Alabama Tracks

Just this morning….

While she was eating a bowl of cereal with a spoon, I asked her if it was “yummy”.  “Yblem Yblem” she said.  Normally she would say “Its good”.  Not today.

Last night….

I went to check on her and make sure she was covered up and in bed around 2:30.  I found her head and upper torso under the bed with only her waist on down sticking out.  I literally had to pull her out and get her back in bed.

Just now…

The news was covering local dignitaries ringing the Salvation Army bells.  They showed a picture of Walmart.  Ruthie immediately said “Shopping!”.

She makes me laugh.  She makes me smile.  Her vocabulary and cognitive abilities are blossoming in lightening speed.

I’ve been a little bit busier these days with the start of my new part time work from home job.  I’m doing data entry for my old employer - an anesthesia billing company.  I specifically bill for a few hospitals in the West Tennessee area.  I work about 4 hours a day, most of the time when the kids are sleeping.  It definitely cuts down on my fun time.  So as such, here are a few snippets and pictures of our days.

Most importantly, Samuel combat crawled this morning!  Things are about to get interesting.  I’ll be vacuuming more for sure.

The other day I gave Ruthie some premie diapers to play with instead of the ones they are currently wearing.  I figured every girl had to diaper their baby doll.  All went well until we put her to bed that night.  Getting out of bed has been a nightly deal and one that we strive to curtail.  I regress.  We checked on her one evening in an attempt to get her back in bed rather than playing and Joel found two of her premie diapers in complete shreds on the floor.  Note:  The gel in the diapers makes the dry fibers stick to everything.  I made her clean up every last piece.

A few nights after the previous episode, Joel went in to check on her and found about 20 or so wet wipes on the floor and in the trashcan.  Why the child thinks she needs to pull them all out is beyond me.

Samuel’s 6th tooth has made a partial entrance in the last week.

Both kids have had sinus crud since Saturday.  Sleeping has been sporadic as well as eating.  Attitudes have been all over the map.

Chickens are all the rage in our house with Ruthie.  I can’t wait for her to collect eggs and play with Momga’s chickens during Thanksgiving.

Samuel is saying “mama” and “dada” now.  I initially thought he was just starting to play with sounds but yesterday it dawned on me that he knew exactly what he was saying.  He says it on occasion when you approach to pick him up.

And now for the pictures.  Some are not the greatest but I wanted you to see either Samuel’s green eyes, his chompers, Ruthie’s cheesy toothy grin, or them playing together.  Having them so close has been difficult but I love to see them playing together like they are in the laundry basket.  Enjoy.

If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, it must be …..

And because Brother apparently has come down with an ear infection, he has felt puny all day.  We didn’t dress him up as a Peanut and thus he stayed attached to Mommy.  Earlier in the day we put a wash rag on his head to help with the fever.  I just found it cute.

I never did get great pictures of Ruthie in her costume tonight.  Some of these pictures are from the day she tried on her costume.  Tonight there was just too much to see and do.  She had no problem getting the hang of Trick or Treating.  She waved and said ‘bye bye’ to everyone.  She “quacked” on command.  I was worried about this because all week she has been completely about chickens.  The hood never came off either.  She walked the majority of the way holding our hands and only the last 1000 feet did she want to sit down on the side of the road and eat her loot.  Watching her little tail waddle as she walked and in some cases ran through the yards was priceless.  I wish I had gotten it on video.  It was a good night and one that I think she truly enjoyed.

Last week seemed to be a week of milestones for my two.  Samuel cut his 5th tooth and below you’ll see the two milestones that Ruthie thought prudent to tackle.  Sorry - I have no pictures of Samuel’s 5 teeth as he doesn’t like to show them off all that much.  He prefers to try them out on mom.

She decided one day that potty training needed to happen.  She loved the idea of sitting on the potty and so we tried to make a go of it.  We were somewhat successful but she has since gotten scared of the whole thing and prefers the diapers.  The acknowledgments of the bodily processes are there so now all we are lacking is the will.

