10 months!?

This little thing is 10 months old. Whaaaat? Yes, I'm kind of in denial that she is almost 1.

Trey pushed her around on this little car and she was in hog heaven. She spread her legs out and left them out the whole ride and had a huge goofy grin on her face. Oh Ruby, how we love you and all your cuteness.
This past month has been the month of curiosity. She is really loving getting into things. She loves banging two things together and hearing the sound it makes. She loves to dump out stuff, knock over Lucy's block creations, touch the on/off button on the computer and the power strip, pull all the books off the bottom level of the bookshelf, play with all the remotes and the xbox controller, etc. We've had to keep a closer eye on her, especially the past week. She sure is a busy little thing.

She's totally has the ragamuffin hair. It's so wispy! I don't know what to do with it. Baby hair is tricky. I guess I need to get some baby gel? Ha ha...that just sounds silly.
She mainly still gets around by rolling/scooting/army crawling but this past week she figured out how to pull herself up to standing.

Yup, now we're in trouble. I can totally see us as we're trying to pack stuff up to move and there's little Ruby going through the boxes and pulling the stuff back out. :)
She is such a happy girl who loves to smile and make other people smile. The usual comment I get at the grocery store from cute old ladies is "look at those big blue eyes!". Her eyes are still very big and a very pretty blue.

 Piggies!

 

She loves to dance when she's standing. She'll mix it up from her usual sway to bending her knees now. It's pretty cute. Her favorite place to be is at the little play table.

Her favorite toy is Lucy's drumsticks. She always seems to find them wherever they are hiding. She's an impatient eater. You have to give her something to feed herself to entertain her while you're trying to feed her baby food. She could care less about a bottle. She loves to play with and bite my earrings. She gives the best kisses and understands when I ask her for one. She claps her hands when she's excited. She does a crazy wiggle dance when she's hyper. She loooves everything Lucy does. She is kinda rough when she plays with her but Ruby just laughs (most of the time).

 

 

She gets so excited to take baths with big sister. They have so much fun together.

Her 5th tooth grew in, it's the right front tooth. Now we're just waiting for the other to match.
I love this little bean. Lucy came up with some awesome nicknames for Ruby lately: Ruboo, Rubo, and Wirby. I usually call her sweet girl, bebe, or Rubes. And occasionally Ru-bay or Rubabe.

Happy 10 months girly!!

Match Day

I can't believe it already came and went. Trey said it was by far the best day of med school. It was such an exciting and emotional day.
This is how it went down. We told Lucy we were going to find out where we'll be moving and she said, "Oh I already know. We're going to Ketucky!" Not Kentucky, Ke-tucky. I think she just likes saying it. It was pretty funny. We just said, "We'll see..." It was on our list so it was a possibility. :) So we dropped Lu and Ru off at our neighbors house and drove to the Hershey Country Club. We got there and came into a huge banquet hall filled with tables. A bunch of our friends greeted us and we chit chatted as everyone showed up. The Niehoffs were even there, which made it all the sweeter. We took a bunch of pictures.

Trey and Kate

 Us and the Bakers

 Trey's boys

 Ma ladies

Then they began the program. Fred talked for a minute, then one of Trey's classmates Kevin gave a speech which had everyone laughing pretty good. Then they showed a slideshow that our friend J-Wal made that highlighted the past four years. It was so perfect. She did an amazing job. Trey and I both got choked up as the picture came up of our family in the hospital the day after Ruby was born. Such a tender moment. Betsy Niehoff looked back at us with her hand on her heart.
After that a few other people spoke and then they started handing out the envelopes. It was 11am. They started naming people's names off to come get their envelopes. Trey got his closer to the beginning. I think it was like 11:20am. When they read his name off he jumped up out of his chair and yelled "YEAH!" and gave everyone high fives like it was the Price Is Right. I snapped a not great picture of him getting his envelope.

We had to hold on to it for 40 minutes while all the other names were read and we clapped and cheered for everyone else.

The anxiety in the room was palpable. They finally read the last name, which happened to be J-Wals, and then this is what happened...

I love how after they finished the countdown all you can hear is the sound of rustling papers as everyone is trying to tear that letter open as fast as they can. Trey opened it up and I had to scan the paper for a minute to see where they put the location. And there it was...Cleveland Clinic! Trey had been hoping for that one and I had a feeling it was going to be Cleveland so I wasn't too surprised. But it was so great to finally know!

