ruby-doo. people, we have a 1 year old..

that just sounds weird! but.. we do. we've got a toddling, curious, hilarious, mischevious, industrious little girl on our hands. she is into EVERYTHING now. there's almost no stopping her. Except that we're the big people, so we can. and she hates it. we've entered the "if-you-take-it-away-or-make-me-stop-i'll-be-really-really-mad-days". yeah. but, we're learning to work with it, and survive the strong will of our little lady :)
Plus, she is hilarious now. most things become a game very quickly, which we are thoroughly enjoying. IT's incredible to watch her learn things so quickly, and to watch her sense of humor develop, and sometimes a little weird to see what she actually thinks is "funny". She loves to ask what lots of things are now. And has a little vocabulary  of her own with some words in sign language (though she's been doing that for about 4 months now) and some real words (like diaper, doggie, car, something that we think means keys-her main obsession, mama, dada, uh-oh, and her new favorite.. hi).

to say the least. its incredible. and now we know why people have tons of babies. they just make you want more :)

anyway, in life outside of "Ruby-ville", things are good. We've decided to sell our condo, so when we're not playing with Ruby or at work we've been cleaning like mad men, and fixing little things that needed touch-ups or just some maintenance-related attention. We went on the market this week, and our 2nd interested party came through the house tonite. So, we're encouraged by the interest generated, and we're praying for a quick sale. Since, keeping the house perpetually ready for a showing, with a 1 year old in tow is NOT something we're hoping to do for long... (read: put all giant toys in garage, store tiny toys in shelves/bins/bags/wherever we can find a spot, have showing, then remove all giant toys from the garage, and un-pack all small toys from every nook-and-cranny (if you can remember where you stashed them). then, get the call from the realtor and repeat the whole thing). haha..

here are some recent pictures of our little love :)

 

she's into climbing inside of things right now...

 

emigre decided to grow a moustache for the winter, to keep her lip warm.

this one's for you, aunt Sheree:

Ruby's Birthday Album

Whether you've been rocking out to Ruby's birthday album or trying to get one of the tracks out of your head, now you can be an informed listener.  Here is the track list:
1. Hap, Hap, Hap, Happy Birthday-Parry Gripp
2. Ruby Soho - Rancid
3. Peanut Butter Jelly Time - Chip-Man & The Buckwheat Boyz
4. Drop It Like It's Hot - Snoop Dogg & Pharrell Williams
5. The Hampster Dance Song - Hampton the Hampster
6. I Can Sing - Barenaked Ladies
7. Single Ladies - Beyonce
8. Ruby Tuesday - The Rolling Stones
9. Drawing - Bareaked Ladies
10. All Is Love - Karen O and the Kids
11. Clap Your Hands - They Might Be Giants
12. 7 8 9 - Barenaked Ladies
13. I Feel It All - Feist
14. The Ninjas - Barenaked Ladies
15. Gamma Ray - Beck
16. Everybody Dance - Paul McCartney
17. Do You Like Waffles? - Parry Gripp
18. Ruby - Kaiser Chiefs

Album Art Bonus:
You can download the album art below.  To add it to the album in iTunes do the following:

-Save the picture to your computer.
-Select all of the songs in Ruby's Birthday Album in  iTunes and choose File>Get Info
-Check the box for artwork and drag the file into the window.
-Click OK

Let them eat cake...

Happy Birthday Ruby! (cake and presents) from Ben Saunders on Vimeo.

we were cracking up at her eating birthday cake! and my favorite part is the "cake dancing" near the end...
more birthday fun to share soon.

Happy Birthday Ruby!

(brace yourself for gratuitous praise and prolific first birthday footage from a very proud mommy)

Today Ruby turned 1. neither of us can believe it. Now that she is walking EVERYWHERE life is different, but it's also tons of fun. Her personality has developed so much in the last 3 months, it's unbelieveable. There is no mistaking what she wants or doesn't want, and she has no trouble deciding which way she feels about it either :) She says "hi" and waves now.. to everyone, which is adorable. And she wants to know what everything is. Her favorite games are 1) opening and closing doors—especially if someone is on the other side, and 2) opening and closing drawers, and exploring what's inside them. Apparently our blue travel toothbrush holder has more value than we ever imagined. She's also developed what we affectionately refer to as her "maniacal laugh", which we both believe comes from the opposite side of the family.

We had lots of fun celebrating her birthday today, it was a pseudo snow day, so she was at home all day, part of the time with mommy, and then later mom and dad switched, and mommy went to work and daddy stayed home with Ruby. But, we had a blast waking her up in the morning, check it out:

Untitled from Ben Saunders on Vimeo.

and, we had a delicious birthday smoothie for breakfast. it's a new favorite. THen we opened a few gifts, and played. Ruby got some really fun looking bath toys from her auntie rachel, uncle chad and cousin Syd, they know she looooooves bath time :) and some sweet sweats from her great gramps and great grams. Ben is SO happy any time he can dress her in sweats :)
Later on in the day there was cake eating as well. We were incredibly proud and dumb-founded at the same time by what we witnessed. it was like it was destiny for ruby and the cake to meet. videos from that soon :)
it was a great day. and even though i've been a little weepy the last few days thinking about how i'm grieving the end of Ruby as a baby, i'm also incredibly grateful for the amazing year that God gifted to us with Ruby. And I'm super-excited for the next year!!! I can't wait to see how she'll surprise us, delight us, challenge us and humor us :)