Ruby, Three

This post has been three months in the making - somehow it has taken a little longer than normal to finish Ruby's year in review to celebrate her turning three.  In the past few months since her birthday Ruby continues to grow and learn and amaze us, but I wanted to document and remember where she was when the became a three year old.  Currently she vacillates between being thrilled to be three and already planning what life will be like when she turns four.  It is hard to even express how much we adore this little one - she is so completely full of life, love, humor, sass and always has plenty to say. There are definitely times that we wish we could "tame" her just a little bit, but I would never want her to lose any of the magic of her personality.  Ruby makes friends wherever she goes and is equally happy to chat with adults as well as kids of all ages.  She is very observant and often surprises us with the conclusions she reaches.  Some of my favorite "moments":
*When barely two, and talking about a toy, said "actually, it's Luke's drill mama".
*"That's so nice a grandma"
*Told me one day "You're a big mama".
*Saw David Archuleta singing on TV and said "Oh, he's so handsome".
*Loves to say prayers, most of the time, and blesses everything...her family, toys, friends, games, and mostly, to have a good sleepy sleep.
*Suffered a bit of the terrible twos.  Tortured Luke by teasing and hitting.
*One day she took off her diaper while she was supposed to be napping then told Tim that she needed to go to time out.
*Out of the blue, she said to me one day "I really like meat".  It is true, she is a total carnivore.
*Beginning in about August she talked non-stop about wanting to be three and have a pony party.
*Loves to sing - ABC, You Are My Sunshine, How Much is That Doggie, I Love to See the Temple, and I am a child of God.  She makes up songs all of the time, those are my favorites to hear because the lyrics are always fantastic.  Ruby sings with the sweetest little voice.
*Told me one night "If I'm scared, I just need to say a prayer in my bed".

It was a year full of princess dresses, all characters, colors and sizes.  When Ruby is in costume, she insists you call her by the correct character's name...if you are lucky, she will assign you a supporting role to play.  In addition to playing dress up, she often sings songs from Frozen or The Little Mermaid - I'm usually surprised how accurate she is with the words.

This may not look like a princess outfit, but she said that she was Merida,
Complete with bow and arrow like her favorite red headed princess

Sometimes the princess serves tea

 Mama's girl

Ruby was a little bit hesitant to go trick or treating at Halloween but as soon as she figured out that people were handing her candy, she warmed to the idea.  Once we got home she disappeared for a bit...pretty soon I found her carefully checking out her loot. 

It has been a long, bumpy road to potty training and leaving the diapers behind.  In November she started saying that she wanted to go potty so we decided to start trying to get her trained. Unfortunately, it was almost a year before she would be fully independent of diapers.  When we started practicing the potty Ruby caught on quickly and could easily go on the toilet, she just wasn't interested in trying and didn't want to be bothered to stop playing.  At one point she told me that sometimes she wants to wear panties and be a big girl, but most days she wants to be a baby and wear a diaper.  Because she is so stubborn, the more we tried to push her, the more she resisted until we finally just stopped trying for several months.  It wasn't until we promised her that she could go to ballet class when she didn't need diapers anymore that she finally made the transition to full time panties

Tinkerbell panties helped with the motivation

Maybe having an example will help...

Luke still loves his potty chart,
Unfortunately, Ruby was not at all motivated by the stars

Poop in the crib is so gross, but it seems necessary to document such shenanigans.  This episode was quite minor, a few months later she used it to paint herself, the crib, etc. To make it worse, a babysitter was here and discovered the disaster.   Bless her heart, she had Ruby bathed and everything mostly cleaned up by the time we got home.  Miraculously, the baby sitter has even returned.

Ruby is such a whirlwind throughout the day, but when she sleeps, she really crashes.  She still naps for a few hours most days and then sleeps from about 8:00 or 9:00 p.m. until around 9:00 a.m. each day.  When she sleeps I love to peek in and watch her and remind myself how blessed we are to have this little girl.  

