reading Green Eggs and Ham for Dr. Seuss' birthday.  Little Red Riding Baby (she also kind of looked like Voldemort in Harry Potter where he drinks the unicorn blood...).

Wednesday:  She has an obsession with the dishwasher (I think all babies do?).  Daddy met us for lunch at Red Robin, and she got a big girl menu.  Baby in a laundry basket cage!!!  Finally, real clapping!!!  Thursday:  I guess this was a one-pic day.  Chewing on her fave metal measuring spoons (which belong to a friend) at class.  Friday:  Albert Einstein hair must mean she's a baby genius, no?  Snacks on the counter.  Saturday:  Having the time of her life at a toddler program open house.  Trying to climb up the dresser.

March 10-16

Sunday:  Not too sure about eggs for breakfast.  Big girl bath.  Monday:  Happy after a nap!  It may not look like it, but we are related.  Pointing has become the norm.  Tuesday:  A special delivery for the Easter Bunny was in our mailbox!  This sign at the mall reads: "Family Parking.  Reserved for families with children under age 10." - everywhere should have this.  Little diva trying on sunglasses (we didn't buy these ones, because we found even cuter mint ones!).  My tags, printed, cut out, and ready to go for the consignment sale.

Wednesday:  Sneak-a-boo!  "Helping" me with tagging, aka taking out all her toys AND all my ziploc bags AND untying the shoes we were selling.  Thursday:  Huh, another one-pic Thursday.  That outfit is one of my faves, as is the pointing.  Friday:  For my little brother's birthday, we made baked sour cream donuts, yum!  Someone is obsessed with the dryer, and I mean obsessed.  Making her St. Patty's onesie during nap time.  Lunching (in the stroller) with Uncle Tony (we had to take him a donut, after all).  Saturday:  Super excited to ride her new pony that I picked up at the consignment sale (also, please note the Daddy-chosen outfit...).  "Helping" me stuff/fold diapers. 

Phew!  All caught up!  Also, I think I need to go check on the little miss because she's been sleeping in her car seat, in her room, for 2 hours!!!  Whoa!  Thanks for the free time, Ruby!

St. Patty's

Sooo... Yeah.  I set my little leprechaun all up and took pictures of her, and then forgot to share them!  Happy belated St. Patty's Day!

We're not even the teensiest bit Irish, but who doesn't love putting their baby in adorable holiday-themed outfits, right?  Plus, she's almost out of "first" holidays! 

After our little photo session, we whisked her away to one of her little baby buddy's homes for some Irish food and beer (for Mommy & Daddy).  Hope you had as merry a St. Patty's Day as we did!

"Sneak"-a-boo!

She really kills me, this girl of mine.  Ruby has got quite the playful side, and her little game that I like to call "sneak-a-boo" is no exception.

She's taken to playing peekaboo hiding behind her sippy cups.  But of course, they don't cover her whole face.  Like so:

Where's Ruby???

She thinks it's SO funny when we ask, "Where's Ruby?" and she'll stay "hidden" behind the sippy way longer than she does behind other objects, peeping out at us with that little eye.  We ask again, "Where's Ruby?  Where could she be?" and the longer the game goes on, she gets this devilish little grin like she's totally pulling one over on us because she can see us, but we can't see her (or so she thinks).

PEEKABOO!!!

When she finally removes the cup, she totally cracks up.  Like, "Haha, you fools, I was right here the whole time and could SEE you looking for me!"

I freaking love this kid.

A Day in My Life

Back in September I was excited to share a day in my life with you all, and with the readers on Ashley's blog.  It was fun to document a whole day, and to be able to look back on it.  I've been wanting to do it again for a while now, to see how life has changed.  I decided that today was as good a day as any!  Imagine my surprise when I looked back and saw that I shared my day on the blog here on September 18.  And it is now March 18.  Exactly six months later!  Crazy!

7:06 - I groggily open my eyes as I hear Ruby stirring on the monitor.  I am extra sleepy because last night was a Walking Dead night, so we stayed up late.  Mr. G is still sleeping, too, which means he is going to be late.  I get up, go to the bathroom, and take my thyroid medicine (which I first drop on the floor and have to find in the dark - with a dog and a baby, I can't leave that lying around!).

