Categories
Ruthie

Ruthie’s Getting Glasses

So, Ruthie’s 4 year old well child checkup was last month, and she got a 20/30 on the vision test, and they told me ‘not to worry about it’. So, of course remembering the results that Zoe got (20/40) I was thinking, “Okay she’s got bad eyesight too, gonna go take her in as well.” Had an eye appointment with her on Tuesday and lo and behold, I was correct. Thankfully her eyesight like Zoe’s could be worse.. both girls are extremely farsighted, and Zoe’s eyes are okay, although one of Ruthie’s eyes slightly drifts in when the other one is closed.

And of course, there’s the ever important “Which glasses do we get?” Question to answer.

"I'm not amused!"

Obviously not these.. as you can tell she was NOT a fan of these glasses!

"That's MUCH better!"

She loved these, but unfortunately they were $10 over the price point where our Insurance would cover them. She looks so stinking cute in these! However the frames were just a smidgen too big for her face.

"I'm a cool cat with these glasses on."'

These are the glasses we ended up getting. They are purple, which is currently her favorite color, they were within the price range for our insurance to cover, which is what I love, and they fit her face perfectly! Of course, she wasn’t taking too kindly to the fact she couldn’t take them home, but hopefully when we pick them up she’ll be happy again.

I am finding some mild amusement due to the fact that the girls need glasses like I do; however I’m severely nearsighted so it’s the opposite vision problem. I also have mild astigmatism in my right eye due to Ruthie gouging out my cornea back in 2009. Jeff and I have discussed taking Oscar in to get his eyes checked in a few months, but for now he seems to be okay.

Categories
Holiday Oscar Ruthie Zoe

It’s been a while!

>Man, it’s been AGES since I blogged! Things have been kind of busy around here since I had Oscar.

So, let’s see… um, Oscar is growing very well, and is doing wonderful. He’s a great eater and sleeper and has such a laid back, chill personality; very much like Jeff!

Something we did with the girls was stick a giraffe on their heads on their first Independence Day. Obviously, we had to do this with Oscar too!

He looks rather bemused actually. As opposed to Zoe’s ANGRY face:

Or Ruthie’s “I like this!” face:

I love all three of these pictures; I plan on maybe getting a picture frame that holds three pictures to put all of these pictures together. But the various reaction between the three just shows me how different they really are.

Being a mom to three kids is honestly MUCH easier for me than having two kids. I’m not entirely sure how or why; and that will probably change once Zoe starts Kindergarten; because then for a few hours of the day for 5 days a week, I’ll just have two kids at home. It’s going to be hard on Ruthie I think more than anyone else since Zoe’s been a constant in her life since the day she was born, and while he’s cute and fun, Oscar doesn’t do much. I’ve been feeling content with the number of kids I have, and I KNOW for certainty my family is now complete; everyone that’s supposed to be here are here.

Oddly enough, cloth diapering is going much easier than I had anticipated. There’s been a few hiccups along the way, but I’m seriously thinking to myself; “This is way easy and so much better than having to worry about disposable diapers!

I’m getting closer and closer to my driver’s license! I’ve done 3 observations with the driving school and one driving time; I have two more scheduled for next week. And after discussion and weighing the pros and cons we’ve decided that I will take the driving test with a private company versus going to the DLD/DMV. I’m hoping this will all be done by August 1st; however I’m not entirely sure if that will happen. At the very latest, I need to have it by August 10th; that’s the day that kindergarten registration is. That’s in three weeks; I KNOW I can do it!

Once life catches up I’ll be able to blog more.

Categories
Ruthie

Ruthie’s Birth Story

>So, unlike Zoe, I knew my due date with Ruthie, which was Valentine’s Day of 2008.  So, the day before Ruthie was born (she was born on Saturday, February 9th, 2008), Jeff and I decided at the last minute to make plans to celebrate Valentine’s Day the Saturday before by going out to lunch and then catching a movie; I don’t remember what movie we were planning to see now, since we didn’t actually know when she was coming. I had called up Jeff’s mom to babysit Zoe and she said, “Well, I’d be more than happy to watch her, but I don’t think you’re gonna actually make it.” My response of course was to “Don’t tell me that!” and then she chuckled and we hung up.

