13 Months!

August 9th marked 13 months for Mrs. Ruby Jane. Below are a few note about her past month!

-She's finally crawling! She figured out how to get up on her knees just a few days before turning 13 months old. She's slowly figuring out that she can explore cabinets, open/close drawers, etc. now. I am having to move the dog bowls and scoot her away from outlets...fun, fun! This also means she can open drawers and has gotten her fingers caught already. She is still pretty slow, but she can go from room to room. When we go in to check what she is doing, she jumps in surprise and acts like she's been caught. If she has something in her hand, she throws it down so she's not caught with evidence. We get a kick out of it!

-She's getting so busy with her hands and is developing more and more skills. I love watching her "dump and refill". I remember specifically Henry dumping for months, but rarely refilling! And when he finally did I was so happy! But Ruby does one and the other comes with it. I watched her pull a bunch of clothes out of her wagon, then directly after put them all back in. She didn't know I was watching, so when she was done I said, "good job!" and she gave me the biggest grin! She was so proud of her work. She got to the dog treat canister and dumped them ALL out onto the floor. She said, "uh oh!" and she and I worked together to put them all back in. She was a helper with clean up! She tries and tries to put lids on. We have a tupperware that holds all the little farm animals, and one day I watched her for like 10 minutes work to get it on!

-We left the kids for a week, and when we returned Ruby acted like she could care less! She did great without us, and I tried not to let it hurt my feelings!:) She also looked huge-like a sumo baby! Maybe that's because she's been eating like a hoss!

 -She is so, so loving. She give the best kisses and they are very intense and methodical. Once she gets started be ready for LOTS! She scrunches her face up and leans in, kisses you, and says "mmmaah".

-She is easy to put to sleep and hums along with us as we sing her goodnight songs. Sweetie! She is always happy to lay down and snuggles right into her bed. She usually sleeps on her belly with legs tucked and booty up in the air! Occasionally she ends up on her side with her arms up over her head all sprawled out. Steven and I always like going into her room to see how she has fallen asleep. She still sucks on her tongue and her bottom lip kind of goes in while she does it. She gets very still and pacified and often also plays with her hair at the same time. It is uniquely Ruby! She does this a lot in the car. She will be super quiet, and we check on her to see one arm up with hand in hair and that little mouth just a-going! The other 2 kids know these signs, too, and will report, "Ruby is about to sleep! She's sucking her tongue!" or Henry will say, "She's go that arm up! We know you are going to be asleep soon!"

-She is very hungry in the morning and eats a whole thing of greek yogurt then cries til I get her something else. Usually she also eats a bowl of cheerios and milk and then I wean her off of being fed by giving her graham crackers to self-feed. This month she's gobbled up blackberries, blueberries, cantaloupe, chicken/rice, fiesta just to name a few. She tried peanut butter on 7/26 with no reaction-phew! After she takes a drink from her cup she says, "ahhh!" and will do it over and over. I love having a baby who eats, because it's so stressful when they don't! She's great with her eating signs and is a pro at all done, more, drink.

-She loves to play the game where she hands me something, I say thank you, then give it back. She could do this for hours! She also adores peek-a-boo! She loves to drive with the windows down and the breeze blowing in her face. She squeals and shakes her head back and forth. Pure delight (like Annie!). She helps when I'm putting her in her car seat and she has something in her hand-she moves it to the other hand for me without a fit. Same with changing her clothes and putting her arms thru the sleeve. She also puts her leg out and points her foot to help me get her pants on after a diaper change. These little things amaze me. Some kids just fight, sprawl out, or squirm to turn over and get away, but not her! It is a sweet little bonding time when we do these types of things together. She also tries to put on things like necklaces, hats, shorts, undies when she finds them lying around. How does she know what goes where? Somehow she is taking it ALL in! She also puts toy phones or anything shaped like a phone up to her ear to talk (although mostly she wants to look at the phone when she talks like it's facetime). I do know where she got this!:)

-Ruby says "hi" everytime she waves now. Sometimes she says it over and over. She also says "quack" when we ask what the duck says, but sometimes she gets duck and dog mixed up so she will pant instead. Haha!:)  She repeats "buzz buzz". She says "dada" way more than she says mama. She starting to repeat her own name. The second sound in her name is esp easy for a baby to repeat I think.

Not the best backdrop, but you get to see what her messy shared room looks like this way!

Thank you for being such a sweet baby, Miss Ruby Jane! You are dearly loved!