Rubyisms

Ruby Dawn is everything wonderful about six year olds. She’s losing teeth all the time, she is “livin’ the first grade life” as she says, she has been getting more confident as a reader, loves science, writes her ideas and thoughts in a journal and loves people. I want to keep her little, but she keeps saying things like, “I totally don’t like princesses mom, I’m not a baby.” and “Oh mom, not pigtail braids! Those are for babies!” Then the other day she made this face with a peace sign in our picture and I realized she’s pretty much all grown up.

Since time is flying so fast, the best thing I could think of to do was get some new Rubyisms on the blog.

• “I’m starting a new lifetime right now. From now on, wherever I go I will wear the perfect thing. If I go to a bike race, I’ll wear my shirt that has a bike on it. On the 4th of July, my shirt with fireworks on it. Tomorrow to church, my beautiful church dress.”
• “They didn’t have the words on the screen at church because they were having traffical difficulties.”
• Ruby chose to be a “Ballerina/Ninja/Cat” for Halloween this year.
• We were eating lunch and I was saying how much I love Costco pizza, she responded, “But Costco pizza doesn’t matter more than families.”
• I heard a big sigh from the backseat, “It’s the first grade life.”
• While I was explaining to the girls why it’s important to let your pee out regularly, “I don’t want to hurt your feelings, but Dad knows more about bladders than you because he’s a doctor.”
• On the playground after school, “I think I’m ok. Whew! The good news is that now I know what it feels like to fall off the monkey bars!”
• We had quite a time getting her first front tooth out – she didn’t want to pull it so it dangled like this for way too many days in a row before she finally pulled it out herself during writing center time at school. Thanks to all the friends and family who prayed for me during those days when I couldn’t look my own daughter in the face without feeling queazy.
• Wile driving home from school, “I reeeeealy want to retire.”
• “No one can come in my room except me and Clara …and Charlie, mom and dad, grammy and papa, nana and papa, all our family, some of our friends …actually anyone who’s our friend mom. But that’s only who can come in my room.”
• About her “I love God” sign, “I wrote it in Sharpie so it can’t change.”
• “Do we have to get consequences every time we want to do something fun??”
• “Clara! If our mom and dad got related then we would grow up to be sisters!!”
• “Dear mom, Are you tired of me being bored before dinner? I have the perfect solution, a hot tub. I could relax. I could warm up. I could get in whenever. I could flip underwater. I could have alone time in it. Love, Your Poor Daughter, Ruby”

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Rubyisms

Ruby Dawn will be 6 years old in June. She is growing and changing so fast but still saying all sorts of hilarious things. I love the way her mind works – the connections she makes and observations she has about the world around her. Here are some of her recent Rubyisms:

