Ruby

Theo sometimes gets lonely at night

2009-08-10T16:17:00.001-04:00

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

Ruby is a "Hawaiian girl"

2009-07-26T19:08:00.002-04:00

Ruby likes animals

2009-05-16T01:03:00.001-04:00

It's an aggressive kind of love.

Ruby is a sniper

2009-05-12T00:20:00.002-04:00

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

2009-04-11T21:55:00.002-04:00

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

2009-03-22T01:21:00.001-04:00

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

2009-02-23T19:57:00.003-05:00

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

2009-01-24T12:24:00.005-05:00

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

2008-12-26T13:28:00.001-05:00

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

2008-11-09T13:01:00.003-05:00

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

2008-11-01T12:48:00.007-04:00

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"

2008-10-19T21:07:00.002-04:00

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

Uncle Casper took some great pictures

2008-09-21T23:08:00.003-04:00

More fun with simple toys

2008-09-21T22:48:00.003-04:00

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

2008-09-10T14:29:00.003-04:00

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

2008-09-02T20:50:00.003-04:00

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

2008-08-25T21:15:00.005-04:00

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

2008-08-18T22:02:00.010-04:00

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

2008-08-09T23:08:00.000-04:00

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

2008-07-04T13:45:00.011-04:00

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

2008-06-26T22:25:00.002-04:00

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

2008-06-25T21:42:00.002-04:00

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

2008-06-19T21:45:00.005-04:00

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

2008-06-19T20:45:00.002-04:00

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

2008-06-17T20:51:00.002-04:00

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!

2008-04-18T00:42:00.002-04:00

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

2008-04-10T06:34:00.001-04:00

Baby Can Sleep Anywhere

2008-04-10T06:22:00.003-04:00

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

2008-03-29T23:30:00.002-04:00

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

2008-03-29T23:28:00.001-04:00

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?

2008-02-15T19:04:00.002-05:00

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

2008-01-26T11:05:00.000-05:00

Ruby has quite a personality

2008-01-09T16:59:00.000-05:00

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

2007-12-26T19:36:00.000-05:00

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

Our little Black Belt and Brown Belt

2007-12-22T01:41:00.000-05:00

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.

Ruby mugs for Theo

2007-10-30T00:33:00.000-04:00

Ruby was mugging for Theo the other day.

These are but a sampling of the silliness that awaits you at http://picasaweb.google.com/tedfordgif. I've decided to stop using Flickr, since I'm cheap, and they won't display more than 200 photos if I don't pay.

The background image is also by Theo, and can stand on its own as well:

More photos from the kids' cameras

2007-10-18T21:17:00.000-04:00

Hop on over to flickr if you want to see the rest. We went to a corn maze. Ruby took lots of pictures of her baby. Theo, his feet, again.

Ruby sings Brahm's Lullaby

2007-08-18T09:56:00.000-04:00

Gramma has been going crazy about this since we managed to capture it on video. Ruby is age 2 years and 2 months in this video, taken in early August 2007. Here are the lyrics of the song she is singing:

Lullaby, and goodnight
You're your mother's delight
Shining angels beside
My darling, abide

Soft and warm is your bed
Close your eyes, rest your head
Soft and warm is your bed
Close your eyes, rest your head

Ruby has a happy 2nd birthday

2007-07-04T10:35:00.001-04:00

This year we could not throw a big party because we were moving to our new house. Even now, we are settling into the house, but it isn't in any condition for parties involving lots of young children.

Fortunately, we had lots of family over, and we had a very nice celebration. Take a look for yourself:
Ruby had two birthday cakes. This pretty one was baked by Grandma Gifford. Ruby tried to blow out the candles, but she had to rely on her Kuya and cousins Ralphie and Josh to put the flame out.

Most everybody at the party had one, maybe two pieces of cake. Afterwards everyone went downstairs to the playroom. We noticed at the end that Ruby was the only one left at the table, still eating cake and ice cream.

Ruby has fun at the park

2007-07-04T10:30:00.000-04:00

Ruby is really very good at climbing. In the second picture she is hiding behind a climbing wall. She can climb to the top of that wall with minimal assistance. In the third picture she is playing patty-cake with Dad.

Ruby knows a trick to get us to stop the car

2007-04-17T13:12:00.000-04:00

Been a while! Here are some pictures to show you what Ruby looks like these days:

Ruby and Theo reading books on the big bed.

Theo, Thevy, and Ruby looking out the window on a cold winter day.

Ruby wearing my scarf.

She is starting to take interest in the potty. In fact, we have attempted two evenings with her in regular cotton shorts, and she managed to tell me twice that she needed to potty. I was very proud of her. She did have one accident, but she told me right away because it distressed her very much. A good sign, I'd say.

We recently took a surprise trip (it even surprised us that we did it) to New England to watch Grampy play the Duke of Cornwall in a production of King Lear. The ride is many hours long, and Ruby figured out that if she says, "I have poopoo," we would stop the car to check. She got us three times with that, until finally we decided if we don't smell it, it ain't there.

