Ruby Recap: Month 3

I am so behind on these. 

Let's just acknowledge that taking care of a baby full-time doesn't leave a lot of free time. I'm lucky to brush my teeth (almost) every day. 

I'm also a perfectionist, and spending 5+ hours to write the first draft of a blog post isn't something I have the luxury for. 

So here's my attempt to catch up, and also my attempt to relax a little over what I write. 

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Well it's official. Ruby is no longer a newborn. *sniff*

Look how much our infant has grown! 

An unofficial bathroom scale weigh-in puts her around 13 lbs. 6 oz...up almost 3 whole pounds since her month 2 checkup! 

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Here's a recap of Ruby's 3rd month: 

Shane had to go out of town overnight for work, so Ruby and I got to have some girl time. And we survived! 

I was really nervous to be on our own. Sure, I take care of her during work hours, and it's not like Shane can wake up and breastfeed her during the night, but it's really awesome to have him help out after he gets done working. I love taking care of her, but sometimes you just need a break to walk laps around the house or go to the bathroom without constantly worrying about a tiny human. 

Surprisingly, we did pretty well. Ruby seemed to be on her best behavior and even let me take a shower without having Shane watch her. 

Here we are, dressed all snuggly in our pajamas and ready for story time! 

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Ruby started to figure out TOYS this month :) She's figured out that she can put things in her mouth and chew. As if everything in our house wasn't already covered in dog slobber, I guess now it'll be covered in Ruby slobber too. 

It's so amazing to watch her learn and interact with the world around her. She doesn't just lay on her playmat anymore, she looks at and reaches for her toys. She even played herself to sleep one day!

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Ruby still loves bathtime! Shane's usually in charge, because I'm always afraid I'll drop her when she's wet and soapy and slippery. But that just leaves me free to take pictures! 

Look at her duck fuzz! Sometimes it looks red, sometimes it looks blonde. We're anxious to see what her hair looks like, but it might take a while. Neither Shane or I had much hair at all until we were a year old or more. 

Too cute!

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Speaking of ducks, check out Ruby in her first snowstorm! As you would expect, we spent more time bundling ourselves up than out in the snow. Ruby is pretty smart, but she's not quite advanced to snowman-building level yet. 

If you're wondering where you can get a stylish duck snowsuit like hers, you'll just have to travel back in time to the late 1980s. Almost exactly 28 years ago, my parents dressed baby ME in that snowsuit to bring me home from the hospital in a snowstorm.  

Ruby enjoyed the snow so much that she pitched a fit when we came back inside. 

*Sidenote: why did Carter's put an elephant on an outfit with bear ears on the hood? I mean it's cute, I picked it out. It's not like they could put giant elephant ears on there, but it seems odd to mix animals. Or is that just me? 

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Aunt Hannah has been collecting these cute things called tsum tsums since before Ruby was born. Each month the Disney store comes out with a set of characters from a different movie. We also may or may not have bought an Alice in Wonderland costume (in several sizes) back at Halloween. This photo opportunity has been in the works for a while. 

However, if you've ever had a baby, you'll know that time goes by fast and you don't always have time for baby fashion shows. If you look closely, you'll see that in the third picture, Ruby's onesie buttons weren't even snapped. Guess who was just a smidge too long for her dress? She posed for a while, but she really lets you know when she's just OVER IT.   

P.S. Let this serve as a warning to those parents out there who are looking at buying Halloween costumes from the Disney store. If you're looking at baby sizes, SIZE UP. Ruby has a couple that we bought on clearance, and they have consistently run small. 

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This month we did something scary. We drove for three-and-a-half hours in a VW Golf with two rambunctious dogs and a two-month-old baby. 

That's right! It was time for Ruby's first trip to Knoxville! Ruby got to meet a LOT of new family members. And we somehow managed to not pack our whole house! I still don't know how I, the queen of overpacking, took a trip with a baby without having to rent a U-Haul. 

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Ruby loves to go for rides with mom and dad! Shane and I have enjoyed learning all about babywearing, and if you can't tell, I have a serious addiction to buying different baby carriers. 

The picture on the left is Ruby and me at Opry Mills mall, where we met up with a bunch of other babywearing mamas to walk laps. The middle picture is at our very first Babywearing International meeting, which was so fun! And the picture on the right is me and Ruby at the grocery store. Babywearing is awesome because it lets Ruby get all snuggled up (and she usually takes a nap) while we get chores done :) 

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It's amazing to see how much this little lady grows and changes every day, and we're so thankful to be her parents. 

