Flying coach, and other November adventures

Who wouldn't want to get into a tiny airplane seat with this kid?

I know -- you can't get your hand up fast enough. Nevertheless, Ruby and I flew to Traverse City earlier this month to visit my Granny -- Dad's mom. She had never met Ruby, her only great-grandchild. My parents met us in Seattle and were a huge help on the two long flights in each direction.

Here's Ruby on the shore of Lake Michigan... brrrr!

And this photo says it all, I think. Obviously, it was well-worth the trip.

In our other travels this month, we went to Coeur d'Alene for Thanksgiving. My parents were in Baltimore visiting Laura and Chas, so we had turkey with Nate's parents.

Here's Granddad teaching Ruby to fly a remote-control helicopter:

And I got to meet Glenna's baby. Glenna and I were bffs in 2nd grade, lab partners in high school, roommates in college... and now we're moms together. When we're home for holidays, as a bonus, we are also neighbors, because her mom lives just around the corner from Nate's parents.

I think Cidney and Ruby have already bonded.

Here is Ruby with her two cousins, Luke and Caleb. They had a great time chasing each other around the house like little maniacs, dancing to the battery-operated singing mounted-bass thing Nancy and Steve have on their wall. In this picture, they all look like they've been drugged, but it's just because the holiday spirit hasn't kicked in yet.

"happy"

This week Ruby is doing a new thing where, when she's happy, she'll just look at us, smile, and say, "happy." It's such a sweet and simple sentiment, and a good reminder in advance of Thanksgiving to live in the good moments of my life and feel happy.

I have some photos to post of our trip to Michigan and other highlights, which I'll post soon.

Pumpkins

Here are some new fallish photos.
Nancy and Steve were in town this weekend so we went to the pumpkin patch and overpaid for a couple of pumpkins. Ruby was really excited about it. It looks like she's helping me scoop out the guts, but she's actually scooping a spoonful of the guts from Nancy's pumpkin INTO my pumpkin. Ruby likes to help, but seems to understand the hilarity of being the opposite of helpful -- unfolding laundry, unloading books from the shelves, refilling pumpkins, etc.

Here we are in the fog, at the pumpkin patch:



Since we bought Ruby's play kitchen, she's been into having tea parties. The other day I caught Nate sipping fake tea out of this little pink teacup -- and doing some really realistic stirring with the tiny spoon. Ruby is a fantastic hostess and even served some plastic cake.

buddies

Shannon came out this weekend from Missoula to celebrate her birthday while Mark was hunting for antelope in a blizzard. Isn't that an authentic Montana reason to have to leave the womenfolk for a few days?
Anyway, Raleigh and Ruby had lots of time to spend together, and they had fun. It was a challenge to have two toddlers because if one of them was not having a meltdown, chances were, the other was.
Here they are chasing each other up and down the hallway:

And taking a bath:

And playing together on Ruby's play kitchen.

Taking advantage of Ruby

Ruby is really into being a helper. She likes to hand us things and say, "here you go!" and help by carrying stuff around, looking for stuff, bringing us things. The biggest surprise, to me, is how helpful she actually is. The other day she got my keys out of a tight spot when I dropped them under our hall table while my hands were full.

Let the child labor begin!

Today while I was cooking dinner I had a view out the kitchen window of this cute Daddy-daughter duo doing some fall yard work.


And here's a nice swing/ nose-wiping shot from the park this afternoon. I don't know what's up with our camera settings. Everything is washed out.

More lake pictures

Summer is winding down here, although I think September is Seattle's nicest month. We've had a weird transition to fall because Nate's teacher's union is on strike. Usually we get back into a schedule when school starts after Labor Day, and seeing Nate filling out all those teacher gradebooks makes me want to go out and buy a bunch of mechanical pencils or something.
This year, he's walking the picket line. It's getting old.

Here are a couple of shots of our last summer fling over to the lake on Labor Day weekend. Ruby is such a goofball and loves to play games. She and my parents -- especially my mom -- were buddies. That's good because I wanted to read my book on the dock...

Driving the boat with Grandpa...

And playing this game, which only my mom could conceive: this bizarre plastic fish bowl has been at the cabin since my own early childhood. Ruby and my mom took turns wearing it around like astronauts.

Flatter abs in 9 days!

Today at the grocery store I saw a magazine that advertised on its cover A FLAT BELLY FAST in just 9 days with the aid of a simple 20-minute workout. Totally worth $4.99.

When I got home, of course I went straight to work. Ruby got down on the floor and got into plank with me.

(I love this photo because it's such a snapshot of our messy actual lives, right down to the cat asleep in my clean laundry.)

I'll let you know about the abs.

When I was 20 weeks pregnant with Ruby, Nate and I befriended Nathan and Elizabeth at church. She was 24 weeks along with Oliver. True to plan, Oliver was born almost exactly a month before Ruby was, and the two of them spent many hours of their infanthood in side-by-side carseats and strollers.

In the past few months, though, they have become real friends, and it's so fun to watch them play together. It's actually easier to have both Oliver and Ruby than just to have one or the other, because they play together so well.

This photo is of the two of them at the zoo -- appropriately dressed in their safari clothes. I wasn't there (the dads took them) but reportedly, they held hands through much of the visit.

And finally, you know those urban myths circulated among new parents, that you shouldn't sleep with your newborn because you might roll over onto him/ her and smother the baby? I never believed them until I saw this blatant example last week: