How did this happen? Ruby Alice is a one year old. We’ve always loved this girl, but wow – these days, she is just the most entertaining, hilarious, curious (and strong-willed!) kid! She is really the third person in our family now, making her mark and adding her own charisma into the mix.
She’s dancing, high-fiving, eating lots of food and playing peek-a-boo. She cruises around the furniture, shakes maracas and stands up on her own. She’s got 4 teeth up top and two on the bottom. She’s been saying “mama” and points to things when she wants them. She can copy sounds we make and she chugs water out of a sippy cup. She likes beans, Patsy Cline, puppies and balloons. Actually, she LOVES balloons. She’s a bright-eyed, petite, smart little girl … and we can’t believe she belongs to us!
On the morning of her birthday, we brought her into our room and presented her with a few special birthday gifts. Daddy just HAD to get her a car … a stylish, Swedish, pink little car of her very own. It was especially from Daddy. She loves it!
She was also pretty stoked on her new set of blocks.
That afternoon, we headed out to Pretend City in Irvine. Its a pretty cool place for kids, and we know Ruby will only enjoy it even more as she gets older. It really is a pretend city … complete with a grocery store, a post office, gas station, library, doctor office, dentist office and so much more. I’m not sure who had more fun … Ruby & Daddy were equally entertained!
At the store:
Shopping for groceries:
Riding the tractor – this was her favorite!
After our fun at Pretend City, it was time to head home for a little party with the family. As Facey tradition goes, there’s a layer cake for your 1st birthday, and baby gets the top layer all to themselves! My mom always bakes the cake and my dad always decorates. I asked if my dad could replicate the same cake for Ruby that I had when I turned one. My cake had Raggedy Ann & Andy, and was red, white and blue. Since no one knows who Raggedy Ann and Andy are anymore, I had my dad make the cake red, white and pink. He never disappoints!
Ruby got to celebrate with all of her grandparents, her aunt and uncle and all six of her cousins. Here she is with Papaw and her newest cousin, Evan:
We all had a great time, and Ruby scored some amazing loot. But unfortunately, her cake didn’t go over all that well …
After all of the presents, Ruby enjoyed some quality time with her cousin Ella:
It was an amazing birthday and our hearts are still swelling from all the love! Now we’re preparing for the big party this Sunday … stay tuned!
Today was Ed’s 1st Fathers Day! I could hardly wait to celebrate this – he is such a great dad and does so much for us that I wanted to make it special. I think I was more excited about Father’s Day than Mother’s Day! Ed wanted to keep things low-key, so I honored his wishes. :)
We started off the morning by presenting Daddy with a few gifts. Ruby made him a picture storybook called “Daddy & Me” with some of the best photos of the two of them so far. Want to see the book? Click here to see the book
(You’ll see the book on the right, and use the “Next” arrow below to flip pages of the book)
After presents, we headed out to the beach for an early morning run (we had a delicious lunch planned, so we had to get our exercise in early!) Both of us enjoy running together and its always a kick to watch Ruby enjoy herself while she’s a long for the ride. We did about 2 1/2 miles from Bluff Park to Belmont Shore and back.
Finally, the part Ed was really looking forward to – lunch at Porto’s Bakery in Downey to enjoy empanadas, potato balls and ropa vieja sandwiches! We love Cuban food and Porto’s is simply amazing. The place was packed! Lots of families were in to pick up pastries for their own Father’s Day celebrations. It looks like our Foodie-in-Training is learning quickly – here she is making an attempt to steal our empanadas and potato balls! :)
We also had dates with both my dad and Ed’s dad to celebrate the day as well. We took my dad out on Saturday to Schooner or Later. It’s kind of a Long Beach institution and it was featured on one of my dad’s favorite shows, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives on the Food Network, so it was a fitting location! We enjoyed a beautiful breakfast by the water…
On Sunday, we took Ed’s dad out to the new Gaucho Grill in Downtown Long Beach for some Argentinean cuisine. Basically, that means meat! It was delicious, and Ruby was in a really great mood and hammed things up for her Harabuji at the house before went out.
All in all, it was a great Father’s Day. I’m so lucky to have all these great dads around me to celebrate with!
Evan Kole Facey – born June 10, 2011 at 8:03am 8 lbs., 8 oz., 20 in. long
Hooray – our newest nephew has arrived! My brother’s kids have now gone from the “Fab 5” to the “6 Pack” (as my dad so cleverly coined it)! We are so excited Evan is here, and think its especially cool how close he and Ruby will be in age. With just a 7 month difference, today they seem ages apart – but in a few years, it’ll be hard to tell who’s older, I’m sure!
After a wonderful Christmas Eve celebration with the Kim family, Christmas Day started out with just the three of us at home in the morning. Ruby had a few presents under the tree that she opened up with Daddy. Maybe she didn’t quite know what was going on, but that’s okay … we had fun watching her!
Since she loves being in her crib so much, we decided to get her a mobile. She is really into it! She loves the little animals and the soothing songs it plays …
She got lots of nice presents … including an awesome retro milk truck from The Shriers, Kitty Cat pajamas from Ed’s co-worker, Alice … and this super cute hat from Kristen!
This year, Ed and I set a $25 limit for ourselves. I got him a t-shirt from the LBC local spot, Joe Jost’s. They have Shiner Bock on tap there and Ed likes to order “The Special”. I figured I couldn’t go wrong with a t-shirt so he could represent! :)
Ed surprised me with a gift card to Golden Spoon … my favorite frozen yogurt ever!
