9 Months

We can’t believe Ruby is 10 months old today!  Yes, Ruby is now in the double digits.  Can’t believe how fast it’s all gone by…but at the same time thinking back on her first days really does seem like a long time ago at the same time.

So, let’s recap her ninth month.  We gotta say, the ninth month was filled with numerous and very eventful milestones.

*The word-of-the-month is MOBILITY.  Ruby is now crawling with ease, on her hands and knees.  That’s right, no more “soldier crawling” for her anymore!  Of course, though she can crawl effortlessly, she would much rather be up on her feet.  She is standing whenever and wherever she can, pulling herself up with ease.  When she’s up, she also effortlessly “walks” with support from whatever she’s holding onto.  Oh yeah, and get this: the other day, she climbed up onto the coffee table by herself.

And what does this mean for us?  We have officially entered a new stage of parenthood!  We can no longer take our eyes off her for even a second.  She’s poking around and exploring everywhere she can and occasionally getting herself into mischief.  Just ask Ricki the cat!

*Ruby likes art and music.  We took Ruby to the Tim Burton exhibit at LACMA this past week.  She loved it.  Granted, Tim Burton’s aesthetic hits all the hot buttons for baby tastes like bright colors and exaggerated shapes, but Ruby squealed with delight throughout the exhibit.  It warmed our hearts.

She also is truly starting to respond to music.  She’s always enjoyed having music on as a backdrop, but she clearly is far more engaged with music now.  Her favorites right now seem to include Raffi (a Canadian children’s singer – thanks, Wonil!), Patsy Cline, 70s soul music (she was groovin’ in the car, moving her head side to side), and just today, she was moving up and down in her stroller to the music that was playing inside the frozen yogurt shop!

But she would be the daughter of Carrie if she didn’t also embrace the rock.  As you can see by the picture of her at the top of this entry, banging on her friend Indy’s drums (perhaps my favorite pics of her ever!), she’s got the rock in her blood.  Don’t believe us?  See this earlier blog entry!

*Ruby is a daredevil. That’s right, Ruby has little fear.  She loves the swings, and the higher you push her (within reason, of course), the bigger her smile gets!  Actually, she loves the playground in general.  The last time I took her there, she even started laughing and kicking as the swings and jungle gym came into view.

She loves the slide too.  We set her at the top of the littlest slide and slide her down (we’re holding her firmly of course), and a grin spreads from ear to ear.  Once, she even pushed herself off before I had a firm grip on her, and she made it all the way to the bottom of the (admittedly short) slide in the sitting position!

Current Likes:

*Ricki the cat (maybe a little too much)

*Standing up 24/7

*Feeding herself

*Rock and 70s Soul

*Peek-a-boo

*The phrase, “I got your man!!!”

Current Dislikes:

*Diaper changes

*Being in the car seat (STILL!!!)

*Bathtime (that’s a new dislike)

*Sprouting teeth (OUCH!)

Notable Events:

*Going to the Aquarium of the Pacific

*Playing at the beach, in the water!

*Going to LACMA to see the Tim Burton exhibit

*Crawling, and standing and walking while holding onto objects

Ruby and Friends!


Ruby has been quite the social butterfly and has had some fun days with her friends lately! Here are just a few photos …

Ruby with Ollie and Bailey at our house. Ruby hosted her 1st playdate!

Hmmm … we’ve got a little work ahead of us teaching Ruby to share! :)

Ruby also went to the Long Beach Aquarium this week with Georgia & Olive. They were the most stylin’ babies there!

I just love this candid shot. Olive is on the move, Georgia wants to climb right in the tank, and there’s Ruby … just sitting up straight with some impressive posture!

OUCH!

What you see above tells the story of a VERY long week at The Kim House. I know this image may be shocking – after all, usually there are only shiny, happy pictures on this blog showing what a darling little baby we have and how sweet she can be. Of course she’s still darling, and of course she is a sweetie – but this is Ruby during one of her toughest times so far: Teething.

Teething is cruel, very cruel. Some babies just wake up one day and have a new tooth in their mouth. This is not our baby. Our happy delightful baby seems to get taken away by the evil lords of Teething Town and they leave us with a baby who won’t sleep at night, who won’t nap, and definitely will not smile. It’s really traumatic actually – not only for Ruby, but for us! Thank goodness the 3 little buggers on top causing her all sorts of misery seem to have broken through now … and hopefully we’ve made it through ’til the next round!

On the bright side, can you even imagine how much cuter she’s gonna be with pearly whites on the bottom AND top now?!?

7-8 Months

I’ve been a very bad mommy. I missed our 7 month update, and we’ve only got about a week of our 8 month left! But with so much change happening these days – it’s tough to keep up! As I try and think about what’s all changed, I struggle to not take the easy route and just say “EVERYTHING!” But here’s what I have come up with …

*She has hair – lots of hair! Now, we have to brush it when she wakes up in the morning and a few times during the day. My favorite part? She can wear a bow in her hair just like me now!

*She is scooting. And even crawling, kinda. Anything set just outside of reach can be motivation to get moving. All I have to do is set a piece of junk mail on the floor, and she can scoot/crawl right over to get it almost immediately. Curiosity is definitely the name of the game!

*She likes to stand up! Daddy keeps encouraging “cruising” along the couch or the bed while she stands on her feet (but I keep telling him all in good time! ha). This girl loves to stand up. Some have even said she’d probably skip the whole crawling around thing and just start walkin’. We’ll see about that. So far, it’s just too cute watching her stand on those skinny little legs while she looks so proud of herself.

*She feeds herself (sometimes). Our girl definitely prefers the finger foods over purees, so we have been experimenting with baby- led weaning which, in a nutshell, encourages a baby to feed themselves small bits of solid food themselves. We cut up pieces of banana or potato, quarter up grapes, give chunks of avocado and let her snack on her favorite – Cheerios. As she develops (and we get braver), we work up to things like cooked pasta, small bites of soft cooked vegetables and more. She still loves her sweet potatoes and carrots in a jar, but she is really digging on things off our plates. We’re excited about building up a diverse and healthy palate for her!

And now for some stats…

Height/weight: We plopped her down on our bathroom scale the other morning and it read 16.2 lbs.! She seems to be on the petite side these days as she is still wearing 6 month size clothes. We’ll get more info at her 9 month well baby appt. coming up in August.

Current likes:
*Waving bye-bye
*Eating cheerios
*Petting Ricki
*Bubbles!
*Going swimming!

Current Dislikes:
*Diaper changes
*Being in the car seat (STILL)

Notable events:
*Meeting her newest cousin, Evan Kole Facey!
*Celebrating Father’s Day with Daddy, Papaw & Harabuji
*Going camping for the 1st time
*Visited Pretend City, the L.A. Zoo and the Long Beach Street Food Festival
*Went swimming and successfully held her breath and went underwater

We’ll leave you with a short video clip showing Miss Ruby on her feet, standing, smiling and giggling: