Ruby can read!!!

It's official - I have a genious baby. At 13.5 months old, she can read. Well, we haven't exactly gotten into War & Peace or anything just yet, but she's completely getting the hang of the Baby Einstien Alphabet books. There is one board book for each letter of the alphabet (see the previous video of how much she loves the letter D) - I highly recommend them to any parents out there. She's to the point where when I hold a book up, she says the letter! She doesn't have all of them down yet, which may be a function of how tricky some of them are (W doesn't exactly roll off of the tongue), but she can say about 12 letters so far including A, C, D, E, G, I, J, and O. When we read the T book, there is a page for "toothbrush". Yesterday I turned to that page and didn't read it out loud to her. She looked at the word and then reached for her toothbrush! She can also recognize the words for clock and banana. Genious baby.

Ruby can run now, which may be one of the cutest things ever. She's not the most graceful little thing just yet, but it is darn cute. Her hair has also really decided to grow in the past few weeks. It's straight as a board on the top, but curls in the back. My mom said that my hair was like that as a baby too, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she gets my curls!

Well, I'm reluctantly posting some new pictures. They were all taken with my iPhone, so they're not quite "professional" quality... You can still see how stinking cute she is though!She's entirely too cool in her sunglasses. She loooooves wearing them, but stumbles around like crazy when she has them on.

Sorry for the lack of make-up. Ruby and I were matching in this picture, so I thought it was cute. :) Just look at the one on the left!

Ruby is ONE!!!

Happy Birthday, sweet baby!

Ruby turned one on December 22. We had a fun birthday party out at Nana and Grandpa's house that evening for all of Ruby's weekday friends - she and Nana have quite the busy social schedule during the week. Ruby had a ball and enjoyed her cupcake!

I had my birthday party for Ruby on January 9th - we wanted to wait until after the holidays were over. It was such a perfect day! Ruby was a little smiley angel and had so much fun playing with all of her friends. I think that I learned the physical capacity of my house - we were crammed in there! It meant the world to me that so many of my friends were able to make it to Ruby's party. I can't believe how lucky that I am to have such amazing friends.

My best friends surprised me that night with a birthday party to celebrate my 30th! We went to Times Ten Cellars in Ft. Worth. I was SO surprised and so happy to get to spend some more time with my friends! I love you girls so much! Thank you for making my day perfect

Ruby's Second Christmas

This was Ruby's second Christmas (officially), however, this is the first one that she's actually been able to enjoy. I brought Ruby home from the hospital on Christmas Eve last year, so she was much more concerned with the eat/sleep/poop routine at that time than the Christmas festivities. Ruby had a ball this year! She was such a good girl with the Christmas decorations and loved to look at our tree. Yes, all of the gifts under the tree are for her. No, she's not spoiled at alllllll! :) We had Christmas Eve at my house, and then spent Christmas day out at my parent's house (after the roads cleared). Ruby got to experience her first White Christmas! I hope that she doesn't begin to think that every year will meet her expectations for one....we do live in Texas, after all. She was fascinated by the snow and spent a lot of time looking out the front window at the winter wonderland. Granny was also here for Christmas, so Ruby had a great time playing with her. No one reads books quite as well as Granny does - I even found myself getting into the plot of "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See" when she read it. We got another special 4-generation picture together. It was such a special holiday and it was so wonderful to spend such good quality time with my family. I am so very blessed! Hope that you enjoy some of our pictures. Counting down the days till next Christmas!

Ruby's first time to visit Santa!

Over the weekend, we took Ruby to Sundance Square in downtown Fort Worth to visit Santa! I was a little nervous about how she would react - she's always been so good with strangers, but lately has been getting a bit skeptical of them. We bundled her up over her little Christmas dress because it was a bit chilly. Luckily, there wasn't too much of a line. Finally, it was Ruby's turn to sit on Santa's lap!

Checking out the jolly old man....

Nope, we're done.

But her mood quickly turned around once she realized that Grandpa was taking pictures. She's such a ham!

It's Christmas Time!

I decorated the house for Christmas right before Thanksgiving. I just couldn't wait! Everything looks so festive and cozy, and Ruby just loves looking at the Christmas tree. So far, she's been really good about not touching it. I have a few strategically placed bells on the lower branches of the tree to give me a heads-up if there is a little elf in there.

