One Year Old!

Well, it finally came...Ruby's first birthday.  I'll admit, I was both excited and sad to see it come and go so quickly.  It seems like so long ago that she was a tiny, little peanut.  She could be placed on the bed  without fear of her rolling off or getting into something she shouldn't.  Months ago, I used to be able to put her in a bouncer while I got ready for work.  Now I have to hurry and get ready while she's sleeping or stick her in a pack n' play for a few moments while I throw on some hurried makeup and clothes.  She used to fall asleep in her swing at random times.  Now, we follow a routine that involves strict nap times.  At night, I used to have to get up four, five, even six times to nurse her and rock her back to sleep.  Now, both Noa and I usually get a full night's sleep (yay!!).  It has been a huge year of change for Ruby and for us.  Some of these changes happened with much excitement, like when she started babbling "mama" and "dada."  Others brought me to tears, like when I had to fold and put away her tiny newborn clothes.  I still can't believe that I'm a mother to a toddler.  Funny thing, I still feel as scared about parenting her as I did that first week I brought her home.  It seems to be a learning process every day.

Ruby's monthly photos became quite a chore over the past few months.  Once she began crawling and moving around, she wanted nothing to do with them.  This month was no exception.  It took much cajoling by me, Noa, and several of my family members to get her to stay still for a few fleeting moments and strike a smile.  Here's the final result:

Age: 12 months

Weight:  17 pounds, 13 ounces

Length:  29 inches

Sleep: sleeps in her crib, 2 daytime naps, sleeps through the night (amen!)

Eating: began drinking whole milk instead of formula, finger foods, beginning to wean from using a bottle

Appearance: blue eyes, wearing 6 - 12 month clothes, 7 teeth and teething again (so more teeth to come soon!)

Skills: can sit, roll, pull to a stand, crawl, cruise, and beginning to start standing independently, expresses lots of baby babble, repeat "dada," "mama", and "ga" (her word for dog), has basic pincer grasp, grabs toys and passes from hand to hand, can "catch" a ball that is rolled to her, "dances" to music, responds to the dogs (will try to pet them and will "bark" when they do), gives good eye contact and smiles!  She can also throw a mean tantrum, complete with arched back and wailing cry.  Ruby is really fast with crawling and cruising.  She began using push toys recently and loves to push her "babies" in her new wagon.  

And, my oh my, how she's grown!  Here'a look back at all her monthly photos over the past year:

Her birthday was last Friday and it was a low-key celebration at home with my family in town.  We did open some presents that evening and Ruby seemed to love her new toys.

We did throw her a "small" party the next day.  Noa laughed when he saw all the decorations I was putting up all over the house.  Initially we planned on having a small, intimate celebration without much fanfare, but what Noa considered "small" and what I considered "small" were vastly different.  Thankfully, he usually defers to my preferences on things like this.  Here's the dining room:

Anoli hung the streamers.  I loved them.  I actually kept them up over the past week because I liked them so much.  I had other banners throughout the house, like my new "Happy Birthday" banner that I ordered from Etsy.  I'm excited to use this for many birthdays to come:

And her monthly photos on a banner:

More photos in the entryway and on the mantle.  I had my dad put together the paper chain, which looked so fun and festive so it also stayed up all week.

The tv also played photos of Ruby throughout the year.  

I couldn't have put this all together without the help of my family.  It was also nice to have them around to play with Ruby while I ran around the house getting things ready for the event. 

We had around 25 people at the house - adults and children mingled about while Ruby crawled everywhere, chased balloons, and played with the other kids.

Ruby has officially joined the kids table, although I had to help her out a bit.  Our conversation focused on what out favorite colors were and which party hats we liked best.   She obviously preferred the pink polka dotted one.

Ruby got to hang out with some of her favorite babysitters.  They are really sweet with her, so I'm glad they could be there to celebrate with us.

We stripped her down for the cake, since she'd be getting her own.  I had done a lot of online research about first birthday parties and I learned that the birthday boy/girl, when given their own cake, will decimate it - and most of it will end up ON him or her.  So, I figured I'd save some of her clothes by keeping her in a diaper.  We put her in her high chair, gathered the guests, and sang happy birthday.  She pretty much watched while sucking her thumb - not sure how to respond.

