Memorial Day BBQ

Ruby spent her first Memorial Day at Marina Park with all of the softball peeps from Daniel's Wednesday night league. After much debate we decided to bring the dogs (broccoli & our part-time foster dog Summer) along. It turns out we weren't the only ones with that idea because all together there were eight dogs in our gang. The dogs were in heaven and Ruby was thoroughly amused. Daniel let her ride side saddle on Munch, the ginormous dog she is pictured with and she especially loved our friends dalmatian Pongo. I wish I had taken a picture of all the dogs together, but alas, I did not! :( I also failed to get a picture of Ru with her friend Clara, but the girls had a good time playing on the blanket together and I look forward to them chasing each other around when they get older. It was a fun day spent with friends...I'll let the pictures say the rest.

me and my little tomboy...she reminds me of my grandpa in this hat.

first time eating watermelon...yum!

she loves to point...think she's going to be bossy?

this dog is just a little bigger than the one at my house...

Ten Months...

Is that even possible? Today my baby is ten months old! This past month has been a big one, packed full of milestones. You have finally learned to crawl and you are quite happy with yourself. You made your very first crawl on our fifth anniversary and it was the best gift ever. It's such a bizarre feeling seeing this little creature who for ten months was totally reliant on us for transportation, who can now get around all by her big girl self! You "say" ma-ma, da-da, and na-na, but there is absolutely no correlation to anything as of yet. You understand NO, but you generally choose to acknowledge and then ignore it...i have come to realize in the last month that i am going to have a very strong-willed little girl on my hands! You love to wave now, and just today you started "talking" as you wave, and it actually sounds like your saying "hi-eee" but I think it's safe to say your just mimicking the high pitch we use when trying to elicit a wave from you. You have also learned to clap your hands, though you rarely do so empty handed. You prefer to clap with a ball in each hand, usually obtained from your toy train, which you have also figured out how to turn on all by yourself. You're able to pull yourself up with no assistance, although sometimes I think you forget how to sit back down. :) You are getting over a nasty cold right now and I feel so bad for you, that hoarse little cry is so pitiful. There's nothing I wouldn't do to keep you from feeling so miserable. Get better little one, I love you tons!

on the move!

Swings & Cinni's

We had quite a busy weekend at the Green residence. On Friday Ruby decided it was finally time and started crawling. I think it was her little anniversary gift to us as her lack of mobility was becoming a MAJOR source of frustration for her and thus a major source of frustration for us...you can only carry around a 21 pound baby for so long!


Friday night my mom picked Ruby up so Daniel & I could celebrate our fifth anniversary. We had a lovely evening out at La Creperie and enjoyed a delicious dinner/dessert and great live music. Afterwords we cruised around Second Street and ducked into a little restaurant for a nightcap. Well, to be fair,Daniel had a nightcap and I had a cherry coke! ;)

Napoleon Crepes(fresh strawberries & creme brulee)Dee-lish-us!


Sunday morning I attended the Child Dedication Class at church,(Daniel stayed home with poor Ru who is battling a cold and teething) so Ruby can be dedicated on Mother's Day. We started today off with some warm Pillsbury Cinnamon rolls, which we refer to as Cinni's at our house. It was Ru's first time experiencing this tasty treat & it was definitely LOVE. This afternoon she decided to repay us by taking a THREE, count em' THREE hour nap. During this time Daniel & I worked our behindess's off in the yard. I weeded for entirely too long (and have the sunburn and tight muscles to prove it) pruned a bunch & planted LOTS. Our yard isn't the prettiest, but after four years of apartment dwelling, I'm happy to have a yard & I'm trying to add to it's beauty little by little. So in our efforts to improve upon it's appearance, we cleared out the entire side run and planted seeds which will hopefully yield beautiful vines soon. In the back yard I planted two packets of wildflower mix that I got at the dollar section of Target. Hopefully they too will bloom and cheer up the giant, dreary planter box that has yielded nothing but weeds thus far.

To finish off a lovely day, we walked to Hole Mole for a yummy Mexican dinner. On the way home we stopped at the park and let the beebs have her very first swing ride. As you can tell by the video it was quite a success! There is nothing better than that laugh, it makes me smile just writing about it. So that's it, our weekend in a nutshell...hopefully all the hard work will pay off and I'll be posting pics of a yard in bloom sometime soon!

Five Years Ago Today...

I was on my way to First United Methodist Church, with my mom, while trying to get my nose ring back in my nose. Of what significance is this random tale you might ask. Well on Saturday the first of May, 2004 I was on my way to church to be married to Daniel. I had pierced my nose three years earlier with my mothers blessing under one condition; that I would take it out for the wedding unless I wanted to pay for it myself! My mom eventually got used to the piercing and even grew to like it and I was now allowed to wear my extra bling for the ceremony, so I had taken it out, as I did most days to clean it and give it a little extra sparkle.

There was just one problem...I couldn't get it back in, and I can assure you, however much you dislike piercings, a void hole looks so much worse than a tiny little rhinestone! I had no pre-wedding jitters whatsoever, but for some reason or another, in the rush to get ready I could NOT get my nose ring back in. When I got to the church, I figured I could trust Monica to get the job done as she had "re-pierced" my nose more times than I care to remember (a story for another time). Monica however, had no better luck than me, until...wait for it, she swapped nose rings with me, and wa-lah, it went right in! True friendship! :) That was the only "big glitch" on our big day (well that and Daniel and his groomsmen inadvertently chasing down a relative and accusing him of pickpocketing...again, a story for another time). After all that, it was down the isle in my green suede heels to meet my high school sweetheart and say I DO.