After we unwrapped our gifts, it was time to head over to my parents house for the festivities at The Facey’s. We all have handmade stockings made by my dad, and this year – Ruby got hers, too! It turned out amazing. I love the poinsettias …
Ruby was happy to see her Grandma & Papaw …
And the three Kims got a rare photo all together in front of their Christmas Tree!
After the presents were unwrapped, Ruby modeled her special Christmas dress sent to her all the way from England from Joanne!
It was a beautiful day spent with family. Check out Dad’s blog for more pics of The Facey’s on Christmas Day!
It’s hard to know where to begin – Ruby’s journey here was quite the dramatic one! Born at 9:26pm on Tuesday, November 2, Ruby came a lot later – and differently – then expected! I had tried to tell myself all the way through the pregnancy that I just needed to go with the flow and try to be as open minded as possible, and I had no idea at the time how much I would be held to that during the process! But Ed & I can’t complain, we ended up with a healthy, alert and gorgeous daughter, and it made it all worth it! So if you are up for the details, here is our story …
On Monday, November 1 we arrived at Labor & Delivery at Long Beach Memorial Hospital at 9:00am for our scheduled induction. Ruby was 40 weeks/2days and had been served her eviction notice! After getting settled in and examined, we were told to get cozy and be prepared to stay awhile! I was still only dilated 1cm, and they told us we may not meet our daughter for another 48 hours!
So, the 1st day went by … I was given medication that would help to get my cervix dilated. Each pill was administered every 4 hours, and I had 4 doses! That evening, the doctors wanted to try another procedure to help get things moving, but unfortunately – it was unsuccessful. I’ll spare you the details of what that procedure was, but wow – it was traumatic!
This is the last pregnant picture I have of myself. After being praised by the nurses for being such a trooper despite the failed procedure, I was given clearance to get up out of bed after 15 hours and walk the hallways! I was ecstatic. Now that we’ve met Ruby, it is so surreal to see her still inside of there…
The next morning we were visited by the doctor. She said that she was thinking that maybe we should let nature take its course to help the process, and she was thinking of sending me home! Our hearts sank – of course, we were anxious to meet Ruby, but man – that means we’d have to go through all of this again? The doctor examined me, and she promptly said, “Oh, we’re definitely not sending you home!” Overnight I had progressed from 1 cm to 3-4 cm, so she ordered to start up the pitocin and get things moving along!
Contractions gradually started getting pretty strong, and by that afternoon (at about 30 hours in), the nurse said that the doctor would be coming in to break my water. Finally! I was a little nervous about it, but encouraged. Turns out its a rather uncomfortable procedure to say the least – and after that, boy do the contractions really start kicking! I made it through though – my mom was holding one hand, Ed was holding the other, and we got even closer to meeting Ruby.
After that, there was a woman in one of the rooms who was a real screamer. Listening to her was terrifying, so I promptly told my nurse, “I want my epidural!” Wow, the rumors are true – it really made all the difference! As soon as I got it, I was relaxed, unafraid, and ready to get the baby party started! I kept looking the monitor and seeing these big contractions, but I didn’t feel a thing. All was looking good and at 32 hours in, I even brushed my hair and put on lipstick!
At about 7pm, things took a turn. All of the sudden, the room started spinning, I started to get tunnel vision like I was going to black out, and my blood pressure dropped to 80/50. I had gotten an infection from them manually breaking my water. Apparently, this is somewhat common – its always a risk when your water is broken manually. I was shaking violently from having a fever … I felt awful. The doctor came in and said that after 36 hours, we should just call it and go for a c-section.
Things moved very quickly after that. They got me prepped for surgery almost immediately, and Ed got outfitted in his scrubs. I was still feeling very sick at that point and having trouble controlling my shaking. It seemed like I was only in the OR for a few minutes, and all of the sudden we heard, “Here is her head …”, and moments later, we heard the magic cry. Ruby had finally arrived!!!
Inside the Operating Room, moments after her birth:
Ed got to cut the cord
Here she is! A petite little girl, but 20.5 inches long!
They brought her to me and snuggled her near my face. She immediately responded to my voice and started sucking on my upper lip!
Ruby weighs in at 7 lbs., 6 oz. She’ll hate us for posting this photo in about 13 years, won’t she?
After she was delivered, Ed had to leave the OR while they finished up my surgery. The whole family was waiting outside – both my parents and Ed’s parents, and my brother, sis-in-law and our 4 nieces and nephew. As they wheeled Ruby over to the nursery, the nurse was super cool and allowed our family to hang out and see her in the hallway for a few minutes (even though she technically wasn’t supposed to) and take pictures! My brother captured this quick video just minutes after Ruby was born. She was so alert!
It seemed like ages until I got to see my baby. My c-section revealed a large ovarian cyst that was the size of a grapefruit and had to be removed immediately. It had actually taken it over, so the entire ovary was removed. This added another hour on to my surgery, and at that point, I was just so anxious to be finished and hold my baby! By the time I got out of the OR, out of recovery, and into my room, they brought Ruby in at 3:00am. Almost 6 hours later – I finally held my baby!
So … that’s our story! But before we sign off, a few more pics …
Ruby, 2 days old.
Ruby meets Halmoni (Ed’s mom, Halmoni is “Grandma” in Korean)
Ruby meets Harabuji (Ed’s dad, that’s “Grandpa” in Korean)
Ruby is partying with Papaw Facey on his birthday. We had a little birthday party for my dad in our hospital room with his favorite cheesecake on Nov. 4th.
Ruby loves her Grandma Facey, even if she’s crying in this pic!