Then we let her go at it.  

She hesitantly touched the frosting.  It didn't go anywhere near her mouth.

So, I'd thought I'd help her out and break the cupcake into pieces.

Still no dice.  Not even a taste.  So, I decided to help a little more by putting some frosting on her lips.  

She did not like that idea.  

So, the cake was a no-go, but those were the only tears of the day.  And, really, is it so bad that she's not a huge fan of sugar.  Guess I have a health nut on my hands.

The rest of the day was spent napping, playing, and spending time together.  It was a wonderful party and although Ruby won't remember it, I'm glad we were able to host the event.  Someday she'll be able to look back at the pictures.  I hope that she'll always know how much she is loved and will continue to be loved as she grows.

Happy birthday, Ruby!  We love you!

The Job Juggle

You may or may not know that I've began another new position at the humane society.  I am now in charge of the foster care program, which means that I coordinate the care of our shelter's foster population, which usually includes kittens and puppies (too young to adopt out), nursing moms, animals with behavior or medical issues, and hospice animals.  It's a very people-oriented job and also very hands-on, but the challenge is trying to do it all with part-time hours.  While finding this balance has been difficult, I've really enjoyed the job itself so far.  I have some absolutely wonderful volunteers that are more than willing to take care of sick, furry critters at a moment's notice.  I also get to share an office with my friend and favorite co-worker, Laura, which makes my days happy.  I thought I'd share of some the cute animals I have worked to place in foster homes.  Most are kittens, since our kitten season is still going on (usually it's over by late October...).  Warning - there's some serious cuteness going on....

 

Halloween 2012

This year we held our annual (yes, it's an annual thing now) Halloween Open House.  You may remember from last year that it gets pretty wild in our neighborhood around this time of year.  Hundreds of kids come through our neighborhood to trick-or-treat.  They even close our street to vehicles. Last year, I remember Halloween night being really cold.  This year, it was WET.  It rained and rained and rained.  However, even with torrential downpours, we still went through about 10 Costco-sized bags of candy.  The rain slowed down the crowds a little, but not by much.

This was also Ruby's first Halloween.  We didn't take her trick-or-treating, but we did dress her up and she played with friends who came through our home.  She was our little love bug:

Before our friends showed up, she helped get things ready and man the door.  It was already pretty wet outside and the weather only got worse.

 

Noa and I dressed as hippies.  Yeah, it's pretty boring for us, but we had to think of something in a pinch and I had bought Ruby's costume back in November, not really thinking about what we could be.  I think we pulled it together pretty well and you know that Noa loved the wig and 'stach.

 

Surprisingly, she didn't seem to mind wearing the costume.  Ruby was in a pretty good mood all evening.

We had lots of friends come through and hang out at our place.  It's always fun to see all the different costumes and this year was no exception.

The Landers: Lego theme (they even had a costume for the dog, but he wasn't here)

 The Caldwells: homemade creativity, even a traditional ghost

The Berneys: random assortment of costumes, including ketchup, a skeleton, and a werewolf

 

The James: an angel and a dinosaur

The Giesbrechts: they get the prize for the best Goodwill find: an inflatable sumo wrestler costume!

 By the time most everyone got here, the rain really started pouring.  But that didn't deter the trick-or-treaters.  They still went out - even if it meant using garbage bags as costume protection.

It's hard to tell in the picture below because it was dark, but the sky was dumping buckets!  On a separate note, you can see that I did the same style of pumpkins as last year. I love taking a drill to a hallowed out pumpkin.  They look good and are fun to make!

I decorated the house a little for the event.  As much as I hate using the fake cobwebs, they sure do add a lot of punch to the Halloween decor.  One of my friends kept wanting to dust my lights (she then realized that the cobwebs were there on purpose - ha ha!).

In spite of the horrible weather, it turned out to be a really fun evening.  I'm glad that this is becoming a tradition in our home.  I'm already trying to think of a good costume theme for the three of us for next year.

11 Months!

Wow - it's 11 months already!

Age: 11 months

Weight: 16.9 pounds

Length: 28 inches

Sleep: sleeps in her crib, 2 daytime naps, sleeps through the night (amen!)

