Walking

Ruth has been taking steps now for close to a month. Saturday we were visiting our friends the Fox's, it was cool outside so I had her in pants...they have wood floors. Anyone with a crawling baby and hard floors know pants do not equal a happy mobile baby. So she started walking a bit more. Earlier this week she was standing up walking 3-6 steps falling down and crawling until she was a few steps away from her intended object and standing to finish.

All that cuteness has ended and she is now walking all over not caring when she falls just getting up and going again. She has picked up her speed and the classic watching them try to run and falling over is happening :) And trying to pick everything up to carry it books, toys, 8# weights (luckily she can't get them off the ground).

So when would I say she officially went from Ruth walks to Ruth is walking...Wednesday, September 2, 2009...That would be at 10 mos and a day :) She is pretty stable when she goes not looking like your classic almost toppling kid...unless she has a big butt cloth diaper on :)

She has also almost perfected getting down off higher surfaces and is taking great joy in climbing already! I caught her standing on a little plastic chair to reach a red ball on a shelf this afternoon! Oh Lord Help me! I remember Martha being a little more of a cautious climber I think. Advice anyone???

I hope she has gotten enough practice in that I do not have to forcibly prevent her from continuing to practice her skills when it is way past time to sleep tonight! It feel so wrong but she can not go explore while we all sleep! I can't sleep like that!

Sit, Push and Glide - Run Bike

Monday Martha's Run bike came while she was napping. Dan took it out and put it all together for her! When she woke up we took her out for a short ride before dinner. She was so funny at first trying to figure out how to balance it on the two wheels :) It took some adapting and the hand grips gave her a sore thumb but she loved it and was quit upset when we made her come in for dinner.

After dinner it was getting dark so Dan set her with a head light and off we went. She go better and better. We went to a small "hill" down the street and she went down the sidewalk there quite a few times. She even got it figured out balancing with her feet off the ground for a bit. We didn't want to stand in one place so I convinced her to go find more hills in the neighborhood. She was doing great going down a longer hill and picking up speed...welp guess it was a bit too much because she had a little run in with the concrete. After a few tears and a little hugging/ carrying she wanted to ride all the way home and wasn't too happy when we said we had to go in.

Tuesday we went for a post lunch ride around and she got the sitting, push and glide down. Twice I was ahead of her and she came "flying by" me and I said there she goes. After about 10 min she was stopping to have me come up so she could fly by me! We went home for some water and got a rest in...and of course had to go out with daddy in the dark before bed.

Now she got really good went probably 40 feet down the hill from the night before all with no feet. The last time she was swerving from side to side...looking like she was really pushing her abilities. It was so funny to see her come to a "screeching" more like pounding halt at the bottom before going into the street. It has no breaks so her feet have to stop her.

With that amazing balancing I told her I bed she could start trying to put her feet up...she couldn't get them in the right place and they hit her tire and she stopped quite a few times. Then as she got a little tired but didn't want to quite she tried putting her feet up w/out being moving and had another little crash and scrapped knee. Dan carried her I carried her bike (the thing weight like 10# so it's no be deal)...we told her she was missing her hill and after a min she was down off again.

So today we will have to get out again! Man I wonder what she will do today! I have some video and will do some more and try to get it uploaded! I also have hundreds of pics to upload from the last ah ya know month...so be looking for that on our site soon!

Run Bikes Prequel

So for like two years I knew I wanted Martha to learn to ride a bike without ever using training wheels by using a run bike. But the things cost so much! This summer Martha's tricycle is really too small for her to comfortably use, though she really loves riding! So I started looking at run bikes again. Dan though we could mod a regular little bike...we tried that and the thing was a little too tall and way too heavy! So I put on my wish to buy list the run bike.

Well last night Dan said I could order it! I already knew I wanted a Strider Sports Run Bike. If you don't know anything about them go to the site and watch the video's they are so cool! So first thing this morning I got to searching for one on sale. They retail for $98 not including shipping! I found through a Google search then shopping.com at Upside Over on sale for $58.80 with free shipping! SCORE! I've been looking at this store for over a year and am so excited to be bbuying from them. I ordered it pretty quickly and then wanting to share my great find went to the main page for the link...well nothing showed up so I did a little digging and started getting worried. Then checked my email and found a shipping confirmation! I must have gotten the last one! Upside Over sent my shipping confirmation 9 min after my order confirmation!

Funnily my little girl's favorite color has switched from Blue to Pink most days so she will be getting a pink run bike, next week most likely! I am so excited! Oh she is too :)

Growing and Going

Last week Ruth started standing in the middle of the room. Now last I remember they say that happens what after a kid learns to walk right? Ah no not her...apparently gatta keep up with sister or something because she was 8 1/2 mos.