This is what I love to see on her face - she's so happy all of the time! We sing Christmas songs when she's eating (I've found that the easiest way to get her to eat anything is to distract her with some animated songs - and no, I won't be posting video of that!). I can't wait until Christmas morning so that she can open her presents. I'm entirely aware that there's a likely chance that she won't want anything to do with the gifts themselves, but will be much more excited about the paper and the boxes. Whatever makes her happy!

Hope that everyone is having as much fun "fa-la-la"-ing as we are!

Ruby is walking!!!

Today Ruby is 11-months old. Today is also the day that she officially turned into a "toddler"! That's right, she took her first wobbly steps today!

Ruby's beginning to go through a phase where she loves to share. If she is happy with something, she wants you to have it too. When we were playing in her room this afternoon she was holding one of her toys and she wanted to share it with me, so she just started walking towards me with it! I made her do it a few times before I grabbed the camera just to make sure that it wasn't a fluke.

Of course, I immediately started crying. I'm happy that she just accomplished another big milestone, but I'm sad that the time is going by so quickly. And maybe I'm a little bit nervous because chasing around someone on their feet sounds a little more challenging than chasing someone on their hands and knees.... Well, another adventure begins!

Happy 11-month birthday, princess. I love you more and more every day.

Little Miss Sassy Pants

Ruby keeps getting cuter and smarter every day! She has a handful of words in her repertoire including: duck, dog, mama, grandpa, down, no, and baby. I think that she's a little too smart for her own good - she has figured out how to get into anything and everything around the house! I buy her all kinds of fun, educational toys and all that she wants to play with are my cell phone, the remote control, my laptop, and my toes....

I honestly have no idea where she gets this trait, but she is so stubborn and definitely is beginning to have her "diva" moments. No clue. 99% of the time she's the sweetest smiley little girl in the world. Then there's that 1% of the time when she doesn't get what she wants and everyone better watch out! She'll make herself cry so hard that she throws up. So essentially, she has us trained to give her exactly what she wants, when she wants it. Again, no earthly idea where that could've come from. ;)

Ruby has been sick the past week or so - she was diagnosed with viral pharyngitis, an upper respiratory infection, and a viral-associated rash. Not fun. She's a tough little baby though and has been smiling through the pain of her sore throat. Hopefully she's on the mend, but she'll still be contagious for a few more weeks. Which means that now me, my mom, and my dad all have the same bug. It's honestly the most helpless feeling to have a sick baby - I would do anything to make her feel better. Here's a picture of how we've been spending a lot of afternoons. Luckily she has been very snuggly lately.




Hope that you enjoy the cute videos of Ruby (please excuse the snotty nose, it's kind of a mainstay this week). We got her a set of alphabet books - her favorite is the letter D - watch her reaction to Page 2 - she does this every time and it never gets old. She spends hours each day reading with me and Nana.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving next week! Hopefully Ruby will be feeling well enough to enjoy some new menu items.

My little pumpkin

Yesterday we took Ruby to a pumpkin patch at a church near my house. My dad took some really great pictures of her - he is such a great photographer! Ruby wasn't sure what to think when we set her down with all of the pumpkins at first. But being the little ham that she is, as soon as she realized that we were taking pictures she started flashing that grin like a pro. We are going to a Halloween party next weekend with some family friends, so I'll have more pictures then!

Ruby is doing great - she's 10 months old (I can't believe how quickly this year is going by!). She now has 8 teeth and is figuring out how to use them to her benefit. She can stand up by herself, but hasn't taken those first steps yet. She loves to push her little baby stroller around the house though - she'll go 90-mph with that thing until she runs into a wall or other obstacle.

She is still as sassy as ever. Now, the one thing that will make her cry is getting out of the bathtub. She looooooves taking a bath, and repeatedly says "duck duck duck duck duck". She's the sweetest baby in the world, and I am such a lucky mama!

In other big news, one of my best friends, Lindsay, had her triplets last week!!! Everyone is doing really great and I am so excited to meet Ruby's new BFFs. Check out her blog on the right side of my page - "Hat Trick".

Aloha from Ruby!

Aloha everyone! We just got back from a 2-week visit to Honolulu! Before you get entirely jealous, I was there for work. However, we were there over the Labor Day weekend and had some time to do some fun stuff on the island! My mom and my Granny also came with us, so it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to have 4 Generations in paradise!!! We had such a great time and 2 weeks seemed too short.