Woohoo!

All that anxiety melted away and I felt like I could breathe again! It was fun talking to everyone and seeing where they all were headed. Most everyone in the crew is staying east. Fred is heading to Cali. The Bakers, Kate, and Chang are staying here. Everyone seemed to be pleased with the places they were going.

The crew. Sure gonna miss these peeps.

After all the excitement died down a little they served lunch, which was delicious! Penn State knows how to host an event. After enjoying some divine chocolate peanut butter cake we decided it was time to go back and get the babies.
I told Luce we were going to live in Cleveland, Ohio and she said "Okay, but then we'll go to Ke-tucky." This girl really is set on living in Kentucky. Ha ha! I know my friend Ashlee would appreciate that.
We were so tired after the big celebration. I couldn't believe how emotionally draining it was, all the anxiety and then all the excitement after. We relaxed and put the kids to bed and went to the Appalachian Brewing Company for an after party that Penn State also put on. It was fun to go hang out in a relaxed setting and chat with our friends. They had free food and free booze so we only hung around for a little while before people started getting too crazy. We were beat.
It was such a great day though. I'm so glad Penn State is awesome and put together such a fun-filled day to celebrate getting to this point in med school. We're almost finished!!! I'm so proud of my man and all the hard work he has put in to get where he's at. He sure deserves it. :)

 

Now on to finding a place to live in the next 2 months! Oy! Wish us luck.

Lucy Goosey

Here is the post devoted entirely to Lucy, as promised. I found a bunch of random Lucy pics from the past year and scattered them throughout.

I can't believe this girl is almost 4! I guess that's about right though because we're almost done with med school, which takes 4 years to complete. When we moved to Hershey the girl was about 8 weeks old. Geesh, where did that time go? Seriously!

She thinks her full name is Lucy Goosey Banbury. No joke. She wanted to write her full name yesterday and this is what she wanted me to help her write.

This girl just gets more and more interesting and funny as she grows older. I can tell quite a difference in her level of maturity recently. I wonder if it's preschool or because she's a big girl and in primary now or if she's just growing up. She doesn't have near as many meltdowns as she used to. She is such a little sweetheart. She loves to help and is pretty good at doing what she's told. She's come a long way the past year and a half with that. She still is my little shadow, as she's always been. She loves to follow me around and always wants me to play with her. It's really sweet but sometimes a mama just needs her space! :) I just keep telling myself that in 10 years I'll be wishing she wanted to be around me, since she'll be a teenager and all. Yikes!

She's a sensitive soul, very similar to her mother. I can empathize with her having such a tender heart. She adores her little sister Ruby so much. I love to watch them play and giggle together. There is nothing better. It truly melts my heart.
I love all these pictures of her with Ruby.

Lucy has been working the phrase "just kidding" lately, and she actually uses it right. She's our little jokester.

She never walks, she's always prancing around the house on her toes. You always know when Lucy wakes up in the morning by the sound of her little feet pitter pattering across the floor. She loves to giggle and be silly. She'll make up words all the time and sing funny songs that definitely don't make any sense but she thinks they're hilarious. She loves to sing and mash several songs together.

She loves to dance and dress up in weird stuff. She has the funniest moves, I can't even explain them but everytime she does her few signature moves Trey and I always bust up. She loves playing Just Dance 3 & 4 with me.

She went from hating her hair to be brushed or even touched to being obsessed with it. It has to be nice and flat (no fuzzies). She went through a phase where she wore headbands about 95% of the time. She would even sleep with one on! Luckily that phase kind of died off and she's less obsessive about her hair being perfect and only wears headbands about 55% of the time. It cracks me up how she goes through phases of things, some are funny/weird, and others are just annoying.

Her favorite show is Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. She's also been loving Pucca lately. She can work the computer pretty well. She knows how to turn it on and go to PBS kids and play her favorite games on there. She navigates Netflix like a pro. She also knows how to turn on itunes and find her favorite songs and then turn on the screensaver that looks like fireworks and dance to it.

Her picture of Santa

Other favorites of hers right now include...
Favorite food: ice cream(but it has to be vanilla), strawberries and grapefruit
Favorite drink: orange juice
Favorite color(s): green and yellow
Favorite animal: fox
Favorite song: To Kingdom Come, Passion Pit
Favorite place to go: Hershey Park, Chocolate World, Costco, the Niehoffs
Loves to: help me bake, play with Ruby and make her laugh, take pictures, puddle jump, ride her bike, wrestle with daddy, go to preschool, create things, doodle, dress up and play pretend.