• Ruby loves helping me put Charlie to bed. She pats his head in his crib and with a lullaby tune sings, “Go to sleeeeeeeeep, go to sleeeeep, go to sleep little buuuuuddy.” then whispers, “Goodnight little buddy” and tiptoes out of his room.
• “God can do whatever he wants because he’s God. God can buy whatever he wants without money. God can eat Hermit Crabs whenever he wants. God can eat vitamins whenever he wants because he’s God.”
• Ruby looks forward to Tuesday nights because that’s the night she and Clara get to go to gymnastics. After the first class she asked, “So mom, have you started digging a pit in the basement yet? I really need a pit to practice all my new moves.”
• Ruby has a 5th grade reading buddy at school. This sweet 5th grade girl works with Ruby one day each week to help teach her to read – They’ve been meeting for the entire year but Ruby still doesn’t know what her name is.
• Not a day goes by that Ruby doesn’t try to make a new friend. Any kid playing within 10 houses of our house gets invited over for a playdate. She will yell out “Hello Katherine!!” to any woman with brown hair who jogs past our house. I’ll say, that’s not Katherine and she will hold her hands together and say “Oh, I guess I need more practice”
• We took the kids out on frozen Lake Michigan to check out the ice waves – Ruby was a fearless explorer, venturing over, under and through all the caverns.
• She is usually “A hundred quadruple ninety eight percent sure” about things.
• One snowy morning, “What are we gonna do with all these snowflakes? Maybe ‘Super Why’ can help us!”
• Exasperated, “I had a really rough day today! The girls wouldn’t scooter with me, my straw had a hole in it, I got chased by a baby…”
• We celebrated my Papaw (Ruby’s Great Grandfather’s) 90th birthday. Can you tell how excited she was to give him the letter she wrote him? In it she told him he’s the best Papaw she’s ever had.
• Clara was telling Ruby about a new dace she learned. Ruby interrupted, “Did ya do the Conga? I’m really good at that!”
• From the backseat of the van, “God loves us just the way we are – even if you have a tattoo. God loves us even if you have a beard!”
• I chaperoned the Kindergarten class field trip to the circus. Whew! I tell you what, kindergarten teachers are AMAZING! I barely survived the day. The kids had fun though. This is the part where a carnie grabbed my child by the head and sprinkled glitter all over her face.
• I fix Ruby’s hair all nice each morning before school, braids and pigtails and pony tails and clips and everything… without fail she comes home each day with her hair down, all in her face and windblown. I’m not ready to give up the good fight just yet. I should buy stock in “Goody” hair supplies because I always need more clips to replace the 14 I lose each day.
• Ruby loves holidays and loves when there are dress-up days at school, “It’s Safe Patricks Day!”
• She always has stories to tell me after school each day. “Today was the best day of my life because some fifth graders came and they met me and they gave me underdogs on the swing and I loved it so much! They’re SO GOOD at doing underdogs!!”
• Some of her after school stories help me remember to teach her to always tell the truth. “These boys were being so mean to me. They were trying to scrape my knee and cheating on me and breaking my promises, and poking my eye with pine needles and biting me. But my teacher saw them and just threw them in jail, lickety split.” 
• “Allison Wonderland” is Alice’s full name.
• We had a detailed discussion yesterday about hazmat suits and how they keep the germs out. She was asking a bunch of questions about how hazmat suits work and what they look like and was very interested in knowing whether her daddy wears a hazmat suit at the hospital since he might be around some germs. I assured her that he does not, but if he ever had to they would provide him with one at work. Then we watched you tube videos about deadly viruses for a while…
• Ruby loves science. Lucky for her, there are quite a few super smart scientists in her family. This was the face she made at Chipotle when Uncle Kyle told her about the Moons of Jupiter.
• After her art class at school I asked how it went. She said, “I saw a picture of Mother Lisa!” Do yo mean the Mona Lisa? “No… she was Mother Lisa.”
• While playing with Charlie, “Mom, this little baby of ours has so many tales. Tales to tell!”
• She loves to “Pinky Promise” about everything.
• At breakfast the other day Ruby ran down the stairs and happily proclaimed, “Mommy Mommy! I’m pretending it’s Friday! FRIDAY!! FRIDAY!!”
• We were at Meijer Gardens the day the butterflies started to hatch. Ruby was enthralled by the whole experience. This butterfly had just come out of his cocoon about 10 minutes earlier!
• Ruby asks Clara leading questions then tattles on her. “Clara, do you want to share with me anymore?” “NO” “Maaaahhhhmmy!! Clara said she is never going to share anything with me, ever, for the rest of her life!!!”
• Ignore vs Annoy: “Sis! Stop! You’re just doing that to ignore me!”
• Bored vs Embarrassed: “I’m so embarrassed! I just don’t have anything to do!!”
• When I asked about her new friends she met on the playground, “They call me Rosie but that’s not my real mane but Rosie is kinda close to Ruby so I don’t mind.”
• She recently told one of our babysitters, “Next time you come can you bring some donuts and some surprises? …Some really good surprises?”
• During her prayers the other night (which she sings every night) she sang, “I love my mom and my daaaaaad, but not as much as youuuuu God, I don’t love anyone as much as youuuuuuuuuu, I love you the most, more than my mommy and daddy and sister and broooooootherrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr,” I’ll try to get a video of night time prayers soon. It’s so precious and genuine and also I have to try really hard to not laugh. Ruby and Clara’s night time prayers might be my most favorite thing in the world.

Ruby, you are growing up so fast! You’re reading and writing and creating and becoming such an amazing little girl. You would harrumph and tell me you’re not a little girl, but you are… so little. I love your spunk. I love the lens you see this world though. You make daddy and I so proud, you make us smile everyday and we are so happy God chose us to be your parents.

Rubyisms | HAPPY 5th BIRTHDAY!

