All posts by kate.

Write to Ruby

Now that Ruby is old enough to understand communication methods like snail mail and the telephone, I thought I’d try explaining email next. I’ve set up an email address for her that goes into a separate folder (in my email program). If you’re interested, I invite you to send Ruby an email whenever you have something to say, and I will read it to her. As soon as she’s able to understand replying, I’ll try to transcribe and send her response. I’ll also save all the messages so she can re-read them when she’s older.

I don’t want to post the address here publicly (to avoid spam). Send me an email or comment on this entry if you’d like the address and I’ll give it to you.

Brief Accomplishments Post II

Ruby’s favorite thing to do with blocks is no longer dumping out the whole box! Now she is intent on building towers and tunnels (and enjoying their inevitable collapses, and laughing at the word “collapse”).

A few new photos

I’ve posted some new pictures from the end of January.

You may notice that Ruby’s online photo album looks different. Our previous album was hacked (by lazy hackers that didn’t cause any real damage and just put spammy links everywhere), so we switched to a newer and hopefully more secure program. If you’re a member of the family who wants to post pictures in this album, please contact me for new login information.

Ruby read her first word!

Ruby can identify roughly half of the letters in the alphabet and is currently very interested in letters. We have this book in our bedroom:

One day a week or two ago, we were hanging out in the bedroom and Ruby pointed to it and said “M – A – P”.  I told her the word was “map”, and it was easy for her to remember when looking at the book because the letters are made of maps.  It got me wondering if she could identify the word in a different context.

Today, I showed her the word MAP written in crayon on a piece of paper, and asked her what word it was, and she said “map!” We all did a happy literacy dance.

Birthday Gifts

Ruby’s birthday is coming up in about a month. She sort of understands birthdays (and what one does to celebrate), but is too young to go so far as to request or even expect gifts. I’m sure this is the last year she’ll be so naive, and we’d like to take advantage of it.

So, if you are family or a close friend who is already planning to give her a gift, please read on. You may be wondering what kind of toy, book, or clothing item would be appropriate to get for Ruby. The truth is that she has plenty of all of those things. She received several great toys for Christmas that have not even been brought out yet (because she got so many). Instead, we ask you to consider a gift in any amount to her college fund. This is a gift she will appreciate for the rest of her life, and she’s too young to find it disappointing to get that instead of a toy. In 15 years, your contribution will about double, so even a small amount will make a difference.

If you already have a great gift in mind for her, something you’re excited to give, by all means go ahead! This is just a suggestion for those who are still searching for an idea. Ruby will, of course, be perfectly happy to receive birthday wishes from people instead of presents.

There are several ways you can contribute to her college fund. The easiest is to give us cash or a check written to us (which we will deposit). If you’d prefer to be more discreet, let me know and I can provide you with the necessary details to send your gift directly to the college fund. We appreciate your consideration of this idea (even if you decide to get Ruby something else).

State of the Toddler

  • Ruby is almost 23 months old.
  • It’s been a while since Ruby’s last doctor visit, so we really have no idea how tall she is, how much she weighs, or how that compares to other kids.
  • Her appetite was noticeably reduced for the past few months, although it has now picked up again. I’d estimate she’s eating at least 50% more each day than she was a month ago. Growth spurt on its way!
  • Ruby is wearing 18-month shirts and 24-month pants.
  • Her vocabulary is huge and continuing to expand (it’s no longer possible to keep count). We’re always delighted to hear her spring new words on us, or correctly use a new sentence structure or tense.
    • Steve says: “Her pronunciation is continuing to improve, but I imagine it’s still hard for strangers to understand her. Recently Ruby wanted to tell me about a brown truck (the UPS truck) and repeated “BOWN CHUCK” 3 times without me understanding what she was saying. So she did what anyone would do: she got up in my face and said “BOWN CHUCK” even louder, and with just the right stress on “CHUCK” to give it a hint of exasperation.”
    • Kate says: “I think her pronunciation is above average for her age, however. From my observation, most people tend to understand what she’s saying.”
  • Ruby always says the word “tiny” in a high-pitched voice.
  • She said an unprompted “I love you” to Steve for the first time about two weeks ago.
  • Ruby got a doll for Christmas and loves playing with it. She’ll buckle it in her highchair, put on a bib, and feed it imaginary food. She’ll give it baths. Her friend doesn’t have a name yet; just “friend”. We’re waiting for Ruby to think of a name.
  • She is also currently attached to a stuffed black and white kitten we recently got, often meowing to it in a high-pitched voice.
  • Ruby’s bedtime is around 7:30-8:00. It usually takes her about half an hour to go to sleep. She’ll rattle her crib, talk to her crib toys (stuffed animals and books), and roll around. She’ll sleep until around 7:30am.
  • We play classical music while she’s falling asleep (the same CD since she was born) and leave the hall light on. If we turn off the light she’ll say “no – dark!”
  • Ruby has one nap every day around 1:30, and she stays upstairs for around 2.5 hours. She doesn’t sleep the whole time, but that’s how long she’s up there (see above regarding crib rattling and playing).
  • Ruby can jump clear off the ground.
  • If you ask Ruby what some food item smells like, she’ll almost always say “jam”.
  • Whenever Ruby is naked or she sees us naked, she says (for example), “Naked Papa woo woo!” She also likes to run around the main floor of the house when she’s naked.
  • Ruby’s favorite food, based on asking her what she’d like to eat, is pizza. But I think she only likes it because she gets to help make it. Mostly she’ll just pick the pineapple off the top, and ignore the actual pizza part. Other favored foods are:
    • edamame, cheese, yams, pineapple, ketchup, sushi, applesauce
  • Other foods Ruby eats often:
    • bananas, oatmeal & cheerios, peanut butter, bread, teriyaki-flavored tofu, goldfish crackers (for a special treat), peas & carrots & corn & soybeans (from the freezer)
  • Ruby likes to use a fork and spoon while she’s eating, but much of the food still arrives at her mouth via her hands. Because of this, she usually insists on having a napkin, which she politely keeps on her lap.
  • Once in a while, we’ll sit down with Ruby and watch a few YouTube videos on a subject of interest (such as cats or juggling). She loves this and asks to do it much more often than we actually do.
  • She is very into dumping things out. I have put away her blocks and other such toys because all she’d do with them was dump them all over the floor and then ignore them. After which, I’d have to painstakingly cajole/discipline her into picking them up.
  • Ruby is getting pretty good with “please”, “thank you”, and “excuse me”. Sometimes I feel like I have to prompt her for them constantly, but when she’s talking to other people, I’m often pleasantly surprised to hear her using them.
  • She’s a good climber. I don’t worry about it much because she’s quite careful and not reckless.
  • Ruby is currently very attuned to sounds, and will state “noise!” whenever she hears something.
  • Categorized in life

The art of misdirection

The other night, we were having meatballs and rice for dinner. Ruby was really into the rice, so in between servings of rice, we encouraged her to eat some more of her meatballs. One of those times, she put a big bite of meatball in her mouth. Then, she deftly took it back out with the same hand (as she was lowering the hand from her mouth), palmed the meatball, then pointed across the room with her free hand and said “plant!” (indicating the daffodils we had talked to her about a few minutes before).

It was so smooth that it actually tricked me for a moment. I was very impressed with her combination of sleight of hand and misdirection. Maybe she’s got a future as a magician.

(Finger) Painting

Today, we were planning to fingerpaint in the morning. Ruby was very excited, but when I put her in the bathtub with paints and paper, she was surprisingly tentative. She put only a little paint on her finger and made faint marks. After a while, I realized that she didn’t want to get herself messy, so I got her a paintbrush. After that, she went nuts and painted several pieces of paper as well as the walls.

Among the things she said she painted: a boat, a wreath, circles, a kite. Not everything was described as being an object, though. Sometimes she was just painting for the fun of it.

Boys and Girls

Today, while Ruby was in the bath, I was reading a magazine (Wondertime). She happened to look at a page with a big advertisement and said, “brown! boy!” It was a picture of a boy with brown hair. I wasn’t surprised that she got the color right, but found it interesting that she was able to identify that it was a picture of a boy. I didn’t realize she had already picked up on that distinction.

So, I paged through the magazine and, for every picture of a child (baby through about 7), I asked her if it was a boy or a girl. She was correct more often than not. I noticed that for more androgynous kids (usually babies), she was likely to say they were a girl. Most of the more obvious (to me) ones she got wrong were long-haired girls. Later, I looked through the pictures a few times and tried to discern a pattern, but I couldn’t.

We’ve raised her, so far, without obvious gender cues like wearing pink. I tend to refer to other children as a “kid” rather than a “boy” or a “girl.” And yet she’s still managed to crack the code of who is a boy and who is a girl, without much help from her parents. It’s pretty amazing.

More fall photos

We took a ton of pictures in the fall, and I’ve finally finished processing the last of them. There are new pictures from November, as well as December. Here are some of my favorites (follow the previous links to see them all):