Jogging in Patapsco

2007-01-29T14:01:00.000-05:00

I went jogging with the kids in Patapsco State Park yesterday. It was pretty cold. The kids stayed fairly warm, but next time I might put longer pants on Theo. I forgot to take pictures of the geese Theo saw in the middle of the river. And the whole pond full of geese and ducks. But at least you get to see the kids all bundled up.

Sometimes They Lie Down

2006-11-15T02:50:00.000-05:00

I figure it's important to document that on Sept 4, 2006, my kids decided to to stop running around for a minute. Theo still managed to weild the wiffle-sword, but he clearly doesn't have much fight left in him. I, with my super-dad powers, have managed to secure a moment's rest on the couch. Behold!

Peaches are best when you pick them yourself

2006-09-06T10:08:00.000-04:00

All of this happened a few weeks ago, actually. Ruby is very squirmy, so I was amazed when the whole wagon ride worked out. Ruby didn't actually have enough hand and arm strength to pull the peach off the tree, so what I ended up doing was picking the peach and then holding it near where it originally was attached, and Ruby picked it from my hand. We also picked blackberries at the same farm, and Theo was very good about picking only the black ones. Afterwards we went to the park, where we ate a nice lunch that include freshly picked peaches. The picture that you see is Ruby finding her dad (or was it me? I can't remember) hiding underneath one of the jungle gym climbing wall thingies.

Ruby weighs 20 lbs., maybe even after losing blood

2006-08-22T23:34:00.000-04:00

At nearly 14 months of age, Rubyducks is 20 lbs, and can legally face forward. The kids are worn out after a day at the Patapsco State Park volunteer appreciation lunch, which was help in a pavilion at...Patapsco State Park. Ruby and Theo played hard, and were totally pooped. We left a little before the festivities ended because Ruby took a header on the jungle gym steps. She was bent low, so didn't fall from a height, but you can see that it split her eyebrow a bit. She's quite daring and careless, and I forgot that she hasn't learned that falling down can hurt, and dropped my guard.

From the simple toys category

2006-08-20T23:26:00.000-04:00

Ruby decided it would be a fun game to stick her arm in the oven mitt, and race around into the hall. I scrambled and got off the first shot. It was then open season on oven mitt, and I think I'll see if Pfaltzgraff wants to use these in marketing materials. Even Theo's baby elephant got in on the act. You'll notice that she is lying down in her crib using the mitt as a bunting, all Theo's doing.

There is data to explain Mom's confidence level

2006-08-12T07:13:00.000-04:00

It was a rough week for me in the MICU. I'm not sure what it was exactly, because the work didn't get harder, nor the people meaner. I guess, in the first week, I had an excuse for not knowing things, but now that I've been there a while, I feel like I should be getting better at everything. Instead, I feel like I'm going nowhere.

So I met with my advisor for the first time this week, and it happened to be on a day when I was admitting someone from the ED and didn't fully understand her story. I felt like my resident was trying to hide her irritation at my presentation and not doing a very good job, which is actually worse than having someone be outright irritated at you. Anyway, my advisor talked about himself a little bit, about his research and his family, and then said, "So tell me a little about yourself." So I said to him that it was really difficult to have a simple, pleasant conversation because I couldn't put my mind in that place, because MICU was very stressful and I was doing a terrible job. But after saying that I told him about where I was from and about my family. Then, he pulled out a paper that he was working on about intern confidence levels and how they change throughout the year, and he showed me the graph, and it was shaped something of a Nike symbol, starting somewhere in the middle, then dipping down before steadily climbing back up. It was another one of those times when I felt like God was listening, like he knew what I needed. Because only people very close to me know how much I enjoy graphs, how useful I think they are. (Back when we were dating, Ted and I found it useful to graph certain aspects of our relationship. Believe it or don't.) And my advisor said, "See, we have data to explain what you are going through." Then he reminded me that intern year isn't really about impressing people, it's only about survival.

I recently wrote out my very first death pronouncement. I couldn't remember exactly how it was supposed to go, and it took me a long time to figure it out so that it sounded dignified and appropriate. What I ended up writing was something like this: "On this day, August 9, 2006, at 8:54 p.m., I was called to examine Ms. _____. She was unresponsive, with no breath sounds bilaterally, no heart sounds, and both pupils fixed and dilated. Based on these physical findings, I pronounce that Ms. ____ has died. Dr. ____ and her son have been notified." I have a lot more to say about it, but I think what I've written is already too dark for this blog. But it was a big enough deal to me, and it certainly makes the cloud over my head just a little bit greyer.

So today was my day off, and I got to be home and forget about it all for just some little minutes. We went canoeing in a lake, and only Dad got to paddle because I was busy trying to keep Ruby from slipping and hurting herself. We played this game of throwing these toy sharks into the lake, and then paddling over to them and letting the kids pull them out of the water. We were saving the sharks from the water.

I finally got the birthday pictures

2006-07-22T21:34:00.000-04:00

Here are some pictures from Ruby's birthday party. Unfortunately, every single picture was taken without flash, so about 98% of the pictures taken that day were blurry, including the ones here.

The brilliance in the last picture may be a little hard to grasp. It's a little bit like Pattern Recognition 101. The big picnic table was in the kitchen first. Ruby found a little picnic table in the living room mixed with all the rest of the toys, and she knew exactly where to put it.