Took the girls in for a much needed well "baby" check Thursday. Ruth weighed in at 16# 3 ounces at 26" tall...about the size Martha was at 1 year. Martha about two months past her 3rd birthday weighed in at just under 29# at 37" tall. My little babies are growing up so fast!

Crazy me must think Ruth should learn to walk faster as I gave her the walker wagon thing all empty yesterday and had a great time walking around the room with it :) Oh I forget how irritated they get when the push themselves into the wall! Forgot to take a pic but I got a video of it!

Last night in the kitchen I heard a thunk I turn around and DK told me Ruth tried to take a step towards him and bashed her head on a chair when she fell! Poor little thing...apparently doesn't agree with any development list! We still have one more week till she hits 9 mos!

Clothing Improv

A few weeks ago the girls and I took a trip to Chicago to pick up bike riding crazy DK. We visited Millennium Park when DK got off work. This was the first time we visited this area when Martha was awake. She though Cloud Gate AKA The Bean was pretty cool and was jumping up to touch it and such. Ruth nursed to sleep and took a great nap!

Her favorite of course was the water feature at Crown Fountain. First we told her not to get wet because I left her extra clothes in the car....after a potty trip and picking up a Hot Dog we returned to the fountain...and she started putting her hand on the wall where water was coming down it all went down hill from there, though she didn't go under the serious poor out! When we finally dragged her off she was cold and tired and we were starving!

While picking up food from Chipotle I needed a potty break so I took her in with me and got rid of all her wet clothes. I almost always carry a pair of extra unders for the girl and for some reason I had a new shirt too. So I put her dry clothes on and tied her all up on my back. You could not tell the child is missing bottoms! She was warm happy and close to momma...DK put Ruth on front in the Ergo and took the backpack. We had a nice walk back to the car before the torture of picking up the bike and driving home with tired kids.

Thank You Hy for letting us borrow this great wrap! The wrap is a 4.6 meter Nairobi Hoppediz Light. Ruth is nursing in a Cross Carry, tied behind her back to prevent some earlier leaning! You can see the Ergo hanging behind me and my backpack on me in the pic with Ruth...I prob looked crazy to people! Martha is in a Back Wrap Cross Carry.

What a great Birthday!

Yesterday was my birthday and the day after Martha's mysterious nightly fever fully ended so we needed to do something special! Martha wanted to go to the pool and I though that sounded great it was sunny and looked beautiful out! So I fiddled around for way too long in the morning looking for a pool to go to since the local one didn't open till 1 pm! Well it ended up we weren't ready to leave till oh 12:15 so I asked Martha before I took sleeping Ruth off my back if she was sure she wanted to ride in the car to the pool...she said no the stroller! So I altered what I packed (which was way too much junk! especially for such a small basket!) and packed the girls up...waking Ruth up...changed to my tennis and off we went!

I pushed them about 2 miles to the park where the pool is and it was not a bad walk at all...I wasn't even that hot! But we got there 10 min before the pool opened. Took a porta potty trip for Martha and then went to get in line...thankfully we got in front of the first set of day camp kids!

The big BOB Revolution Duallie just fit through all the crazy entry ways designed for privacy of those in the locker rooms! I partially dressed Ruth in the noisy locker room and then off we went to the kiddy pool! Martha was so excited but had to wait a few min for the life guard to say it was ok...so I finished dressing and sun screening Ruth while Martha got in and walked around...then all the big kids were everywhere splashing and getting water in her face and such and she got cold...so she came back to me and back to the water for a bit. Finally We were all off at the pool side. The water was FREEZING! Ruth however seems to be the only one that didn't really care...she probably has the most body fat...haha! We got in and out a few times and after while they had a safety check so I suggested we take out food and go eat in the snack area!

Both girls had a great time eating under the umbrella of the table. Finally we were about out of food...only apples left so we went back pool side. I threw on a little more sunscreen to be safe as it was about 2:15 PM! Martha went back to the water shortly later she deemed it too cold and wanted to go home. So we went back to all our junk and I dried off Martha and got her dressed...she wanted to eat so I put her in the stroller pulled the canopy and let her eat a cheese stick I found in the bottom of the lunch box (yeah I know dairy is on the no no list but oh that's another topic I don't even know quite how to deal with lately!). I got Ruth dressed and packed everything up in the stroller and off we went. BOB was an even tighter fit leaving and Martha didn't want to go...I told her we could go to the playground before coming home because I needed to feed Ruth but she was asleep so unhappily according to Martha we went on our walk home.

