March gladness

Easter is my favorite. I was excited that Ruby was old enough this year to dye some eggs with me. She did a good job, although she lacked the patience to wait for them to get very bright. And she broke a couple, but that's not so bad. Now I have to teach her to say, "He is risen!"

And here she is in the backyard helping Nate build the boxes for our garden.

After seemingly months of dreariness, it got sunny this weekend. Ruby is a true Seattle child and responded by complaining, squinting and saying, "It's bright." So we busted out these super dorky sunglasses. This photo -- the entire family looking foolish -- cracks me up:

In news: Ruby had an ear infection today, but recovered after some Tylenol. It's so nice that she can tell us what's bothering her.

We took care of a 9-week-old baby that belongs to some friends of ours, and Ruby was SO excited to have a baby-visitor. She helped with his bottle and doted on him all evening. She was disappointed that he didn't want to play Legos.

Yesterday I turned on the last few minutes of the basketball game and taught her to cheer for Michigan State. She was surprisingly excited about the game and kept pointing the screen and yelling, "Where's the ball?"

Springtime

It's not really spring here yet. We are building a vegetable garden in the backyard to get ready for spring, though, and Ruby is helping with her little shovel:

I think they did a project at daycare where they traced each other on big sheets of paper, because Ruby is really into tracing each other. She lays down on the carpet and then wants to be traced with the handle of her hairbrush. Then she wants to trace you. It was cute at first but now I'm starting to get tired of hearing, "Lay down Mommy. I trace you!"

Elmo loves you and your crappy snowman

Now that Ruby can talk, I'm worried this blog will become like a big Family Circus cartoon. She's been saying the darndest things! I'll limit myself to two. You can skip ahead if you aren't one of her grandparents: Today she kept asking us, "What are you doing, Silly Goose?"

And now that she's out of her crib but has yet to master the doorknob, she stands inside her room after she's been put down for a nap and knocks on the inside of the door. It doesn't work. We don't open it.

Nate and I were raised in secular homes, but we're Christians now, so we're winging it on raising a Christian kid. I'm happy to report that yesterday she started crying because it was Saturday and we couldn't go to church. The rest of the report is not so good:

She continues to show indifference toward Jesus, but fervantly loves Elmo and frequently evangelizes about said red puppet, telling people: "Elmo loves you."

And the other day Amelia was over and I suggested they get some stories. Amelia, who is clearly receiving some Christian training, suggested, "Bible?" and Ruby got all excited and said: "Bubbles!"

OK. As if that weren't bad enough, I had to do a rush order on some kids' praise music after Ruby started belting out the song "Sex On Fire" in the backseat.

She is into prayer, but won't pray at dinner without taking a giant bite to tide herself over during the prayer. But then she's very sweet: "And pray Mommy, and pray Daddy, and pray Elmo, Amen!"

Here are some photos of a nice bike ride we had today, a break in the sideways sleet we've been having this March.
Nate rigged Ruby's bike with a broomstick so we can help push her along.

And she's into hamming it up for photos, like so:

A couple weeks ago we had a snow day, so Nate and Ruby went in the backyard and built this poor pathetic snowman. I don't know why it's so terrible, but it's the worst snowman I've ever seen.

The ABCs

What did you say?

Nate and I got home from Hawaii to find that Ruby is talking in complete sentences. "How about this one?" she asks us. And: "I want to watch Elmo." I'm folding laundry, and she's telling me: "That's Daddy's shirt. That's Ruby's sock. That's a pink one. That's Mommy's."

It's amazing. She just moved up to the next room in school, where many of the kids are potty-trained and almost all of them can talk, so I'm sure that's what's making the difference. Not to mention the 5 straight days she spent with my mom. (Real note when we got back from our trip: "I taught Ruby to use scissors. You'll love the confetti!")

It's amazing to hear what's on Ruby's mind -- and also not totally surprising. She's thinking about food, Elmo, her grandparents, and going outside. Kid stuff. She is silly and sweet, and I love watching her grow up.

Merry Birthdaymas

We had my parents and my brother Chas in town for Christmas. The snow is a hassle in Seattle, but it does make it feel more like Christmas to have a blanket of white outside the window.

It was a whirlwind, and a great time. Taryn and Amelia joined us for Christmas dinner, and no one complained about the cramped, inflatable guest quarters.

Here's Ruby in her new chair, reading her new book Christmas morning:


And climbing onto her new bike, which Chas, Allison, Laura and Stephen got her.

Ruby has been riding her bike around the house quite a bit, and begging us often to take her outside to ride up and down the sidewalk. She pushes with her feet a la Fred Flintstone because her legs aren't QUITE long enough to do the whole pedal rotation.

And, afterthought: Ruby turned 2 on the 28th. We are going to have a real party with friends and presents on June 28, when she turns 2 1/2. We had a fun day together on her real birthday, and celebrated with cupcakes.

Here's my big girl:

Ruby vs. Santa

Here's Ruby all dolled up for Santa Claus. We met up with Taryn, Amelia, and Amelia's Grandma, Charlie to go see Santa in Edmonds.

Ruby was all excited to wear her dress, and she watched with interest while the other kids were sitting on Santa's lap. But naturally, she freaked out when it was time to sit on Santa's lap. We haven't gotten the photo back yet, but it should be a picture of me and Santa smiling, Ruby looking terrified.
Oh well.

Here's a photo of Ruby and Amelia in their matching ponchos.

I didn't get a good one of the two of them together in their Christmas dresses, but the season is young.