BUSY!!!

School is over. Commencement is complete. The move is heating up! We will officially be at the new place by Friday, so until then, it's all boxes and stairs.

Someday I will find the motivation to update this blog, and post new pics of Ruby in her ever-increasing cuteness. In the meantime, enjoy this post by my longest running and dear, dear friend, Alicia. And while you're at it, check out her wonderful arts and crafts site!

Monday, May 18, 2009

Sarah

What can I say...at least one of us made it! I am unbelievably proud of you...


Of course, I'm talking about your graduation this past weekend {not that I'm not proud of you for other things, like being a great mommy!}


It took a lot for you to keep at it, and while pregnant, and then with a baby, and to graduate while said baby is now a toddler! Whew!

You are my oldest friend, one of the dearest people in my life. I think one of my happiest days ever was when I had you, Aaron & Ruby at my wedding. I want to go over some of my favorite memories, I wonder how many of these you will remember...21 years is a long time to keep them!



1. Doing gymnastics {cartwheels for me} in your front yard at your 5th grade birthday party.
2. Daniel Day Lewis...enough said.
3. Your music collection
4. DJ the cat
5. Raja the cat and his fat belly {I loved getting to see him this weekend!}
6. Mrs. Blaylock and our MASH books!
7. Yanni concert
8. Tennis
9. Lunch at the country club
10. Your dad asleep on the couch with a game on.
11. Vegas
12. La Femme Nikkita
13. UTA mornings
14. Going to El Arroyo the 1st time I came to Austin and drinking margaritas
15. You being my wine buddy
16. Your mom...Oh how I love her!
17. Planning your baby shower
18. Seeing Ruby the 1st time at a Denny's on the side of 35 because we were both sooo busy with the holidays to have time to spend together...she was so precious...
19. Your apartment in Arlington
20. Being there this weekend to watch you graduate college & celebrate with the Baker Clan.

At Graduation: Jennifer, Joyce & Ruby
They Are Sarah's: Sister, Mother & Daughter

Trying to get our kiddos to cooperate

2nd attempt

Sarah & Ruby at her graduation dinner

Her sister Jennifer & her new beau

Ruby really enjoying her orange at brunch

We had such great plans this weekend, and they got rained out...
so the girls wanted to just play in the rain!

You are such a beautiful person Sarah, and I love you for all that you are. In your own words, your a witchy, woodsy woman...my words, your my nature loving, free-spirited, semi-hippie friend. Basically your you, and that's what I love. There are a lot of differences between us, and I guess there always have been, but we have never cared about that, and I don't think we ever will.

Ruby Claire

You share my love of tea tree oil, patchouli, nag champa, aveda, literature, oils, candles, wine, food and being a mommy. We never fail to have a good time. We can sit for hours and talk, not just girl talk, but deep, mind titilating discussions. In our younger years, we could stay up all night talking and polish off quite a few bottles of wine, I'm not so sure about that now, we didn't even finish one bottle this weekend!









I truly hope you know how much I love you & Ruby, although, I'm guessing you do...

Sláinte!

Posted by Murry Mayhem at 12:33 PM 2 comments

MEMORY

Yes, you are supposed to sing the title, because that is one of Ruby's favorite past times at the moment. That, and reading. Which leads me to the purpose of this blog. Ruby has made, of course, beyond a ton of developmental leaps since my last posts. She is still quite the little performer, and I'm already preparing myself for dance classes, theatre camps, or stand-up comedy. Everyone is always impressed by Ruby's vocabulary and language ability, as am I, but I think I'm just used to it. But the other day I have to confess I was so proud of my little girl, and in awe of the developing toddler brain. Ruby was reading her books in her room, and she has several memorized, but until now the memorization has consisted mostly of random words, strung together in "Ruby constructions" to describe what she knows is happening in the pictures. So when I walked into her room, saw her open one of her favorites, "Night Walk", and heard her read the opening page- "Outside in the garden, the blackbird sings her morning song" perfectly verbatim, I was so delighted!

Also, her Spanish vocabulary is growing, in part, thanks to Dora, but remember I took four semesters as well! She can now count from 1-5 en espanol, and has added "Hicimos!". She already says "vamanos" instead of let's go, and is working on "adios", "gracias", "permiso", and "salud". It's so much fun! I'll have to teach her "beso", so she and Julian can give each other muchos besos.
She also loves to toast now, and says "CHEERS" every time we sit down with drinks. So precious.

On to the singing. When we weaned, we replaced nursing before sleepy time with rocking in the chair and singing songs. I have been kept quite on my toes trying to learn words to tons of new songs, so neither of us get bored. Insodoing, Ruby has memorized quite a few herself and loves to belt them out to her heart's content. I'm not joking when I say belt, the girl is LOUD, and let me tell you, she can hold a note. Watch out American Idol, you ain't got nothin' on my little Ruby Claire.