Until next time, enjoy this classy lady in her diaper and socks :) 

Ruby Recap: Month 1

In case you missed Ruby's birth story, you can read it here. 


"Move it, peas! You're in my shot!" 

  

Yes, she did actually whack the peas out of her way. 

It's hard to believe that our little girl is one month old already! It's not been an easy month, but it's been the best month of our lives. Here are some of our favorite moments from the past month. 

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Ruby's first... Thanksgiving! Her due date was supposed to be three days after Turkey Day, so our plans changed a bit from what we'd expected. Instead of me sitting around hugely pregnant and uncomfortable, I got to enjoy the holiday with a sweet little baby! Shane's parents, my parents, and my sister Hannah all came to celebrate with us. Shane is so awesome, he did ALL the cooking without any help from me! It was really nice to be able to relax instead of stress. Thanks Shane!

Everyone made it into these photos except Ruby...she's in her rocking chair on the floor next to me. 

We learned the importance of having a backup holiday outfit. Ruby started out the day wearing an outfit with cute little turkeys printed on it..and then she peed on it...twice. Good thing we'd bought this onesie as a backup just in case! 

As it turns out, adult size turkey hats make really good baby turkey costumes! Look at my silly little turkeys :) 

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Ruby's first... visit to see Santa! Like crazy people, we took her to the mall at 2 weeks old to get her first Santa picture made. I figured it would be better to take her early before it got too cold outside and the lines got too long. We still had to wait over an hour! 

This picture is adorable and hilarious. Just check out Ruby up close. I got worried about Ruby getting big kid germs from sitting on Santa's lap after so many other kids, so I decided to hold her. I should've looked at us in a mirror before they snapped the picture. I promise she's not slumped over, it's just her outfit was a little large and bunched up right around her head. It does make her look like her shoulders are about to her ears though!   

Ruby and I also had our first public breastfeeding experience that day. Of all places, I wouldn't have imagined trying it at a Bass Pro Shop in a busy outlet mall, but when a baby's gotta eat, she's gotta eat! I was able to keep myself covered without having to cover Ruby. I felt a lot more comfortable with it than I would've thought. And thankfully I didn't even get any weird looks from others! I honestly don't know how many people really even noticed I was feeding her. 

Breastfeeding is NOT an easy thing to learn how to do, and looking at this photo makes me really proud of myself. At this point, I was still having a lot of trouble getting her to latch on. I had just gone to a breastfeeding support group two days before, and thanks to the techniques I learned there, this was also one of the first times I was able to get her to latch properly. 

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Ruby loves... planking! You know, like the social media trend from a few years ago? Our little goofball loves to relax by sticking her arms and legs out stiff as a board. 

Ruby loves... her play gym! She isn't really big enough to play with toys and she can only see about 12 inches in front of her face, but she DID seem pretty interested in the hanging rattle after her hand accidentally whacked it. 

Ruby loves... her big brothers! Charlie and Sheldon alternate between ignoring Ruby and being completely entranced by her. They get really concerned when she starts to cry. If we don't get to her quick enough they'll start barking as if to say, "the baby's broken, fix her!" 

The first few days we had her home, Sheldon (on the right) would NOT let Charlie near Ruby at all! If Charlie got close, Sheldon would growl and snap at him like some sort of vicious wild animal. I had to catch and hold Sheldon so Charlie could get some Ruby snuggle time. 

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 You had to be there... 

Ruby was wearing a 0-3 month size gown and it was way too big on her and at one point the neck hole was halfway down her chest. Shane took a look at her and said, "Ruby, I can see your cleavage! You need a cami secret!"

She sleeps in a cradle in our room. One night I had a hard time getting her to go to sleep; anytime I'd put her down, she'd start crying again. I finally got her down and she seemed okay, so I crept back to my bed as quietly as possible. I laid down, pulled up the covers...and farted. Really loudly. Ruby immediately woke up and started crying. 

You'll never believe it, but the other day, Ruby and Shane sneezed at the EXACT SAME TIME. Seriously. It was the weirdest thing. And today, Ruby sneezed a second after I did. I think she's got some sort of psychic / sympathetic sneeze thing going on. 

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Happy one month, Ruby! 

P.S. How cute is she in that fleece vest and those jeggings? She doesn't wear "outfits" very much, we typically have her in gowns or pajamas, but when she does...she's way more stylish than I am! 

Day 26: National Puppy Day!

Howdy folks, Shane here filling in for the great and wonderful Lauren while she studies for her math test.

National Puppy Day was today and it certainly was a beautiful day! To celebrate I'm going throw up a few of my favorite pictures of our babies Charlie and Sheldon.

Aww look at that beautiful family portrait. Charlie and Sheldon forgot their ugly sweaters but I think they look super cute!

Here we see a Sheldon in the wild worn out from a long day of barking at unknown beings outside the walls of our fortress.

In case you didn't know a maltese can turn into a shoulder mounted defense systems in case of attack from the above unknown beings. 

 When Charlie's nerves are shot from a long day of being defended by Sheldon from unknown beings he likes to snuggle down into a nice electric blanket.

Charlie also does well on the shoulders but he is more of a fashion accessory, than a defense system.

We love our pups and everything they have to offer as man's best friend. I hope you all had a great National Puppy Day, let us know how your day went, did you do anything fun with your puppies?  

Day 24: We're cheaters

Today Shane and I woke up early and hit the gym for our core and circuit day. It was pretty tough and I'm proud of us for making it through. Here's what we did:

10 pushups

20 kettlebell swings

30 situps

40 squat jumps

50 jump ropes

And do the whole thing 5 times through!

The whole routine took us about an hour with lots of water and breath-catching breaks. Once we were done, an older lady who was walking the track told us that we inspired her to keep going. She said she normally gets tired and wants to quit, but if we could be doing all the crazy stuff we were doing, then she should surely keep walking! That was nice to hear and I'm glad we were able to help motivate someone else. 

We had our own motivation to make it through five rounds, and that was the cheat meal we were going to eat after the gym! Our diet plan is pretty strict, but it also has one cheat meal per week. The only rule is that you shouldn't eat fast food. Shane was craving a burger with pimento cheese and sweet potato fries, so we chose Burger Up for our delicious delicious meal. This is one of those types of places where they make their own ketchup, so you know it's good.

I went for the cheeseburger with bacon and sweet onion rings. All the food was super yummy...but honestly after a week of eating the way we have, it was a chore to finish our meals. We had to keep taking breaks for our food to settle, and Shane ended up with about half of my onion rings. Next week's cheat meal will most likely be something more veggie-friendly.

After lunch, we took some laps around the mall, and on our way back home we stopped for the real planned treat that got us through circuit rounds 3-5. No frozen yogurt will ever be as good as our favorite place in Maryland (which is the only place I've found tart strawberry, so good), but Sweet CeCe's and their new smaller $3.99 flat price bowls will do. They're just the right size for a little swirl of your favorite flavor along with one of every yummy topping.

We weren't even hungry when dinner time rolled around, but we were good and got out our chicken and veggies anyways. Gotta get our daily protein!

Day 19: Happy Pi Day!

Happy Pi Day! I'm watching the clock because it's 3/14/15, and at 9:26:53 p.m., the date and time will represent the first 10 digits of pi. 

In case you haven't taken a math class recently and/or don't know what I'm talking about, π (pi) represents the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. It cannot be written out completely as the decimals never end and never repeat in a pattern. Computer calculations have it going into the trillions of decimal places and are still working. (Read more about it here if you're interested). Thanks to Precalculus 2, I've been doing a lot of geometry and trigonometry, so I've been well acquainted with π. 

It's also Albert Einstein's birthday! 

Shane and I found it fitting to celebrate with our favorite kind of π...pizza pie! We got some Screamin Sicilian frozen pizzas at Publix and they were surprisingly delicious. Like it's fair to say it's the best frozen pizza I've ever had, and better than a lot of regular fresh pizza. It also didn't hurt that it came with a coupon for buy two, get a free Ben & Jerry's coupon. Yum! 

The pizza boxes even had these fun cardboard punch-out moustaches, which were kinda weird because they attached to your face by sticking cardboard up your nose. Perfect for a quick pic I guess :) 

How are you celebrating #NationalPiDay ??

Day 18: #FlashbackFriday

I'm behind a few days on posting because I'm on Spring Break, except instead of going to the beach, I rode around with Shane on sales trips for two days. We also went to Knoxville and visited with our families for a few days. But don't worry, I'll make them up one of these days.

So check this out. Like a week ago Shane and I were at the gym and a lady pointed out that both of our hair matched our jackets. And our shaker bottles. Even my earrings matched. We've somehow turned ourselves into living crayons. 

I feel like since I've had crazy colored hair (like three months ago), I've gotten a taste of what life's like for Shane. We both get stares, turned heads, and little old ladies saying "oooh I love your hair!" 

It's pretty funny especially when little kids say things like "look mom, that person has PINK HAIR!" The mom then tries to shush the kid, while I'm laughing. Little kids can't help it, they say exactly what they're thinking. At least this is a compliment.

