new years

there has been a whole lotta stuff going on around here. it is a new year and ruby has become 5 months old! she also has used her passport for the first time and her first tooth (bottom front) decided to make a grand entrance to mark the occasion.

we just returned from a week in Spain! it was a time for david and i to thaw out a little (it was in the 60s, a nice break for us), and for ruby to see her grandma and grandpop. culturally, i don't know if spain was the best place to go with a 5 month old. by the time we were ready to get out of the flat, everything was closing for siesta, and when we needed to eat dinner, none of the restaurants were open yet! but we got used to the spanish time schedule and had fun regardless.

ruby was great and loved traveling. we had the WORST turbulence on the way home and she just laughed about it while david and i were nervously looking at eachother. i guess it is good to be clueless!

seasons greetings!

i know we will be heinously busy the next few days, so i wanted to get it out there before it was all over! merry christmas to everyone, hope you all had a wonderful winter solstice, a happy hannukah, an eventful eid and a loving kwanzaa! most importantly we would love to spread a little joy and wish for peace on earth... so here are the lyrics to the best Christmas song ever:

So this is Christmas
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun
And so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young
A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
And so this is Christmas
For weak and for strong
For rich and the poor ones
The world is so wrong
And so happy Christmas
For black and for white
For yellow and red ones
Let's stop all the fight
A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
War is over over
If you want it
War is over
Now...
- John Lennon

yummers!

it was a day that will live in infamy! yesterday ruby ate her first food! well, if you can loosely call it that; it was the consistency of soup, as bland as bleached flour, and really she ate only about a teaspoon since most of it went down her chin.... but it was a milestone nonetheless! she seemed to like the baby cereal, and it seemed to like her.
we hadn't planned to give her food until 6 months, but she has been getting more and more hungry, wanting to eat between meals and (egads!) waking up at night for the first time since she was 4 weeks old. the food had it's desired effect, she even slept through Gratch barking at 3:30 am (of course this made me check her pulse, i am slightly paranoid) at some drunk guy in the street. yay cereal!!!

4 months old!

Ruby is 4 months old! She is now 24 inches long and 14 pounds; we can't believe how big she is getting.
it has been a busy weekend for us. we have put up the christmas tree, which ruby really enjoyed. she had to be with me while i was putting the decorations up, but then it must have been too much... it put her to sleep!
today we went to the park so that i could learn how to cast a fly rod. it is a lot harder than it looks! gratch was ok with this, because it meant lots of frisbee. and ruby? this too put her to sleep!

our thanksgiving

the picture of ruby sitting at the table laden with loads of food will have to wait until next year, sorry to say. when the food was piping hot and ready to eat, where was ruby??? taking a nap! so all her fans will have to have this picture instead, from earlier on in the day, swinging in the kitchen while alletta, ryan and i were preparing the food.
i think it went pretty well, this being my first attempt at cooking the thanksgiving meal myself. somehow i have always managed to either be invited over people's houses or be at a member of my family for thanksgiving.... so for my first time i made some of my favorites: turkey (breast only), sweet potato casserole, corn casserole, broccoli, cheesecake and cupcakes. plus alletta and ryan made this great stuffing, much better than i would have done!
there were 9 adults, and 2 babies in attendance, and the americans outnumbered the scots! that doesn't happen very often. but i didn't count ruby in that equation, since she is best of both!

thanksgiving

this is probably where i should be posting a cute picture of ruby next to the turkey or something along those lines.... but alas! we have yet to celebrate thsnkgiving yet! so you will have to wait until after saturday, when we do!

3 months old

yay! 3 months is here! Ruby will be celebrating by dancing around and singing with her mom and dad. she will then take her puppy on a walk, but no frisbee since it is too windy today. she will then top it all off by having her parents read her some of her favorite books, and drinking loads of milk.... it doesn't get any better than that!