All posts by steve.

R is for Ruby

Ruby had a great time walking around the mall last night. She loved the mini billboards with different ads that scroll up and down. She liked walking along in the crowds and being carried in my arms and on my shoulders.

We were walking out when she started saying, “Ruby! Ruby!” and pointing. I turned to see what she was pointing at, but didn’t notice anything in particular so we headed back in the general direction of her pointing*. It was the big Nordstrom sign, about 15 feet long and at eye-level. It turns out, she was pointing at the “R”s! Because R is for Ruby. We tried a few of the other letters in the sign, but she only knew about her “R”s.

We turned to continue out to the car and Ruby said, very knowingly, “words”.

* sometimes, to emphasize the fact that she is pointing at something, Ruby will say, “Point! Point!” Not this time, though.

Mama hug

Ruby is going through another “Mama” phase. Her preference for each parent varies on a weekly basis — peaking towards me on Sunday nights and then back to Kate again by Friday. Over the past few weeks, though, the arrow has generally pointed more strongly towards Kate. And Ruby’s been sick this week, making her clingy and fragile and wanting more attention.

This mostly manifests itself in hugs. Mama gets lots of hugs. I get very, very few. As you can probably understand, this is kind of hard for me.

Yes, I know it’s just a phase. I know she loves us both. I know there’ll be times when I’ll be the Preferred Parent and Kate will feel left out. But hugs are pretty much the only currency in this economy right now, and so (for the moment) I’m feeling like quite a pauper.

Declaration of Ambulation

Ruby is now officially walking. She stills crawls, especially if she’s eager to get somewhere quickly, but walking seems to be her preferred method of transport. Now that she’s got the overall hang of things, she’s much more persistent in standing up again after she falls down. And she falls down a lot. But her practice is paying off and we’ve seen a huge improvement in her stability just in the past day or so.

Perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not, we’ve also seen an increase in crabiness and overall attitude the past two days. She’s added the phrase “no no no no no no” to her repertoire, although thankfully she doesn’t use it very often. She’s become more demanding and a little harder to please.

If I fell over every six steps, I’d be in kind of a bad mood too.

Video here: https://www.mynameisruby.com/pix/second-day-of-walking.wmv

One step at a time

People sometimes ask if Ruby is walking yet. It’s hard to say at what point she is officially “walking” — her preferred method of mobility is still crawling — but today she took 23 steps in a row.

Naptime, again?

The development of Ruby’s sleep sign has been surprising: she’s now the one initiating bedtime and naptime.  For the past month or so she’s been having a two-hour nap around 2pm, and then going to bed around 8pm.  Yesterday, she signed for a nap at 9:30am and then slept for 2 hours.  Then she signed for another nap at 2:30pm and slept for another two hours.  And then she signed for an early bedtime at 7:30pm.  Without her signing that it was naptime, we’d have pushed her into cranky-baby stage and then wondered what the hell was wrong.

Again this morning, she signed for a morning nap, although she didn’t seem particularly sleepy.  I have a theory about this, though: since she turned 1, we’ve taken away Ruby’s pacifier.  The only time she’s allowed to have it is when her diaper is being changed or when she’s going to sleep.  So, my theory is that she’s deliberately signing for a nap just so that she can get some quality time in with her soother.

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Vocabulary

We’ve been signing at Ruby since a very early age.  Our vocabulary isn’t big, but Ruby is starting to pick them up more quickly.  Like her words, though, she tends to latch onto a favorite sign and then use it for everything.

Ruby’s verbal vocabulary right now is limited to “down” and “this”.  She has said other words in the past (“up”, “mama”, “papa”, “gargoyle”) but for now, those two words are just about all she uses.

Similarly, her favorite sign right now is “more”.  She uses it to indicate that she wants to eat, which apparently is all the time.  She also knows how to sign “all done”, “bedtime”, and she can nod in agreement.

“All done” and “more” can sometimes be confusing for her.  When she’s eating I’ll ask if she’s all done and she’ll sign it.  Then I’ll ask if she wants more and she’ll sign that.  Then I’ll ask if she wants down and she’ll say, “Dooooooowwwww…”.  Then we’ll start over from the top.  Sometimes, I’ll see her run through a bunch of her signs — “milk”, “more”, “all done” — as if she’s not quite sure what she’s trying to say.

Baby Step

Ruby is very close to walking. She can stand up unsupported as long as she doesn’t think about it too much — like most toddlers, she’s more stable when she’s distracted. We’ve been able to entice a single step out of her by holding a stuffed animal just out of reach, but that’s it. She’ll probably be walking like a champ in a few weeks.

Rubies Cubed

Yesterday I read a Ruby on Rails book and drank Ruby 18 tea (a cross of an assam with a wild Taiwanese tea plant, processed as a black tea but with faint oolong notes) while feeding Ruby her lunch.

