Our baby girl is 15 months old. Wow. She looks so big to me. She is getting taller and her face is looking more and more child-like and less baby-like. She weighs 23 pounds and is 31.5 inches. She is in the 90% percentile for height and 50% for weight. She is gabbering a ton. She is close to running, though she still falls a lot when she has her shoes on. Her feet are big.

She climbs. On. Everything. She can now climb on our dining chairs. the toilet, the sofa, the chair. She’s a daredevil. She loves the stairs. Loves the slide at the park – also loves to hang from the monkey bars. I timed her and she hung for 20 seconds. Do we have a little Olympian? Perhaps!She loves the song “wheels on the bus”. She will make the “round and round” motion all of the time. When we sing the song she gets the biggest smile on her face and giggles. She also loves the song “there were five in the bed and the little one said roll over, i’m crowded”. She and Kaneu roll over each other and it is so cute. Again with the giggles. I tried to get some pictures of it and of course they all turned out blurry, but you get the idea. It was sheer sweetness. I love seeing my kiddos having fun and loving each other. 

She is learning where her ears are. She knows where her nose is and loves to find mine. We’re also working on her belly, which is probably the cutest (and biggest) belly I’ve seen on a baby.

Communication

Her newest signs are: poop, banana, cheese, eat

Like I said above she babbles a ton. When she wakes up I’ll ask her if she’s hungry. She usually responds with signing “more”, as in more food please! I’d say that “more” is her most frequently used sign.

Eating

Ruby vetoed milk about 5 weeks ago. I believe it was a Friday and she decided that she wanted nothing to do with it. It was a rough transition because in the evening before bedtime she would sign for it but she didn’t want it when we would offer it to he. I even tried to give it to her in a bottle, but no she didn’t want it. We continue to offer it to her and occasionally she will take a sip or two, but for the most part she is not interested. Wierd! The doctor is okay with it since she is getting calcium through other means. It’s just a strange thing for a baby not to want milk. As for the rest of her diet just depends on her mood, the day of the week, her teeth, etc. She is, for the most part, a really great eater, though we have had some rough 3 day stretches where she rejects everything we give her. She loves to take the rejected food and rub it into her hair. She thinks it’s pretty funny. If she doesn’t put it in her hair then she likes to toss it behind her head or dangle it over the side of her tray, dropping it just before I can reach it. She’s a smart cookie.

Attachment

I really feel like her attachment to us has become stronger in the last month. When we first brought her home she seemed very comfortable with us, ate well, was snuggly and slept well. I wasn’t able to see that she was grieving at all. I am sure she was processing it somehow but it wasn’t anything that we could observe. About a month ago when she and I went to Philly we had a really tough time at night. She would go to bed OK but would wake up around 2 am and would not go back to bed. She would cling to me and pinch my skin because she was holding on so tight. I ended up putting her in the bed with me and she would only sleep on top of me. If she slid off next to me then she would immediately cry and moan. It was like she couldn’t get close enough to me. It was really sad because for the first time since we had been in Seoul she seemed scared. Thankfully we were only gone for two nights and once we were back home she was sleeping better again, but she did have some more late nights where she just wanted to be held. Now that I can look back over the last 3 months I can definitely see that she has made big steps forward in her attachment. She holds eye contact for long periods of time, she seems to be more wary of strangers and she doesn’t wander off when we are out and about – instead she will take my hand and lead me toward where she wants to go. These are just little things but they are huge to us. I know I am forgetting a ton of stuff but I guess that’s how it goes.

Thankfully she is over croup – yay!!! It was an incredibly tough week. Doesn’t she look so pitiful? She still wasn’t 100% by Friday so we went back to the doc and she’s now on antibiotics. I can tell she is feeling MUCH better. I am finally feeling better too – yay!! I have slept more this weekend than I did all week. I am feeling like a new woman. So happy Brian is home. And so happy Grammy Sue stayed all week long. Phew! Thanks mom!!

Wow. Four weeks of being a family of 4. Everyday we fall more and more in love with our baby girl. I hope and pray that she is growing her love for us too. She seems to really like us so I don’t have big concerns. I am a worrywart sometimes though. One thing is for certain. She absolutely LOVES Kaneu. She giggles at him with such delight and has started mimicing him. It is sweet.

Here is an update our our little lady – warning, lots of bragging!!!

Talking
She babbles a lot. She talks and talks and talks. She is saying “mama” and “dada” and trying to say “bye bye”. 

Eating
Our girl really loves to eat and will eat just about anything anytime. She really loves yo*baby yogurt and bananas. When she sees the yo*baby container she gets really excited. She now eats just about everything that we eat – as long as we can cut it up into small, bite size pieces. She has begun feeding herself with her fork or spoon. I place bites on the fork for her and she will feed herself. She also likes to rub her dirty, food-covered hands all over her face and hair. She is a little comedian. She has switched from formula to cow’s milk without any problems. She drinks about 16 ounces a day. Our doc would like for us to decrease the amount and to switch to a sippy cup. We’re not really in a rush to move her off of the bottle, though it does seem like the ONE thing our doc is firm on. So, with that said I wonder if and how we should plan to make the switch. I don’t think that will be a fun few days but we should probably do it sooner while Brian is still on his paternity leave.

Sleeping
She has been sleeping really great. Most nights she sleeps through and will wake up anywhere from 6:30 to 8am. It has been SO nice to have a full night’s sleep. She still takes two naps though Brian thinks that she’ll soon drop her am nap. Her morning nap is random and is sometimes only 20 or 30 minutes long. The afternoon nap is longer – from one to two hours. This evening she was a real bear to put to bed. She was not at all interested in going to sleep. She was showing all signs of being sleepy – rubbing her eyes and even dozing off but she would not allow herself to fully drift off. She got really upset and it’s unlike her to be so resistant. Not really sure what that was about but it was tough. She eventually fell asleep around 9:30. We haven’t really strived for a bedtime routine but realized and decided tonight that we really need to do that. When Kaneu was a baby we were really consistent with his bedtime rituals. It’s difficult with two kids though and so we have some figuring out to do.

• doc gave her an A+ in socialization (perhaps b/c she was strutting around the office while squawking and laughing, pulling medical books off the shelf and files off of the desk, smiling at the staff and waving bye bye)
• she has “excellent tone and agility”. doc recommended a tumbling class right away. these comments were made after Ruby was laying on the table and in one swift movement she had flipped herself over and was standing up. It’s kinda scary how fast and strong she is.
• per our doc, she has the fine motor skills of a 15 month old. the doctor gave her 2 objects to hold and when she offered her a 3rd ruby moved the object from her right hand to left and then took the 3rd object from the doc. OH – and she also was able to follow a simple direction when the doc asked her to give the object to brian. oh, our girl is so smart!!

And the cuteness continues … she also

• waves bye-bye
• blows kisses
• gives zerberts
• signs “more”, “milk”, “all done”, “sleep”
• LOVES to brush teeth. when she sees the toothbrush come out she mimics the action of brushing
• climbed into the dryer while I was pulling the wet clothes from the washer
• can climb in and out of the tub – this is cute and scary at the same time
• dragged her leapfrog table across the room and then climbed on top of it

A fun day at the playground …

during our Christmas card photo shoot

 

We had a fun time taking these pictures but it is VERY difficult to take pictures of 2 little ones. 

our happy girl

Although I was moved to write in Dana’s blog during our time in Seoul, I admit it’s been the farthest thing from my mind since we’ve been home.  Not because I’ve been busy at work (I’m off for 6 WEEKS thanks to an absolutely wonderful paternity leave benefit from my company) but because I have been busy with my family of four.  Apparently too busy to write about it!

Day to day we are having so much fun.  We are just so stunned, amazed, bedazzled with the fact that after our long wait God has delivered to us such a complete angel, a perfect fit for our former family of three.  Ruby is confident, cuddly, stubborn, kissable, incredibly strong-willed and still so chunky.  We are so blessed, and we pretty much just hang out and snuggle all day.

ruby sporting her new jammies from uncle scott & aunt angie
the dinner show

nearly knocking down our tiny tree
the girl likes to swing!
christmas card photo shoot

morning hair (aka “kramer” hair)

more morning hair