I may not always have funky hair, but I hope Shane and I are always this colorful, inside and out. Life is more fun this way. 

Day 17: Blind Bags Anonymous

My sister Hannah has gotten hooked on blind bags, you know, where you get a sealed box or foil bag with a surprise toy inside. Just search "blind bags" on YouTube and you'll know where the obsession came from, and it's easy to see why! The mystery of which toy you're going to get is exciting and fun. Who doesn't like toy surprises? That's pretty much the whole basis for the Happy Meal after all. 

She started stocking up a few weeks ago and amassed a giant collection so Shane and I could come over and we'd have a Blind Bag Palooza. Here is our before pile. The picture does not do the sheer amount of blind bags justice. She got a wide variety of fun things to open. Our contribution can be seen in the brown paper bags with magic marker drawings on them. They're $2 grab bags from Crystal Visions at East Town Knoxville Center Mall, the one that sells pagan/wiccan supplies, those trolls with the glowing red eyes, and an assortment of "tobacco" pipes and samurai swords. We were curious. 

Where to start first? 

Needless to say, it took a while to open all those little packages, and I think even longer for me to set up this picture. Check out what we got! 

See those tumbled stones and glass earrings in bottom right corner? That's what was in our grab bags. I'm sure they have some sort of mystical powers. 

There are a lot of popular blind bags right now, one of the most sought out being Shopkins. As you can see from the picture below, they're adorable anthropomorphized versions of things you would buy at the grocery store, and they come two at a time in a little shopping basket. They also include a little checklist that looks like a grocery store receipt. Hannah has been known to drive all over town to find them. 

There's around 145 different Shopkins in season (series) 2 alone, so that's a lot of little shopping baskets laying around the house if you're a collector. 

Here's a few more of the Shopkins...

Shopkins weren't the only thing we got! As you'll see from the picture below, we've got a few Lego minifigures (two Explorers and a King), a surprise Doctor from Doctor Who (we got the first Doctor), some Hello Kitty figurines, etc. See those things with the giant heads? They're called Fash'ems, and they're a little weird to me. They're squishy and filled with water, and the outsides are almost sticky. Seems like they'd get real dirty and fuzzy real quick.

We also got some Minecraft blind boxes, an assortment of My Little Ponies, more Hello Kitties, and those cute figurines in the back, which are Tokidoki Unicornos. 

If you have never been to a Five Below, you need to check it out. That's where Hannah got these fake Kinder Surprise eggs. The real Kinder eggs, in case you've never heard of them, are chocolate eggs with toys inside, kind of like the Wonderball chocolates we had in the 90s. You can get them in pretty much every country besides the United States (they're banned here because of an FDA regulation, and people get fined at the Canadian border for trying to bring them across). 

These ChocoTreasure eggs are still technically illegal per the FDA regulations, so it's just a matter of time until they're forced to stop production. Sadly, the eggs contained some of the lamest prizes of the bunch. One did have a cute tiny Hello Kitty figurine, and a couple had stickers, but most had little cardboard people like the ones below. I ate several of the chocolate egg shells and quickly regretted that decision. 

We had a lot of fun opening and sorting our prizes. I know what you're thinking, what are we going to do with all of these? Well, Hannah is collecting some, Shane and I are keeping some of the others (our china cabinet, which used to hold liquor, is slowly being converted to a toy showcase), and anything we don't want or have duplicates of will be given to friends' kids.

You never know, maybe this is just practice for when Hannah is a YouTube star and gets paid to do this! 

Day 16: The Horners of Catan

Welcome to game night!

Shane and I have always been into games and love playing them with family and friends. We've got quite the collection too. This year for Christmas my mom got Shane one of the games he's been wanting for a long time...Settlers of Catan. 

The game isn't quite as involved as The Cones of Dunshire, so we've got a basic grasp of gameplay and low-level strategy. Shane and I have played several different two-player rules variation games at home (it's a 3-4 player game), but as with anything, friends and family make it way more fun. We even bought the expansion pack (up to 6 players), which came in handy when we had pizza and played with several friends a few weeks ago. 

Our latest converts are Shane's mom Debbie and dad Steve. They were really quick to pick up on it, and it was the most involved game we'd played thus far! Steve won, and Debbie came in second, so Shane and I will have to sneak and read some online strategy guides before our next game with them ;) 

 

The game involves the occasional theft of one card from a fellow player through the Robber and the Knight. Debbie didn't have access to any of the stone quarries from her spot on the board (with stone being one of the important resources needed to build things), so whenever it was her turn to steal, it was a running joke that she was looking to find Steve's stone cards. He was a good sport about it though, and when it was his turn to steal, he'd turn right around and get something back from her! 