Mom really loves her job

2006-07-08T17:29:00.000-04:00

I started my intern year on June 26. That first week was just an orientation week, but we got paid for it (I got my first paycheck on Monday) so it counts.

My first rotation is a didactic called med/psych. Originally I was supposed to be in the MICU, but the schedules got changed around last minute. I am mostly disappointed at having to do med/psych first, because it's such an easy month and I figure I'll need that month later on. Also, I was ready and rested, and right now I feel like I'm doing more resting. It's hard to summarize the stuff we're learning, but overall I feel like I'm reflecting on my experiences all day. I don't find that stuff very fun. There are three good things though. First, I have two half-day clinics per week, and it is an amazing feeling being the primary care doctor for these people. Second, I'm getting introduced to everything more slowly, so I feel like I'm learning how to do things right the first time. Finally, this weekend I was the admitting intern on nightfloat and got my first taste of the wards.

I could talk a lot about the patients and the medicine, but really the first thing that stands out to me is that I am surrounded by really great people. Going through medical school, I always accepted that during residency, people will be mean, that they will yell at you and it doesn't mean they hate you (most of the time), it just means they are stressed. However, apparently I landed in a program where the people are nice no matter what. During night float, the admitting resident who last week ago was just an intern, had to handle 26 admissions in 10 hours. I was able to take only 4 of those admissions, because interns have a cap. The other intern, who was only supposed to cross-cover, took another 2 patients. Anyway, there was a point in the night when I was still one away from capping, and the resident was questioning whether she should give me another because she didn't want to overload me! Then, the following morning after all the madness settled down and we were getting ready to go home, she apologizes to me, "I told myself that I would never throw work at my interns. And now the very first chance I get, I did nothing but throw work at you." And I told her good grief, because she worked harder than anyone, and we were all working hard.

The other day, we were having a teaching session with the 3rd year GI fellow, and Lola (an intern) says to me, "Doesn't he look like Superman?" Well he doesn't look at all like Christopher Reeves, so I assume she means the new Superman, which I haven't had a good look at yet. So I say I don't know. Well, Lola then turns to Schonze (another intern) and asks the same question, and she must have agreed, because they are still talking about it when the fellow walks through the door. They also must have looked very guilty, because the fellow looks at them and say, "What?" I'm thinking, "Ok everybody play it off!" But Schonze continues to look guilty, and to my amazement says, "Well...there has been some talk...(deep breath)...that you look like Superman." And in my mind I'm thinking "Man! Have you never had to play anything off before!" And the rest of the teaching session we're embarrassed, and I'm thinking I didn't even think he looked like Superman in the first place. But it was funny, and the fellow was a sport.

Also at two in the morning while I was night float, I got hungry and I ask Crystal where I can get snacks. I hear a nurse laughing and walking away. Crystal says the cafeteria is open, but I don't have time to leave the floor. Five minutes later, Crystal and I both get pages: Cookies and ice cream are available at the break room. It's from the laughing nurse.

Another amazing thing: out of 18 medicine interns, 10 are female, and of those ten, three of us have two and a half year olds.

Ruby has a happy birthday

2006-07-08T17:22:00.000-04:00

I was very nervous about throwing a birthday party for Ruby. I don't know why. I guess everything we've done up until now has been very low-key, and a birthday party was a much bigger affair that I didn't feel prepared to handle. Fortunately, Gramma was there to help with the food.

I had a great time watching all the kids play together and eat cake together. Little Gerard was very patient (though he had a look of consternation) when Ruby poked her finger in his cake. The adults had a good time singing karaoke while the kids ran around.

Mostly what I want to do is post pictures, but my mom has all the good ones. So I'll update this when I get the pics.

Ruby walks

2006-06-14T00:11:00.000-04:00

Ruby started walking as her preferred mode of transportation last week while we were in New England visiting Grandma and Grampy (and Pap and Nan, since they were up visiting as well.) As I mentioned in a previous post somewhere, Ruby had been taking steps and getting braver for a few weeks. Then a day or so before our trip, she got the hang of standing up in the middle of the floor.

This picture was taken on top of a hill where we were flying kites. It was the first sunny day after a long week of constant rain. Dad got a bit of sun burn, but it was worth it.

Ruby did a lot of new stuff during that trip. She started saying "buh bye" and waving her hand spontaneously. She went up to Kuya Theo and gave him a real hug, with a good squeeze. She started fighting for her toys. She's getting really good at drinking with a straw. One time, her brother was drinking something from a straw, and she shoved his face away with her hand so she could drink. To his credit, Theo thought it was hilarious, and didn't shove her back.

There is so much to say about that vacation, but for now I must sleep.

Ruby hasn't made up her mind about water

2006-05-30T20:10:00.000-04:00

We weren't sure if Ruby would take to the big swimming pool so well, given that she didn't like being in our little orange swimming pool at home. But she was really excited watching Kuya Alex, Kuya Theo, and Ate Tim (see how excited she looks in that first picture?) so we thought we'd let her have a shot at it. Dad slowly got her used to it. At one point she was riding a kickboard, with Dad pushing her around on it. We have pictures of that, but I'm not sure I should publish them. When taking action shots in a public swimming pool, you don't have time to frame the shot so some random person's butt isn't in the background.

