Theo sometimes gets lonely at night

Well, that or he forgot to pull his blanket off the top bunk and was cold...

Ruby is a "Hawaiian girl"

Ruby likes animals

It's an aggressive kind of love.

Ruby is a sniper

Ruby struck with stealth and speed while I was clipping Theo's nails.



Notice the clip behind the right ear.

Ruby Sings the Painting by Chagall Chorus

Chorus from Painting By Chagall by The Weepies

Sometimes rain that’s needed falls
We float like two lovers in a painting by Chagall
All around is sky and blue town
Holding these flowers for a wedding gown
We live so high above the ground, satellites surround us.

Mom's Night Out

 

The moms went out to dinner, so I got to play with the kids. I tried to catch all the cuteness, but it's a difficult task, especially when one has to eat so much pretend food. You can see the individual pictures in the album.

Since the big kids played together so much, Sothea found out she could feed me the pretend food. Of course I didn't mind. But I got a huge reward for being a good sport--on her own initiative, she gave me a special goodbye hug before going home. Just as she was about to go out the door, she climbed back up the stairs and raised her arms for a hug.

Ruby rocks the chalkboard

A valentine for her kuya.



A wireframe of a bird (is she a future engineer or animator??) and a previously unknown species of bug.

Theo also makes good use of the chalkboard.

We go sledding for the first time this winter

Grampy and Grandma live near a very nice sledding hill. It snowed about a foot when we went to visit them, so the sledding hill was busy when we went. It was cold, so the snow was powdery, terrible for snow ball fights, and when you go sledding you get a big puff of wet snow in your face!

I wished that I had my contacts on, because my eyeglasses would get really steamy. Fortunately, Grandma brought a handkerchief to dry them after each sledding run.

Grandma took this picture of everyone at the top of the hill.



Ruby was one of the first to get cold, but not before a few sled runs and one snow angel.




Here's one of my favorite videos of the day. Six of us rode on the toboggan: (front to back) Ralphie, Ruby, Grampy, Theo, Mom, and Dad. As we sledded down, we temporarily disappeared in a cloud of snow.



Part of the way down, I tried to shield my face by putting my arms up, but it was hopeless. At the bottom of the hill, I put my arms down and discovered that Theo had become a pile of snow in front of me. Ralphie was screaming and Ruby was whimpering because we forgot to warn them about getting blasted in the face with snow. Theo was perfectly calm though. He just stood up, dusted himself off, then started eating the snow off his gloves. He had a hard time climbing back up the hill, because the whole time he was trying to eat the snow from his gloves, and it kept throwing him off balance.

Life is gentle, II

I posted something similar a while back.

1.) Ted got employee of the year for his company this year.
2.) Theo's favorite toy so far that he got for Christmas is the Martian Matter Alien Maker, which allows him to be creative and even a little bit messy.
3.) Band practice! There are so many levels to this one. First, I have always wanted to play in a band, and who knew that all of my uncles have also wanted to do this, and put together, we happen to have a drummer, bassist, lead guitar, and rhythm guitar/keyboards, as well as someone who knows how to plug all the equipment together? And then, since we practice so often, our families are finally getting to know each other. Which means that Ruby now plays dress up and dolls with my cousin Tim, and all the boys--Alex, Arikha,Mikas, and Theo--spent nearly three hours last night making Martian Matter Aliens.
4.) The picture frames are finally up. I learned how to arrange them by looking at the Martha Stewart website. Both my mom and my aunt said they're going to try to do something similar to their house.
5.) Pauline is our daycare provider and the kids are so happy and loved there.
6.) Theo got all I's on his 1st kindergarten report card. (I is for independent.) He was also invited to participate in a special reading group that is the kindergarten equivalent to GT. I remember when he was six months old, and we read Guess How Much I Love You to him, and even then he looked like he was listening and figuring out the pictures.
7.) Sarah Rose Gifford (our niece) was born on Christmas day and both mom and baby are healthy.
8.) When Ruby plays with her dolls, she often demonstrates what things that Dad and I have done for her that she really appreciates.
9.) I have a job working in a walk-in clinic, and it's a long story but I have no doubt that my working there was organized by God. It was the exact job I needed for the situation I was in.
10.) Ruby's hair is so curly! It's my dream come true!
11.) The kids are very helpful with the laundry. They can fold their own clothes and put them away sorted. Also, Theo can put away kitchen and bath towels, and I don't even need to tell him what to do--he just walks by, looks at the various piles, and decides which ones he can put away. Finally, Ruby and Theo can fold large blankets using teamwork.
12.) Two days ago, Theo was peeling a clementine, and Ruby came up to him and said, "I want some! Kuya I want some!" and without a word, he gave her half.
13.) Every night Ruby asks me to rub her back. One night, I was laying down next to her with my eyes closed, and I thought she was just about sleeping, when she lifted her head, and started rubbing my back. When she was done, she put her arm around my back and went to sleep.

