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.

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.

First, the Republican party deserved to lose. Had Obama really been more moderate it would have been a landslide. The fact that it wound up as close as it did spoke volumes to the mistrust he garnered on the Right. I don’t think too many were voting for McCain as voting against Obama. Why did Republicans lose?

Spending. The cornerstone of Conservatism is small government. You tax only what you need to raise and that’s that. But Republicans with 100% control expanded government by some 40%. Most egregious was Ted Steven’s Bridge to Nowhere and Bush’s Medicare Prescription benefit. Both outraged conservatives. Bush may fear God, but sometimes I wonder if he ever feared his constituency.

McCain also was not a conservative. I still have not forgiven him for the awful Gang of 14 decision. Or McCain-Feingold. Or McCain-Kennedy. The fact that Joe Lieberman endorsed him didn’t help him one bit. Without the solidly conservative Palin, McCain would have lost even more than he did.

Second, Obama is in a historic position. The black community has languished from people like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton pulling out the race card every chance they got. Blacks overwhelmingly felt oppressed, even though there was no evidence of such a thing. Obama’s win puts it to bed. I really think Jackson’s tears on Tuesday were because he knows he’s out of a job with nobody to whip up into a frenzy about social injustice. Obama could do a world of good. One of his few bright spots in the campaign was when he noted that fathers need to play a role in their childrens’ lives. Every time the negative aspects of “black culture” are brought up he has been quick to decry them. The gangsta mentality. The illegitimacy rate of black children. Not since Bill Cosby in the 80s has a black man so embodied what could be right for a change. He is successful, appears to be a good father and is now the de-facto leader of the black community. Let’s hope and pray that he channels the enthusiasm around him into real change that I’ve watched a desperate Bill Cosby try to effect for the last few years. This kind of change I certainly applaud.

Third, Republicans appear to have held onto enough Senate seats to prevent a fillibuster-proof Senate. It’s not enough to where a moderate’s departure won’t hurt, but if Mitch McConnell can hang tough on the major issues then we have some hope that the Left won’t be passing their agenda without any sort of balance.

This brings me to the less pleasant part of our election. Read on only if you want the less rosy part of the next four years. This season is going to hurt. A lot. If you count yourself a Conservative and voted for Obama then you need to pay attention. This is not any sort of attack on anyone. I’m not angry with anyone who voted for Obama but there is a duty to make sure that some of his campaign promises never see the light of day.

The Freedom of Choice Act - Even if you’re on the fence about abortion, this bill should give you pause. This puts into Federal law the Roe v Wade ruling. It doesn’t just stop there

• Partial Birth Abortion would be legalized again
• Children born alive from failed abortion attempts would be allowed to die again
• The Hyde Ammendment, which prohibits using Federal funds for abortions, would be repealed
• All late term abortions would be legal
• The conscience exemption for physicians would be repealed, meaning that doctors would have to perform abortions or lose their license

I cannot stress enough how important it is that this bill is defeated. Obama has said this is a top priority for him as President and that he would sign the law if presented it (he was it’s sponsor in the Senate).

The Fairness Doctrine - Probably should be called the “Get rid of Rush Limbaugh” doctrine. Basically, the Left has not been able to get their foot in the door with talk radio. Air America (Al Franken’s venture) failed due to poor ratings. Like him or not, Rush, Hannity, and many others are quite popular on talk radio. Stations don’t air what doesn’t bring in money. So why do we need this other than to stick it to talk radio?

Taxes -  I hope you didn’t buy the 95% tax cut line (polls indicate few people did). Odds are your taxes are going up. Even if they don’t go up personally (which I find unlikely), you’ll feel their effects somewhere. There is no such thing as “taxing the rich”. It’s also important to note that while Obama has some pull now, it’s Pelosi and the House that set these sorts of things. Pelosi is definitely going to aim for higher taxes and our economy can ill afford them. Worse is that the Bush tax cuts expire in 2010. So nobody has to even vote to raise your taxes, they’ll go up automatically.

Courts - This one’s a done deal, sadly. Obama admires the Liberal bloc of SCOTUS. I’m betting that Breyer and Souter retire in the next four years, confident that they will be replaced by reliable liberals. While Obama may agree on the Second Ammendment ruling this summer, the people he puts in there would be certain to overturn it if it ever came before them again. It’s a pity because Bush got the high court right in his appointments.

Above all, pray. Pray for Obama. Pray for the Liberals. God did an amazing thing in California with Prop 8 (gay marriage) passing. We are not abandoned and we need to remember that. After you pray, reach out to your Congressional reps.

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.

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.

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.’

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!

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.