So apparently, my mother in law was right, since we were getting ready, and my water broke roughly quarter after 12. We were running behind, and she had just barely called Jeff about 5-10 minutes before. Jeff had reassured her that we were getting ready, and to expect us to be there within the next 30 minutes. I think my water had broken right when he hung up. I remember I was standing up and reaching to grab my purse off of the couch when I felt something pop and fluid leaking. I then said loudly to Jeff, “You need to call your mom back!” and he said “Why?” to which I responded, “My water broke!” He then called her back, and I do remember there was laughing involved. Probably had to do with her prediction. I did think it was somewhat funny, but I was more concerned about getting a change of clothes and getting Zoe ready even faster. We get into the car, and on the way to the hospital, I called my parents to let them know my water had broken and that we were on the way to the hospital. We get there at about 12:45, and the lady at the desk asked if I was sure that’s what happened. I explained to her that this was my second pregnancy, and that my water broke with my first child and so I knew 100% that’s what happened. Then that’s when I found out that I was not the first to get admitted that day for my water breaking, I was lucky number 8! Apparently, favorable atmospheric conditions will cause your water to break if you’re close to your due date; in this case, there has to be a drop in barometric pressures. When I got to the hospital, I was 3 plus cm dilated, and I was 80% effaced.

After we get there, we just sit around and wait. My inlaws showed up at about 3:00pm to sit with us at the hospital, mostly because they were bored and had nothing to do. I got to 4 plus at about the same time they showed up, and stayed there for quite a while. Then at about 5 pm, before the pain got too bad, I requested an epidural. That was done right, and this time I was able to move my legs around sleep for some time to get energy, since I hadn’t eaten anything for breakfast, and obviously not for lunch. I HATE the policy of no eating while a woman is in labor, and it didn’t help that Jeff went to Wendy’s and was eating FOOD IN FRONT OF ME. And let’s not forget my favorite fast food place is WENDY’S. Then at about 7pm, they -being everyone else but me- decided that Zoe needed to be taken to my sister in law’s house and I started bawling. I don’t know why, but the idea of Zoe not being there upset me more than anything else. So, my father in law took her over, and at that point I was about 5 cm dilated. And then things really took off from there. They were probably expecting me to take much longer than I did.

My father in law got back at about 8:15, and at that time, I was dilated to nine plus! They quickly called the doctor, and while I was waiting for him, I apparently went from 9 plus to fully dilated; all I had to do was sit straight up and rock side to side a few times. It was quite funny because while we were waiting for the doctor to show up, we were making jokes and every time I started laughing, I was feeling Ruthie sliding down the birth canal a bit more. While waiting for the doctor, the nurse asked if we wanted to know what color hair she had, and we said yes (of course!!!) so she had me to a little push, and that’s when we found out that Ruthie had black hair. At this point I had crowned without actually doing any major pushing. It was amazing knowing that my body was doing this all on it’s own without me doing any work!

My OB got there at about 8:20 and got prepped and ready and the nurse let him know I was about to laugh her right out, and to hurry up! So then when he was completely done prepping, he had me start pushing. I pushed through 3 contractions, and she was out at 8:34. She probably would have been out sooner but after the first two contractions that came almost back to back, the third one was about 4 minutes after the first two. So we literally just stood -well I was laying down of course- and waited. The nurse did try to correct my pushing, but the doctor told her that I was doing just fine, and to not worry about it.