Ruby is still afraid of grass

2006-05-29T22:23:00.000-04:00

When she is standing and it is only touching her feet, sometimes she can ignore it. But sometimes she ends up sitting in the grass, and then she doesn't know what to do, because in order to stand up again, she would have to roll in it with both her legs touching completely. Having that much skin contact with grass is too gross. And so the following ensues:

Notice how she tries to keep one leg off the grass at all times.

Mom is a doctor

2006-05-23T12:18:00.000-04:00

Well, we made it. Graduation was Sunday, May 21.

Our graduation speakers:

After walking across the stage, we were supposed to sign our names in the official university registry of graduates. I forgot to put "MD" at the end, and someone had to remind me. I gotta get used to all of this.

Ruby is taking steps and falling down a lot

2006-05-12T02:12:00.000-04:00

Ruby is going to walk so soon! Ruby has been able to stand on her own for a while now, but just this past week I've noticed her taking a lot more chances. She can't stand up from the floor, but she only needs something 5-6 inches high, and she can do the rest. She can stand for a very long time on her own, more than 30 seconds, and she can play with a toy while standing completely unsupported. Yesterday, at Grampa's house, Grampa called to her and she took about 5 steps towards him before crashing into his arms. She was so excited. She really seems motivated to learn how to walk. If you say to her, "Walk Ruby?" She smiles, babbles, and obliges.

She's climbing onto the couch and figuring out how to get down butt-first rather than head-first. She recognizes oranges and will wiggle when she sees one. She and Theo are starting to fight for toys. She is picky with her foods: she is not crazy about spinach and potatoes, but will always make space for peach banana oatmeal. In fact, for a while we could get her to eat the spinach and potatoes by alternating it with bites of fruit, but she caught on and now will only open her mouth a little bit until she has tasted what is on the spoon.

Naked babies eat watermelon

2006-05-03T20:05:00.000-04:00

Ruby undergoes systematic desensitization therapy

2006-05-03T19:51:00.000-04:00

Ruby is afraid of many things.

First we discovered that she is afraid of the vacuum cleaner when it is on. No big surprise there, lots of kids are afraid of things that make big noises.

Then we discovered that she is afraid of grass. If I try to set her down in grass, she will raise her feet up to avoid having to step in it. If I lower her far enough that she has no choice but to touch it, she will only stand on one foot (holding on to me, of course) with her other foot raised up, like a flamingo. The other day, we wanted to set Ruby down somewhere safe where we could see her while we worked on the garden in the backyard. We put her on a blanket in the backyard, and sure enough, she never left the blanket. I saw her scouting the edges trying to find an escape through something that was not grass. She stayed on the blanket for about 45 minutes, until finally she began crying in earnest, and we rescued her.

We also discovered that she was afraid of sand. We found this out in Duck, NC. She has a similar reaction to it as with grass.

Then, my mother discovered that she is afraid to touch very crusty breads. Yes, you read that correctly. We went to the Cheesecake Factory, and my mother let her hold one of the rolls that they give you while you're waiting for your food to cook, and she looked at it with concern, and thereafter refused to hold it.

Finally, this past weekend I discovered that she is afraid of the garden hose when the water is coming out. She cried when I was watering the plants while I held her with the other arm. Then, another day when Dad was watering the plants, she watched from the screen door and cried at him.

So now, I am starting a process of letting her know that all of these things are actually safe. Which leads me to this picture:

We went to a state park and my brother held her hands while helping her walk in the sand. You can see that she was not enjoying it at first. But later she realized it was not so bad, and she started enjoying herself.

The next task is going to be grass. I tried it two days ago, and it didn't work. She cried.

Ruby flies

2006-04-19T14:57:00.000-04:00

This picture was taken in Duck, NC. We went there this past weekend to celebrate Great-Grampy's 70th birthday party. A similar picture was taken of her brother and cousin Ralphie.

Ruby did not actually get to play on the beach, because she eats everything in sight. I did not want my girl eating seagull feathers, seashells, or sand. She did at one point get to go swimming in a pool, which she thoroughly enjoyed.

Ruby speaks and stands up

2006-04-09T22:24:00.000-04:00

Ruby is talking with a purpose. Her first recognizable word is "Dut" which means "Stand up." Some of you may think I'm crazy, but here at home we know it is reproducible, only happens when she stands up or if she hears us say "Stand up," and sounds distinct from the rest of her babytalk.

Also, on video we asked her to say "Mamamama" and she said, "Babababa" with lips rolling outward. (Do you know what I mean by "lips rolling outward"? I couldn't figure on another way to put that.)

Also, we caught her standing up for the first time! This is different from the times we have let go of her hands after making sure she is upright. Those times, it was more akin to standing up an action figure. Today she used her hands to get to an almost upright position, then let go and stood up the rest of the way. She remained standing for several seconds before plopping back down. We caught this on video too!

