Where Oh Where has my baby gone???

Ruby is such a little person now and aren't we having fun watching her learn, grow and develop her own little personality. Ruby is very determined, knows exactly what she wants and exactly how to get it...usually via mummy.

Ruby can play on her own now and doesn't need to have you in the room with her constantly...hooray! She has just started to read stories by herself and has a great time trying to get herself dressed in the morning. Everything goes over her head, even daddy's knickers - she loves the red ones!

Ruby has majority of all animal noises known to man down pat (we are working on a video of this) and will randomly start 'mooing' in the back of the car if we pass a cow or 'woofing' at a dog that could be miles away or on a poster at the pet shop. Ruby goes bananas when you take her down the pet food isle at the supermarket. Daddy has her convinced that there are dogs and cats stuffed in the little tins. This week she is 'baaing' at sheep and 'quacking' at ducks (apparently - Grandma Sheila is the only one to have seen this). But it's not just a visual thing, you can ask her what a cat, horse, cow, dog, sheep or fish says and she will make the noise. Ruby has also started saying 'Bunny' (well mummy knows what she means, it doesn't sound exactly like bunny but close enough), 'Grandpa', 'nana' (for banana), and lots of other gibberish that we are still to work out.

Ruby has also started associating anything that goes around and around with the hand action for "Round and round the garden, like a teddy bear". So she is now signing for 'spiders' (insy winsy), 'all gone/where?' (hands out, palms up) and now 'round and around' (she draws a circle on her palm).

And the coolest thing that she is doing - building sand castles and playing on the beach instead of just eating the sand! Daddy, Mummy and Ruby had a great time on the weekend digging holes, making castles and burying Ruby up to her chest in sand.

Beach bunny

Another wet and miserable Easter at the caravan! But didn't we have fun, stomping in the puddles, running through the rain on the beach, getting wet and sandy and just grubby in general. All the stuff Mummy wont allow at home. Daddy wasn't very impressed with the fishing - to much fresh water apparently but otherwise, the long weekend was a treat.

Ruby got spoiled as usual by her grandparents and is now getting really clued into what presents are and now gets really excited when she sees a wrapped present - whether it's for her or not. Ruby also got sent a really cool animated Easter card from her Aunty and Uncle in the UK. Ruby hasn't had much to do with the computer but would drag us back to to the study to play the card over and over again. The excitement could of had something to do with the chickens dancing across the screen. Ruby just loves animals. She has 3 books in particular that have animals in them that she makes us read all the time.

Ruby now also has a repertoire of animals sounds. Her favourite at the moment is Meow Meow. Grandma Dianne and Grandpa Lindsay got a new cat just last week that they decided to name 'Meow Meow' due to Ruby's constant meowing. Poor Rusty can't get a break either, she will scream at him like he is a Rock Star and run from across the room to pat him as hard as she can. Ruby's not very good at 'gentle' just yet.

Ruby also knows 'neigh', 'moo', 'woof woof' (sometimes) and kissy noises for the fish. She has also started doing the hand actions to Intsy Wintsy Spider when she sees a spider in the house and has puts her hands out, palms up when she has lost something. We have been having great conversations through sign language.

Ruby has just reached 15 months and if one more person asks mummy if Ruby is 2 years old (due to her size) she is going to scream. We are hoping to get Ruby weighed and measured next week to see how much she has actually grown in the last couple of months. We might have to start feeding her more processed food to slow her down for a bit.

Dancing!

I don't know why we do this to ourselves but again we've had a massive week. They just seem to collide into each other at the moment.

Mummy decided very quickly when she heard the Australian Ballet were going to be doing a performance for free in the Botanical Gardens that we MUST go. Apparently so did everyone in Brisbane! Aside from the fact that it didn't start until 7pm and that the gardens were packed with people all bustling to get the best vantage point, Ruby, Mummy and Great Grandma had a really good evening. We started our night by catching the ferry into the city, Ruby's first boat ride! Ruby was very warying sitting at the back of the boat watching all the buildings fly past but by the end of the journey was really enjoying the ride and even pretending to surf as she stood up trying to keep her balance as we coasted along.

We got to the gardens in plenty of time to find a nice spot, that soon deminished around us as the starting time drew closer. Ruby was getting very irritated at the fact that mummy wouldn't let her go for a run through the crowd. She did manage at one point to run away from mummy and made it all the way to the front and nearly to the stage before she was caught. She found some nice young girls to roll and sit all over, which they didn't seem to mind and she would also help people empty out their picnic baskets and bring the food to mummy. But as soon as the music started and the dancers came out Ruby stopped in her tracks and just stopped and watched. She would say 'Wow' as the dancers floated around the stage and would clap and clap at the end of each performance.

Ruby was dressed to impress for the ballet and everyone would tell her how beautiful she was. The ones that didn't notice would get a shock as Ruby would stand there swinging her dress at them until they commented and told her how lovely she looked.

The evening was a late one and of course Brisbane city council didn't think to put on any extra public transport, so the wait to come home was horrible but all in all a great night was had by all.

On the subject of dancing. Ruby just loves music. She has a new favourite song which we play everyday (it just happens to me mummy's favourite as well). She sways in the slow bit, bounces when the music picks up beat and starts to clap along when the band start clapping....very cool!

We are working on numbers at the moment. This is Ruby's latest favourite book. We count and count and count. Well mummy and daddy do, I'm sure Ruby just loves the bright pictures.

We've also had a break through at swimming with the blue mat. Ruby has been bumped up a class and is starting to do some exciting things, like jumping in from standing and the new thing with the mat. The babies climb out the pool via the ladder walk around the edge and then across the blue mat which is floating in the pool to jump in the water to mum or dad. Ruby loved this so much she was lapping the other babies to have a second, third and forth go. She did however, start screaming again when we tried to get her to sit on the blue mat - go figure!

All dressed up for the ballet