She was 7 pounds 6 ounces -6.2, but they rounded down to 6- and 20 inches long. And because she had come out so quickly, her head was perfectly normal shaped; absolutely no conehead. Zoe had one, but Ruthie didn’t. In addition, I tore in two areas. The first tear was in my perineum, and was just a first degree tear. The second place well… if you invision the area being a clock, I tore between 12 and 1.. my labia minora tore, and I had to get stitched up there. The tearing looked really bad for about 6 months, but after the swelling went down, you can’t tell that there was ever a tear that occurred in that area. I really think the fact that Ruthie came so quickly, and because her head was perfectly shaped it stretched me a little more than I could take, and that’s why I tore in two places. And I don’t think I mentioned Zoe’s APGAR scores, but they were also the exact same as Ruthie’s.. 8 and then 9. It’s so odd that they were both the same size and had the same APGAR scores!

What was so different with Ruthie’s birth is that it was way less stressful. I had an amazing nurse who refused to rotate patients, because she wanted to stay with us until the very end. Also, the atmosphere was just so wonderful.. we were cracking jokes, and laughing, and instead of treating Zoe like she was an annoyance, she gave her a hat and blanket and a little pink tub for Zoe’s doll that she had brought along; she even gave Zoe a newborn diaper to put on the doll! It was also great to have my OB deliver Ruthie, versus having another doctor do so. We think that he lived close to the hospital because from the time he was called to the time he showed up, there was maybe 10 minutes of waiting. And of course when I got my epidural, I specifically requested that they give me fresh batteries due to what happened with Zoe, and so they obliged, I remember watching the anesthesiologist unwrapping a battery pack and putting into the machine.

I think the best part though was when she came out, they put her right on my chest and gave me towels and things to help clean her off.. a major difference between the treatment I recieved after Zoe was born. I later on found out that our nurse was given “The Nurse of the Year Award” for our hospital the year before (2007) and the anesthesiologist was named “Anesthesiologist of the Year” for our insurance group the year before as well (this is no easy feat, since we are covered by the largest insurance group in the entire state of Utah) and of course my OB was just so amazing, so I had a great team working with me. In addition, I was able to get Ruthie to nurse within half of an hour of her being born. We did have issues with her having an over-vigorous latch, but with patience, and some time with the lactation consultant, I was able to learn how to help correct it; and was able to correct it after we went home. I ended up breastfeeding Ruthie until 2 weeks before her second birthday; however it was not self weaning; we had to abruptly stop her from nursing; something she did NOT want to do, but after 2 days of being firm about it she stopped asking to nurse. I’m grateful that I was able to have a fantastic nursing relationship with both girls.

Obviously, there were major differences between the deliveries of the girls. And I think this time around for Oscar, I want to do things a bit differently.

  • It was pretty frustrating just laying there.. and laying there. I had brought some embroidery to work on, but that bores me pretty quickly, so I didn’t do much with it. I want to get up and MOVE. Walk around the maternity ward or even my room, and maybe even sitting and bouncing on a yoga/birthing ball. My SIL did that with her last labor and delivery, so I want to ask her how that helped her. Even if my water breaks, I think I can still walk and move, provided I have adequate protection from the fluid leaking out and leaving puddles; most likely those disposable mesh undies and pads they give to moms to catch the postpartum bleeding.
  • I want to try and go natural without an epidural. My pains with Ruthie never got bad, and I honestly think I could have stuck it out. I plan on asking my OB what’s available for short term pain management, and I’ll see if they even have nitrous oxide available at my hospital. I know it’s currently only available at two hospitals in the US, but I’ll never know if I don’t ask! And hey, I might even start a cool trend in my area. I think if I go into the hospital with the mindset of “I can do this!” then I CAN DO IT!
Categories
Holiday Me Ruthie Zoe

The Holidays Are Now Over

>Which means the closing of another year.  Each year between Christmas and probably the first week after the New Year, I always sit back and reflect on the past year, and contemplate the upcoming one.  Unfortunately I have not blogged much this year for various reasons, but I’ll try to blog and highlight the ups -and some downs- of the past year.