During the day while I was at work, Ruby hung out with Nana and Granny. They went shopping, walked along the beach, did some more shopping, napped a bit, and shopped some more.

After I was done with work for the day, we went to some great dinners. Some of our favorites were House Without a Key and Orchids at the Hotel Halekulani, Azure at the Royal Hawaiian, and Mariposa at Neiman Marcus.

September 5th was also my mom's birthday! We had a great day, filled with a visit to a Macadamia Nut Farm, a scenic drive on North Shore, playing for a few hours at the beach, lunch at Giovanni's Shrimp Shack, shopping at a craft fair, a tour of the Dole Pineapple plantation, and a celebratory dinner at Orchids and a relaxing walk on the beach. It was an eventful day and was so much fun. I am so blessed to have such an amazing mom - I wanted to show her how much that she was loved and appreciated. She was Queen for the Day! I even went as far as letting her control the A/C in the car - hahaha - so we all froze to death! Ruby is a very lucky girl to have such a wonderful Nana. Happy Birthday, Mom! We love you very much!

I can't believe what a difference a year makes. Reading my blog entry from a year ago, I am surprised how happy that I am today. I didn't believe anyone who told me that I would eventually be happy, but I'm glad to admit when I was wrong! Thanks to all of my amazing friends that have helped me through the past year.

I hope that you enjoy some of the fun pictures from our trip! Ruby is getting bigger and bigger every day. She's so funny - she's learned to play patty-cake (which involves a big grin and rubbing her hands together), and she's crawling about 90-mph. I think that she's minutes away from taking her first steps and you can tell that she wants to talk so badly! She's still such an angel - she was perfect on the 8-hour flights, she's still SO happy, and such a fun baby.

Little Miss Jet-Setter

I just got back from a two-week trip to Madison, Wisconsin, for my work. Thankfully Ruby and my mom were able to travel with me! Madison is such a great town - the weather was absolutely gorgeous, the people are great, and there is so much to do. We had a really fun time while we were up there!

Ruby was a champ on the flights again. I am sooooooo thankful that she's a good baby on the plane. But I don't think I'm nearly as thankful as the people sitting around us! She got so many compliments on what a good baby she was - it made mama proud!

A little travel tip for any moms out there - if you're going somewhere for longer than a week, don't bring any toys! I know that sounds strange, but I have the best thing to do. We found a cute little resale shop up in Madison and worked with the manager. We explained our situation and he let us purchase enough toys for two weeks, then sell them back to him at the end of the trip. We shipped some of Ruby's favorites home, but sold most of the big stuff back. It worked out great! She had a TON of toys - our hotel room looked like a daycare! Saved a lot of $$ too compared to some of those toy rental services that you see on the internet.

While up in Madison, we spent a lot of time in the downtown area near our hotel and the capital and we spent a few evenings over at our friend Teresa's beautiful home. Ruby and Nana went to the Madison Zoo one day (Ruby was more interested in the other kids than anything else). On Saturday we were official Wisconsinites - we went to the amazing farmer's market on the square, ate fresh cheese curds and sweet corn, had lunch at State Street Brats, then ended the evening with some Spotted Cow (Wisconsin beer) and watched the Packer's game!

I haven't put our suitcases up yet because we are leaving on Tuesday for Honolulu for almost two weeks!! I am so excited about this trip - I can't wait to see Ruby at the beach. This will be the first time that I've ever had any free time while I am in Honolulu too, so it will be nice to get a day or two of rest & relaxation (or frenzied sight-seeing and shopping while wrangling a very mobile 8 month old....)

Which reminds me, Ruby now has 4 teeth - her two top ones came in last week. Good for her, bad for me - she drew blood the other day when she was nursing - ouch! She is on the move too - we can't keep up with her! If you set her down in one room and turn around to do something, she's gone by the time you turn back around. She's also learned how to wave at people which might be the cutest thing ever because she's actually just waving at herself. And the biggest news of all - she said "mama" for the first time!! It brought tears to my eyes and I was so happy that was her first word! I know that some people might think I'm crazy, but I swear her second word is "grandpa". You have to hear her say it - it is hysterical! It ends up coming out more like "bumpa", but it's her favorite word. She knows what she is saying too - she says it all the time around my dad or when we're talking to him on the phone. I have a genious baby. Very sweet!

Stay tuned for photos from our Honolulu trip - I need to clear off my memory card and charge my batteries because I know I'll go picture crazy!!