Maryland wins NCAA women's basketball title

2006-04-05T13:56:00.000-04:00

I wasn't even following any part of the tournament. We happened to be at my Kuya's house, and he had been flipping back and forth to the championship game. I guess he wasn't watching it straight through because Duke had a pretty good lead by the half. I caught the game when Foley was at the foul line for Duke, 18.8 seconds left in regulation. Foley got both her shots in and Duke was up by three. We all know what happened from there:

[Edited 4/9/06: Picture removed. Ted and I talked about copyright issues, and I felt like it would be better not to keep the picture up, even though I'm using it in much the same way that I would in a scrapbook.]

Toliver. Overtime. The Terps take it.

Why in the world would I blog about this? Because I watched, what, maybe 15 minutes of the game? And in those 15 minutes, I heard a million comments about how everything would be so different if it were a man's game: "18.8 seconds goes by quickly in a girl's game," "If this were a man's game, that would have been a dunk instead of a layup," etc. I talked to Ted about this later on that evening.

I don't know how to play basketball, or any sport really. If Ruby is going to learn how to do these things, Ted is going to have to teach her. And if she hears from her dad that girls can't play, she is going to believe him. I am not saying that there isn't some truth to their comments. Toliver is 5'7" and I would not be surprised if she couldn't dunk. I just want Ruby to be comfortable saying, "I want to try that too." No matter how much I assure her that she should go ahead and try, I think I have no credibility since I am a drama club-math team-all around nerdy type without any skills, like nunchuck skills.

Life is gentle

2006-04-04T14:44:00.000-04:00

These past few weeks have been really sweet and relaxing. I guess it's the calm before the storm. I am doing my emergency medicine rotation, but it is only 16 8-hour shifts over 4 weeks. That's 32 hours a week at most, practically nothing.

At 7 this morning, Ruby was calling from her crib. The poor girl was freezing cold, her whole little body was chilled. Usually we dress her up warm for the night, but these past few weeks the temperature has been all over the place and we've had to make lots of adjustments, and we got it wrong last night. So I brought her to the big bed, and I curled up around her so that her hands and feet would get warm against my belly. It must have taken her 20 minutes to warm up. A little while later, Theo came into the room self-wrapped in his blue fleece blanket. Dad helped him get on the bed, and then Ruby and Theo were laughing and smiling at each other. So then I started thinking about everything else that made life good, and here is some of my list:

1.) I will start getting paid in June, and then we'll finally be able to breathe a little.
2.) Yesterday Ruby ate two jars of baby food in the evening. Theo ate an entire peanut butter and jelly sandwich on his own, as well as a good sized piece of my tuna melt. Also, when Dad or I eat a spinach salad, he steals spinach leaves off of the plate. The kids are growing and eat anything I put in front of them, and I am very happy to have a steadily increasing food bill.
3.) The weather is getting warmer and soon the kids will have tans.
4.) Theo can put together 24 piece puzzles without any assistance. He can put together 60 piece puzzles with just a little bit of help.
5.) Ruby has a noise that means, "Can we play?"
6.) I recently bought a new pair of jeans at Old Navy for $7.
7.) Ted and I play a pretty darn good game of Scrabble.
8.) I recently hemmed those ridiculously long curtains that we got from IKEA several months ago, and now they look wonderful. I used the iron-on hemming tape that came with the curtains, but I had to put stitches on the edges because they were double thick and the heat of the iron couldn't penetrate through to the hemming tape. I used the same knots that I learned during my surgery elective and while aesthetically inappropriate, they're sturdy knots, so it was a good job.
9.) Theo knows how to sing Rainbow Connection. He also can sing "Make Me a Servant" while I accompany him on guitar. Read that last sentence again, imagine my happiness.
10.) Ted and I will be married five years in June and we are having a great time.

I guess my point is, on mornings like these, I think that I've already made it, and everything else is icing on the cake.

And now, a random picture:

Match Day was successful

2006-03-23T12:46:00.000-05:00

I already sent a mass email to everybody about where I matched, and I am generally careful about posting very specific information about my family and me on our blog series. However, for the sake of completeness, I will talk a little bit about Match Day (March 16.)

The night before the match, I was reading over those silly student doctor forums online where everyone who posts has a rank list that reads something like this: 1) Massachusetts General, 2) Washington University, 3) Johns Hopkins. My rank list did not look like that. Somebody had illegally posted the list of programs that had unfilled positions. Technically, this list should only have been available to NRMP participants that did not match successfully. But anyway, the list was there, and I saw it, and it said that for U. Pitt Internal Medicine Primary Care, which was my #2 choice, it had matched 0 out of 4 positions. Which meant two things:

1.) I matched to my #1 choice, or
2.) I did not match to my #1, and U Pitt hated me so much after the interview that they would rather scramble than have me be part of their program.

I didn't think #2 was the case. I didn't remember royally screwing up that day. So I was pretty excited about the whole night and couldn't sleep until 2 am. The next day we had a nice Match Day ceremony at my school, where everybody gets an envelope with the paper in it that said where they matched, and we all open it at the same time. And sure enough, I found out that things worked out really nicely.