First and foremost, due to Jeff receiving a full month paid vacation from working at eBay for 5 years, we were able to drive across country to visit my family in Virginia, Indiana and Illinois. Seeing my family was great, and I was able to spend time with friends and family who I have dearly missed.  And while visiting was wonderful and I was able to share some of my childhood experiences with the girls, it truly made me realize and appreciate living here in Utah. While I will always have fond memories of growing up in Virginia, I can’t go back to live there ever again.  I don’t belong there anymore. In a sense, I felt detached in a way from the whole experience. I’m not saying the trip was negative in anyway or we didn’t have fun or we regretted it, but it really gave me a sense of confirmation that I belong here in Utah. The trip also made me evaluate myself as a person and as a parent.  I admittedly crossed the line a few times when losing my temper, and I saw myself in a light that I never wanted to see myself in. I have resolved to be a better parent, and I have noticed some change and success with this. But it has been an emotionally trying year in that regards, but I can say that I have improved my demeanor, but I still have a long way to go. One of the brighter sides of our road trip is that Jeff and I had A LOT to talk about on the drive to VA and on the way home.. in a sense I think it brought us closer together as a couple.  And of course, because it’s sooo rare that a picture of the two of us is taken (I think more pictures of Bigfoot exist than pictures of the two of us together), I’m sharing a picture of us from his work Christmas party:

Aren’t we adorable?!

The other highlight was getting pregnant for the third time in July.. of course we didn’t confirm the pregnancy until August! The miracle and blessing of being able to get pregnant is still just as fresh and marvelous with Oscar as it was with Zoe and of course Ruthie too. This past year or so, I’ve had family and friends who have lost their pregnancies at various stages, and even one friend who lost her child just mere days after the baby was born. There’s no words to describe the sorrow and heartbreak of these situations.. while I’ve never experienced the losses they’ve gone through, that doesn’t mean my heart still didn’t break when hearing about each loss. Each one of the women are all fantastic mothers, and it’s really not fair they’ve had to deal with the losses they’ve dealt with. I admire each and every one of them for their resolve. I’m grateful for every kick, poke and yes even the muscle pulling and popping because I know what the alternative means.  This pregnancy has been a double blessing, because I have been able to finally get answers for all of the inexplicable aches and pains and weird falls and other episodes that I’ve experienced for most of my life with the diagnosis of my Rheumatoid Arthritis. I’ve got a friend who has it, and I contacted her and she gave me an emotional boost and some advice as well as the title of a book that she recommends reading; I’m going to have to buy it soon.

I’m also grateful for Jeff finally agreeing to cloth diaper Oscar; in fact we got the diapers in the mail on Christmas Eve!  As weird as it sounds for being grateful for extra loads of laundry, I really feel like this is the best thing that I can do for him as well as the environment. My only regret is not having the resolve and education to do it with Zoe and Ruthie; but at least I’ll be able to do it for him.  Jeff really is an amazingly supportive husband and friend; there’s not enough words or sentences for me to express how grateful I truly am for him being in my life. He has made me a better person, just by accepting me for who I am and of course instilling good habits in me.. although it did take me 6 years of us being together for me to stop biting my fingernails. *wink*  Here’s the box of diapers…

In addition to the blue and green diapers, I also have red and yellow. And one crazy lime green one.

This past year too the girls have grown and changed so much! Zoe’s now five, and it’s kind of scary/thrilling knowing she’s going to start school next year! We had her birthday party at the Sandy Living Aquarium, and she LOVED it, and in addition, I’m so grateful to all of our friends and family who took the time out of their schedules to come and make the party more exciting for us.  Ruthie has also grown in leaps and bounds, and her personality of sweet, spunky and a bit sassy is starting to show. While it is at times trying, I’m glad that she’s developing her own personality. The girls started sharing a room not too long after we got back home from our trip, and they both LOVE it! The girls will pick on each other and tease each other, but they really and truly do love each other.. and I’m so glad that they are able to share that experience with each other. Both girls are extremely smart! Ruthie’s learning how to count; and when I mean count I mean she’ll see a number of items, and she’ll stop saying numbers when she’s run out of things to count.. no recitation of numbers just for the sake here! Ruthie’s also recognizing most letters of the alphabet. She’s a bit later than Zoe on this -who knew the entire alphabet by sight 2 months after her second birthday- but it’s still great! I need to sit down with her and figure out exactly which letters she recognizes and which ones she doesn’t, but I’m pretty sure she recognizes most of the alphabet. And of course, Zoe’s learned how to recite the numbers from 1 all the way to 100! When we’re in the car for longish drives, and she’s still awake, she’ll start reciting the numbers.  She gets stuck on 40, 50, and 60 but with hints she’ll get through them just fine.  And another thing she’s taken up doing is ADDITION. She’ll sit in the car and stare at her fingers and then randomly say something like, “Does 2 and 5 make 7?” and then we’ll say yes and then ask her other ways to make the number that she asked about.  We’re trying to teach her how to read, but because I’m not sure how I learned, and Jeff’s not consistent with sitting down with her and trying to teach her how to read phonetically, it’s slow going.  But she does know how to read a handful of words, and she’s recently become very interested in asking how words are spelled… in fact last week when we were planning our grocery list, she got a pencil and a paper and made a list all on her own! She also can recognize both uppercase and lowercase letters. Zoe aside from not really being able to read has pretty much already exceeded the requirements of kindergarten in the sense of the goals they are supposed to reach by the end of the year; so it’ll be interesting at the very least when she’s tested for entrance into Kindergarten next August. Here’s the girls on Christmas by the way.. it’s the most recent picture of the two of them together:

They are fairies!


Next week will mark the one year anniversary of us having Casey. I can’t even begin to express how.. interesting it’s been with him in our lives.  It’s certainly enriched it for sure!  He’s a GREAT dog.. even when he gets stuck on the roof at my inlaws’ house or runs up the street and comes home with a rawhide bone he didn’t have before -for the record he only did that ONCE-. We don’t have a fenced in yard… but that doesn’t matter. We can let him out by himself and he won’t run off -well he’s done that twice in the last couple of weeks but he always came home after calling for him- and he ALWAYS stays in the yard when we’re outside. He’ll find himself a patch of ground and lay out and just watch and observe, and of course he’ll play if we got his stuffed duck or a few tennis balls outside.  He NEVER dug in the garden, and with the exception of digging a very small hole once this summer to bury a milkbone, he doesn’t dig up the yard or anything. I think the truest test of his character was back in November, when he somehow sustained a 5-7 inch gash on his back/side that went all the way down to his muscle. We’re unsure how it happened, but we think he was trying to get under the chain link at my inlaws’ house, and it went unnoticed because their female had tended to it by licking it and it had started to close up and scab over. We didn’t realize anything had happened until the next day (Monday) when Ruthie had leaped on him and reopened the wound.. and shockingly all he did was cry out in pain, look at her and walked off.  I didn’t think anything of it, until Zoe said “Mommy, Casey stinks.” and then about a minute later “Casey has something on his fur.”  Looking at it from about 12 feet away it looked like he had rolled in poop -something he’s never actually done, but there’s always a first time for everything- and it wasn’t until I saw the pink flesh of his muscle that I knew something was wrong. I told Jeff he had to come home IMMEDIATELY and I took a picture and sent it to him via picture messaging. One stressful trip to the vet and $400 later, he was put under for surgery, stitched up and given a good bill of health. What was alarming though was the rate of necrosis.. the vet said that it was consistent with a week old stab wound.. despite the fact that the injury happened within the previous 12-16 hours of him getting medical attention.  He is probably the best dog to have around kids, because the girls are constantly pulling and laying and just generally rough with them and he hasn’t ever really snapped or bit them.. and I think most people say that about their dogs, but when the dog has a big gash on them and a kid that weighs about 30 pounds comes flying and flopping on them, even the most mild mannered dog will retaliate by snapping at them or even biting them.  The vet was shocked when we told her what his reaction was.. or lack of one really.  Jeff and his dad inspected the chain link fence that he was trying to get under, and they found a VERY sharp piece of fence that we think he cut himself on. When the weather gets better, they will be going and clipping the fence to make sure it doesn’t happen again with Casey or any other dog.  I’d insert a picture.. but I’ll spare you from regurgitating your last meal/snack that you ate; it looked pretty bad.

