Off the Richter Scale

My dear friends and family, my its been a long time. Four moves, 2 semesters, one internship, and one graduation later, I'm back! Back to the blogging world. Being a new stay at home mom, I'm going a little bit crazy trying to fill my time with MEANINGFUL enjoyment. I don't know a single soul in VA, so now is a great time to get caught up on our blog.

Ruby eats. Ruby is, according to her pediatrician "off the richter scale for weight." However she said it wasn't necessary to put her on a diet. I find it funny that her cousins struggled with gaining weight, but not my Ruby! Home girl is well above the 100th percentile. But I don't think she looks like she is. She's in the 70th percentile for height, she is so active, and now she's starting to walk.

I love how she walks as though she is walking through mud puddles, lifting her legs so high and deliberately. She is so cute!

Ruby speaks. Ruby says things like "hi", "Bye", "Mama", "Dada", "Poppop", "Gigi", "Baba", "woof", "Thank you", and "Charlie" (Charlie is my parents dog). Turns out she loves dogs.

Well, Ruby woke from her nap. Time to read, play, and look outside at the rain!

Ruby is 6 months!

Our sweet baby girl is 6 months- we just can't believe it! Brad and I love being Ruby's parents. Here are some things to note about our ever-growing girl:

• She LOVES her mom and dad. While she prefers mom over dad, she still missed Brad while he was in Vegas for 5 days. As soon as Brad walked in the door from his trip her face lit up with excitement, and she was literally jumping for joy to see him. When she got in her exersaucer that night, I've never seen her jump so hard, as if to say, "Dad! Look what I can do." She knows us, and loves us. That unconditional love is unlike anything we've ever felt.
• Ruby has proven to be quite the drama queen, or just a typical girl I guess. She cries if you leave her sight (she's going through her stranger/anxiety phase). She cries when mommy passes her off to anyone, even if it is just for a little while. When granny came out to visit she said she's never seen a baby so attached to their mother. Ruby wants me to hold her all the time! I've gotten to the point where sometimes I just wear her in my infant carrier Melani made me because I'm sick of hearing the whining, and I NEED to get stuff done. So, she's strapped to me when I vacuum (she's scared of it), when I do the dishes, when I make her baby food, and when we go for walks. Other than that I try to get her to play with toys on the floor, enjoy her jumper, etc. Teaching her independent play has proven rather difficult. However, I don't mind holding her. She's growing so fast, I don't ever want to have the regret that I didn't hold her enough, because I know soon she won't want to be held.
  
• Ruby loves technology, just like her daddy. Cell phones, Ipods, laptops, anything with a screen that has colors and makes noises, she's crazy for it. Every time we Skype with the family I have to set back the laptop really far so she can't reach it, and yet, she still lunges for it!
  
• Ruby sits up on her own, rolls over both ways, supports her head really well, and eats cereal, green beans, peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, and apples. This coming month I'm going to introduce avocado and bananas. I've enjoyed making my own baby food. Not only does it save money, but I feel it's better for her.
  
• Ruby loves the outdoors. We take a walk ever single day- rain, snow, clouds, sun we are outside! Whenever she gets fussy, but I know she's had a nap and ate, I know she needs her outdoor fix.
  
• We got to go to the park on a nice day with friends a few weeks ago, and Ruby had her first experience with the swings. She stayed in the swing for 20 minutes while I pushed her back and forth. It was a fun experience.
• Ruby sleeps through the night, and has been doing so for 2+ months so far, and it's been fabulous, especially because she's so demanding throughout the day now that she's teething and always seems to catch a bug at church.
• Speaking of church, I seriously want to become inactive, because Ruby gets sick EVERY TIME we go to church!!! She's sick all week, get better around Friday night, we go to church on Sunday, and then she's sick by Monday morning. I don't know why she always gets sick then, I don't even let a lot of people hold her! Ugh, it's really frustrating, but I know church is important, so I'm trying really hard not get upset after she gets sick.
  

Well, I guess that's it for now. We love Ruby, even all her personality quarks!

What Shall We Give?

http://lds.org/pages/what-shall-we-give?lang=eng

Anyone overwhelmed with the commercialism of the Christmas season?

Here's My List of Things to do this season:

1. Give meaningful, personal, or useful gifts to family and friends.
2. Be a secrete Santa.
3. Bake cookies with Granny.
4. Eat cookies with Granny.
5. Read the Christmas story in Luke.
6. Watch uplifting Christmas movies with my family.
7. Put up all my nativity scenes.
8. Look for people who need help.
9. Give to our churches mission fund.
10. Take Ruby to see the lights in Ocean City.
11. Go home and enjoy spending time with family and friends.

That doesn't sound too bad, does it?

