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Ruby Goes Mountain Climbing

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We’ve been taking Ruby day hiking with us since she was old enough to hold her own head up. However, she spends the majority of her time riding in the pack. She’s seen me leave for a number of extended hikes. When I return a few days later, she has tons of questions and wants to see pictures. This weekend, I decided it was time for her to gain a little trail experience first hand, so I told her to grab her pack and fill it with stuff she might want on our little adventure. Here is what she packed:

• Blanket (not a bad choice. It was close to nap time, and if the mood strikes, best be prepared. It did add quite a bit of weight and bulk to her pack, but she carried it well.)
• Fortune cookie. (I told her I was taking along something a little more substantial, but she insisted the fortune cookie was plenty for her.)
• Sippy cup full of water.
• Bug collection box. (Recent acquisition from Nana. Even I was excited to bring this.)
• Mee-la. (Small stuffed animal in the shape of a puppy)
• A kaleidoscope. (I was completely surprised by this one. I did not object.)

I hefted her up into the back pack so that I could walk her the quarter mile across a couple busy streets to Olmsted Park, our departure point. Olmsted Park is part of the Emerald Necklace, and thanks to Frederick Olmsted’s genius, allows one to feel pretty well immersed in nature despite being so close to the city. There is also a pretty tall hill in the center overlooking Wards Pond that would be Ruby’s first summit.

Once we entered the confines of the park, I let Ruby out of the pack and we strolled along the paths. Ruby quickly collected an inch worm, two beetles, and some fallen buds and other greenery. Once we made it to the base of the hill, I told her all about the view we could expect from the top and she said she was ready to go. After summiting, we had our snack and walked around Wards pond where we spotted a beaver. Soon afterwards we came upon a man birdwatching with some binoculars. I saw a flash of excitement in Ruby’s eyes. She removed her pack and asked me if I could help her with the zipper. I asked her what she was after and she started stuttering with excitement (kaleidoscope is not an easy word to recall for a two year old…) When she finally got it out and held it to her eye, I realised she wanted to do some bird watching of her own… Here are a few pictures I snapped along the way (Full size are available here: Picasa Web):

Home sick

Ruby has had a fever for the past few days and we’ve been trying everything to keep her temp down. While the damp cloth on the forehead works great, it’s not all that practical for a two year old who, despite her illness, is most happy bouncing around. Thankfully, these bunny ears arrived in the mail from Mimi yesterday.

Taking in a puppet show

Ruby and I took a sick day. We probably shouldn’t have gone out but we were both pretty stir crazy, so we went down the street to the Puppet Showplace Theatre to take in a performance of The Brementown Musicians. We were both very glad we did!

Welcome to Ruby’s Puppet Theatre

It’s been almost a year since we posted video to Ruby’s website. Mom just got a new camera for Xmas that takes HD video so we are excited to record some of Ruby’s finer moments. Here are some now:

Looking at pictures of myself

Ruby has taken a liking to computers (which isn’t a big surprise since they outnumber people living in her house by a factor of 2 to 1). With a little training, she can navigate photo albums and even play some educational games on Dad’s laptop. Here she is looking through pictures of her past.

Xmas tree decoratin’

Ruby had an awful cold today. We weren’t sure she was going to be into decorating the Xmas tree at all, but it was the only weekend we could do it before the busy holiday schedule took over. Ruby was a disaster right up until we showed up at the “St. John’s Episcopal Church’s Christmas Tree Sale”:http://www.stjohns-jp.org/currentEvents/christmasTreeSale.shtml across from the Centre Street Monument in JP. It wasn’t until we actually shoved the thing into the back of our car that her interest was truly peaked. Once we got home and erected our tree, Ruby turned into an ornament hanging machine. She was unstoppable! By the time we were done (about 45 minutes later), ALL of our ornaments (some of which hadn’t seen the light of day in decades) were on the tree, and 72% of those were within 3 feet of the floor!

Yee haw!

Do you ever wake up in the morning, slap on your cowboy hat, throw on a diaper and just want to ride? Ruby does.

Apparently, mice are just as fond of ice cream as they are of cheese.

Not really living in a very residential neighborhood, we weren’t sure what we were going to do with our little squeaker for Halloween. We were pleasantly surprised to find out that a bunch of the shops and restaurants on Centre St. in JP open their doors up to little trick or treaters. Ruby was a big hit and started filling her candy bag before she even got off of the bus! Mom and Dad were excited to take a peek into all the local businesses and talk a bit with the owners.

Here are some pictures from the evening:

Here is a link to the full size images.

4 days, no accidents

As you may recall, Ruby had some potty training success earlier in the year. However, any progress was disrupted by the sale of our house and the move to Boston. We dropped it, and upon advice from various experts, decided to let her decide when to begin potty training again. On Saturday, Ruby surprised us by asking if she could wear underpants in lieu of diapers. We had a talk of new responsibilities (telling us when she needed to go), consequences (wet pants), rewards (stickers) and other potty training facts. She was up for it, so we started preparing ourselves for potty training life in the outside world. Ruby met with success Saturday, Sunday and Monday (all days she spends with her parents) despite a pretty active weekend including parties, shopping, playgrounds and play dates. We were a little hesitant to send her off to daycare in underpants but we decided to go for it. So far so good!

Rollin’ in the dough

Ruby is loving the play dough. Despite repeated failures, Dad tries to keep the colors separate (yes, I have a touch of the OCD). Ruby just wants to make giant multi-colored blobs of dough. She’s not completely free from Dad’s compulsions though. I noticed her placing magnets on the staircase in a very orderly fashion the other day, making minute adjustments to their positions in relation to each other. A very proud moment for Dad, indeed.