Little Triumphs

Tonight was Back to School night at Ruby's school. Jeff and Ruby stayed home and I went. Met a few nice moms, talked to her teacher and teacher's aid, learned about the years fundraising, etc. It was nice.  I like that I can volunteer and get involved and I like knowing what she does all day. Oh and seeing her art on the wall! They did this adorable project where they took a picture of each child's face, printed it up and pasted it on construction paper cut-outs. They are little scare crows. It is so freakin cute, I wish I could post a picture of it! Earlier - when I picked her up at school - she made a grand gesture with her hand referencing the girls in front of her. "MY FRIENDS!" she says. She is liking it more every day. She is making new friends. It's so great to see. So many little triumphs and getting used to school is one BIG one. Here are others...

- The last 3 months (since ear surgery) she has been talking up a storm. Remarkably so. Not just full sentences, but paragraphs even. It's so great to see her verbalize her wants and needs so well. Sometimes what she says is just so cute and silly it just cracks us up!
- Baby gates are off and she has free run of the house. It took me awhile to be okay with this cause we have very steep wooden steps, but Ruby is quite the climber and takes them like a champ. She is very happy with her new independence and loves to run upstairs when one of us is up to say hi.
- Giving her more little tasks. She absolutely LOVES being a helper so I have her help clear the table, empty the dishwasher with me, and throw in a few pieces when I do the laundry, etc. She gets such a kick out of this. LOL, this can't last, can it?
- Favorite new phrase is: "I DO IT DO IT!" And she does it. That means that everything takes a REALLY long time, but sure enough, she does it herself. From brushing her teeth, to washing her hands to opening every door she can, pushing every button, climbing in and out of her car seat, putting the DVD's in the player and turning it on, getting the phone, remote, etc... She does it, does it.
- Reading books! More than ever. Okay, I should say WE are reading them but she has a few memorized like Lemons Are Not Yellow, Brown Bear Brown Bear, Hand Hand Thumb Thumb, and the Foot Book. Oh how she loves those books. Also loves the Llama Llama books! I love our bedtime book reading!
- Insists on saying the prayer at the dinner table now. It's so sweet. It usually goes something like this:
"Dear God, thank you dinner, mommy, pa, grandma, grammy, pappy, unc jay, ryan, antny, chloe, max, eat, food. Amen"
- Last but not least, she went to the potty all by herself today at school (up 2 sets of stairs and back) and once at home (without my asking). Actually, she did that another time this week too where she just went on her own. Leaps and bounds folks! This is award winning stuff! :-)