So we don't have to move, we don't have to switch daycares, we don't have to change very much of anything. This is a bigger deal than we let ourselves believe before opening that envelope. We were mentally preparing to pack up our house and move. This past weekend, it really hit that everything worked out, and to celebrate we bought a huge Costco fruit tart (which my mom ate at least half of) and a box of cream puffs.

Pre-match Day

2006-03-13T13:10:00.000-05:00

Today is the day that we find out if we matched. No long explanation here; if you are reading my blog then you should already know what is going on.

So yes, I did match. On Thursday I find out where.

Ruby can get past blockades

2006-03-06T20:14:00.000-05:00

Dad was cooking and he didn't want Ruby to come in the kitchen, so he put a laundry basket in the doorway. When he turned around, he found this:

Ruby can pull herself up to standing on the couch. She is not cruising yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if she does that sometime soon. We have two gates, one at the top of the stairs and one at the bottom. For everything else, we put things in the way, knowing full well that she will eventually figure out a way past them or over them. It slows her down and gives us a chance to spot her and reset her over at the other end of the room.

She really terrorizes her brother, and I know I've mentioned this before, but I have to talk about it again because it is so hilarious. He is playing with a ball, and Ruby comes up from behind him and reaches for the ball. He cries, "No Ruby don't get the ball!" and he runs to the other side of the living room. Ruby sees him run off and thinks it's a fun game, so she smiles and starts crawling towards him. She is still about ten feet away, and Theo is already hollering, "No Ruby! Don't come to get this!" And he's running all around the room yelling for Ruby to stop and she's crawling slowly towards him with a big goofy grin.

Kids enjoy each other's company

2006-03-03T19:02:00.000-05:00

So one day we (Mom, Ruby, and Theo) went to the mall and to Trader Joe's with our friend Sheena and her daughter Thevy. Sheena and I were both a little bit nervous about the excursion because neither of us have had too many experiences where we go out without somebody having a stressful moment. Like when I go to the store and Theo starts fussing while I'm waiting in line, and I can't very well leave the shopping cart with Ruby in it just to go chase him down. Anyway, it was for me a very nice outing, and I think it had a lot to do with there being more children. Ruby and Thevy played together so nicely. They kept each other company in the backseat. The second picture is blurry, but it shows how pleasant they all were back there. Then, on the way home, all the kids fell asleep--a peaceful way to end a peaceful evening.

Ruby is a very cute jailbird

2006-02-26T22:11:00.000-05:00

Ok, her stripes are in the wrong direction, but they are still stripes. When I walked inside her room to check on her towards the end of her nap, I found her asleep with her butt high in the air, even higher than it was in the picture. So I ran downstairs to get the camera. Theo saw me go inside the room, so as I was turning on the camera, he started talking to Ruby. She changed positions before I could snap the picture that I had in mind. No matter, I got a couple of nice ones anyway. And in that last picture, she has a look on her face like she was caught trying to escape.

Ruby terrorizes the household

2006-02-22T00:33:00.000-05:00

She is finally crawling. Once in a while she does what I call "fibrillation," where her uncoordinated movements get her nowhere. Also when she gets really upset, she can't concentrate enough to crawl,and she reverts back to the soldier-in-the-trenches maneuver. But for the most part she's moving forward, moving fast, and even moving up.

This stresses out Kuya Theo a lot. This afternoon, I turned my back on the two for a second, satisfied that Theo was working on puzzles and Ruby was playing with a stuffed elephant. Next thing I know, I hear, "NO RUBY NOOOO! Mama, take her away!" I turn around and Ruby is closing in on the half-completed puzzle that Theo has been working on diligently. Ruby is undeterred by all the yelling. She has absolutely no idea that she is doing anything wrong.

She even stresses me out. In the morning, I get her from her crib and nurse her in "the big bed." Lately, after she is finished, she immediately flips over into crawling position and heads straight for the edge of the bed. I pick her up and reset her somewhere in the middle, facing her in a different direction in hopes that she will forget whatever it was that she was going for. After about five minutes of this madness (less time if she gets really close to falling off) I'm forced to leave my bed for good and take her downstairs where she has a big, safe living room floor to crawl around.

She tried to stand up today and got very close. She pulled herself up onto Kuya Theo's yellow plastic chair, with both hands on the seat and only her feet on the ground. She promptly fell over and I had to catch her.

Ruby is our gorgeous girl

2006-02-19T23:38:00.000-05:00

It took a million tries to get a nice picture of her. First of all, she loves to chew her shoes. If you look carefully, you can see that the toe of her right shoe is souped. Second, she keeps sticking her tongue out at everybody. Third, Theo kept running around her and even tried to position her a couple of times, so either Theo would be in the picture or Ruby would be looking in the wrong direction, distracted by her brother.

But hey, that's what a digital camera is for.

Ruby enjoys mirrors

2006-02-19T23:32:00.000-05:00

There are two mirrors in the house that Ruby enjoys: the one you see in the picture, and the wall mirror upstairs, which we have neglected to actually mount on the wall. The wall mirror is still in its packaging. Ruby often gives her reflection kisses and zerberts, so there is a pretty thick layer of dried drool on both mirrors.

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

2006-01-28T17:13:00.000-05:00

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

2006-01-02T18:03:00.000-05:00

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.

