Ruby: 10 months

It's been a loooooooooooong time since I've A) sat down to write a blog post dedicated to Ruby and B) wrote in her baby book. Upon a quick blog search, it looks like the last time I checked in on her was at 6 months.

Well, a lot has happened since then.

Namely, crawling. Standing. Pulling up. Eating solids (which started at the 6 month mark, much to my trepidation).

This past week I was reminded that I need to update something somewhere about her, to put it down someplace besides my memory because that just doesn't work. The term "preggy brain" suggests that after your pregnancy is complete that you get your normally functioning brain back, but no - it gets worse, especially after 2 kids. So call my mind a jigsaw puzzle and don't laugh that I need to take a picture of the grocery list that I write on my fridge because I know I'd lose the list somewhere along the way to the store, but the chances of me losing my phone is slim to none. Knock on wood.

Back to Ruby. See what I mean about this brain?

This boisterous little being, who I thought was going to be a fairly chill girl who goes along for the ride, is now making her presence and desires quite known. Until lately I had to spend a lot of my time making sure that she is "protected" from her sister's over exuberant love and found out one day that sometimes, when Penny decides it's appropriate to sit on her sister like a horse, rather that finding Ruby distraught with her face pushed into the carpet, she is actually kind of bouncing for Penny and laughing along with her. Huh.

And then there's the times, like tonight, where they are in the bath together and Penny snatches the washrag from Ruby that she had been happily flailing around, Ruby screams bloody murder to alert me. And then she gives warning shrieks to Penny if her hands get too close again.

This mama heart of mine is so full of love for this girl.

She claps, does this cute tongue wiggle thing (which Penny exclaims, each and every time, "such a tiny little tongue!") and has started to wave. At her 9 month well child she was 19 lbs 3 oz (66%'ile) and 28.25" tall (71 %'ile). In comparison, her sister was 18 lbs and considerably shorter at this age. She crawls with her belly off the ground and I anticipate that the walker will become more than a stationary toy for her shortly. She normally wakes up around 6am, is ready for a 20 minute snooze around 8:30 or 9 and goes down for a long nap at noon (the same time as Penny). The evenings get a little dicey because she wants to nap around 4, but instead I try to have dinner around 5 and baths at 6 with her bedtime as close to 7.

A few big changes have happened this week and it makes me realize that while I am reveling in this rolly polly, squishy, round baby, she is all too quickly growing up. Firstly she's moving up to Penny's previous convertible car seat, a Britax Pavilion. She (and her 34 month sister) are still rear-facing.

The second and definitely bigger change is that she is now taking naps and starting the evening in the pack n play. We are a bed sharing family; Penny slept with us until she was 18 months old and I never saw use in buying an actual crib. When Penny was around the same age I started transitioning her to daytime naps in the pack n play because I typically don't nap with the kids and there comes a time where they silently wake up and start crawling away from their spot in the middle of the bed and run the risk of falling. As a long term bed sharing family we've taken all of the necessary precautions by putting the mattress on the floor and exercise as much caution as possible, but at this age it makes the most sense to me to put her in a pack n play when I don't sleep with her.

This was almost a heart wrenching decision for me. For some reason I had a lot of guilt in this on the first day that I made the switch. I wasn't sure why, because I transitioned Penny to napping in the pack n play at this age too. However, as another example of how Ruby is different from her sister, Ruby loves sleeping in it. I nurse her down for her nap, stand up and rock her for a minute and lay her down. She usually rolls over onto her side or tummy, gives a little sigh and is off to lala land. Her sister required patting, shushing, singing and sneaking out. I have to admit, I feel so much better knowing that she doesn't feel abandoned!

She's already got a "dada" and "mama" down, we're working on finding something that she can call Penny.