Today is a really lovely fall day

Theo and Ruby rode their bikes today. Just before we got started, Theo said, "I don't want to take my training wheels off." Dad and I tried to bargain with him at first, saying that we would only take them off for the first few minutes. He said no. Then, in what I believe was a truly inspired moment, I said, "Theodore, do you mean to tell me that you are now five years old so you are allowed to chew gum but you can't even try to ride without training wheels? That doesn't make any sense!" For whatever reason, this reasoning made Theo smile sheepishly, and he said, "Oh yeah!" So the training wheels came off for a little while. We did put them back on later when we decided to all ride around the pond.

Theo had a lot of fun practicing without training wheels with Dad's help. Ruby watched her brother's success and made some extra effort herself--she practiced getting started without help and standing while pedaling, and she required a lot less pushing. She was even singing an original song about being a big girl. The lyrics were, "I am a big girl, I am a big girl...."

I meant to take many more pictures, but the camera battery was not charged.

Mom sews Halloween costumes for the first time

I wasn't planning on sewing anything, but Theo was looking through the pbskids.org website and found a link with Super Why costumes. He says, "Mom, I want to be Super Why for Halloween." Super Why is a relatively new cartoon with a small following, so the costumes are hard to find. I have always thought that mass-produced costumes are really poor in construction. So even though I have minimal sewing skills (nothing I've EVER made for myself has ever been wearable except for a scrub top) I did think I could create something of comparable quality to the store-bought stuff.

I'm really proud of the result.

Here's Theo's costume and a description of the process:

They're really wrinkled in the picture because I took a picture the morning after trick or treating and the costume had spent the night half-crumpled. The material was a green flannel and a shiny blue polyester. I cut up one of Theo's old long sleeved shirts and used it as a pattern for the shirt. Dad made the book design using felt pieces and a piece of a white rag. It was glued together using that iron-on seam stuff. I also used a pair of Theo's pajama pants to construct the pants, although they were so easy to trace that I didn't have to cut them up. The blue "underwear" was one of the last things I put together, and by that point I didn't even care what the seams looked like, especially since it was the piece that was the least likely to ever be worn again. The cape is not shown, but it attaches with velcro to the shirt.

Here's Ruby's costume:


Ruby's costume came together a lot more easily, in large part because I learned a couple of techniques making Theo's. I used a light green stretchy chenille and a pink stretchy furry fabric that I found in the furniture decorating section. The green ball ribbon was also in the furniture decorating place. They were actually the most expensive part of the costume and nearly doubled the cost! I used Ruby's clothes to trace the dress and pants, which again were so simple I didn't have to cut anything up. The wings were completely Ted's doing. He used wire hangers, mailing tape (we couldn't find the duct tape), white knee highs purchased at wal-mart for 79 cents per pair, and glitter glue (the color on the package said "ruby" so that was an easy decision.) For her antennae I covered one of my old headbands with the green fabric and tied on pipe cleaners.

Here are the kids wearing their costumes and holding their matching trick-or-treat bags:

Ruby spells "love"

Ruby showed us this picture, saying, "Mommy, I spelled 'love.'"

Uncle Casper took some great pictures

More fun with simple toys

This is not the first time that the children found potholders to be useful.

Nanay (Ruby's great-grandmother) gave her the doll. I asked Ruby if the doll looked like her, and Ruby came up with several important differences:

1.) "I don't have a pretty dress like this. I need to get one."
2.) "I don't have these slippers. But I have some slippers at home."
3.) "She doesn't have curly curly hair like me."
4.) Ruby doesn't have flowers in her hair. (I couldn't remember exactly what Ruby said to describe this.)
5.) "Mom, your hair is black, and her hair is yellow. And dad's hair is black, and my hair is black, and Theo's hair is black." (Theo chimed in here and said, "Dad's hair is gray-white.")
6.) "Her eyes are blue and white and black. My eyes are only white and black."

Dad tries to teach Ruby math, with hilarious result

Dad: If you have one x, then you draw another x, then what do you have?
Ruby: Friends! The x's can be friends!

Dad (tries again): If you start with one x and then add another x, how many x's do you have?
Ruby: Draw a line. If you draw a line and connect the x's then you have a ZIPLINE!

Dad (covers up an x): How many x's do you see?
Ruby: One.
Dad (uncovers one x, covers up the other x): Now how many x's do you see?
Ruby: One.
Dad (uncovers both x's): Now what's one plus one?
Ruby: Four!
Dad: Ruby, count them, how many x's do you see?
Ruby: One, two. Two! We can play tic-tac-toe.