Size 2 diapers just don't cut it anymore

2005-11-28T12:49:00.000-05:00

The problem with stretchy-tabs on diapers is that you don't get a very good sense that your child is outgrowing the diaper until she ruins one or two nice outfits. Usually stretchy tabs are nice because they are easy to adjust, but this very feature makes you think, "Well, there's plenty of leeway around the waist, it's not time to advance to the next size." Then you have an exploded diaper. But the first time you think it's just an accident. So you keep on with that diaper. Only after the next few times do you really start to problem solve.

So now my daughter wears size 3 shorts. She is outgrowing her nine months clothes. The thing is, she is really tall but not really fat, so for example if she is wearing pants, they fall down because her waist won't hold them up. But if she is wearing onesies, they are starting to get tight around her toes and diaper.

In other news, she is making such wonderful sounds! Sometimes she is siga (Tagalog for "tough-guy" or "macho.") Obviously it is hard to describe with words, but the way she says "Ah!" it sounds like she is demanding something. Sometimes too she has this really extended "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh-ah!" with a crescendo at the end. It lasts longer than 5 seconds sometimes. And honestly, I think she is trying to sing, because it usually happens when someone is singing.

Ruby laughs out loud

2005-11-27T22:10:00.000-05:00

What a beautiful sound when Ruby laughs! You can get her to laugh by surprising her by bringing your face real close to hers (like a 3D bulaga) or by making funny noises while kissing her chin. It is very very lovely. We went to Lola Linda and Lolo Rudy's house for Thanksgiving, and Ruby charmed everyone with her easygoing personality and winning smile. And of course, she always smelled awful from spitting up on her clothes, and she managed to have a poopoo blowout in the mall.

The second picture is from when we went to cut down our Christmas tree, and the third is after the tree was set up. Ruby looked like a big pink marshmallow out there. Half of the time, her hood covered her face and eyes and we wouldn't think to fix it because she wouldn't complain for a long time. When she did complain, it was just some light whimpering. There are a few more pictures of our tree-cutting adventure on Kuya Theo's blog.

Ruby and Mom make faces at each other

2005-11-23T21:44:00.000-05:00

This picture is a month old, but I like it. Ruby is getting very good at using her arms and hands. She can grab her toes. She likes the time right after her baths because she is naked and can easily find her toes, and the moment she realizes that you are going to put clothes on her, she starts hollering. She also likes being kissed and can anticipate kisses. When you bring your head close to hers she starts to make happy faces and even leans her head in towards yours to receive the kiss. For a while I wondered if we were just imagining that last bit, but we tested it several times and she really does lean towards you.

In other news, I have finished MICU and it got a lot better after that first day. Even that resident that yelled at me ended up being very nice and a good teacher. Now I am doing an infectious diseases consult elective, and WOW it's laid back! No weekends, no call, 9 am to 4 pm, spending the first couple of hours surfing the web, waiting for consults that will never come. I got Thursday and Friday off for Thanksgiving too. I deserve this, man. My kids and my Ted deserve this.

This is quickly becoming a blog about my medical school adventures as well as about Ruby. I just don't have anywhere else to post all this stuff.

Ruby has fun playing in the Gymini

2005-10-30T14:39:00.000-05:00

Hopefully these pictures will make up for all that writing that I did a few days ago. Don't forget, you can click on the picture for a better look.

Mom finished her subinternship and started MICU

2005-10-26T19:46:00.000-04:00

No pictures for this post, just lots of typing.

I had a great time at the VA with my internal medicine subinternship. I just love internal medicine. I am glad it exists. I was so worried that I wouldn't find something that I could be really excited about. The Filipino nurses (and my mother too, though she is not a nurse) pronounce "potassium" po-TAH-shoom, and this quickly became a running joke with my team. I tried to explain that we Filipinos also butcher the word sodium (as in so-joom) but for some reason that didn't catch on. Maybe because more of our patients had abnormal levels of po-TAH-shoom than sodium.

On the flip side of that, I just started my MICU (medical intensive care) rotation and I hate it. The residents and attendings stink like turkeys (they're not very nice), and it makes all the difference. The work is not harder, in fact, I have so much less work and fewer hours, but every day I am SO miserable. I know that MICU experience is part of every internal medicine program, but I am glad that as an internist, I could have a career that does not involve critical care. At the end of every day, I actually need the one hour commute to cool off, to think of positive things, and what would Jesus do if he were yelled at by the resident.

So what is all of this doing on Ruby's blog? Well, I don't have anywhere else to put it. I guess I could put it on Theo's blog, but he has more posts than Ruby does.

I do have things to say about Ruby, though. She knows how to roll over from back to belly, and she does it real fast. Sometimes she tries to roll over when I put her down to change her shorts. However, as soon as she realizes what's about to happen, she stops wiggling and just smiles and coos. I don't know why, but she just LOVES getting her diaper changed. There was even a point where, if she was grumpy, I would pretend to change her shorts and she would quiet down. Soon, on October 29, we are going to start her on baby foods. I don't know if we'll start her on rice. I read an article that basically said, what's the point of starting babies on rice cereal, since it's basically like adding sugar to milk? I rather agree with this. I know babies can't eat all the same stuff that big people eat, but most of the "information" we have on stating babies on big people food is voodoo. That being said, I can't think of anything else that necessarily makes more sense to feed her, so it might just end up being rice cereal anyway.