And I feel horrible about slacking on the pregnancy belly pictures.. honestly I haven’t been feeling well enough to do it, but I FINALLY had Jeff take on on Christmas! Hope you enjoy! and of course, I’ll be taking more.

I promise I’m not grumpy, just EXTREMELY tired. This pic was taken on Christmas after all! I’m 24 weeks and 5 days along in this picture.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the update with pictures! Hope you guys had a good holiday and that you’ll have a GREAT New Year!

Categories
Ruthie

It’s About Time!

>For what you ask?

RUTHIE IS NOW WALKING!  She turned 14 months old yesterday, and decided today that walking was cool, so she started walking around.

She’s still not doing it full time, but she’s finally walking around by herself.  Eventually she’ll get the hang of it and start walking full time.

This is fantastic, because I was starting to get worried.  She’s a bit behind with certain things when I compare her to Zoe’s development, but I have to realize the girls are two seperate beings, and that they are VERY different than each other.  I suppose on the flip side, she’s done firsts earlier than Zoe did, particularly with saying Mama.

Anyway, I’m EXCITED!  Now all she has to do is reach 20 pounds so we can put her in a forward facing carseat.  I was lucky enough to be given a gift card by a friend to Babies R Us, and with what I was able to purchace a nicer carseat for Ruthie a few months ago.  Mucho loves to my friends R&T H!!!

Categories
Ruthie

A Year Ago…

>I gave birth to our second child, Ruthie Edith Hayford at 8:36 pm.  It’s been an amazing year and filled with fun, sleepless nights and wonder to have watched her grow.  Anyway, we had her party Saturday, mostly for conveinence.  Here are the pictures!

Here is the banner I made using my Cricut machine.  It was supposed to say “Happy Birthday Ruthie” but I left one of the i’s at home, so we had to improvise by carefully cutting a hyphen out of one of the Ts and putting “B-day” instead which was fine.  I was just gonna leave it as “Happy Brthday Ruthie” but it was too noticable.  Jeff is the genius behind the hypen.

Here’s her cupcake shaped birthday cake and extra cupcakes.  I created her birthday invitations (again with the cricut machine) and put a cupcake on them, so I wanted to crossover the theme into her cake.  Just letting you knwo the pan is created by Wilton and while it’s cute and adorable, it’s a pain in the butt to work with.  Don’t use it if you have less than 20 minutes to pop out of the pan and frost it.

And here’s a bunch of pictures of the present opening portion of the party.  The gun was given to us by our friends Cooper and Ngaire.  Cooper explains, “Every kid should have a toy gun.”.. I guess that opinion comes with the occupation of being a police officer.  These aren’t all of the presents she got, but just a few of them.

Here’s the singing portion of the party.  Jeff was not standing at a good angle, but you can still tell she’s kind of thinking “WHAT is going on here?!?”

And here’s some pictures of her enjoying a cupcake!  The Colonial Sanders goatee was just too cute!

Categories
Ruthie Zoe

Growth Update!

>It totally slipped my mind to post this last week, but the girls had a joint checkup last Wednesday; Zoe for her three year checkup, and Ruthie for her nine month checkup!  It’s amazing how time has flown with two kids, I thought it would slow down, but in all honesty, it’s sped up.  And I’m SO glad that they did NOT get any shots, what a relief that was.  Anyway, Zoe first.