I still can't believe how fast they transition from crying, helpless babies, to walking, talking, intelligently thinking, running, jumping, counting, singing, dancing, joking little people! It's still incredibly hard sometimes, to be the parent of a two-year old, but man the love is overpowering!


more posts to come about our wonderful Easter weekend visit, Scarborough Faire, and..... dadadaDA...... my impending graduation! Keep hangin' on, pictures are coming!!!!!!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Ruby had a wonderful day, filled with outdoor fun and friends, pizza and cupcakes, stickers, and a new Dora movie. Mama and dada had steak, asparagus, and herbed risotto cakes. Not to mention Ghiradelli chocolates. Mmmmmm. Still working on the camera, but here are a couple of pics of Ruby playing at the park with a new friend, Connor.

It's been a while....

There are more updates to come. I promise. I'm changing a few things, and adding a few things. I'm learning a new computer, new printer, new camera- it's taking me a while!

For now I can just simply say that Ruby is absolutely a joy right now. Well, most of the time. She is such a little girly girl, and yet a complete tomboy at the same time. We have a ton of fun wandering around and playing in the woods, leaving presents for the fairies, building rock towers, and playing in the dirt with sticks. She is obsessed with her My Little Ponies, and the pony castle she received from Santa- she wakes up at 6:15 everyday with the primary intention of playing with her ponies! She is so silly. She'll tell you that. She can tell you most anything now, but there are a few remaining "toddlerisms" she says that melt my heart, which I will write about another time. For right now, the little monster is tugging on my arm, no longer to handle that my attention is not fully focused on her- the little diva!

"Me, too"

I'm taking a linguistics class this semester and we recently watched a film over language and gender, and the difference in conversational styles and rituals among boys and girls. Girls, for instance, seek for connections and similarities in conversation, while boys seem to be in competition with each other. To demonstrate this, the video showed pairs of boys and girls at different ages just talking to each other. The five year old boys on the play ground were very animated about how high each one could throw a ball, and each one would "one-up" the previous speaker. The five year old girls at daycare sat very close to each other at a table, constantly looking at each others' eyes, and touching hands, etc. One of the girls told her friend that her daddy wore contact lenses. Her friend replied that her babysitter also wore contact lenses. The first girl took a moment to process the statement, and then very happily replied, "The same?".

It's a wonderful thing to be around an almost two year old and witness first hand the development of speech, and the acquisition of language. It is even more exciting for me, when my almost two year old provides validation for what I am learning in class, and I am able to perceive language in an entirely new fashion. So, the story is this:

Ruby and I were outside on the patio playing the other day when some birds started singing. She looks at me, taps her ear, and says, "I hear a bird?". I reply, "You hear a bird? I hear a bird, too." She looks at me and smiles, and says, "me, too."

How precious is that?

Texas Renaissance Festival

The pictures say it all!

"Look Mama, a sailbut"

Ruby's language and imagination skills are really taking off these days! One of my favorite words at the moment is 'boat', because she pronounces it 'but', and it just sounds so adorable! I sound like Beevis and Butthead, "huh huh, she said butt, huh huh huh." All kidding aside, I was very impressed when Ruby ran up to me with her legos exclaiming she had made a sailboat!

proud of her work

"Cheese!"

Weekends are for barbecues

I have wanted to do a poolside barbecue for sometime now, but it just had not worked out... until last weekend! It was very last minute, but we had a very nice little gathering of friends and neighbors to enjoy the weather, eat, and be merry! Just a few pics of the fun:

Another Wedding

I was not going to post this so late, but the pics were so cute I thought I would go ahead! Back in July?, we headed up to Dallas for Aaron's cousin Marcus' wedding. There was also a wedding shower for Marcus' brother Michael, who was getting married in August (Ruby and I missed that one). It was a whirlwind weekend that went from Waxahachie, to Duncanville, to Denton, to Crumb, and finally back home to Austin. It was a bit trying at times, but we had a blast! Just look at everything Ruby got to do!

Bathing her animals

Charlie Dog

Aaron, Courtney, Taylor, Braden, Luke and Cathy

My family

Pretty fruit

Pretty girls in pretty dresses

Mmmmmm

Sweet Catherine

feeding the horses- she wasn't scared at all!

Always gotta end with a sleepy baby!

"Moh yuga?"

Ruby has been chanting "om" for a while. We mostly use it as a cool down technique when she's feeling especially fiery. :-)

So it was no surprise (though still utterly adorable) today when Ruby and I were snuggling on the couch and she looked over at the yoga mat folded up against the wall, then asked to do some yoga. Well, yoga for Ruby starts out with a pretty darn good dog pose, which then becomes a series of somersaults. Hence, "moh yuga?" She signs 'more' vigorously while saying it, then assumes the somersault position, and waits for me to push her over.

I can't count how many times my heart melts these days- the sweet innocence, constant curiosity and hilarious display of humor and imagination from our little Ruby is never ending. It's almost too much to process. Almost.