It may look like she's faking, but this is how I found her asleep

We still put her down for a nap each day but often she spends a lot of the time playing and singing to her animals.  Sometimes the only way to get her to sleep is to lie down with her in my bed or on the floor next to her crib.  Often she ends up singing me to sleep

There have been a lot of naptime disasters

It took until she was over two years old, but Ruby finally had enough hair to need a haircut.  We hated to lose any of the precious hair that she did have, but it needed to be trimmed and evened out. She seemed to love the pampering and sat still throughout the entire appointment. 

In the year from two to three her hair grew a lot and she lost most of the baby fuzz.  Ruby has become very proud of her hair and tells us all of the time that her hair is growing so long like Rapunzel's.  She finally got enough hair to braid, now if only her mama could figure out how to do something cute with a little girl's hair.  Luckily Tim's skills are as good as mine in this department.

Hairdo by daddy

Ruby's first football game was a success,

She loved the crowds, the noise, and especially her new hat.

This year Ruby graduated from the Baby Jesus to an angel at the Whitesides Christmas Party.

Christmas as a two year old was definitely a lot of fun.  

In December Ruby had her first real experience sledding and playing in deep snow.  She was a major fan and didn't seem to care at all about the cold.  Any time she is in the snow she loves to lie down and make snow angels and then roll over and try to eat whatever snow is in her reach.  

Ruby adores her big sister Erika

Since there is such a big age gap between Erika and Ruby, we are grateful that she has a "sister cousin".  As they have gotten older, Ruby and Juniper have become the cutest little friends.  Most of the time Ruby talks to Juniper like she is taking care of a baby, and Juniper is happy to follow Ruby around and do whatever Ruby says.  They spend a lot of time "talking" on Facetime......mostly discussing their owies, what they had for breakfast, and showing off their favorite toys or panties.

In addition to Juniper, Ruby loves whatever chance she gets to play with cousins.  She rough houses with the boys, and teases the older kids.  In her world, her cousins are her best and only real friends.

Baby Paige has been the best addition to the cousins

Remember what I said about harassing the boys

Luke may be the one officially enrolled in preschool but Ruby loves to learn and considers herself a part of class.  Ruby adores Miss Nikki, Luke's preschool teacher, and the feeling seems to be mutual. Miss Nikki has been so good to sometime let Ruby stay for the very first part of class and they try to involve her in some of the activities.  Ruby was an honorary student on the preschool field trip to the fire station.  She had no fear climbing in the fire truck and touring the fire station. 

In August Luke began a new preschool with Mrs. Fox.  Ruby was thrilled to be invited to go with that class on a garden field trip.  Mrs. Fox even let her stay in the classroom for the rest of the day.  Ruby doesn't start preschool for almost another year but I'm pretty sure she will be ready when it is time. 

 Ruby adored going to see the ice castles during the winter...it had everything she loves, princess, a castle, twinkling lights and plenty of snowflakes.  She spent most of her time licking icicles and sliding around on the ice. 

There have been a few rough spots throughout the past year and Ruby has spent a fair amount of time sick or with an owie.  We are lucky to have a great doctor who really takes the time to make sure that she is well cared for.  It is the absolute worst though to see her sick or suffering.  She continues to have a lot of sinus congestion and almost always has a snotty nose (snotter rotter).  Thanks to all of the practice she has actually become great at blowing her nose - quite the accomplishment for such a little one.  I wasn't willing to share pictures of her roughest medical moment of the year - a rash/yeast infection that left her crying and me almost in tears for her pain.

After an especially bad cold/beginning pneumonia, a nebulizer was necessary to help her breathe.

After an especially big growth spurt, and due to concerns from mom, the doctor ordered blood work and a urine test to make sure everything was normal.  Thank goodness there were not any concerns - she is just big for her age.  Since about 18 months she has been consistently over the 90% percentile for height and weight.

