Calendar Girl - Twenty Three Months

This is another catch-up post that I'll back-date.  Just FYI. =)

First of all, let me just say, thank goodness for social media.  I keep running notes in my phone of all the cute/significant stuff Ruby is doing and saying month to month.  For Mother's Day, I got a new phone.  I made sure that I backed all my pics up, and the Cloud had all my contacts.  But I didn't think about the notes!  So all of my notes for this post were bye-bye.  Thankfully, between Instagram, Facebook, and pictures, I was able to easily fill in the gaps in my memory for her 23rd month.

Many of Ruby's interests for this month are the same as the last.  Still loves her  play kitchen.  Still loves her "buddies".  We're able to be outside a bit more, so bubbles are a hit.  She still loves going shopping, and now she especially loves getting packages in the mail!  We also got new volunteering partners, who have young babies.  Ruby is VERY interested in Baby Leah and Baby Zoey!

She's showing off her shoes.  Such a girly girl!

Last month, her sleep kind of went to poop.  It has gotten a little bit better (thankfully), but inexplicably, her bedtime keeps moving back later and later.  I know that you can't make a kid sleep if she's not tired, but MAN.  She should be tired before 9:30!  I know I am!!!  One of the things that has helped get her back into her bed, though, is our new night light.  After a bajillion hours of research, I went with the Kinderglo night light.  We got the bear one (it comes in a ton of shapes) because she likes bears.  He's now named "Mr. Bear", and he is a big incentive to get her into bed.  The light charges on a base during the day, and she can take it into her bed with her at night.  We ONLY let her have Mr. Bear at bed time, to keep the incentive there.  If she gets out of bed, we remind her that Mr. Bear is lonely and waiting for her back in her bed.  Plus, it's bright enough that I think it takes some of her fear of the dark away.  

Ruby IS more scared of noises now, though.  I have a hard time vacuuming without her freaking out.  And she's very scared of cars (which I am totally ok with).  When we are walking through the hospital garage at volunteering, she will startle and cling to me if she sees a car, and has to give herself a pep talk the whole time we walk by parked ones, saying, "The cars are not on.  The cars are not on."  I started teaching her to put her hand on the side of my car when we're loading/unloading while I dig for keys or get stuff out, and she takes this job of keeping herself safe very seriously.  Which is awesome.

This month was the start of what I call "birthday season".  We have a ton of family birthdays in March and April.  Not only that, but since many of her buddies are friends we met in Parent-Baby class, they all have birthdays around this time, too.  Because of this, Ruby is, of course, waaaaay into birthdays.  She has got the words to "Happy Birthday" down, and loves to sing it to/about anyone.  She also gets really excited about the thought of cake.  Ha!  We about died laughing when out of the blue after Mr. G's birthday dinner, she came prancing into the kitchen singing, "tiiiiiime for caaaaake!!!".

Also, this happened:

At a friend's birthday party (her second in one day!), the birthday boy's mom had gotten him his own little cake... Which he wanted absolutely nothing to do with.  These girls were MORE than happy to help him out, eating most of the cake with their fingers and faces!!!  We were dying, it was hilarious!

Other random things loved this month were ferry boats.  I had Grey's Anatomy on one day when she got up from her nap, and she hasn't stopped talking about them.  Or calling all boats ferry boats.  My dad and stepmom got her the Green Toys ferry boat, and she's a huge fan.  Also, as the flowers are popping up, she has to stop and smell every one she sees.  It's really adorable when they are close to the ground, and she has to bend all the way over to stick her little nose in there!  We also got bikes this month, and she loves loves to go for bike rides.  Man, she is heavy though, and we sure do have a lot of hills around here!

By now she is pretty much always talking in complete sentences.  Sometimes her grammar or syntax may be a bit off, but well, she has a lot to say.  We've always said language was her strong suit!  One day I looked over at her and told her, "Ruby, I love you."  She kept doing what she was doing and replied, "I love CHEESE!".  So I guess her love of cheese trumps her love of her mama?  It was pretty amusing, though.  She also still calls Starbucks "coffee mermaid", but now she actually says "mermaid" instead of "mimi".  I'm kind of sad about that one!

Overall, at 23 months Ruby continues to just be the most pleasant, lovliest toddler around.  Not that I am biased.  But I just can't help but get more and more enamored with my girl.  If two is anything like this, I am totally on board!