Ruby

I wanted to take a minute and capture our little Ruby as she is right now, which is a hilarious, fun though sometimes exasperating. She is beautiful. She has hazel eyes, blonde hair, fair skin and resembles Cade the very most. She talks much like Savvy did-- all the time. Our favorite line she says is, "Dat's enough." She said it to me after sledding down a  hill twice on Saturday. She said it in the middle of me singing while rocking her before putting her down for bed.  She's definitely a girl who knows what she wants.

Back in December I decided it was time to give her a trim. Her hair was still thin but getting long and it often just looked scraggly.  So I sat her on my bathroom vanity and went to work.  I'm less than awesome at cutting hair and she is a WIGGLY girl. When she whirled her head around to tell me something, I accidentally took off a chunk on one side that was much shorter than I was going for.  I didn't have the heart to make the other side quite as short. This is what resulted-- very uneven hair!

Strangely enough, to me it still looked better than the long stringy hair, even though it was painfully uneven. About a month later we were close to BYU campus and had a good 30 minutes before we needed to drop Savannah of at school.  So I seized the moment and headed to Craig's Cuts for both of the girls to get trims. It was inexpensive, quick, and they did a great job. Ruby's hair is now almost even and has some cute layering in the back. She looks so grown up!

A few weeks ago she bit through the last pacifier we had in the house. It was broken. So I just said, "Oh Ruby, I'm sorry. Oh well. That's okay!"  And she went along with it no tears or anything. This is something I had been avoiding for months. We weaned both Cade and Savvy from their pacifiers at age 2. Ruby is 2.5, so already the all-to-common, "I'm a failure as a parent" song had been playing in my head every time I let her have her pacifier at nap time and bedtime.  So when the pacifier bit the dust without so much as a whine or tear I naively thought, "Wow, this is so much easier than I thought it was going to be!"

The next several days proved to be...well.... I can hazily recollect it. I would classify it as a time of little sleep. Kids were also sick during that time so it was one of those periods of foggy survival.  It wasn't total misery, but it was far from bliss. Ruby didn't scream or cry. She just didn't sleep. A typical pacifier sucking Ruby is asleep by 7:30pm and awake by 7amish and naps between 1pm and 4.

Nice, right?

When the pacifier went, many nights she didn't fell asleep until 9 or 10pm, woke up at 2:30am, and again at 6am.  She rarely fell asleep for her nap. I know mothers with infants would chuckle at my wimpy-ness.  But as far as I was concerned, this was unacceptable. She was constantly throwing herself on the floor when life didn't go her way. While I could still find the humor in it, she wasn't happy.

So began a time of self-reflection. What was most important?  It took a nanosecond to decide a happy, well-rested mother  child was. I would give it 2 weeks and if she was still not napping I would change course and regress back to her pacifiers . By Day 10, she was still my Sleepless Wonder and I swore I was going to the store to buy a pacifier that day. I called my sister to whine to her about it slash confess I was giving in.  I did go to the store, but I forgot a pacifier (who does that?! me.) By day 14 she finally had one. So I guess I held to my 2-week rule, albeit unintentionally.

And now she is back to the same old Ruby. The only thing different? I feel no guilt when she gets her pacifier at bed time and nap time. For now, it's the best thing for me and for her. There is something to be said about being confident in your decisions complete with the absence of guilt.

Ruby loves to jump off furniture when I'm not looking, play "school" and "primary" with Savannah, and read "How Do Dinosaurs..." books. She always gives Savannah the biggest hug when we drop her off at kindergarten. The stars aligned one day and I was able to capture it. It's my favorite photo of them.

She is a Daddy's girl very, very much.  I'm already having apprehensions about the summer when Kyle is traveling. It's likely not going to go over too well with her.

Jane, one of her best friends moved away this past summer. We were so excited to see them over Christmas break. Having the two girls reunited was precious. They are two peas in a pod. It's darling to see such young girls get along so well.  They giggled non-stop, a truly beautiful sound.

A couple weeks ago Ruby surprised me.  Ruby has despised the doctor's office from the time she was 6 months. This most recent visit she turned a corner and didn't spend the entire check-up screaming for dear life. She was mildly clingy but no tears. Then when it came time for her shot all that she did was frown and whimper. That was it.

Cade and Savannah are awesome older siblings. While Cade isn't immune from the temptation of teasing (Ruby really lets him have it so it's good to know she can hold her own) he also is generous and lets her jump on his bed when he thinks Mom isn't paying attention. If he's feeling really nice, they play with his Legos. When he's gone at school I've often happened upon Ruby playing Legos in Cade's bedroom. Considering his grand amass of legos on his chest of drawers, she plays with them quite daintily and I don't have the heart to stop her. Part of me feels like I should, because somehow Cade notices a piece facing the wrong way and howls over it, assuming there are several other Legos in their wrong places, too. If he only saw how cute she was playing with his Legos -- and she doesn't even break anything. It really is quite remarkable to watch.

Oddly enough we have found that Ruby is our best dinner-time eater. She doesn't complain, she just eats pretty much whatever is put in front of her at dinner time as long as she wasn't grazing in the pantry minutes before dinner on Pirates Booty (it's happened before on a number of occasions). Savvy and Cade, they are a different story. Not sure what to do about it but I refuse to be a short-order cook. I finally decided to just start cooking things that sound good to me because it becomes exhausting trying to think of something the kids will enjoy. At least I've got Ruby!

Ruby has warmed up to this snowy weather and finally enjoys playing in it with her siblings. In fact, I'm watching the girls out my front window right now.  We are going to be sad when Savannah goes to first grade next year. They are great playtime buddies.

Ruby is quite talented at reminding me and everyone around her to be nice. If she detects some irritation in my voice she quickly says, "Don't be mean Mommy!! Be nice!"  She also doesn't like people to be sad. She'll offer a side hug and say, "Don't be sad, be happy!"  We get a good laugh out of this.


I could go on and on but it's time to get Savvy off to school. Suffice it to say, we adore our little firecracker. She's sweet, unpredictable and adored by all of us.