Our Ruby...2 Years Later

The first day we met. Sept 13, 2009.

Today, Sept 13, 2011.

Our Ruby. Part Princess. Part dare-devil. Loves her rides fast and spinning. Totally gets bored on the kiddie rides. This kid is a thrill seeker! Loves to climb, jump, hang and swing like the silly little monkey she is. She doesn't walk. She bounces, jumps, flutters, or skips. Not kidding. Mostly skips around like a little fairy with her hands flailing about. She twirls and tosses her hair like a little princess and jumps in puddles like a little boy. With a mischievous little smile on her face on the latter. Been taking to calling her Sassafrass these days due to her ever-silly, sassy nature. Cracks us up. Not just sometimes, but almost ALL the time. The other day I put her in the car for school and was like "do you have lipstick on?" Little sneaky bugger went in to her vanity and got some sparkly gloss and put it on for school." Oh my. I would have made her wipe it off but she smiled so cute and actually got it on her lips and not all over her face this time. She was so proud of herself. LOL, it's only light pink sparkles...why not? She is growing so fast. Sprouting up like crazy. And LOVES to talk about how big she is. At 40" she is tall enough to ride the big rides at Disney and is WAY excited about that. Oh, how she chats up a storm now. Seriously funny little conversations. She will not only excitedly chat our ears off but she will act things out and is highly animated. It is so cute. She notices EVERYTHING and will point out stuff that I don't even notice. Very observant, this one! Oh, and she's a back seat driver. "SLOW DOWN! SLOW DOWN!" when she sees a yellow light. "Go, Mommy! GO!" when the light turns green and I am still busy doing something and not going yet. The little miss doesn't miss a trick so I have to be on my toes! 

Sesame, a few weeks ago.

With Grover, last weekend.

Oh so content getting her face done. Love the folded hands.

kissy face

4 going on 14

Ready to climb

Loving on Daddy

Her current favs: All her dollies, horsies, and fairies get play time. Any "little" toy. Like little dolls and figurines, those rubber balls you get out of the machines for a quarter...anything miniature that she can carry around in her many little purses. Loves bath time cause, of course, that involves water and the kid LOVES water. She plays with her mermaids and this diver she calls "Daddy Swimmer Guy" lol. Could be in there for an hour if I let her. Loves to play board games and has to win. Is very competitive these days and has to "win" everything, in fact. Loves her princess dominoes. Plays with them for an hour at a time. And loves collecting rocks and sticks. Enjoys picking flowers and nature, too. Still all about accessories. Will play dress up with her friends but not much on her own. BUT, she'll play with shoes, jewelry, and/or magic wands on a daily basis. Thinks face painting is the main reason we go to Sesame, lol, and the best thing on the planet. Especially excited if they put "lipstix" on her. She will pucker into every mirror or glass surface available the first 1/2 hour. Seriously.

But most of all this kid has a heart of gold. So caring and sweet I can hardly believe sometimes how lucky I am. If someone coughs or has the hiccups, she will go running in the kitchen and grab a bottle of water. Says excuse me and please and thank you 99% of the time. Gets up each morning with a sweet closed mouth smile that melts my heart. She's finally getting dressed head to toe by herself and undressed and into her jammies at night. Sleeping in her own "princess" bed and very proud of herself. Loves to giggle, hide, and pretend. Has such a sense of humor and quite the imagination! She still loves to snuggle, to hug, to touch the faces of the people she loves and just stare for a minute. She is so loving. And oh she cares. About people, other kids that are crying somewhere, animals, if the flowers have enough water, and if the streets are cleaned up. The other day as we were leaving Sesame Place, we she spotted a juice box on the street. Sometimes we will stop and clean up some trash when we see it but someone else's sticky juice box was not entering my car. I told her don't worry, they have someone that comes and cleans up later. She said "Oh! I have seen him! He clean up like this" she said with a wide sweeping motion. There are lots of guys (and girls) that have brooms and a dust/trash pans and clean around the park so she must have been talking about that. I got her settled in her car seat and got in. She said "Mommy?" "Yes, Ruby?" "I wanna do that. I wanna clean up when I grow up". What a proud Mommy I am. And what a kid. We can't imagine life without her.

Today is the 2 year anniversary of the day we first met. Only 2 short years and yet we have packed so much life...so much love...so many memories into them. And to think, we have so many more! Our lives have been blessed beyond measure with this sweet girl.

Dear Ruby, you are so deeply, so truly loved. I thank God for you every day. Thank you for being in our lives and making us the happiest parents on the planet!