New Words

It is so exciting to listen as she discovers her voice!  She has always been very verbal, but now her favorite thing to do is point at something, say "Uhn," and have someone tell her the associated word.  She will repeat words after people with great precision.  Animal sounds are a favorite and she LOVES to sing!  "Twinkle, Twinkle," "Jesus Loves Me," and all the songs in the Baby Bible story book.

A side note: She will come into Andy's and my bed in the mornings to cuddle with me.  It takes her a while to wake up so she's the perfect cuddle partner!  We sing songs sometimes, but usually just lay there in quiet contemplation.  Love her!

Teenie, but not Teeniest for Long

We love this spunky, gorgeous little girl!  She can make you laugh and loves too!  While she may not like to “show off’ for people outside our family, we are blessed with this silly personality everyday.  She will soon be an older sister.  All of our “olders” have become older siblings at about the same age, so we know that they adjust well, but it’s still hard to imagine this tiny face not being the tiniest one in the house anymore!  She’s our teenie but won’t be the teeniest for much longer.  Love you Ruby!

Too Fast!!

Ruby Jean is getting too big too fast for my liking!  She can climb on the table {eek!,} say Dada, Papa, Mama, uhh {which means yes,} and she loves to pretend to cook in the little playhouse.  A few days ago, she decided to climb up on the fort.  The problem was that the ladder wasn't secure.  It slipped, she grabbed the edge and held on, and praise the Lord, her big brother pulled her up on the fort.  He kept her safe until I got back from retrieving my cell phone.  I had only been gone three minutes tops...she's quick. 

My Summer Baby Girl

This little girl broke my water at three in the morning.  My water had not broken prior to labor in my other two pregnancies, so I thought she was going to be super speedy.  We called my parents, my sister, and Ruth.  She and her doula headed right over.  My parents were hosting their friends who are missionaries in Spain right now.  They were going to the airport that morning, so they stopped by the house with my parents in case I was already pushing the baby out.  I'm not sure what happened...if labor was just slow or if all the visitors made me self-conscious, but my labor slowed way down.  We watched a movie, hung out and talked until the missionaries left for the airport.  Ruth and the doula rested on our bed.  She told us to walk around the block and we went around twice.  She finally told Andy and I that we'd have to go someplace private and try to speed things up through different stimulation techniques.  I'm not sure how long it took from there, but I seemed to focus and my body responded by sending strong contractions to bring this baby into the world.  I labored on my left side with my foot on Ruth's shoulder {poor woman!} and made no progress despite being fully dialated.  Yet another new experience when giving birth!  Anyway, Ruth felt around and said my cervix was too far back, so she'd have to hold onto to it while I pushed.  Oh my goodness, that was painful!!  She finally helped me by saying, "push my fingers out of there."  With that as my focus, I pushed the baby until she crowned and Ruth could let go.  I had an enormous amount of fluid with her pregnancy which was weird because I didn't gain too much weight.  She was bright reddish purple and perfect.  We took three days to fully commit to her name of Ruby {after my dad's mom} Jean {after Andy's mom}.  She has watched her older siblings every day of her life and continues to amaze us with her bravery.  She loves to cuddle, but not when she's falling asleep just like her Mama.  Ruby is a little heater...she gets hot very easily.  She likes little toys, that probably shouldn't be played with at her age, but I'm not going to keep Mr C's LEGO's put away indefinitely.  Her first year went by so fast.  She is not quick to smile, but it is so worth it when she does!