Ruby has quieted back down, so I lay back down and check Facebook on my phone.  Maybe she went back to sleep?  I participated in a big consignment sale over the weekend, so I take a moment to check the JBF website to see if the items I was missing last night at pick-up had actually sold and just weren't in the system yet.  They did!  Yay, more money for me!

7:22 - Ruby really is awake, so I go in to get her.

She does not appreciate the flash.  I pick her up, and immediately she starts pointing at her cloud mobile.  She does not appreciate her diaper change either, and protests by forcefully slamming her feet down on the changing pad.  I distract her by asking, "Where's your cakes?"  She points them out on her jammies and forgets how much she hates being changed.

7:30 - We go back into my room to nurse on the bed.  I turn on the tv to watch the news, but get distracted because there is an NCIS rerun on the channel it's on (I'm a huge NCIS junkie).  Ruby finishes and we say goodbye to Daddy, as he hustles out the door.  Because he is late, I don't get to take a shower.  =(  My mom is coming over later, so maybe I will then.  We play for a bit, then I remember I need to switch a load of diapers from the washer to the dryer.

Mr. G left a sock in there, so Ruby entertained herself with it, instead of the usual dryer balls.

8:00 - Downstairs we go, it's breakfast time.  Ruby plays with some toys while I scrounge around for something for us to eat.

Shoot, I really need to go to the store.  I defrost some oatmeal and pear puree for Ruby, and mix them together (it's the only way she'll eat oatmeal).  I also pull out a container of diced papaya, which she gobbles up.  I really want toast, but we seem to be out of bread, so I scramble some eggs to make a breakfast burrito.  I leave some out to give to Ruby, but she's not super interested in them.

When Ruby finishes eating, I take her out of her chair and set her down for some floor time while I clean up.  She scoots around, and as usual, pushes the high chair back and forth.  I'm wiping down the counter around the peninsula from her, when I hear a "thunk".  I don't hear anything else, so I assume it was the high chair, but I walk back around to peek at her and find her laying on her back on the floor!!!  She wasn't crying or anything, but the wood floor is hard, so I'm kind of freaked out.  I make a mental note to ask her pediatrician about this, as she seems to have a really high pain tolerance.

8:45 - I scoop her up and take her back upstairs, pretty sure that she needs a diaper change (she likes to dirty it while she eats, gross).  I was right, so I change her.  She protests violently again until I ask her where her clouds are.  She points right at the mobile!  I'm amazed at her language development skills lately.  I take the next few minutes to wash my face, brush my teeth, and put some makeup on.

9:20 - Ruby is getting tired, so we close her blinds, turn her fan on, and grab what I call her "nap sack".  It's just a muslin A&A sleep sack, but we only use it for naps right now, since it's so light weight.  I nurse her again and she falls asleep quickly.  While nursing, my mom texts me to cancel our visit.  She picked up a quick shift for a co-worker from 5am-8am, and is just too tired.  We make plans to meet tomorrow instead.

9:40 - I transfer Ruby from my arms to her crib successfully!  Feeling victorious, I put my contacts in and think about what I want to do with my "free" time.  I decide I want to clean.  I tackle my nightstand, which is a hot mess, then get started on the chair in our bedroom.  It totally becomes the dumping ground of upstairs, and it is completely out of control.  It kind of looks more like a craft closet than a chair.  At 10:15 Ruby wakes up, but thankfully, puts herself back to sleep.  I keep cleaning and organizing all the stuff, then repair the flap on "Where is Baby's Belly Button" that accidently got torn off, and get myself dressed.

10:50 - Ruby is awake.  I give her some time to see if she's really awake, or will go back to sleep like before, and while I do, I look through my baby cookbooks for some new recipes.

11:15 - Ruby didn't go back to sleep, but instead has played quietly with her loveys this whole time.  I decide I better go get her, since she is definitely awake.

"How big is Ruby?  Soooooooo big!"

I change a stinky diaper and get her dressed.  We try a pair of tights that we picked up at the BabyLegs warehouse sale, but they're still too big, so we find a new outfit.  Ruby sits on the floor and plays with her dump truck while I clean up.

