Dear Ruby

Princess,

You are an entire half a year old today, and I bet you can guess what I'm gonna say next. I have no idea how the time flew by this fast! What a wonderful Mother's Day gift, though, to wake up with you in my arms and to know how blessed I am with you in my life (you were in our lives last year, but we didn't know too much about you then!) You're picking up new things on a daily basis and it's an incredible experience to watch you learn new things.

You are "talking" a lot more, and you have recently picked up new sounds-my personal favorite would be the "Ya Ya" sound, but I can tell you that you that your daddy would must assuredly disagree, because much to your mama's sadness, you have mastered the sound "da." It's only a matter of time before you are saying your daddy's name (and meaning it). I may just change my name to Ya Ya so that you can say mine before your daddy's. ;)

You have started experimenting with your pacifier-you like to see the alternative ways of fitting it in your mouth as well as making as much noise as you can if you get the chance to bang it on something. You have also mastered taking it out and putting it right back in where it goes. Now, if only you could figure this out in the middle of the night, we'd be all set. I shouldn't say that, though, because you are a terrific sleeper-usually waking up one time to eat a little.

Your faces are probably my favorite thing right now. You have so many different expressions-and we usually have a "flavor of the day," where we'll see one all day and then won't see it again for quite awhile. At the moment, you have started raising your eyebrows and sticking your tongue out.

You have become quite interactive with your toys, shaking them and hitting them on the floor (or occasionally your head), but I think if you could just have the tags off of your stuffed animals you would be more than thrilled. You are so intrigued by the tags, you hardly notice the stuffed animal. I must say, though, I have caught you a few times in an act that seems to portray you yelling at your animals. You pull them really close to your face and then release various squeals to let them know you aren't pleased (with whatever they did/didn't do).

Rolling over is an old trick now. However, you don't love being on your belly and you don't always realize that you are able to roll back over (and I don't love for you too either, because you often bang your little head on the way back down), but every time I assist you in laying on your back, you are back on your belly in two seconds flat. It will be soon that you are sitting up all alone. Some days you can nearly do it, and some days it would appear that you have had a little too much to drink. And speaking of having too much to drink, you remind me quite often of someone in this state with your new dance moves. You love to dance and you have two main moves-we're hoping someone names these moves after you. :) One is bouncing up and down-the key to this is to stick your butt out as far as possible. The other one (my personal favorite) is the one where you flap your arms just as fast as you can and then make some sort of noise at the end (usually a dramatic little sigh).

You are still my little snuggle bug. You like to pet my arm when you lay with me, and you often stroke my hair. Occassionally, you will forget to be gentle and pull, but it's fairly rare. I love having such an affectionate little person with me at all times.

I love you baby girl-I love the way you stare intently at your toes as you figure out the quickest possible route to your mouth. I love the way you help yourself to eating just whenever you feel like it. I love the way that sometimes you fuss just because you want to snuggle. I love the way your fuzzy little head smells. I love your tiny little fingers inspecting every feature on my face. I love how you want to be involved in everything I do. I love that you know to use your "fake cough" to get people to look at you (I have to hand it to you-you have this one mastered). I love your innocence, your curiosity, and your absolute gorgeous little face more than you will ever understand. You are my pride and joy and I can't imagine life without you.

XOXO,

Momma