Zoe Elizabeth at (almost) three years:
Height: 37.5 inches (50th percentile)
Weight: 34 pounds (75th to 90th percentile)

Now I honestly don’t know if it’s because I’m just short or other kids are shorter, but I’ve honestly not met a child as large as Zoe at her age.  For example, the only other girl child I’m around constantly is my future sister in law’s daughter Cirena, but Cirena is almost four.  She’s not that much taller, if not shorter than Zoe, and is a wispy little thing.  So are most kids under the average for their weight and gender, or is Zoe really just average and I never really noticed before because they weren’t my kids?  Zoe is a solid and sturdy little kid, even if she does trip alot.  But like our friend Cooper said one day when he came over, “When does she start school again?”  Uh, not for another three years Cooper.

Ruthe Edith at (a tad over) nine months:
Height: 27.75 inches (50th percentile)
Weight: 17 pounds, 11 ounces (25th to 50th percentile)

Well, this is when the comparision starts between the girls.  I honestly don’t remember Zoe’s weight all too well at nine months, but I’m pretty sure she was at least 29 inches.  Zoe was a longer baby, but when I put her old 18 month old pants on Ruthie (Zoe wore them at a year) there was less drag on the pants when Ruthie wears them, so her length must be in her legs, but Zoe’s must be in the torso, something she got from Jeff’s side of the family; since most of my height -what I have of it- is in my legs.  Ruthie didn’t gain much weight from her last appointment, but since her last appointment, she’s learned how to crawl; which would indicate toning of muscles and lost of some fat.  She’s still chubby, and does have rolls in her legs and arms; however she does NOT have anywhere near the ammount of rolls that Zoe had.  The doctor didn’t worry about it all, he said it’s quite normal.

Anyway, speaking of three year olds, we’re having Zoe’s birthday party tomorrow!  I’m so excited.  We’re having the party here at our apartment, and because of that, we’re just keeping it in the family this year, even then, I’m not sure how well our apartment can hold roughly 18 people.. but we’ll manage!  Instead of buying or making invitations to mail out though, I just sent an email.  Here’s what the invitation looks like:

Obvously, our address isn’t included.  I had the foresight to realize I’d most likely be posting it here to share, and I don’t want my address publicly floating over the internet.  The rest of the email had our address, directions on how to find our apartment and even a small map!

And because I know you’re wondering, that’s a sticker of the earth on her nose.

Categories
Holiday Ruthie Zoe

Part Two: Halloween Pictures!

>Well, here’s part two today!  As promised, I got some awesome Halloween pictures.  It was a really nice -for October in Utah- night out; however it was sprinkling outside but it wasn’t that bad.  It really brought out the fall smell.

Here are the pictures!

 
We went to our friends house up in Kaysville, and here’s a picture of the girls sitting on their fireplace.
Here’s a closeup of the girls.  It’s really hard to get them to cooperate at the same time.  Still a cute picture even if Zoe’s making a funny face.
Here’s the girls with our friends’ two kids with ours.  Ripley is a purple dragon and Rafe is a pirate.  BTW, (Ripley’s a girl, in case you couldn’t tell)
Here are Zoe and Rafe holding hands.  Cute picture!  Rafe was so cool, he needed TWO trick or treating bags/buckets.
 
Here’s Zoe in the ‘trick or treating’ zone.  She was having alot of fun. Unfortunately the picture isn’t the greatest one.
And here’s Ruthie.  This is what she did pretty much the whole time we were trick or treating.  Trick or treating takes alot out on a little one…
Categories
Ruthie Zoe

Vandalism or Art?

>

Zoe LOVES to color.  Unfortunately, we haven’t had the foresight to buy her any coloring books or any new crayons or colored pencils lately since she breaks the crayons everytime we give them to her.  She took my prismacolor colored pencils a while ago and was intent on coloring with them, and after we firmly told her to give them to me, the face she pulled was HEARTBREAKING.  She was just so sad and upset I teared up looking at her.  So I’ve been letting her play with my stamps and she’s pretty good about keeping them in one place and not getting ink all over the place.  She also wanted to color the stamped images she did so I found some broken crayons in various places and gave them to her.  And well, last week when I wasn’t looking she colored all over the blinds leading out to the patio.  I caught her again doing it and after telling her not to do it, she got the same look on her face, which has strengthen my resolve to get her some type of coloring book or something next time we’re at the store.  Anyway, Zoe decided to take pictures of her ‘artwork’.
 