Dad: When you say "plus" it means you are putting two things together. Like, "one plus one" is the same as saying, "one put together with one."
Ruby: Look, Dad, I'm laying down in the crack.

Ruby loves pink

At first she didn't want to take any pictures. She specifically said, "Mom, don't take any pictures because I'm gonna wait for Theo." He was in the middle of getting dressed, and she wanted to take a picture with him. I told her that we could start with just pictures of her, then when Kuya was ready he would get in the picture right away. She was satisfied with that and very happily took a picture:



And then Kuya finished getting his pajamas on, so they put their arms around each other, and I got this one:

Ruby has curly hair and unlike her brother, does not start kindergarten

First something that is unrelated to the title. Ruby drew a picture of me (Mama) that I thought was FANTASTIC:



It makes me look like a character from a Dr. Seuss book, but I can't remember which one just now.

Around the same time, Theodore drew a family portrait, shown here:



Theo's attention to detail is impeccable. Normally I would put something like this on Theo's blog, but I really love how he captured his sister. Specifically, she is wearing a sundress and has really curly hair, and there is no mistaking her for anyone else. I am so worried that her hair will straighten out as she gets older!

Finally, a picture of Ruby after we dropped Theo off at kindergarten:



She kept saying, "I want to go to Theo's daycare." However, the truth is, she did a little bit of acting (hamming) for the picture.

Ruby has homework too, and other stuff

Kuya Theo is starting school. Ruby very obviously is looking forward to the day when she starts school. Just tonight, Ruby came into the office while I was on the computer and said, "Mama, can you get me a pencil? I need to do my homework." I got her a pencil and we worked on her pre-kindergarten book together. I tell you what though, there aren't too many pages in there that she is ready for. But we did look at the alphabet page, and we sang the alphabet while pointing at the letters. Predictably, Ruby got a little confused during the LMNOP section. I think tonight was the first night she realized that the section is about actual letters, not unlike the rest of the song.

The other night our friends Sheena, Mak, Thevy, and Sothea came over. (If I don't spell those names right Sheena is bound to let me know.) Ruby was wearing her BFF necklace that Addy Patty gave her, and in a moment of generosity offered to let Thevy wear it for a little while. Ruby forgot to ask for it back, but didn't realize it until a few days later when she was looking for her necklace. I heard Ruby and Theo talking about it in the hallway, and at one point Theo said to Ruby, "It was your best friends necklace...oh no, does this mean Thevy gets to be Addy Patty's friend now?" All is well though. Apparently somebody remembered to take off the necklace because it was on the shelf in the living room.

Well, since I can't find another opportunity, I'm going to post some Allagash pictures. It really deserves a huge blog post, but it's so overwhelming that I think I'll just put some Ruby pictures up to get started.

Ruby Likes to be Loved

After I wrote a message for Mama, Ruby insisted that we add her name. And then a second heart. She really digs that stuff.

Ruby and friends have a birthday kingdom adventure

I'm gonna have to say that Ruby's birthday party was a success.

The preparation was actually minimal, in part because I was in the MICU, and post call the day before. The birthday cake was baked the night before, but I didn't dare try to decorate or assemble it until the morning of the party.

Gramma took care of the menu which included pansit, chicken adobo, lumpia, watermelon, grapes, cherries, and pizza. We started cooking only one hour before the party started! Grandma and I had an assembly line going for the lumpia--she arranged the filling on the wrappers, then passed it to me so I could roll it and seal it. Miss Bae and Addy Patty's grandma joined the assembly line towards the middle, and together we made one hundred lumpia. They all got eaten. In fact, at the end of the party, we didn't have leftovers.

Ted planned Ruby's Birthday Adventure, modeled off of Dora. He made a map for the kids to follow:



The birthday crown had been lost, and we needed to find it and return it to the birthday kingdom so that we could eat the birthday cake. The kids found the birthday crown in the front yard.

Then they went through the tickle forest. The parents were the forest, and the kids had to walk through while the music played. When the music stop, they had to freeze. If they forgot to freeze, the got tickled by the tickle forest. Carson liked getting tickled, so he kept going back and forth through the forest and never froze with the music.

Then, they had to cross the river with the zipline. Each kid got a chance to put on the harness and ride the zipline. Even the smallest ones got to do it, with a little help from mom or dad.

Then we sang to the "singing tree," and when the singing was loud enough, we got a pinata as a prize. Here's a video of the pinata-busting, complete with annotations. It was nice to find a short video that showed all the kids. (Except for Charlotte, the twins, Beau, and Nisani, so I write about them in this blog.)



After the pinata, we returned the crown to the birthday kingdom, had cake and ice cream, and opened presents.