11:30 - We nurse again, I straighten my hair, then we head downstairs to grab a snack before we head out.  Since mom is not coming over, we're getting out of the house!  Ruby has some Cheerios, and I make a smoothie with frozen raspberries, frozen pineapple, and lemon yogurt.  It is tasty, and Ruby points at it because she wants to share, but after looking at the astronomical sugar content of the yogurt, I decide it's just for mommies.

12:00 - We buckle into the car and head to Old Navy so that I can return some pants, and hopefully get some jeans since I'm wearing all of mine out (back when I was working, I only wore jeans on the weekends and they lasted a lot longer!).

Hmm...  We're not sure about this top...

We leave Old Navy with a pair of jeans for me, and 2 clearance onesies for Ruby, and walk around the corner of the mall to a new Walmart to return some jammies my mother in law got for Ruby that are too small.  Most of the towns around here don't allow Walmart in their city limits, so it's been a good 6-7 years since I've even been to one.  This one is the nicest/cleanest I've ever seen.  We return the jammies, and pick up another of our favorite Nuk sippy cups and some neon headbands for the babe.  

2:00 - Ruby protests getting buckled back into her car seat, and we head back to our town to go to the grocery store.  Of course, she falls asleep.  Ugh.  I pop in the back seat with her and let her sleep a few more minutes when we get there.  She wakes, and I nurse her for a few minutes so that I don't have a grouchy baby when we go in.  It's a good call, because her mood totally improves.

For some reason, Ruby is obsessed with the idea of turning around in the shopping cart.  Every time I try to turn her back, she kicks her feet as hard as she can and squirms away from me.  I see snippets of the toddler she is becoming, and am scared. =)  She also points at everything, and every person that walks by, doing her usual routine of trying to charm the pants off of everyone in the store.

3:10 - We leave the grocery store.  I'm hoping Ruby will fall back asleep (and stay asleep when we get home) so that she can have an afternoon nap, but no such luck.  In fact, she cries the whole 10 minutes it takes us to get home.  I take her out of the car and bring her upstairs (our garage is the first "floor"), pop her in the exersaucer so I can get our groceries, and let the dog out of the kitchen.  I'm glad to see that she hasn't knocked down or jumped over any of the gates.  She prefers to be allowed in the living room to sleep on the couches while we're gone, but we just got a new rug, and since she ruined the last one, she isn't allowed in there unsupervised anymore.

There's a lot of things I love about my car, but the grocery bag "fence" in the trunk is one of my faves!  It's a flap that pops up so that the bags don't slide all over the trunk.  But there's still room for the stroller behind them, and tons of other stuff if need be!  I grab the diaper bag, purse, our Old Navy & Walmart bags, my smoothie cup, and one grocery bag, but I end up needing another trip to grab the rest.  Living in a townhouse is getting old.

I grab Ruby and bring her up to the kitchen with me.  While I put away the groceries, I realize that I'm starving and notice some gouda in the fridge.  I make a quick sandwich, and Ruby eats almost a whole piece of gouda herself.  We head up for a diaper change, and I put our new clothes away.  

4:00 - I nurse Ruby, and just as I knew she would, she falls asleep.  I let her sleep/comfort nurse for a half an hour.  I decide to try to put her down, even though I'm pretty sure she won't go for it.  Sure enough, she wakes, so we sit on my bed to fold the diaper laundry.

Ruby is doing this weird thing where she grabs something out of the pile, then presses it down in front of her.  She does this over and over before I realize that I think she is "folding"!  I notice that when I fold her wipes in half, I always press/smooth them on the pile, and I am pretty sure she's trying to imitate me.  It is pretty cute!

She also climbs up on my lap and tries to grab the camera.  Goober.

4:30 - Daddy comes home!  He and Ruby "wrestle".  Which really means lots of tickling and barrel rolls.  Big belly laughs ensue.

Mr. G takes Ruby downstairs so he can get a snack.  She points at the Cheerios box, so she earns herself a little snack too.  I quickly unload the dishwasher while the little one is entertained.  Mr. G then leaves with the dog for his parent's house.  Ruby and I stay home, since he'll be out way past her bedtime.

5:30 - Dinner time!  Since Mr. G isn't home, I don't feel like cooking.  So Ruby has a hodgepodge dinner of squash, pasta stars with veggie sauce, and peas.  I decide on soup and sandwich, then remember that I had a sandwich earlier.  Oh well.

Demanding I put more on the spoon.  My little chowhound.

After dinner, I clean up, put the rest of the squash into ice cube trays to freeze, and rinse/sort some black beans, then set them to soak over night.  Ruby plays on the floor, first with Mr. G's shoe, then with the dishwasher.  She's babbling "da da da da da da".  Until I close the dishwasher.  Then it's an angry, "MA MA MA!".  She only makes the "mama" sound when she's mad.  Lovely.

6:15 - Time to head up for a bath.  Since I'm flying solo, I make sure to get everything prepped first.  I put away the diaper laundry, get out some jammies for the girl, get the tub all ready.  Ruby plays with her dump truck again, putting her rattles and o-ball in and out of the truck.

Rubes takes a great bath tonight - no crying, even when I wash her hair (though she does try to climb out when I do, she always does that).  She gets really into playing, and for the first time she experiments with splashing, and she likes it!

All clean!  We do our bedtime routine of lotion, vitamins, brush hair, diaper, and jammies.  Ruby usually cries and protests when we get to the diapering part (I think she knows that bedtime routine means bed, and she doesn't want that), but no tears tonight.  I play silly games with her, and pretty soon she's all dressed.

I have to set her back on the floor with her toys, since I'm alone and still need to rinse out her tub.  I rinse, Ruby plays.

We turn the fan on, grab her fleecy sleep sack, and say good night to her bathroom, room, and hallway as we turn off the lights.  In my room, I change into my pajamas, then put Ruby into her sleep sack.

7:08 - Ruby nurses, and immediately starts pulling my hair, a habit I can't stand (she goes for the little ones at the hairline, and it hurts).  She fights me for the first few minutes, then relaxes into sleep.

7:42 - I creep down the hall with my girl and carefully place her into her crib.  Success.  I sneak back to the hall, shutting her door behind me, and try to avoid the creaky spots in the floor as I make my way back to my room.

7:45 - The neighbors begin to make extremely loud banging/hammering sounds, and I hold my breath, hoping Ruby does not hear.  She doesn't, and they finally stop.  I go take my contacts out because my eyes are tired, then plug in my camera to upload the photos from the day.  At 8:00 I turn on the Biggest Loser finale, and continue to upload photos from my phone also.  I start this post, but decide I need dessert, so I go downstairs to grab some of my favorite Trader Joe's dark chocolate with almonds.

9:45 - I'm still working on this post when Mr. G comes home.  The Biggest Loser ends, and I'm happy about the winner.  We start watching Deception, and Ruby cries out.  We stare at the monitor, and Ruby goes back to sleep.  But then a few minutes later, she cries out again.  We watch the monitor to see if we need to go get her, but she goes back to sleep again.

10:48 - I get to the end of this post.  After I hit "publish", I'll snuggle under the covers, find out who killed Vivian on Deception, and head off to dreamland.  Goodnight!

Calendar Girl - Ten Months

Oh, hi, blog.  Long time, no see.  It's been a little busy around here lately (I've been getting a huge pile of stuff prepped and tagged for a big consignment sale around here, and was commissioned to do a sewing project for a friend that got out of control), so I guess the blog has taken a back seat.  But here I am!  And I have Ruby's 10 month update, and she's still only 10 months and 10 days old.  I call that a win.

An even bigger win?  I took these pics a week ago.  Go me!  I'll have this monthly update thing down by the time she turns one...

Speaking of which...  Someone hold me.  In LESS THAN two months, my baby will celebrate her birthday.  I can't believe we're even talking about this!  Party plans are in the works!  On top of that, we've been attending open houses for toddler programs for the fall (a one day a week parent/co-op thing, to replace our beloved baby class that she'll graduate from at 15mo).  And in class, our instructor Wendy keeps referring to them as one.  Or, "this is what one year olds do", or "because she's transitioning to toddlerhood..."  Slow the heck down, little girl!!!

Braidy photo-bomb!

I know I keep saying it, but this month has been a lot of fun, personality-wise.  My absolute FAVE fave is the peekaboo!  Ruby can be so playful, and she started initiating peekaboo games on her own.  She will grab laundry, a blanket, her towel, my sleeve, and hold it over her eyes until you say, "where's Ruby?!?"  Then she whips it down and cracks a huge grin when you exclaim, "PEEKABOO!!!".  It is so so so so cute!  I do end up re-folding a lot of laundry, but honestly?  How could I care?  It is too adorable, and I love that she gets a kick out of playing.  She'll even do it with her stroller blanket out of the blue towards strangers.  Love.

No new teeth yet, which is kind of funny because at her 9mo doctor appointment, the pediatrician said it felt like another one was going to pop through any minute.  Um, yeah, no.  Still just the two!  However, she's using what she's got to eat us out of house and home.  We often say that she eats like a teenage boy, or is part beagle because she's got no "off" switch when it comes to food.  She's been eating mangoes and blueberries as fast as I can put them in front of her, but has also decided she loves meatballs and likes chicken even.  Peirogies?  Yep, loves them.  TJ's salsa-style refried beans in a quesadilla?  Can't get enough.  Tofu from my soup at the Thai place?  Yes.  Turkey from my sandwich?  Yep.  She'll even eat peas frozen because she's too impatient to wait.  She likes garlicky hummus, and has been known to suck all the "meat" from a red pepper off of the skin.  I don't know where she puts it, but she will eat almost a whole banana and a pancake for breakfast.  This kid is nuts about food, and it's so fun!

While my girl-baby is excelling in the eating department, she is not in the movement department.  Still no crawling to report, and she doesn't really seem like she wants to (at least, not conventionally, from her tummy).  She still lunges forward from sitting, and has an insane wingspan - the amount of things that she can reach, which I never thought she'd be able to, is astounding.

She has learned to scoot on her bottom if she is not on the carpet.  We have to put her on the kitchen floor when cleaning up from dinner, because she tries to dive-bomb out of her high chair.  However, we've found that she will scoot several feet to get to one of us, the dog, her chair (she likes to push it around), or the dishwasher (LOVES the dishwasher).  

Ruby also kind of "climbs" all over us, and she will pull herself up on things, but not quite completely to standing.  She gets one foot planted, but the other still tucked under.  She likes to stand though, and if propped, will stand for long periods of time.  No cruising yet either, though.  She seems like she is scared?

Even though I know that some babies can skip the crawling stage all together, I think that if she makes it to 11 months without getting mobile, I'm going to have to call her doctor.  That's hard for me even to write, but as of today at 10mo10days, she was the only "sitting duck"in our baby class, and that made me sad.  I feel like she's behind, and of course, I somehow blame myself.  I just want her to be able to do what she needs to do.  Ok, moving on!

The name of the game for this photo shoot was, "see if I can rip this sticker off!"

This month we overcame the fear of the big girl bath, and have said goodbye to the infant tub (yay!).  Baths are now 100% in her ducky tub up in her bathroom.  She was scared at first, so we let her play in it dry/clothed with her bath toys, then had a bath with no washing, just playing, and then finally worked up to full baths.  She HATES having her hair washed, since she inevitably gets some water in her eyes since she's no longer laying down.  She actually tries to climb out when she knows it's hair washing time.  Luckily, she really likes her bath toys, so we distract distract distract.  It works.

This is her "elephant face".  I'm so glad I caught it on camera, because this is a little game she made up that has totally been "her" all month.  She takes a deep breath, puffs her cheeks up like this, then makes an elephant sound out of the corner of her mouth with her lips.  She LOVES it if you do it too, in turns, back and forth with her.  It's totally hilarious.  It's also hilarious when you're driving in the car and she's been totally quiet for a long time, then out of the blue comes the elephant-baby.  Love her.

I guess we should talk about sleep, too, huh?  Mostly, sleep is not so bad.  She usually goes down between 7:30-8, might wake up in the early morning hours and may be up for the day then, or may go back to sleep for a bit.  But she threw several wrenches in there this month to keep us on our toes too.  Like waking up after 20min and taking another hour to get back down.  Or a few nights where she wanted to be up all. night. long.  Mostly though, she'd go down (but usually after Keith had to go in and bounce her - she doesn't like Mommy to put her down), and wake way earlier than we'd want to.  Like 5am.  Nobody wants to be up that early, Ruby!

Ok, ok, I'll get up for that face.  Then, there's naps.  I feel like naps have been our "problem" from the beginning.  Once the newborn sleepies wore off, she's never been a good napper.  I think it's because she wants to be held, but I just can't be touching someone for 100% of the day.  Maybe that's selfish, and maybe that's why I feel that naps are my achilles heel/failure as a parent.  But they are just all over the place.  In the past month, she went a week where she'd take one, sometimes two regular naps in her crib.  I know she gets tired about 2hrs after she gets up, and try to get her to bed then so she can rest.  But sometimes, she just won't do it.  She's an in-arms sleeper, and wakes during the transfer.  Sometimes I can bounce her back to sleep, and sometimes she's just too mad about it.  Sometimes, only in this past month, she has fallen asleep in her car seat and actually stayed asleep with me bringing her seat out of the car and up the 2 flights of stairs to her room!  I actually wish I could just leave her in the car, because some of her best naps have been there lately.  Ugh.  I just don't even know, but I want to help her with this napping thing because she's so much happier rested.  I am way in the anti-sleep training camp, but I did check out the "No-Cry Nap Solution" from the library recently.  I don't really know that it's a "solution" per se, but I am hoping to add some tools to my toolbox to help my girl rest.

Oddly enough, right now she's napping, and has been for the past hour and a half.  Go figure.  But she's doing something else that was new for month 10: sleeping on her side.  Very very often, we will look at the monitor and find that she's rolled over and is sleeping on her side.  We often find her that way when we come in to get her when she wakes, too.  She has always been a back sleeper, until now.  We've been hoping that her liking of side-sleeping will actually help us in transfers to the crib.  Instead of rolling her to her back to put her down, we just put her down as-is on her side, the way we were carrying her.  It does seem to have helped a bit, as it's definitely less jostling.

"Ok, I'm done.  Take this off of me."

I can't end her 10 month post without mentioning another one of my favorite new things she is doing.  For quite some time, Ruby has pointed to her high chair tray for more food, but towards the end of her tenth month, she started pointing at other things, too.  And we think that she's been holding out on us, and knows a lot more than we'd been giving her credit for.  The example?  Her bear jammies.  She has a pair of pajamas with little bears all over them, and she's kind of obsessed with the bears.  She does point to them whenever we put them on her, and they totally distract her from how much she hates getting ready for bed.  So the other night, we asked her, "Where are your bears?"  She started pointing them out one by one on her jams!  We couldn't believe it!  It's so funny to watch her intently studying them, too.

But now, the little miss is awake, and wants her mommy.  She's growing up SO dang fast (I can't believe she has double-digits on her stickers here), that I need to go snuggle her before she's heading off to college or something!  Slow down, baby girl!

Week in iPhone Pictures

Ugh.  I have been up since around 4:30am.  For the second day in a row.  Yesterday, Ruby just refused to go back to sleep, though she ended up sleeping on my chest for about an hour around 6am.  Today, she went back down, but I couldn't fall back to sleep!  There's nothing worse than being awake when you want to be sleeping, and your entire family is snoring around you.

Oh well.  Here's last week via my phone.

February 17-23

Sunday:  Blackberry face.  I strongly recommend feeding your child blackberries only if they are naked (it took 4 washes, but I finally got the stains out of those jammies).  As a last ditch effort, I tried a pinterest carpet cleaning remedy on my beloved rug.  It didn't work, but it did work on the actual carpet.  Monday:  Trying to entice some crawling.  Ruby helped out with a little menu planning.  Tuesday:  At the pedi's for a follow-up flu shot, and once again, she didn't cry at all.  I made her a cute new headband, since she took a nap.  Mangoes are the best!  Wednesday:  She looooooves to play with my makeup.  Trying desperately to reach her doggie.

Thursday:  Looking pretty sleepy at class; those toddlers wear her out!  Aaaaaannnd the resulting car seat nap afterward.  Friday:  Good morning!  Those two goobers.  I had to wrestle that polenta from her, she had a death grip on it.  Our polenta pizzas looked (and smelled) a little better than they tasted.  Oh well.  Saturday:  My bunny grahams were going at it like bunnies.  Just a girl and her dump truck.  Drumming on the Costco cart.