Ruby Dawn (aka RubyDoo, The Rubester, Rubykins, Snicklefritz) is 5 years old. She loves sparkles and princess dresses as much as digging in the dirt or collecting bugs. She’s never met a person who she didn’t want to be friends with and will talk to anyone with a pair of ears. I love seeing her interests develop and especially enjoy her growing appreciation for true artists like Shel Silverstein and Jimmy Fallon. 

To celebrate her birthday Ryan and I told her she could have a “yes” day at the zoo. Basically that meant she could ride the carousel, get her face painted, and eat Dippin’ Dots, which are all things we typically say “no” to. She absolutely LOVED her “yes” day. She took full advantage of the situation and added a $7 Camel Ride to her requests. ha!

Clara LOVED getting her face painted too.

Ruby spends time each afternoon being “quiet and alone” while Charlie and Clara take their naps. Her “quiet and alone” time took a turn for the worst a few weeks ago when I found her in the bathroom trying to wash hot pink marker off of her arms. She thought she could get it off before I knew what had happened… but she was wrong. One thing is for sure, she is very thorough… and very right-handed.

The night before Ruby’s last day of preschool she asked me to make her a checklist so she wouldn’t forget to say goodbye to anyone in her class. She loved preschool and is ridiculously excited to be a kindergartener in the fall! 

I can’t post this update without mentioning that Ruby is friends with all the monkeys at our zoo. They seem to think she is one of them. Most days we are there at least one monkey will come sit by her or look at her or interact with her in some way. Its hilarious. Here are a few examples from recent weeks: And of course, the most recent Rubyisms for your (and my) enjoyment.

• “Ugh! All of this noise is destroying me!”
• Proof that commercials work: “Mom, we should get Clorox. It really really really works! Even for muddy socks! It just gets out the stains! Isn’t that awesome?!?”
• “I just won’t forget because I’ll use my brain as a thinking cap and it will just pop into my head but I can’t feel it when it pops into my head.”
• Driving distances are typically measured by how many “Dora The Explorer” shows it will take to get where we are going. “But how much looooonger until we get there?!?!?” “Only 2 and a half more Dora the Explorers, Ruby.”
• “I love you mom, I love you so bad!!”
• When Ryan gets home from work Ruby often asks him, “Did you have any good cases today daddy?”
• “Mom, I’m going over here if you please.”
• “I have a hundred and forty five two germs. How much is that?”
• When we go to new places where Ruby hasn’t been before she often wonders who will be there, specifically teenagers. “But mom, will there be teens there?”
• “Thanks mom! You’re such a good cooker.” (I defrost Chicken Nuggets like a pro!)
• “Mom, when we move to our new house are we gonna love it …or list it?” (I obviously watch too much HGTV during the kids nap times. ha!)
• “Can horses have spots? Stripes? Pentagons? Squaragons?”
• Ryan loves teaching her specific things that specific organs do. If you ask her what the liver does she responds, “It metabolizes drugs, makes clotting factors and makes bile.”
• This afternoon she said to me, “Mommy, you look sooooo nice with your dress on. Isn’t that a nice thing to say?” Yes Ruby. That’s a nice thing to say.
  
• “This is God’s Holy Marble. It’s what makes Gods Holy Wind. It makes Gods wind cold and snow cold.”
• “Mom, lets talk about something.”
• “I love pink and every single body who loves me.”
• “Mommy, you’re just destroying my fun!”
• “I’m drawing a blue-horned cat.”
• “That’s the town of Potbelly’s!!” (sometimes we go to Potbelly’s after church on Sunday’s and the girls always dance and talk to Darby, the girl who plays her guitar and sings.)
• “I think my brother is sad because he doesn’t really have any friends.”
• “I can’t go hiking today because it makes me so homesick!”
• What started as “I’m blazin’ hot!” has been applied in many other circumstances including “It’s blazin’ rain!”
• “I was like losing my mind when daddy took me to the Disney Store. I like lost my mind.” Ryan verified that yes, she did indeed nearly lose her mind in the Disney Store.
• “Daddy, is Charlie old enough to eat Salmon?”
• “Don’t worry Clara, tooth fairys are like soooo quiet. They’re like quieter than ever. You don’t even notice when they get your tooth.”

If you’d like to read more “Rubyisms” just type “Rubyisms” into the search box in the top right corner of my blog and all the past Rubyism posts will show up.