Ruby has a friend

Ruby is good friends with Addy Patty. It may look like a headlock, but it's actually one of many hugs they share whenever they are together.

Late-breaking Video of Ruby Learning to Talk and Stand

Jeneen blogged about Ruby learning to talk and stand two years ago. It's taken us that long to get around to posting the video. Yikes. Cause computers are easy like that. Here is Ruby:

Some pictures for fun

The World Puzzle with 3-D Animals is one of the best toys the kids have. Ted found it in a thrift store for three dollars, and the kids don't get tired of putting it together.


The three-headed monster. Or maybe it's a three-headed lion, I can't remember.


Ruby fell asleep reading:

Ruby is potty training? Part 2

For the past three weeks, Ruby has been wearing big girl shorts (AKA cotton panties). At first it was just at daycare, where Miss Pauline and Miss Bae were sending her to the potty every hour or so. Then, we kept her in her big girl shorts on weekends and in the evenings when we could keep a close eye on her. Then we got brave enough to take her to Gramma's house, where to Gramma's consternation, she would pee on the kitchen floor...but somehow she always managed not to get anything on the carpet. For a while, she was peeing pretty consistently in the potty, but pooing was a problem. Despite this, we were still somehow brave enough to take her to restaurants and stores.

A few days ago, we went to Mimi's Cafe. In the middle of dinner, Ruby said, "I want to go to the bathroom." So we ran to the bathroom, and she pooed in the potty! She was really proud of herself, and after we washed hands, she ran out of the bathroom and yelled for everybody to hear, "Dada, I WENT POO!" We got a lot of laughs from people at nearby tables and the waitstaff.

Since then, especially when we are at home, she just sits on the potty without telling anyone and hollers out when she finishes. She spends all day in her big girl shorts. She had one accident two days ago, so I am still not quite claiming it as "potty trained," but man, she is doing REALLY well, and the hard part is over.

The Kitchen: Reactions on Video

Here's a video of the kids seeing the kitchen for the first time. Just found it on my camera. Awesome video quality.

We Put in a New Kitchen!

Grampy and Grandma helped us build a kitchen for Ruby and Theo. After several months...er...days...er...hours of planning, and a frantic night of assembly (and re-assembly), we are proud to present, the kitchen:

Sleeping

Baby Can Sleep Anywhere

Ruby found this cozy spot for her baby all by herself--although the pillow was already there as a damper, courtesy of her uncle Glen. Baby seems unfazed and indifferent to the music, yet still unable to close her eyes.

Biking

Ruby likes to bike a lot, but she sometimes (nearly always) forgets to steer. She's learning, though, and it's fun to watch. This video doesn't capture any of that, but here it is for documentation.

Alicia can use the zipline, too

Although Diego gets top billing, Alicia has an important role to play, and she can also ride the zipline (though they don't show it in the cartoon).

Ruby is potty training?

Ruby did a really strange thing tonight.

We have been encouraging her to use the potty, and every once in a while we ask her to sit on it just to see what will happen. Also, while she usually does her business in her diaper, she sometimes will ask to use the potty. So while potty training has sort of been happening, we haven't focused on it too much.

Well she went into the bathroom, took off her diaper, and went poopoo. In the bathtub.

We tried to ask her why she picked the bathtub instead of the potty, but she didn't seem to understand the question.

We went ice skating

Ruby has quite a personality

I know moms and dads say this about their children all the time, but I've been noticing that people have been commenting a lot on Ruby's personality. They say she has a lot of it, and sometimes they say it within a minute of meeting her or even just by looking at her picture.

One time Ruby and Theo were fighting over a drumstick right next to the drumset. Each was holding one end of the stick, and it was looking like the perfect set up for someone to fall over into the drumset. So I said from the kitchen, "Guys stop it." They kept fighting. So I yelled at the top of my lungs, mostly just to get their attention: "STOP FIGHTING RIGHT NOW YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO FIGHT OVER A DRUMSTICK NEAR THE DRUMS!" It worked, and they both stared at me perfectly still. Then Ruby looks over at her brother and whisper-yells, "Like a bad guy!"

Another time, Ruby found my hairclip on the floor. She picked it up, wrapped it in a tissue, and cupped it in both hands. Then, still holding it, she walked by me in the kitchen, saying, "Momma, you will never get your hairclip. Never."

Here's a picture of her eating pizza. That was a big pizza, and she ate more than half of it and still had space for dessert.

Five generations

Nanay, Gramma, Mommy, Ruby, and Baby. December 25, 2007.

Our little Black Belt and Brown Belt

After brushing teeth,
ninjas' night attack requires
stealthy pajamas.
---
Kids don hard-earned belts
to train in the dojo hall
wearing pajamas.
---
They attack with speed.
Disarm the lead assailant?
The duckling bites you.