Undiagnosed rash
 

We had Ruby's year check up for the tubes in her ears.  The doctor said that they appear to be doing great and he thinks that she will now grow out of any lingering problems. 

In addition to some sickness we have had plenty of owies.  No matter the injury, a bandaid is always the best possible fix.  Ruby can search out the bandaids no matter where they have been hidden and usually has at least one on some part of her body.

One afternoon Tim found her in bed with a hurt finger and blood all over her pillow.  He discovered that she had knocked down one of her pictures and then cut her finger on the broken glass. 

No matter the occasion, Ruby has plenty of time to be Silly!

One of the favorite winter activities was a gymnastics class at the Provo Recreation Center.  I love how fearless Ruby is, she usually jumps right into new activities with little hesitation. 

Easter with Ruby was such fun.

The cutest little bunny ever.

After doing some research, we decided that it was time for Ruby to have her first visit to the dentist. The office said that most kids her age are too nervous so the would likely just do a visit for her to see the office and try out the chair.  When she got to the office, she marched right in and climbed up into the chair to have her cleaning.  The hygenist and dentist were amazed and how good she acted.

After a long cold winter we made it to Springtime and flowers.

And shave ice

Since she was born Ruby has been a waterbaby.  Nothing has changed, in fact she just becomes more and more fearless.  We plan to begin lessons soon to make sure she is safe in the water.

Swimming in Park City

Snowbird

Splish Splash park

We spent a weekend in St George for her cousin Jacob's wedding.  She loved being with family, the sunshine, and spending time at the temple.

She loved the statue of Christ

My brothers are some of my closest friends.  When Ruby was born so soon after Luke I really hoped that being so close in age would help them grow to be good friends.  Watching their relationship now brings me the most joy.  Luke is her protector, her idol and her best buddy.  It is priceless to watch them invent games and role play.  I hope their relationship continues like this for forever.

We found our own Little Annie Oakley.  Her motto completely fits this Miss Ruby..."Anything you can do, I can do better.  I can do anything better than you!"

Ruby absolutely adores being outdoors and looking for a new adventure.

Ruby inherited Luke's old bike.  She thought it was perfect

The swing at the river trail is a favorite

Chillen with her boys

Obsessed with the sandbox

Over the past year Ruby learned to love amusement park rides.  We had passes to Lagoon and I was constantly amazed at her bravery.  She would try almost anything if she had one of us by her side.

When Luke played baseball in the spring, there was no convincing this Ruby girl that she was not an official part of the team.  She and I did our own version of training while the big kids practiced.

Ruby has loved church and nursery.  Tim and I have both been in with her the entire time as teachers.

Ruby was born to celebrate and party so she completely loved the summertime holidays and parades

Fourth of July

Pioneer Day

Santaquin Days

Santaquin Days Rodeo

The rodeo queens were her favorite part!

I love to see her learn and progress, but sometimes it hurts my heart that Ruby is growing so big so fast!  I often tell her how sad I am that my baby is all grown up.  She constantly reminds me that she is a big girl now, but did tell me that even when she gets really big, I can still rock a bye her and sing songs.

Ruby loves to mother all of her babies and friends 

She especially loves live furry friends

Grandpa's girl

She may not look like her mama, but Ruby definitely inherited my love of treats.  One of her best moments of the past year was when Grandpa Broadbent introduced her to Nutella.

First trip to the beach and to Disneyland.  Not surprising, they were both her very favorite.

Told me, "My Goofy daddy will take me to the restroom and I will be safe and hold Goofy's hand to go to the restroom. 

This is one of my very favorite pictures of Ruby because it captures her personality so perfectly.  We spent an afternoon at a pumpkin patch playing games and picking out a favorite pumpkin to take home.  Ruby was determined to pull the wagon - no matter how tired she got, or what hill she approached, she just kept trudging on - working hard - and thrilled for the chance to be there. That's my girl...Strong, Independent, and completely Fierce.  Can't wait to see what the next year brings.