Happy Birthday Ruby Dawn. Clara, Charlie, Daddy and I love you so much and are so excited to have a front row seat to all the happenings in your life. Your smile makes everyone around you want to smile too and your enthusiasm for EVERYTHING brings so much joy to our family everyday. We love all the hilarious questions you ask and hope you’ll always continue talking to us about everything running through that active mind of yours. If “sparkly” could be used to describe a person, I’d say you’re the most sparkly person I know.

Happy Happy Happy 5th Birthday Sweet Girl.
Love, Mama.

Ruby Dawn is 4 Years Old!

4 years ago, a tiny little girl named Ruby changed our lives forever! I can’t believe how quickly 4 years have passed and how much life she has lived already. I’m so thankful I get to be her mama and so excited for the joy, light and happiness she brings to everyone she encounters. We started the tradition of recoding a birthday interview last year when Ruby turned 3. Here’s Ruby’s 4-year old Birthday Interview

Here are a few recent Rubyisms:

• “Did you know this is enchanted dinosaur food, Mommy?”
• “Do you like that chicken daddy? Do you like it really much?”
• While looking VERY closely into my eyes, “Mommy! I can see myself in your eyes! Your eyes are like a mirror!”
• Ryan’s proudest moment as a gastroenterologist and a father was the other day when Ruby mentioned a symptom and 2 medications from the bathroom. “Mommy, my poop didn’t hurt! Did you put some miralax in my pediasure?
• “When we are in Heaven, we are going to be with Jesus ALL NIGHT!!!”
• “girls, girls, girls.” She said this to a group of my friends at SideBySide who were all laughing and talking together the same way I say it to Ruby and Clara when they’re acting too silly and need to calm down.”

Rubyisms

It’s been hard to keep track of all the Rubyisms lately because the majority of what comes out of Ruby’s mouth would qualify these days. She’s so funny. I love how much she keeps me on my toes since I never know what she’s gonna say next.

• Ryan’s been making the girls pancakes on Saturdays, a couple of weeks ago she realized, “Daddy, syrup is GOOOD stuff!”
• A few mornings ago from under the crack in her door, “Mommy! Are you coming up to see my famous shoes?!?”
• “Do you know where my yarn is? …My yarn to make a party?”
• I heard her making “try noises” while buckled into her carseat. When I asked her what she was doing she said, “Mommy, I’m just growing and growing! I’m getting BIGGER!”
• “I want to be a mermaid someday. Mommy, let us all be a mermaid.”
• “Mommy, that boy just doesn’t have any hair.” to which I responded, “That boy’s name is Al Roker.”
• “I have to take my shirt off because thats what you do when you exercise.”  – apparently she’s been noticing her hunky dad lifts weights with his shirt off.

• “But mommy, this is a HORRIBLE dinner!” – I couldn’t disagree.
• I’ve been encouraging her to go potty as soon as she needs to instead of waiting so long for no reason. My plan backfires when she wants to potty during nap time… “But if I wait too long I might get a UTI!”
• “I need my jammies on because these clothes are just too flimsy!”
• “I can’t sleep, it’s too dragony in here.”

Photos by Chris Cox | Photographer

Chris Cox (photographer extraordinaire) took some pics of Ruby and Clara when he visited in the fall. Picking my favorites to share with you here. You can see more of Chris’ work at chriscoxphotographer.com or stop by Gaspard Gallery | 235 South Division Avenue, Grand Rapids, MI

Chris! Thanks so much for capturing your nieces so well! We love love love the pics and will treasure them forever.

InstaLife

Rubyisms

“I’m pushing my cheeks down so I can see my necklace”

I couldn’t make this stuff up. If ONE child can say this many hilarious things I can only imagine what most preschool teachers hear on a daily basis from the kids in their classrooms!

• “I’m going to say ‘SURPRISE’ soon.” (…thanks for letting me know.)
• Every morning from under the crack of her bedroom door I hear, “I’m awake! I’m awake! I’m awaaaaaaaaaake!!!”
• When she wants to watch TV she always asks, “Can you put on a show for me?” then she gets all frustrated when I start singing and dancing and act like I didn’t realize she meant a TV show. “Oooohhhh, you mean you want to watch Dora? Oh, okay!”
• “I love my new ball so much! It’s SOOO purple and I love it SOOO much!”
• “Are you punishing me? Am I getting punished?”
• We were coming out of a public restroom the other day right as a woman was coming in. Ruby said, “Oh, that old lady is going potty too, mommy!”
• Everything in the past happened “Last week.” Her birthday was last week, “Last week at the zoo the brown bears were hibernating,” last week she went to school, last week was christmas, everything happened last week.

Here she is on her first day of school. She LOVES preschool. Loves loves loves it.

• Everyday that she’s not at school she talks about how she can’t wait to tell her teacher…, “I can’t wait to tell my teacher about Fall!” “I can’t wait to tell my teacher all about my backpack, she loves my backpack!” “I can’t wait to tell Mrs. Mills about my acorns!” I’m sure Mrs. Mills gets an earful from Ruby every Tuesday and Thursday.
• On her first day home from school I asked her what she learned about and she said, “We learned about being healthy!” so I asked her what that meant and she said, “Like eating graham crackers and water.” (…ok.)
• “I’m SOOO excited that bursting is quite a possibility, in fact, I’d put it in the ‘quite probably’ category.” This is a line from one of her books – but she says it often. hearing it from a 3-year old kinda takes people by surprise.
• She begins by saying, “Here’s the deal…” which is the same thing Ryan says a lot.

I’ve had a few moms ask how I keep track of this stuff. I just jot these sayings down on the notes app on my phone as they happen, then when I’m ready to post another Rubyisms post I have a bunch saved. Otherwise I’d never remember.

Preschool Open House

Tomorrow is my Ruby girl’s first day of preschool. We’ve been getting up 10 minutes earlier each day for the last week to get her me used to earlier mornings… and Ruby has been practicing putting on her backpack.

Last Thursday we went to the preschool open house to meet Ruby’s teacher and see her classroom. As soon as we walked through the doors of the school Ruby ran down the hall yelling, “WELCOME TO SCHOOL KIDS!!” I’m guessing Mrs. Mills will be the first of many teachers who will have to remind Ruby not to run in the halls, or yell in the halls of the school.

This was Ruby’s face when she caught a glimpse her teacher for the first time. Priceless. She has been so so so excited about her backpack and her teacher and riding the school bus “but not till I’m bigger mommy.” 

Her classroom is so fun, full of puzzles, books, maps, colors, letters, shapes, a water table, a play kitchen fully stocked with all household items, easels, blocks, and even a table full of seashells, bottles of sand, and some starfish! She was VERY enthused about the starfish.

Here she is with Mrs. Mills in front of her cubbie where she will hang her backpack and jacket each day. On the night of the open house she chose to pack 3 extra headbands in her backpack. Not sure what she will choose to pack for school tomorrow. ha.

Rubyisms

 

I’m guessing you’re not surprised that I have a few more “Rubyisms” to share with you. She’s 3, so pretty much 87% of what comes out of her mouth is entertaining.

• “Daddy, you remind me of a peanut butter sandwich.”
• “I’m having some hard troubles over here” This phrase has been used in reference to everything from putting on her socks to cleaning up her toys to getting stickers off of the sticker page.
• She was having a rough morning the other day so I put her in her room. She was yelling at me under the crack in the door, “My HANDS are all WET, MY HAAAAANDS, MOMMYYYYYY, MY HANDS ARE ALL WET,” I asked her, “How did your hands get wet?” and her response was, “My hands are all wet from my TEARS!!!”
• “I losed my mind!”
• “That is hysterical”  – one of her new frequently used statements, used whether things are funny or not, which I think is really funny.
• The other day I asked her to smile for the camera and she gave me the following faces:

• For some reason whenever anyone asks her how old she is she replies, “I’m ten.”
• Maybe because she’s been watching Dora the Explorer lately, she will tell me about something and follow it with a confident, “and nothing’s going to stop me!”
• Whenever we are driving and it starts to get dark she always asks “Are your lights on mommy?” It’s nice to have a backseat driver already  🙂
• “Anyhow, let’s go outside and play hopscotch.”
• Driving home from church last weekend she told Ryan and I, “When I count to five I want you to yell, ‘JESUS!'” – we played this game with her for 6 whole minutes.
• While I was watching NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams (who was wearing a black and white striped tie) she looked at him then asked, “Is that my Papa?” and proceeded to answer her own question, “No, that’s a train conductor.”
• Last night we opened all the windows in the house and the girls were loving the cool breeze. Here’s Ruby, enjoying the weather with her face covered in stickers.