Happy 3 year Anniversary Mr. Twining

Happy Anniversary Mr. Twining!
I love you so much more now than I ever have;
I never thought it would be possible to love you more,
but I do!
I love the way you can cheer me up when I'm having a bad day.
I love when you tell me I'm the hottest mom ever.
I love when you encourage me to reach my true potential.
I love how tender you are with Ruby,
she's so blessed to have a wonderful dad like you!
I love that you love my family.
I love that you are so successful at everything you do.
I love that you hate waking up in the morning,
and sometimes I have the privileged of waking you up.
I love how opened and honest we are with each other;
I can tell you anything!
I love that we've been married 3 years!
I LOVE YOU!

Sleep

My baby girl slept 8 hours last night.
From 8:30pm-4:50am I slept too!
I didn't wonder if she was okay, or when she was going to get up.
I just slept.
It was wonderful.
I hope it happens again!

Two Month Update!

Ruby was 2 months old last week! It's amazing how wonderful these past two months have been. Here are a few things that went on this month:

- Ruby got her 2 month immunizations. She only cried a very little bit and slept a ton, but when she woke up, oh man, I couldn't console that child. So, I resorted to baby tylenol and it seemed to help a lot. When I checked her legs in the morning, where they put the shots in, they had knots in them. Poor baby!

-Brad officially accepted a job in Houston TX with an IT consulting firm called Pariveda. They seem like such a great company! It will be nice to have a "real job" with benefits, etc. May is our start date. We'll see how much Brad's senioritus kicks in even more until he graduates in April.

- Thankfully, my sweet mother has helped me maintain A's in my classes. Thanks for watching Ruby for me, you're amazing!

-Speaking of my amazing mom, she watched Ruby for us while Brad and I travled to TX to find out more about his company, etc. at the beginning of the month. Ruby missed me, but not as much as I missed her. I only cried twice! Luckily I had just enough milk stored for her for 2 days. I never want to pump again!

- Ruby loves standing, sitting up, and being around people. She's a very social child. If you leave the room she is in she starts to cry.

-Ruby is all smiles these days. We love her smiles.

-I've been training for my first 5k in 11 months. I've only been able to go on 3 runs. Yikes!

- I guess that's our update for now.

LOVE YOU ALL!

Ruby is 1 Month!

I have been so busy being a mother, student, and employee that I've definitely neglected my blog posting. So, here is the condensed version of my crazy awesome month with Rubylicious!

1. Okay, a little bit about the labor and delivery. I'll spare you all the little details and just say it was the best experience of my life. Going naturally was hard, but not as hard as I thought it would be. I think God makes it more of an out of body experience for women so the pain is more tolerable. It helped to have a great support system and to be prepared. I'll probably go naturally again with the next baby. What?! I don't know if I can really think of a "next baby" right now.

2. A few minutes after Ruby was born I looked around and Brad, my doula, and Mom were balling their eyes out. It made me feel weird because I didn't cry. I had such a rush of excitement, all I could say was " I freakin' did it!" Probably not the best choice of words, but I was so glad she was finally here and I didn't die. And then I proceed to dictate to the midwife that she had to hurry up and stitch me up already because I need to be with my baby. It's amazing how the motherly instincts kick in.

3. My recovery was amazing. Besides a nasty varicose vein and perinatal dermatsis all over my face, I was able to do the biggest loser dvd's a week after she was born. We even walked 3 miles together with me pushing her in the stroller. She LOVES the stroller. Probably because I walked so much with her while she was in the woomb.

4. Ruby has been a great eater. She eats all the time, in fact, too much. I had no idea I was overfeeding her until I called the pediatricians office complaining about her throwing up all the time. Stupid me. Her stomach is only the size of her fist!

5. She is already in 3 month clothes! She even wears some 3-6 month clothes form Gerber because they run a little smaller. The newborn clothes barely lasted 2 weeks! It's amazing how much she grows and changes every single day! I love watching her.

6. Ruby grunts all the time. It's cute, but on the baby monitor, its annoying when your trying to sleep and because you're a new parent you here EVERY noise that your child makes!

7. Speaking of Sleep, I don't really get a whole lot and what I do get it's because of my awesome mom. Let's just say Brad has made out like a bandit having mom here. He doesn't have to get up too much with her. Which is good because he needs sleep! It was really hard on him to go back to school and work the day after she was born, but someone has to pay the bills. I'm sure it would have been easier to have Ruby when he's out of school working in some amazing job, but I'm glad we have her now.

8. She's starting to smile more and open her eyes more. Gosh, I love her eyes! They are so big and beautiful. I can't wait to find out what color they are going to be. For now they are gray.

9. School has been difficult, therefore I have decided to take independent study courses next semester to be home with Ruby more. I don't like online classes, but I only have 5 classes and and internship left to get my degree. It would be silly to stop now.

10. I know I probably shouldn't brag, but Brad has got some sweet job offers this week. We're excited that he has been so successful. One guy from a company in Huston told him that he was BYU's top recruit! Way to go Brad. You're so smart and awesome. Ruby and I are so glad that you are the best dad ever!

11. Ok, that's it for now! Yay for Ruby napping, and yay for a blog update.