 

Doesn't love: having her picture taken(staged photos, as you can see in our latest family photo below), big crowds, being put on the spot(attention just on her), new situations and environments, strangers.

She loves to call her little neighbor friend Ellie on the phone and ask her to come over and play. I love that she's old enough to do that already. They have a fun time giggling and being silly. We have to remind Lucy to not be too bossy. :)

She is starting to understand writing her ABCs and she can write her name like a champ. She asks me how to spell stuff and I help her write words on her doodle papers. We have so many little post-its and scratch pieces of paper spread out on our desk with her little doodles and words on them. I love it. They always make me smile.

I'm happy to say we are finally 100% done with diapers with her. Yippee!!! The past month has been magical. She's been potty trained since September(ish) but had to wear pull-ups at night for quite a while. She finally decided she wanted to wear panties to bed one night (a month ago) and hasn't had one accident since. :) Go Luce! It's been a looong road so I'm hoping it goes a little bit smoother when it comes time for Ruby to be potty trained. Let us pray!

We sure love this little human. She is so much fun and has a huge heart. It has been so fun to see her grow into her "big sister" shoes. She loves Ruby so much. She's always hugging her and saying "I love you!" I know Luce will always have Ruby's back as they get older.

Sleep Walking

Okay, this is seriously cool. If you have a few minutes to spare you should totally watch this. It makes me happy. I even like the music they put it to.



Happy Thursday!

-Michelle

Ru is 9 months old!

-Ruby has found her voice this past month. Good golly, she loves to yell! She's not mad or anything, I think she is experimenting. Let's see how loud I can get...
-She has a new dance move. Her original was the "Ruby sway". Now she mixes it up with the "Ruby roll". Instead of swaying back and forth she rolls her torso in circles. A few days ago she started head banging too. It's pretty awesome. The trigger to her dancing can be a song, anyone singing, or Lucy and/or Daddy playing their drums. Lucy was our little singer at this age. Ruby is our little dancer.

 

-She is also our little puppy. She breathes out of her mouth, well, it sounds more like panting. She is always happy to see you. She loves to give big slobbery kisses. One look with this big blue eyes of hers and she has you in her pocket. She loves to play. She also loves to find Daddy's shoes, hold them with her legs, and play with and chew on the laces.
-She's standing while holding on to stuff! I'm not ready for this yet but she loves it. She's not super balanced but she's figured out how to fall, right on her squishy tush. :)
-She loves to put everything in her mouth. Paper is her favorite! She's also into finding the tiny accessories that go with Lucy's littlest pet shop "animals". She thinks those are delicious.

-She wants to do anything Lucy is doing. Oh boy, and so it begins! I better tell Lucy to get used to it. :)
-She loves to play peek-a-boo. She'll hold up something in front of her face and then pull it down quick with a big grin waiting for me to say "peek-a-boo!"
-She's getting much more adventurous with baby food.
-I started giving her more solids. Most days she'll eat whole wheat bread, egg yolks, pasta, cooked carrots, meatballs, bananas, and apples. She looooves avocados and salmon.
-She loves to be thrown high in the air and held upside down.
-Her giggles are hilarious. It's like she's holding in her laughs so it kind of sounds like a machine gun.
-The 2nd fang popped through this month. She's our little vampire baby!

She's such a happy little thing. This month she's been dealing with an ear and eye infection and a weird rash thing and she still manages to be such a happy little trooper. Here are a few more pics from the past month. It's so sad how I never take pictures. I have a bazillion of Lucy. I imagine it just gets worse and worse as you have more kids. I just never think to bust out the camera. I'll try to do better this next month.

 Ru loves when we read to her. She gets all wiggly with joy.

 Still loves the jumparoo.

 Some of the toys she's into lately... 

 She loves standing and playing at the little musical table.

 This girl loves baths, especially when big sister is being silly and making her laugh. Lucy gave her this awesome hairstyle.

 Grabbing for the camera

 Just helping mama fold some laundry. She loved rolling around in all the clothes.

 

Ruby has mastered the barrel roll. No crawling yet but I predict that will be coming very soon.