Ruth and family went to San Diego the weekend of August 2 for Uncle David's wedding to Aunt Leah.  Ruth had lots of fun playing with relatives, mostly cousin Isabelle.  With Isabelle, she shared her shoes, doll, shake, and sippy cup.  The sharing sometimes involved trading back to your own (see sippy cup pictures - Ruth's cup is pink with a green top) and sometimes making up after an exchange (hugs all around).  It was also fun just to be with daddy, mommy, and mommy's extended family.  Ruth is quite fond of Grandpa Mike and is good at calling and signing him as grandpa M.


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Ruth went to her first baseball game this week - the Las Vegas 51s against Omaha.  She learned to say baseball a few weeks ago, but spent much more time at the game playing and checking things out than saying new words.

She has also been doing other fun things that walkers like to do, like taking her balloon dog for a walk, walking to the park with mommy and daddy, sleeping, and having picnics.  Ruth's favorite game is peek-a-boo.  She says "peeboo" and covers at least part of her face.  If you want to make her happy, hide behind something, pop out, and say peek-a-boo!  She loves it.


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This week Ruth decided that she can walk.  She now walks everywhere and is very excited about walking across the family room to check out something exciting.

Today, mommy and Ruth went to Gilcrease Orchard.  We WALKED around and picked apples and zucchini.  Yes, we have a drive-through, pick-your-own farm in Nevada and it's less that 5 minutes from our house!


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Our little baby Ruth is now more of a toddler than a baby.  Since turning one, she's been doing so much growing and developing.  She has really started signing a lot.  Yesterday, when another small child was looking at one of her books, Ruth leaned over and signed the things that were on the page as if she was trying to tell them to look at the train and the dog. 

Here is a small collection of cute pictures from the last month or so.  The first few photos are some of our attempts to get posed 1 year photos.  In the first one, Ruth is telling us how big she is.


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Ruth had a BIG weekend!  She turned the big ONE, had fun visitors, and got lots of fun new toys!
And she's still cute!


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We just returned from a trip to California.  First, we visited lots of grandpas and grandmas (and an aunt, too!), then we went to San Diego.

Our first stop was Grandpa Bob and Grandma Ann's.  Grandpa Mike and Grandma Katie came for dinner and we had a great time with everyone.  The next day, Aunt Lorie came over before we left.  It's so much fun to look at pictures of yourself when you've got other people helping you do it!

In San Diego, we went to Sea World, swam in the pool, and played in the sand at the beach.  We talked to whales, dolphins, penquins, and all sorts of fish.  We played with the starfish in the tidepool area two days in a row and saw fish of every shape and size.  Ruth learned to say fish (a very deliberate "thith") and got plenty of practice signing it.  It was so much fun to see Ruth enjoying everything -- including being surrounded by hundreds of other kids!


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Uncle David and soon-to-be-aunt Leah came to visit this weekend.  We had lots of fun hanging out with them and taking them to Touch-A-Truck, an event where you can get into all sorts of trucks: concrete trucks, buses, fire trucks, man lifts, race cars, etc.  Ruth had nearly as much fun as mommy.  Her favorite part was driving the double decker bus -- she started dancing when she got in the driver's seat and laughs loudly every time she sees the photos and video.  Ruth also got to meet Bob the Builder, who she called, "Bub".

Ruth has started communicating a lot the past few weeks.  Besides the occasional "moma" and "dada", she has figured out that "Ama" means grandma.  She's started saying words like ball and button.  She's got the b sound down and makes different vowel sounds that make the rest of the word sound right.  Her most commom word in "aaaa", which means car.  It really does sounds like car, it just doesn't have the c or the r in there.  She also has signed milk a few times and signed hat when she saw a picture of herself with a hat on.  The sign for dog continues to be her favorite sign.  The most fun is her new-found abilities to dance and clap.  The dancing comes on with music or vaccuums, but the clapping can be because of anything at all.

Ruth is also doing well with potty training.  Besides one small wetting, she was dry all afternoon and evening.  She used the potty after napping and after eating all day.

We're so proud!!

I'm posting photos of our weekend with David and Leah and some recent cute photos of Ruth being herself.  Enjoy!


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Ruth said her first definite words this week!!!!

When I got home from work Monday, she pointed to me and said, "Moma!"  She's said things that were close before, but this was the first time it really seemed like she knew for sure that I was her "moma".

Then, Tuesday evening, she was sitting on my lap, pointed to Kirk and said, "dada!"  We were so excited and congratulated her so much that she becamse shy/embarassed and leaned back sheepishly against me.

I suspected a sound similar to "grandma" recently.  We'll keep you posted on develpoment of that and other important words.

She definitely knows now what to say to get our attention.


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Ruth, daddy, and mommy got back from a trip last week.  The first half of the trip was to Texas where we stayed with cousin Sandy and went to Uncle Rafa and Aunt Jessica's wedding celebration.  Then, we headed to Tennessee to visit Grandpa Sam and RJ

Always being aware of safety as a top piority, Ruth updated herself on the plane's emergency preparedness plan.

Once in Austin, we had a great time with all the relatives.  Ruth was so excited to see her cousins and play with her grandparents and uncles.  Attention is always fun.

In Readyville, Ruth dressed the farm girl part and had a blast watching the variety of birds - peacocks, guinneas, chickens, turkeys, etc.  A little baby goat even got to come into the house just to see her!  And Ruth had her very own Ruth-sized rocking chair so she could sit and watch the fire with grandpa.  We'll have to go back when its warm and Ruth can run around with all the little guys.

We put pictures from this trip into Ruth's two new photobooks.  She loves looking at them and pointing at the faces she's seen recently.


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Ruth has been doing a lot of growing up lately: she's walking and talking.

We recently noticed Ruth reacting to our talking to her and realized she's begun to understand words, such as daddy, grandma (no, not mommy), buttons, milk, cereal, etc.  She has also started talking a lot the last few weeks.  Her main sound is "dadadadada", although she hasn't quite figured out that it refers to her male parent.  We're working on it.

Ruth started standing a few weeks ago.  She loves to stand on the top of the stairs and hold on to the railing.  This is especially exciting when daddy gets home from work or grandma returns from working out, when she can peer down at her adoring fans.  Now, she has started to walk!  When she was first standing, we couldn't get her to move her feet at all, but now that she's more confident she'll walk with me.  Seeing something interesting on the other side of the room is a huge motivator.  This is so much fun!

Of course, she's still cute just sitting on the couch.


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