Here’s a zoom out of what she did.  I should mention she somehow marked ALL of the blinds.  I should mention that ZOE took this picture as well as the one below!
 
 And here’s a closeup.  I know I need to clean it off, but at the same time, I don’t have the heart to.  I’m a weird person like that.
I should also announce that Ruthie now has TWO TEETH!  The first one broke out around August 26th, and the second broke out between Sunday, September 14th, and Monday, September 15th.  She was EXTREMELY cranky that night and by the morning her tooth was poking out.  Here’s the first picture of her with just one tooth.
 
What a pretty smile!  She was so happy since this was the first picture.  I tried a few more, but she kept getting grumpier and grumpier everytime that flash went off.

This one was just taken a few minutes ago while Jeff and Zoe were at Hollywood getting some new movies.  You can see her two teeth easily!
And I don’t know if you can tell in these pictures, but her hair has really lightened up since she was born.  She’s also got a good head of fuzzy hair, which is WAY more than Zoe did at this age. Zoe was still a baldie until after her first birthday.  We’re not sure what color Ruthie’s hair will be a this point, but it’s pretty obvious it’s not black, but it’s not blonde either. It’s taking on a reddish hue so who knows.. I may get my red headed baby after all!
Unfortunately, I don’t have any recent pictures of Zoe since she likes to take pictures versus having pictures taken of her.  However here are two that have been taken in the last month or so.
 
Here’s one she took of her feet.  Zoe has an unusual talent with taking pictures of random stuff and them coming out well.  I guess she wanted a picture of her pink toenails.  She’s extremely obsessed with toenail polish and fingernail polish; if it’s chipped she freaks out and wants me to reapply polish for her.
 
Here’s one of Zoe vegging out in front of the TV.  I’m not sure what she’s watching, but I love how she’s munching on shredded carrots.  She’ll go into the fridge, get something out and eat it.  I usually have to remind her to put it back when she’s done though, but she LOVES when we have fruit and stuff for her to eat.  She’ll request candy if we have it but usually it’s fruit or veggies of some type.  Zoe has a well balanced diet; people are completely amazed at what she’ll eat especially when their kids eat very little stuff or are just stuck on the good ole “chicken nuggets and cheetos with juice” diet.
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Ruthie Zoe

Checkup Time!

>Ruthie was supposed to have her 6 month check up about two weeks ago, but the Pediatrician had to go out of town so it got rescheduled to today.

She wouldn’t lie still on the scale, so I had to sit her up, which she liked.  she weighed in at 16 pounds, 15.4 ounces.  Then we laid her down on the examination table and she was measured at 27.67 inches long!  Dr. A commented on how big she is; he said she’s about the size of a 9 month old!  What a BIG GIRL!  She’s sitting up on her own now -we have to put her into a sitting position since she can’t get herself sitting yet- and last week she started saying MAMA!!  Of course, she usually says it when she’s mad, but sometimes she’ll randomly say it.  And when I look at her she smiles and giggles.  She’s not saying it all the time, but that’s still exciting.  Anyway here’s some pictures of the girls.

This is Zoe at the park by Jeff’s parents’ house on Sunday, August 17th.  She’s going up the playground equipment on her own; Jeff’s off camera though waiting at the top.  I just love how she’s climbing with confidence.

 Here’s Zoe on the swing.  After a bad incident last fall before Ruthie was born, she seems to have forgotten about nearly falling out of the swing and having a blast.

Here’s Ruthie sitting up big on Jeff’s parents’ front lawn, she’s looking off camera at Wendy.  I love when small babies look at the camera, but some of the better pictures are when they are looking off camera.

This is just adorable.  I finally got Ruthie to look at the camera and she’s scowling at me.

And here’s Ruthie and Jeff having a moment!  I’m glad I was able to capture a real moment, not a created one.