The other milestone was the transition to a big girl bed.  I went to get her up from a nap last week and found her standing in the middle of her bedroom with her diaper in hand.  Once I saw the slightly cut lip I knew that there would be many more incidents like this to happen if we didn’t just go ahead and do it.

We can’t find a toddler bed rail that will fit her bed and thus we haven’t put one on it.  She has slept 3 nights and nap times without one without falling out of the bed.  Last night, I checked on her and found her sleeping in the middle of the bedroom floor.  I moved her only to have Joel find her by the dresser later that night.  By the time morning came, her pillow was on the floor.  For naptime today, I took the pillow off the bed and she wouldn’t have it.  So, back on the bed it went.  Go figure.

Last night was the Fall Festival at church.  Here are a few pictures from the event.  They are not the best because she was too interested in what was happening.  I am still waiting the family picture they took while we were there.  I hope to be able to post it later today or tomorrow.  The kids are sporting outfits that were made by Momga with fabric purchased by Aunt Sarah.

Today was a big day.  It is the first time I have ever gotten my hair cut with the mission of donating my hair for a wig program.  Pantene has a program to make real hair wigs for adults with cancer.  They require 8 inches which usually results in short hair wigs.  So this is what that looks like with an inch to cover beyond the ponytail holder and extra trimming.

I know it is “big hair” but I asked that she accentuate the curl tonight rather than straighten it.  On the normal day, it won’t be ‘as big.’

Just a few of Brother…. which by the way, has been able to get up on all fours on several occasions here lately.

Joel’s company had a bowling party.  Ruthie was right there in the fun.  This picture was taken by one of his co-workers.  It is absolutely awesome!

We have recently started taking Ruthie to the neighborhood park.  Ruthie is my fearless and independant child.  No one had to show her how to climb the largest play set or coax her to go down the largest twisty slide.

Apparently Ruthie has taken note of the way I wear Brother in the Tentoes carrier.  She was determined to try it last night.  Once the baby was in the carrier, she decided she didn’t like the idea.

Today we put her hair up in pig tails for the first time.  I’ve been incredibly frustrated with the fact that she won’t leave her barretts in her hair.  I hope this is the solution.  She was so darn cute!

I managed to get some pretty cute shots of the kids today.  I was surprised at just how well they did together and ate the attention up.

If you can tell, Ruthie’s arms and legs are covered in red splotches.  It is a case of hives.  They do not itch, she has no fever, and for the most part, they look worse than they are.  We are treating them with some Children’s Claritan for now.

Ruthie is 21 months as of Saturday and Samuel is 6 months as of Wednesday.  Samuel has two teeth and is working on the top two.  This first picture shows the first two.  He is also sitting up on his own pretty well and rolling all over the place.  It won’t be long before he is really moving.

In no apparent order…

This is a local park that Bonnie showed me one day.  Joel and I went back towards the end of the week to give Ruthie a little play time.  There is a water splash park and a mud / dirt center there as well.  We weren’t prepared for those that day so I allow Ruthie to play in them.  I do have pictures of her in the water splash park from the previous day but I don’t think I’m going to post them.  Let me know if want to see them.

Feeding the koi was a daily event.  Going over the new repaired bridge was part of it.

And apparently I don’t give my child enough fiber.  She resorts to eating dirt.

Joel and I took his coworker, Justin, to San Francisco on Thursday to see the Golden Gate bridge.  It was an absolutely beautiful day.  The fog never rolled in.

Bonnie and I took the kids to Capitola on Wednesday for part of the day.  It was beautiful and slightly chilly.  We had lunch on the beach and chased birds throughout our entire meal.  Ruthie had never felt sand in her toes and she loved it.

Yesterday I started giving ‘Brother’ some apples for the first time.  You can see what he thought of them.