One last thought, what am I supposed to do when Ruby accidentally hits Theo in the face or grabs a fistful of his hair? Theo expects me to give her a time-out and a lecture just like he would get. Is it worth it to put my unsuspecting, 4-month-old child in the corner and say things like, "Ruby, it is not nice to pull Kuya Theo's hair"? One time I just told Theo it was an accident, and the other time I actually told Ruby not to do it again. I haven't put her in the corner yet. I'll post again if I come up with a good answer for this.

Ruby is learning about her voice, and other things

2005-10-02T12:15:00.000-04:00

Obviously, Ruby still does a lot of laying around, so we don't have much in the way of action shots. But we can tell you that she talks a lot. I tried to explain this to her grandma, and she believed me, but couldn't really appreciate it until she went with us to Trader Joe's yesterday and got to sit in the backseat with the kids. Ruby talked to her almost the whole way there. Grandma said, "I thought I'm supposed to entertain Ruby, but she's entertaining me!"

The picture with Ruby and Theo sleeping together wasn't staged. If you really think about it, it was a near-death situation. Another inch or so and Ruby would have been squished.

Baby Clothes

2005-08-30T21:20:00.000-04:00

Ruby fits in 6 month clothing. She is two months old. Granted, baby clothes are very inaccurate when it comes to sizing, but still. I expected to retire the 0-3 months clothing around this time, but not 3-6 month stuff!

On her one month check-up, she weighed 10 lb, 6 oz and measured 22 1/2 inches. I'll bet she's pushing 13 lbs now.

I am relieved by this. If any of you read one of my earliest blogs for Theo, you'll find that skinny kids make me worry (he was less than 5th percentile for weight). Maybe this time I won't have to pour safflower oil all over her food.

Pretty in pink

2005-08-22T23:03:00.000-04:00

Ruby gets to do push-ups a few times each day. We find her here on push-up number three of this set.

She's getting better at following faces, and doesn't like to be alone for too long when she's awake.

And she's my darling.

Ruby goes on her first hike

2005-08-22T22:25:00.000-04:00

We went hiking in Rocky Gap State Park. Mom did not want to wear the Baby Bjorn for this hike, because she was out of shape and because all the weight goes on the shoulders, so Dad got to carry both kids.

Ruby is wearing a pink sleep sack

2005-08-22T22:10:00.000-04:00

There's not a whole lot to write about this one. I just wanted to post the picture.

One week old

2005-07-07T11:17:00.000-04:00

You can learn a lot about someone in one week, even if they don't talk yet. Ruby is not a demanding baby. Reasons to fuss include hunger, dirty diapers, and snuggling. She likes being naked, and awake, both which are usually the case when Mom is feeding her. She seems to like relieving herself while Dad is changing her (but not Mom for some reason--random chance?) Her hair looks really cute when it's messy. And she makes a Dad feel very happy when she's snuggling him as in this picture.

Ruby Pastora

2005-07-01T14:43:00.000-04:00

Born June 29, 2005, at 2:47 pm

8 lbs even
20 inches
100% beautiful and healthy

I went into the hospital on June 29 for a scheduled induction for post-dates. I was supposedly 40 wks, 6 days. I was also 4 cm dilated without any labor (I wasn't contracting.)

Here is the approximate timeline:
10:30-11:00 am We arrived at the hospital. They poke me 3 times to get the IV in, and I am in tears. They start pitocin.
12:37 pm Nothing is really happening. I'm still not having contractions--this is because they start the pitocin on low doses and titrate up. My doctor decides that since I'm just hanging out, he'll do an AROM (artificial rupture of membranes, aka break the water.) I am still 4 cm. At some point, the anesthesiologist speaks to me about having an epidural. The contractions start almost immediately after the AROM.
12:45-1:00 pm I realize that this is going to be painful. I decide that I want an epidural. My nurse pages the anesthesiologist. He is finishing up placing someone else's epidural.
1:15 pm or so I really have no sense of time here because the contractions are suddenly very very painful. The anesthesiologist comes to give me the epidural, but just at the last second, Ruby starts having late decelerations, which are not such a good thing. We have to wait to get the epidural.
1:30 pm or so Ruby is doing fine now, so they start placing the epidural.
1:53 pm I receive the full dose of pain relief.
2:15 pm or so The epidural has kicked in and we are satisfied with the results. The nurse does an internal exam and we find out that I am complete (10 cm dilated.) There was no time to spare.
2:20 pm or maybe just a little before I start pushing. At some point I remember the amount of pain I was in when I had Theo (I did not have an epidural with him) and I tell you what, I am a BIG fan of pain relief.
2:47 pm Ruby is born. She is covered in vernix (white stuff resembling lowfat cream cheese) which is an indication that she was NOT 40 wks and 6 days gestation; vernix is usually mostly gone in babies that are overripe. She is crying and clearly healthy. Her APGAR is 9 at 1 minute.