Ruby is changing so fast and Mom and Dad are trying to keep up

So here are some of Ruby's recent accomplishments:

1.) She can eat Cheerios without choking on them. Usually when she sees me offer a Cheerio to her, she will grab my hand with her hands, and eat the Cheerio off my hand. Every once in a while, she can get it with her pincer grasp and feed herself.

2.) She can sit up with no support and only little risk of falling over. Even when she does fall over, it usually doesn't hurt if it's on the carpet.

3.) She moves around the floor like a soldier in the trenches. She isn't crawling, but she pushes herself forward on her forearms.

4.) She is above the 95th percentile for length since her last checkup in the third week of January. She is in the 50th percentile for weight. We used to call her Chunky, but this doesn't seem to fit anymore. She's just long.

5.) She sings. She really truly does. I used to wonder if I was imagining it, but there are several people who have commented on it independent of each other.

6.) She is bothering Kuya Theo more and more. I often hear him saying, "No Ruby! Don't eat my clothes!" or "Mama, Ruby is poking my neck."

7.) She has two lovely teeth, coming out on the bottom.

8.) She talks to us with polysyllabic sounds, and usually ends conversations by roaring.

Ruby has nice first merry Christmas

I love when Ruby is nursing, and she is small and cuddly and quiet, and then with her eyes closed and her face peaceful, she reaches up with her arm and grabs me in the neck, right where my thyroid cartilage is. That is my favorite.

Ruby spends a lot of time sitting up now. We like to put pillows all around her and then leave her to play in her gymini. She can keep busy for a long time! She is still frustrated with crawling. We have started putting objects in front of her as an incentive to move forward. Her arms and legs flail about for a few seconds, then she stops, props herself up on her arms, and looks around to see if she got anywhere. And no, she hasn't gotten anywhere, so she cries.

She eats really well. So far she hasn't rejected any food, but we haven't tried spinach. That was never one of Theo's favorites.

In Mom and Dad news, we have made several new year's resolutions, including:

1. No cookies, cakes, brownies, muffins, etc. unless purchased from Trader Joe's. This one was Mom's idea, since she was eating too much of the junk that pharmaceutical companies like to leave around.
2. No more video games unless you play with your feet. This was Dad's idea, because the only game that we have access to where you use your feet is Dance Dance Revolution. You look really ridiculous doing it, but everybody has to admit that it is fun. Even Uncle Casper the rapper. And it is a good workout. It is really the only time Mom ever gets any exercise.
3. Random internet browsing is limited to fifteen minutes per day per person. This includes browsing Groklaw, news.google, slashdot, TV show websites. Blogging about kids, answering emails, and work-related things (Dad looking up a problem for his work, Mom doing a medline search) don't count.