NO to naps...YES to corn!

Daddy Post: Happy Memorial Day. Hope everyone had a good extended weekend. We spent much of the weekend down in Medford visiting family. Grandpa Jack is out of the hospital and on the mend. Still a bit fatigued from the pneumonia though. Doyle is doing well also. Fortunately, he has Georgia heeding his every demand. Speaking of which our little Ruby has been quite the little boss lately. She is very adamant about asserting her preferences and doesn't hesitate to give a resounding, but gentle, "NO!" anytime she disagrees with mom or dad. This is most frequent anytime the idea of a nap or leaving the park is brought up. At the park she is a BIG fan of the swing which she requests by swinging her arm back & forth. As you can see in the pictures the tire swing in Jack & Martha's backyard allowed her to get her swing fix while in Medford. There was a great little water area at the local Jacksonville park that Ruby was fascinated with until she was momentarily caught off-guard by one of the spouts. Corn on the cob is new personal favorite which we will be giving her plenty off this summer. She's also climbing like a champ and actively seeking out new peaks to conquer around the house.

In other news, Grandma Joan comes into town this Wednesday to work, but we're looking forward to spending some time with her when she isn't busy. Also this Friday we will be having another ultrasound appointment and hopefully we'll be able to tell whether or not Ruby will have a little brother or a little sister. Take care and we wish everyone well.

Crazy Fun!

Daddy post: Our little girl has been yucking it up lately. While mom went up to visit her friend Meg in Seattle this weekend, her and dad spent a day at the zoo. Ruby is very curious about all of the different animals, but still finds the most fun with the goats and ducks. A true Oregonian I suppose. Either that or she confused the matted goat for Jack. She also found time to immitate her #1 role-model lately. Hopefully someday. All this fun leaves her tired. We need to get busy with her reading skills by the looks of things.

Chores on a Sunday

Momma Post: Ruby teaches us everyday that her capabilities cannot be underestimated. This afternoon Ruby was captivated by watching her Dad power wash our shared driveway. With the hosing done, the sweeping and raking commenced with Ruby adamantly helping. We didn't even suggest for her to assist with filling the debris bag, on her own she discarded the rake and grabbed fist fulls of helicopters. It's nice to have such a great little helper!

Washington Park Playground

Momma Post: Our family met up with Tommy, Kristin and their daughter Karen at Washington Park's playground just south of the Rose Gardens. We were blown away by the caliber of the play structure. Apparently this place gets nuts with parents and kids, so our playdate was at 8:30am. At 9:30am, it started to become busy, so I can't image was it's like around noon.

Karen and Ruby are still into independent play, both enjoying the slides and swings. Karen did attempt to share her ball with Ruby, but sharing is a difficult concept for our girl. In the photo with the ball, Karen is using her sign language word "please" to Ruby. Towards the end, the girls did kick the ball back and forth to each other a couple of times. Ruby's looking forward to exploring new playgrounds with her playmate Karen.

Ruby's Little Sibling

Momma Post: These ultrasound photos were taken a couple of weeks ago, but we were slow to scan them for sharing. The photos show Ruby's little brother or sister (we won't find out the gender until early June) at 13 weeks and 5 days, thereby making the official due date October 27, 2007. The top photo shows Baby Stockton playing with its' umbilical cord. The middle photo is a rather skeletal shot of the face, as our littlest baby doesn't have chubby cheeks just yet. The last photo is the standard profile shot.

Both Matt and Ruby attended the appointment. Ruby was pretty attentive for a short period of time and then was ready to move on... The technician even gave Ruby her own copy of Baby Stockton's photo. Matt has nicknamed Baby Stockton "junior", but I feel that as implications, so I'm sticking with the generic Baby Stockton for the time being.