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State of the Baby

Ruby is 9 months old tomorrow. This is what she is like:

snow.jpg

  • At her doctor’s appointment a few days ago, she weighed 16lbs, 10oz. She was 27″ long. Her head circumference was 43cm.
  • Her eyes are brownish-green, although still trending towards brown.
  • Her hair is blonde and wispy. She’s starting to get some curls — she’s got one big one on her forehead and a few small ones on the back of her head.
  • She usually is happy to be out in public and meeting new people, although every now and then a new face will freak her out (the beginnings of stranger anxiety?). Mostly, though, she loves to smile and wave at everyone she meets.
  • She has just her two bottom teeth. She’s been drooling a lot the past few weeks, though, and for the past few days she’s been flicking her tongue out on one side of her mouth, so more teeth are probably imminent.
  • We’ve been on a nice schedule for the past month or so, although it’s been breaking down a bit this past week:
    • 6:20am: Ruby wakes up. Coincidentally, this is 3 minutes before Kate’s alarm goes off.
    • 7am: Kate hands Ruby to me so she can get dressed for work. We hang out in bed. I try to snooze, she tries to crawl off the edge.
    • 7:30am: Playtime!
    • 8:30am: Breakfast! A nice warm bowl of oatmeal with fruit.
    • 10am: morning nap
    • 11am: After waking up, visit Mama at work for a midday snack, or have a bottle
    • 2:30pm: Another bottle, and then afternoon nap
    • 3:30pm: More playtime
    • 5:30pm: Dinner with Mama and Papa
    • 7:30pm: Bedtime! Kate puts her to sleep.
  • As I said, this schedule is breaking down and Ruby is on the verge of moving to one nap per day. She’s also moved to an earlier bedtime this past month. Daily Savings Time had a lot to do with it, as did her changing nap schedule.
  • Ruby usually sleeps through the night without waking up.  She occasionally cries out around 9pm or 10pm, but doesn’t wake up (or goes right back to sleep).
  • Ruby is almost always in a good mood when she wakes up.  She’s best just after her naps.  Her mood then declines until her next bedtime.
  • To get her to sleep we usually feed her some milk.  If that doesn’t work then we either bounce on the ball or lie with her until she falls asleep.  Sometimes she’ll look like she’s fast asleep, but as soon as her back touches the mattress she’ll spring to life, crawl to the railing, stand up, and start bouncing up and down.  This can be quite frustrating.
  • Ruby is crawling with gusto. She can move at almost 0.5 miles/hour (actual measurement: 6 feet in 9 seconds).
  • She is pulling herself up to a standing position on just about everything. We have babyproofed the lowest three feet of the playroom.  She has a big bridge-like toy which is designed for her to stand at and play.
  • Now that she’s crawling and exploring actively, she seems to be in a better mood throughout the day. She doesn’t get frustrated or bored as easily.
  • She chatters to herself a lot. When she’s happy she’ll whisper and make high-pitched noises and quiet squeaks. I think the most common thing she says is, “da da da da”. When she’s a little unhappy she’ll say “nay, nay, nay”. When she’s a lot unhappy she’ll just whine. She can say “Mama” and “Abpabpa”, although not always in the context you’d expect. When she’s being tickled or attacked by one of her stuffed animals she’ll scream quietly in mock terror.
  • She understands a few words like “milk”, “where’s mama/papa?”, and “no”. If you say “no” like you mean it she’ll start crying.
  • Her favorite toys are paper (newspapers), and string (like shoelaces). She also likes her jingle-bell rattle, an empty water bottle, her books, metal cups, and her blocks. Oh, and pulling off a sock and waving it around can be fun for a few minutes too.
  • Ruby likes to stand at the edge of a basket full of clean laundry (probably dirty laundry, too) and pull it out, one piece at a time.
  • She occasionally flips up the edge of the rug in the playroom to see if there’s any treasure under there.  So far, no treasure.
  • She has a few stuffed animals that she enjoys squealing at. There’s Clyde Frog (a frog), Oxana (the traveling teddy bear), Mr. Monster (an Uglydoll), Phil (a kiwi bird), and Mustard Bear (which she sleeps with). Her favorite is Clyde Frog.
  • Now that it’s winter her usual outfit is a long-sleeved onesie with a short-sleeve t-shirt on top, and pants.  If she’s going to be outside in the cold for a long time then she’ll wear her brown suede snowsuit.  Otherwise she has a puffy purple winter jacket which she wears occasionally, and a few warm sweaters.
  • She’s fairly tolerant of hats on her head, although sometimes she’ll pull them off.
  • She still uses her soother a lot — she probably spends half the day with it in her mouth. This is something we’ve got to work on.
  • Every time we put her down on the changing table, she starts crying. But it’s only for a few seconds and her soother usually stops it.
  • She’s eating two meals of table food each day, and we’re about to add a mid-day snack into the mix. Breakfast is oatmeal powder mixed with fruit. I enhance the oatmeal powder with ground flax seeds and teff. Dinner is a variety of things, but chicken, sweet potatoes, and peas are pretty common. Just about all of her food is hand-made by yours truly.
  • She can pick up small cubes of soft fruit or vegetables and feed herself. We sometimes give her cheerios after dinner if it seems like she’s still hungry.
  • We all eat dinner together when we can, although Ruby wants to eat at 5:30/as soon as Kate comes home from work, so if Kate wants to exercise before dinner I’ll feed her ahead of time. Kate and I take turns handling the spoon while the other person eats.
  • Ruby has a long list of foods that she’s tried, and has enjoyed most of them. We’re still avoiding the big allergens like peanuts, tomatoes, egg whites, citrus, and wheat. Wheat is due to come off that list pretty soon, though.

First Word Day

Although there’s still some debate about whether or not it actually “counts”, for the past few days Ruby has been saying “Mama”.  Not just babbling “ma ma ma ma ma”, which she’s been doing for a while, but a much more definite “muh-mah” that we’re calling her first word.  She says it when Kate is around, usually, although I’ve also heard it out of context.

On a related note, she also says “ba-ba” when I’m around, and we think those are her attempts to say “Papa”.

Of course we realize that we’re projecting a lot of context onto what could very well be just coincidental babbling, but you’ve got to call it at some point — and so today is Ruby’s First Word Day.