Sleep, yes again....

So I messed it all up. We were doing so good. Then she was teething something terrible and I didn't let her cry, picked her up as soon as she started crying, rocked her completely to sleep for bed and all naps. Guess what? She started sleeping terrible. I don't think you can spoil a baby, but for lack of a better term I spoiled her. She didn't know how to go back to sleep. she wouldn't just cry, she would scream. Then when I went in her room she would give me one of these.....

I could just see it in her eyes "haha, I won again mom". She won a lot. So this week we are getting back on track. It is so much more work (to me) to sleep train than rocking them to sleep or cry it out. I let her cry for 15 minutes then go and pat her back and shhhh her till she calms down, leave, and usually repeat this more times than I care to think about. BUT it's only Wednesday and it's getting better. She took two long naps yesterday and this morning she just hung out in her crib playing for 30 minutes before I went and got her. Hands down, figuring out the sleep thing has been the toughest part of having a baby thus far. Although I know one day I will look back at this and wonder why i got so worked up about it. right now it just seems really big.

Easter 2012

Okay, so I'm in a blogging slump, but at the very least I wanted to to post some Easter pics! Since we don't live around family so Easter's never been much a holiday for us (as far as celebrating with ham and hard boiled eggs sort of way). This year was fun! And although she would of been just as happy with a big pile of newspaper (the girl loves her paper that's for sure) I went ahead and did an Easter basket. Because I am finding out buying your kid is just as much for you (if not more) than it is for them. Miss Ruby in her pretty dress.....

Our little family

Goodies from the Easter bunny

It was a wonderful day and to think that next year Miss Ruby will be able to go look for eggs- so fun!

Blue Bonnets!

This is definitely the spring thing to do down here...gotta have your blue bonnet picture with your kid! They are everywhere and just gorgeous and I finally have a kid I can plop down in the middle of them because don't babies normally hang out in fields of flowers on the side of the highway?

We were really hungry and it was getting dark so we just went to a friend's parents house down the road that had a few and took a few shots. I wasn't hoping for anything great, more just my South Texans duty to get the shot. They turned out pretty good though!






Looking forward to many, many more years of blue bonnets shots!

Goodbye smuglies

Our couches were gross. Not like dirty (although one time we did find a dirty fork in between the cushions) but just ugly. I hated them. I couldn't justify new ones though because these were only five years old and they worked. Man, they were comfy too. Darn you overstuffed cushions that felt so good to snuggled down into. Also we have people over a lot and although our friends are good sports about having to sit on the floor or some uncomfortable folding chair we definitely needed more seating.

Anyways, my friend Jessica is awesome and found some sweet deals on craigslist for me. I knew I wanted a Karlstad sectional. It just seemed like the most practical couch, great price, lots of seating. I was about to pull the trigger on one couch for $300 ( I think they are like $400 new + whatever for the differnet slipcover they had on it), then the next day she sent me another link for two couches for $350. Yes please!

So I was pumped to find out they were only six months old and had been sitting in a lobby of some fancy office building so had little to no real use. Score! Plus when we went to pick them up they threw in four throw pillows and had some guys load it up in the truck for us. Double score!

So thanks to Jessica for the sweet find and also my my friend Rachel for being our driver (we sure do miss our truck sometimes but we've got the 2nd best thing- friends with trucks ;) )

Old couches, again, not bad, just big and dark and didn't allow for much seating


My new beauties I heart so much....


Come over and sit on them with me!!!!

6 Months!

Half a year! What what! I will spare you the whole "it's going by so fast" thing because I say that all the time. I will say this though, Ruby Ann is one cool little girl. Her little personality is beginning to show and we just laugh all the time. It's been such a fun month. I am so excited about summer and doing some fun stuff. Hopefully she likes water because we definitely plan on visiting the pool across the street and since that's about all you can do and not be miserable these super hot Austin summers we have.

Okay, so let's do our 6 months Ruby facts:

Weight: 15lbs 11oz (45% percentile)
Height: 26 inches (61% percentile) (has grown 2 inches in 2 months!)

She is getting so much better at eating. It was a little hit or miss for a while and I was about to take a solid food hiatus for a week or so since it just seemed to be stressing both of us out and I definitely didn't want that, but all of a sudden she started eating really good. She has now had rice cereal, sweet potatoes, bananas, avocadoes, peas, and has even eaten a couple of cherrios.

She loves music. If she gets fussy or bored I can just turn on some music and a lot of times that will calm her down. This makes me so happy as I am definitely a music person and am looking forward to sharing that with her.

Molly is pretty much her favorite thing in the world. If she is in her bouncer and Molly walks by most of the time she will just stop and open mouthed stare at Molly then bust out a big smile. Molly is still leary of Ruby.

Is so very close to sitting up on her own. She just discovered her feet last week and is pretty mesmorized by them so that really distracts her from trying to sit upright when she can just slump over and play with those oh-so fun feet of hers.

She is a champion roller-over! So much so she pretty much refuses to be on her back, within a few seconds of laying her on her back she will flop on over to her belly. This has force Andy and I to be extra diligent when changing her diapers on her table as she has gotten very close to the edge a few times. Scary!

There is a park right across the street from our house and have swung a couple of times. She loves it! She is still a little small for the swing so we shove the baby carrier behind her to support her upper body and just barely swing her and she squells with laughter. It is pretty much my favorite thing in the world to do right now.

Alright, picture time....


Teething on EVERYTHING. This particular day I left for just a few minutes to switch out the laundry and she had rolled over to the coffee table and was just gnawing up a storm!



We got for walks when the weather is nice, she loves going in her carrier so she can see the world.

My love.


This girl is teaching me how to live...



HAPPY HALF BIRTHDAY RUBY ANN!

Tulsa Visit

Alright, so our third and final visit of this whirlwind of a trip was to my parent's house in Tulsa. We drove up there after Sara's shower to spend the night with them. Again, we tried to cram as much quality time into a short visit as possible.

I'm pretty sure Ruby is going to adore her uber cool Uncle Brian, he is so good with her.


Hanging out on the front porch, Brian getting some Ruby time while trying to convince me that graphic novels are cool. *not sold*


Paw Paw loved on her the most I think.


Big girl wants to feed herself


Even Molly loves going up to Tulsa, they have a huge yard she runs all around in and more importantly lots of people to play with her!


Emma was even interested in Ruby, and Ruby was most definitely in Emma.


Then we headed back down to Austin Sunday. For future reference, Spring break traffic + I-35 + 8 hour drive = 11 hours of terribleness. But I can honestly say that even with the awful trip back home it was totally worth it, and that's saying something! Thanks everyone for such a wonderful visit, I miss my Okies so very much!

Sara's Shower

So we left Friday morning from Waxahachie and headed up to Oklahoma City to visit my BFF Sara an for her big baby shower. I was so excited to see her bump and spend some time with her before MacKenzie makes her appearance in a few weeks. Friday night we just hung out and went out to eat some bar-b-que.

Ruby took a nap right next to MacKenzie :)


Then the next morning it was shower time!!!!

Our Mama's are friends too!



We played a few games


THE FOOD

I am forever indebted to my mom for helping out as much as she did. I am so grateful for all the work she did to help out with the shower. Then once Ruby got to the party (she came later) my mom was on that girl like white on rice. Grandma hadn't seen her girl in a couple of months so she was ready for some Ruby time!

Opened presents of course!


So the shower was good, Sara got a lot of really cute stuff, we got to celebrate Miss MacKenzie's upcoming arrival, it was a nice little visit. Next we headed up Tulsa....