Win or lose, we all had lots of fun, and I think everybody is waiting for the rematch. I'd love to teach my parents how to play too (my sister already knows how). Then maybe we could have a mega Catan tournament together! 

Until next time, keep Effie Trinket's catchphrase in mind..."may the odds roll of the dice be ever in your favor."

Day 9: Teefs

Today I finally got my wisdom teeth out. I've needed it done for probably 2-3 years now, but out of embarrassment I told the dental assistant they'd only been bothering me for a few months. 

*** I feel like I should go ahead and mention that I'm pretty loopy on my painkillers right now, so please forgive me if this post is less than coherent ***

Where was I. Oh yeah, getting my teeth pulled. The dentist's office warned me not to operate heavy machinery, lift heavy objects, or make important decisions within 24 hours of surgery, so it was really lucky for me that Shane works from home and could drive there and back. 

***  And when I say I'm pretty loopy, I mean I can barely hold my head up to write. If Shane asked if he could turn the backyard into a crocodile refuge right now, I'd say "sure, why not?" *** 

Contact lenses were a big no-no. I couldn't even drink water for 6 hours before the surgery, so of course I woke up with a mouth that felt dryer than the Safari Sahara. 

*** I mentioned the painkillers, right?? ***

I didn't go to an oral surgeon. Thanks to my dentist's new 3D x-ray machine, he saw that the extraction could be done in his office. My bottom two teeth were partially "erupted" a.k.a. out of my gums, and the top two were still completely inside my gums, so there'd be a lot of cutting and poking around in there.

*** So yeah, I may have sprung $300 for sedation instead of a shot to numb the area. The only catch is that they could only give me pills, gas, and some sort of gross liquid...they couldn't fully put me to sleep. ***

After taking the initial set of pills, I got to lay in the surgery room covered in a blanket with the lights dimmed and wait for a while. After a sufficient amount of time, the dental assistant came back and gave me quite a bit of nitrous. I thought, "isn't it funny that people use nitrous in cars to make them go faster, but it makes people go slower?" This is when I realized the pills were working. Then I started to think maybe the nitrous wasn't really working. They immediately came to give me liquid medicine, and when I tried to sit to take it, I realized that the pills AND the nitrous were certainly doing their job. 

The picture above is the creepy skeleton 3D with which they determined my dental extraction fate. I got to stare at it while I was waiting on the pills. The dental assistant turned it off when she saw me staring intensely at it. I also had one headphone in, listening to my California Dreamin' Pandora station going. I was so worried about the procedure that I knew I had to have something to calm me down a bit. 

Since they couldn't do an IV, I was awake for the whole thing. Well, kinda awake. The liquid medicine had me really going in and out. I remember feeling like they put a crowbar under a tooth to try and pop it out. I remember them moving the mouth-propper-opener-thingie and asking me to open my mouth wider, but my whole mouth was so numb that I couldn't, so then I pulled my chin down with my hand. Thankfully they had numbing stuff on a q-tip they put wherever they were about to put a giant shot, so I didn't feel that either. 

At the end, when the dental assistant handed me my glasses and helped me to the door, with a mouth full of gauze I asked, "What do they do with the teeth??" I mean isn't it right about now when they show up with a little sealed medical sandwich bag with teeth? She looked at me and said, "Those go into the biohazard bin" with a concerned look on her face. So now I'm the creepy one who thinks, oh, I could still ask her to go rescue them, but what if it's really a giant bin full of teeth, how would she know which ones were really mine? And then I'd have some random stranger's teeth?

I'm not sure why I'm so concerned about the teeth. What would I do with them, make a necklace?

I'm at home now, where having slept for most of the day, I'm currently blogging and sending Snapchats right as the meds kick in and the ghost teeth quit aching. 

My husband Shane deserves a huge shout out for being so amazing and taking care of me in my time of need! I mean, they recommended eating crackers to settle my stomach, so he goes out and gets me oyster crackers so they're small enough to not hurt my teeth. He's so thoughtful and amazing. He also got frozen yogurt and made jello and chocolate pudding. Oh and mashed potatoes for dinner! 

We'll see if the loss of wisdom teeth affects my school grades. I mean do they make you smarter or what? And also, why can I feel no stitches? Are there liquid stitches in there? Or did they just leave the flaps to flutter around in my mouth? I know I shouldn't mess with them for fear of dry socket. I also can't exercise vigorously for a week, so that'll be fun. 

I should probably go now, a post any longer would be an important decision, and I don't think I'm in any sort of position to make those.