Eating: formula in bottles, pureed foods, lots of finger foods

Appearance: blue eyes, light blond hair that tends to stick up and look like she has a permanent bedhead, wearing 6 - 9 month clothes, almost 7 teeth (2 bottom, 4 top, and 1 peeking up through the bottom)

Skills: can sit, roll, pull to a stand, crawl, starting to cruise (move from one piece of furniture to the next while standing), expresses lots of baby babble, repeat dada and some other sounds, has basic pincer grasp, grabs toys and passes from hand to hand, can "catch" a ball that is rolled to her, "dances" to music, responds to the dogs, gives good eye contact and smiles!  She can also throw a mean tantrum, complete with arched back and wailing cry.  Ruby is really fast with crawling and cruising and, although not yet walking, she has just stood twice without holding on to anything.  Her favorite thing to do is hold on to her favorite toys of the day while crawling or cruising across a room.

She is becoming so independent.  She eats much of her food by herself, even trying to use her spoon.

Although usually she just uses her hands.

As mentioned earlier, her new favorite thing to do is to hold on to her favorite toys of the day as she crawls around the house.  One day she discovered a couple of newborn disposable diapers that a friends left behind.  She held on to those diapers all afternoon and was giggling all the while.

Bath time is often a funny time.  Although she's not a big fan of having her hair rinsed out, she just loves her two rubber ducks.

And she makes some great faces!

Ruby's other favorite game is chase.  She either wants us to crawl after her or she'll crawl after us.  She giggles and laughs the whole time.  It's pretty adorable.

What is not so adorable is when she crawls right up to the TV/DVD player/cable box and starts pushing buttons.  This new "game" is all kicks and giggles, especially when we go to remove her from such enticing equipment.  She's learned to crawl away in a hurry, giggling the whole time.

Ruby is beginning to show signs of becoming a future reader.  She'll pull a book out of her toy basket and turn the pages, looking at the pictures.  Okay, okay, so the books may be upside down or backwards, but I feel like the time spent reading to her is finally reaping some benefits.  Currently, her favorite book is a board book called "Peek-A Who?"

 

So, next month will be the big one year celebration!  I can't believe it's so close.  I've already caught myself getting teary just thinking about it.  I'm trying to focus on what she's doing now - although she's changing so fast, I have to hold on hard.

Catching Up!

It's been a couple of weeks since I last blogged and I thought it would be a good time to do a little catch up post.  We've been a busy bunch of kids since the last one.

Fun times: we celebrated Noa's 35th birthday!

We surprised Noa with a sports-themed party.  New England teams were the obvious favorite. 

  

For Noa's birthday, I converted our third garage bay into a home gym.  Okay, it may not look like much, but it's still a functional gym and workspace.  Plus, it used to be filled with storage and give-away items.  Now it's so organized!

I got a new job!  I'm still at the humane society, but I have a new part-time position: the foster care coordinator.  I like to refer to myself as the FCC.  Basically my job involves recruiting foster volunteers to take care of young puppies, kittens, and animals with medical or behavioral needs in their home.  I'm beginning to develop a network of foster families and I get to work with cute little furbabies.  My first night on the job involved me taking home a litter of three-week-old kittens!  They were cute, but a lot of work!

 

 

Speaking of furbabies, we recently had a six-month-old puppy visitor.  This is Vesper, who took a liking to Sadie immediately.  The two of them ran laps over and over again in the yard.  Isn't she cute?!

 

So, it's been a busy few weeks as you can see.  Ruby just turned 11 months old yesterday (post coming soon!) and we are gearing up for Halloween.  We still haven't come up with costume ideas yet for me or Noa...thoughts? Ideas?

Fall Family Photos

Last month when Jess was visiting, she took us outside for a quick family photo shoot.  Poor Rubes was not in the mood (it was getting close to her bedtime), but Jess still managed to get some great family shots in spite of little miss I'm-ready-for-bed-and-not-gonna-smile.  I'm trying to finalize which ones I should have enlarged and framed in my house.  

As always, beautiful work, Jess!  If it wasn't for you, I'd have most of my family photos from my iPhone camera.  Thanks for making our family look beautiful.