About 10-15 min in Martha was asleep too :) Oh the bliss...so I took my sweet time because I felt like my whole return walk was uphill! As I was walking down our street I though geeze this is great but I still need to pick up a few things up at the local grocery store...so I stopped in the driveway and unloaded the basket and junk in the stroller and off we went again. I rocked the stroller while I waited forever to check out...what the heck was everyone doing at the grocery store at 3:30 pm!!! Both girls stayed asleep and back home we went :)

Oh the peace but I was starving so I went inside went potty grabbed some food and a chair....as I was walking out the door Martha was waking up screaming! So I quickly grabbed her and started nursing her back to sleep...that worked but Ruth woke up especially with the noisy wind chimes in the front yard. Took Martha in to the couch...got Ruth. Took care of her and go to eat my food! I played with Ruth a while and then put her on my back for another nap...ordered 2 bras (oh yeah more on the bra hunt to come in the next 2 or so weeks). Next Martha woke up quite unhappy so I nursed her. When Dan arrived home I had Ruth sleeping on my back and Martha sleeping/ nursing in my lap! Martha had a great oh 3 hour (segmented) nap and I didn't have to fight with one kid for a nap! OH YEAH GREAT DAY!!!

I got some time to relax while Dan Ergo'ed Martha while cooking dinner...then I got called to "watch" the soup so he could go mow the yard. In I went and Ruth woke up so I had all sorts of things to do. We had a nice dinner...toward the end my parent's called to wish me happy birthday. (I got tons of Facebook birthday wishes.) And then Dan and Martha made me a cake while I got to take a shower ALONE!!! I got yummy carrot cake with cream cheese frosting yumm! Martha only got a little tiny bit because she was acting crazy after licking the icing while cooking.

I finished up the night by washing the girls quickly in the tub to eliminate sunscreen. Then everyone got in bed with sleeping daddy had some mommy milk and went down without much fuss :) Which is huge as lately I've been having to literally hold Ruth down till she was crying and finally ready to quit trying to sit, crawl, climb, stand and go to sleep!

God Why?

Do you ever have one of those days where it seems like one event after the next you just keep asking God why? Then a few min later you think we'll maybe ___ or oh ___ was why . Today is one of those days!

The God why events started with Ruth being tired and not wanting to go to sleep. The Fed Ex Man brought Martha's New car seat. So we of course had to get it out and she had to play in it and wanted it put in the car. And she though it was great fun to scratch the foam off a packing piece so I guess the face that shortly earlier Ruth was covered in dog fur from the floor was the alternative reason I needed to vacuum. So all those things happened. And thankfully the rain was on hiatus during the car seat install. Then all the sudden we had to run around fast and get ready for her gymnastics class. We made it into the car just in time to avoid the big drops., and turned out upon getting into the car that the microwave time was fast so we were not late but early! Then the short drive to gym...Ruth still didn't go to sleep so I didn't have to wake her up for that we all "crawled" into front seat to get ready to get out in the rain. We got inside well before the big down poor. No one else was there for class yet so I got to take care of scheduling a make-up and checking on when I signed up for summer class.

Ruth zonked out during class and Martha had a great time playing with a little cohort Megan...they have similar personalities so it can be interesting but it was good :) I sometimes forget that my child has a bit of a aptitude towards the sport until she is listening good and things all click :) I hope she can continue to develop in her behavior so she can keep having fun...because man does she have fun when she's learning and doing great! So the rain lets up and I think maybe I can get Ruth in her seat w/out waking her up...fail! Donno for the reason on this but she is happily out currently!

Home we spend a long time preparing and eating lunch! I love that with removing "problem" foods Martha has started eating good for me again...well at lunch anyway! The world is not aligning for breakfast these days and dinner seems to be hit of miss. Well the down side to this Martha eating thing is that she is so distractable and active it takes forever! In and out bits and breaks. I was done long before her and she started eating before me! So I go about trying to get things done that need done. She goes off outside to push an imaginary child that needed a pushed again on the swing set and I take Ruth to put diapers in the dryer. Zeke promptly comes to steal Martha's food. So I angerly sent him back out side, finish loading the dryer and tell Martha we need to remember to crate Zeke for meals because "I can't handle this"! (A phrase that gets repeated frequently back to me). I put her plate up high on the counter and turn to pull a chair up so she can come get more...didn't realize Ruth was holding onto a glass bowl! Crash...mad mommy glass everywhere...dog and Martha banished outside...Ruth gated into the Living room. Apparently I need to do a better job at keeping my kitchen floor clean because this is like the 2nd time in the last week that God has helped me get it nice and clean.

So now I need to go back and mop when I wanted to be cleaning the unsold garage sale junk out of the garage so I can get the car in there again! Back to life...again doing a lousy job balancing it!