Little helper

Ruby's favourite thing to do at the moment is to help you with your chores. Sounds good right and to a certain degree it is. Everything is getting done really quickly due to the fact that the faster you get the dishwasher emptied or breakfast cooked the less likely someone is to get injured or something is to get broken. Ruby loves sitting up next to the cook top and helping to stir dinner or breakfast, she loves to empty the dishwasher and even knows where the plates, bowls and cutlery go. She also loves to empty the dishwasher as you are trying to load it. Ruby is really good at passing pegs to help hang out the clothes but gets bored with this very quickly and has just recently taken to the vacuuming - which she will only do on her own.

Ruby has also recently started to do lots of colouring. We have lots of pages of coloured scribble around the house and this weekend we are going to attempt to paint without making too much mess.

This week we took great grandma to music class and then granny and gramps took us to lunch where Ruby got to play car racing games in the kids play area. This is Ruby's other latest love. Driving the car. She will sit in the front seat for ages playing with all the things that flash and make noises and gets a huge thrill when mummy lets her sit in the front to drive up the driveway. The only thing is that she doesn't ever want to get out of the front seat and this usually ends in tears.

Just as a side note - congratulations to Andrew and Kay-Lynn who were married on the 1st of August. The Abbott's had the best time and we look forward to helping you enjoy the next chapter of your lives together.

Big Girls Bed

This week Ruby decided all on her own that she was going to sleep in her big girls bed. As mummy was going through the usual bedtime routine Ruby climbed up onto the pillow of her big bed and laid there without moving. When mummy asked her if she wanted to sleep there tonight, Ruby nodded. So after a kiss good night, the light went out and the door got closed. Mummy then sat by Ruby's room waiting and waiting, surely there was no way Ruby was going to stay in the bed without restraints!

After 45mins and not a peep from her room, mummy went to check on Ruby who was sound asleep in exactly the same position she was left in. And this is where she stayed, even when she woke up at 7am, Ruby stayed on her mattress and waited for mummy to come and see her.

The following night didn't work exactly like that, Ruby woke a few times and ended up finishing the night in her cot, but last night was exactly the same as the first night. Ruby slept the whole night in her big bed and stayed there even when she had woken in the morning.

Other than the freaky sleeping Ruby is swimming like Ian Thorpe, climbing like a monkey and eating like her father. And the word of the week - "Ruby", everything is "Ruby" or "Ruby's".

Super Ruby

Last week while visiting Grandma Dianne, Ruby was taken by a photo hanging up that had Ruby, mumma, grandma and great granny in it. She sat there for ages just looking at it. When we asked her where mumma was she would point and say 'there' and she did the same for grandma and granny. When we asked her where Ruby was she would look up smile and point to herself, who's that in the photo then, 'baby'.

Since then mummy and daddy would ask where is Ruby just to see her point to herself, then out of the blue we were playing this game and little voice came back 'Ruby' and of course she was pointing at herself. She is also saying 'Ruby' for things that belong to her. When we are heading off for our afternoon bike ride Ruby knows that we have to put our helmet on first so she runs to the garage pointing at her helmet 'Ruby' Ruby' 'Ruby'.

The other thing Ruby has started doing, is putting things away. Ok, this seems trivial but she would not do this before, she would spread her toys and books all over the house and just walk away and leave them. Now she is putting her clothes in the dirty clothes, putting toys away and picking up after herself - when asked!

We've also started back at swimming and music class this week. With Ruby loving both. Swimming with daddy on a Thursday and music with mummy on a Tuesday, we might even get daddy to music next week, although he wasn't very impressed on the other mums (no yummy ones apparently) at the new class time so we will see.

Ruby has also met her Aunty Freda this week and lots of other relatives from Daddy's side at a party over the weekend. Ruby was a little taken aback by the amount of people wanting to talk, cuddle and hold her but in the end the resident pig and Freda's new monkey book were the winners.

Babble and words

It seems that in just the last week Ruby has started to copy or trying to copy words that you are saying. Her babble is becoming easier to understand and she is trying really hard to say words. Mummy was telling Ruby how the bread was cooking in the toaster and that when it was finished it would go POP. Ruby looked mummy for a second and then said POP. And on a visit to see Great Grandma and Great Grandpa, Granny was telling Ruby how her jumper was Blue and Ruby's pants were Blue and so were mummy's jeans - Ruby looked at Granny and said 'Blue'. Yesterday she wanted to wear her 'Purple' socks.

Her favourite word to say however is Gar Gar. Her shoes are gar gar, her socks are gar gar, her dummy is gar gar and so is play dough. This is a little bemusing as everyone tells her the correct words but she insists that these things are known as Gar gar???? Maybe now that she is starting to develop her vocabulary these things will go back to their known forms.

Ruby has been and had her 18mth injections this week, again no drama at all. There were a few tears when the needle was going in but once the band aide was on, Ruby sighed jumped down from Mummy's lap and waved goodbye to the nurse. She did however, remember the nurses room and started to panic and cry when mummy and daddy walked her in. She has only been in this room a few times and the last time was 6 months ago. I hope she doesn't remember the incident with Santa - we could be in for another photo disaster at Xmas.

Ruby has also this week started climbing and sliding all by herself at the park. She can now go up the chain to the highest slide, up the steep stairs and tries really hard to climb the rope maze. Mummy is a little devastated that she doesn't have to follow Ruby up and now misses out on going down the slides herself.

having a ball in the bath

Happy Birthday Great Grandma Alice

Ruby's Great Grandma Alice turned 99 on the 27th of June and we had a huge party to celebrate. Well it was huge for Great Grandma. Lunch with the immediate family was very exhausting. Grandma Sheila cooked up a storm as usual and had enough food for the whole of Mt Cotton. Next year is certain to be a big one though!

This last week has been crazy busy for the family, with an overnight stay at the caravan, a BBQ lunch to meet more relatives and grandma's big day got jammed in there as well.

Daddy also took Ruby to music class this week and didn't he have a ball playing with the drums, scarves and dancing with Ruby ;)

Mummy has put a big girls bed in Ruby's room this week (a mattress on the floor), Ruby hasn't slept in it yet, but she is very pleased to see dolly sleeping there when she wakes up in the morning. We are going to go slowly with the transfer to the bed as she has only just started to sleep properly in the cot - lets not ruin it!

And on the animal front, Ruby now buzzes like a bee, does the arm actions for a monkey and does a very good impersonation of Rusty when she pulls his tail.