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!

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!