It was the most exciting day of my life and I had dreamed of it for so long. It only took a few months before I knew I was going to marry you, and after six years of dating I knew everything I needed to know about you. You were definately THE one! You are my bestest friend and you balance me out. You tolerate my crazy and you're even able to laugh at it to keep from loosing your mind. I love you and I'd be nothing without you. Thank you for being my hubband and Ru's daddy, you mean the world to me. UNDERLINE, UNDERLINE,UNDERLINE!

My Happily Ever After

Nine Months!

Waiting to go in for your nine month checkup...

Today you are nine months old! You had your nine month "well visit" yesterday, and you weighed in at 21 pounds even (no wonder my arms hurt) and you are 28&1/4 inches long. That puts you at 90th percentile for your weight and 75th percentile for your height, not too bad for a preemie! You have finally started holding your own bottle, but only if we lay you down, and you prefer momma to feed you your last bottle before bed. I think the Good Lord let me have that because I couldn't bear the thought of you not needing me to feed you as I still hold you in my arms everynight until you fall asleep. Other than that, no major milestones this month. You still aren't crawling, but you are finally getting up on all fours and rocking back & forth until you lunge forward and pancake out! Even though you aren't able to get around on your own yet, I can already tell you are going to be pure trouble when you can & NO is going to be a very popular word in our home! You are the nosiest child I have ever seen, you want to touch everything! You have yet to meet a food that you don't like and you eat at lightning speed. You love your "dolly bear" as daddy calls it that you got for Christmas and it has definitely become your security blanket. I love you monkey bear and though I miss my tiny little five pound baby, I love watching you grow!

p.s.
you have also taken to kicking (with quite some force i might add)when you don't like something, usually when you're in your crib and you would prefer to be in someones arms! ;) Some might refer to this as a tantrum of sorts...

self portrait "photo shoot" while waiting for Dr. Mcfarland to come in.

Eight Months Old!

Are you cereal? Yes it's true, today you are eight months old! No huge developments in the last month, but you have come up with a few new things worth mentioning. You LOVE to bounce, and you do so whenever you get the chance. Still no teeth, and absolutely NO interest in crawling, but you love to stand and will walk, with us holding your hands of course. My favorite new development is when you see us coming to get you, you put your arms up...not as if you are going to put them around our neck, but in order to grab onto our fingers (or "handlebars" as daddy calls them) so you can pull yourself up from a sitting to a standing position. You enjoy sitting on our bed and squealing/screaming with delight for ridiculous amounts of time as you explore your voice and its ability to light up the baby monitor. So I guess that's you in a nutshell at eight months! I love you my little monkey bear!

Ocho cosas sobre me!

The rules are as follows:
1. Each player starts with eight random fact/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged need to write on their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
3. At the end of your blog post, you need to choose people to get tagged and list their names.
4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged and to read your blog.

1. I still have a blankey & must have it to sleep at home & especially when i travel. I was known to take my blanket to class in high school when I was tired...gotta love the satin trim. I had the same one forever but now I am forced to replace it every few years do it's pitifulness...

2. I keep a "list book" filled with lists of different things...the most important being my list of names. I have a list of potential pet names as well as baby names, one for boys, another for girls.
3. I am a complete sap for lost animals & have been known to pull over on the side of the road to rescue dogs. Doesn't matter what time of day, or how late I'm already running. What goes around comes around & I hope if one of my pets was ever to run away, someone will be kind enough to at least try & rescue them. I have also been known to take in disabled cats, maimed birds & other various wildlife.

4. I have an infatuation with Catholic &/or Mexican art and decor as well as a slight obsession with the Virgin Mary/Virgin Guadalupe & I am always scoping the flea market for a new addition to my growing collection. So much so, that when our apartment manager came over to check on something she asked Daniel if we were Catholic.

5. I save text messages & voicemails for an obscenely long time before deleting them, and I ALWAYS save my most recent messages from Daniel if I know he will be flying. My weird rationale, should you be curious, is just in case something happens to him, i can always listen to his voice again. Does this make me strange...

6. I collect rocks and have done so since I was in preschool. Everyday I would come home with my pockets full of carefully selected rocks. My mom has a glass jar full of the ones she deemed worthy of saving. I don't come home with pockets full of rocks anymore, but I do look for a good rock whenever we travel to remind me of our trip. When we were in New York I found a pile of cobblestones and took one that I made poor daniel carry around for the rest of the day. After all that, we couldn't even take it on the plane with us, because it could be considered a weapon, forcing me to wait an entire year before our friend drove my cobblestone across the country. It now sits on my porch & makes a fine doorstop!

7. I am ever so slightly touched by the OCD gene...clothes must be hung/stacked in color order, bottles must have the coordinating color tops & bottoms...none of this willy nilly randomness. ALL cupboards/drawers/closet doors MUST be closed shut, close enough it not acceptable! Mini-blinds must be closed in the down position & I absolutely hate dishes in the sink, dirty or clean...makes me CRAZY! now you know...so start prayin'! :)

8. I could easily live on fast food, candy & soda pop for the rest of my life if it wasn't for my WONDERFUL husband! I wouldn't feel guilty & I am completely okay with admitting that nine times out of ten, I would prefer fast food to a homemade meal. I don't feel better when I eat healthier & I always want to laugh when I here someone say that they feel gross when they eat to much fast food. I know...I'm gross!

okay, that's all you need to know for now! I am tagging Jen, Amanda R., Monica, Geneva, Moms, & Jessica....get to it girls!