We're home!

After 10 days of vacation with no TV, no Internet, no blogging, and our phones turned off we're back from the cottage! It was a great time - and I only had 73 emails in my inbox! The weather was not quite the summery swimming, boating, getting tan vacation we thought it would be... but the cold driving rain provided us the opportunity to get really good at Scrabble!

The best part of vacation was getting to spend 24/7 with Ryan and Ruby. It was so special for Ryan and I to spend hours interacting with Ruby together. She is getting so funny - smiling a lot making gurgling sounds in addition to her coo's and blowing so many bubbles that her chin is all drooley. So great!

We took this family shot last night when the rain stopped. Lots more pictures coming later this week!

New Tricky Tricks

Its been a couple of weeks since our last video, so I pulled together a quick collection of Ruby's new tricks.

She discovered that she has a hand, and a mouth, so it made perfect sense that her hand went immediately into her mouth. She has also been making sounds, blowing bubbles, gripping some of her toys and of course, putting them into her mouth. She is so fun! Enjoy!

Rally Caps

The Scut Monkeys were on fire at their third game of the season. As we arrived at the diamonds we saw a bunch of blue shirts gathering at the other dugout... the same team that beat us 20-1 in the first game. This time the Scut Monkeys put up quite a fight, making lots of runs, getting lots of outs, catching fly balls and generally looking like they practiced.

I may be a tiny bit biased, but Ryan was the MVP of the game. He caught 6 fly balls, got 1 run, sent two players home when he was up to bat and kept everyone in the stands entertained with his "rally cap" and celebratory "fist pump" after each good play.

Coming into the 7th inning the score was 8-11. They didn't win, but that's not the point. It was the best game yet!

glimpses of senior citizen status

Tonight Ryan and I did what many senior citizens do around 4:30pm. We went out for dinner.

Sometimes eating dinner at 4:30 just makes sense...

• We had the place pretty much to ourselves, so we could pick anywhere we wanted to sit. We chose a humongous booth.
• Ryan started taking call at 5pm, and last week when he was on call his pager was ringing off the hook all night - by eating at 4:30 we guaranteed that if his pager went off (which it didn't) we would be finishing up around the time we expected the calls to start pouring in.
• Ruby is as unpredictable as any 8 week old baby should be... so if she started squealing or crying (which she didn't) no one would have been annoyed.
• We had a 50% off coupon.

Needless to say, it was delicious food and captivating conversation. A glimpse into years of future dinners together.

What were you doing around 4:30 today?

Life Stages

This afternoon we met up with a bunch of our friends from college; Matt & Eli, Greg & Jen, Luke & Lindsay, Tim & Brooke and Dave & Jenny. It was so fun to see everyone with their kids... literally, everyone who was there today has kids now! Speaking of life stages... we are officially out of the "cool couples" category and into the "still pretty cool couples, but with kids" category.

Our little picnic was cut short by a rainstorm, but we had a great couple of hours catching up with everyone. Loved seeing you guys!! We are blessed to have you as friends!

Frederik Meijer Gardens

Ryan, Ruby and I spent the day exploring Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park. Even though we've lived here for years and it's right down the road none of us had been there before. We are going to go there a lot more often now that we know how neat it is... especially as Ruby gets older!

The sun was blazing hot but we hiked pretty much every available trail in the entire park. Ruby didn't have much of a view because of the stroller, wide-brimmed hat and sun shade, but she seemed to enjoy the ride anyway.

We climbed this hill

We saw this bronze horse sculpture when we got to the top

Here's some perspective for ya... This horse is honkin' HUGE

GR friends, let me know when you want to take your strollers to the Gardens with me!

Yard Gnomes

You know that yard gnome game where you take pictures of your yard gnome in all sorts of funny or exotic places? Sometimes with Ruby... like today when we went through the car wash it seemed like I should take a picture of her since it was her first car wash experience...

Does anyone else with babies have this yard gnome syndrome?

Favorite Photobomb of the Day...

This picture makes me hope a squirrel jumps into one of our pics someday! Hilarious!

My Little Breath-Holder

Welcome to my most emotional state of motherhood to date... We just got home from the pediatrician's office where Ruby got her first round of immunizations. I seriously was not prepared to cry more than she did!

She's fine, and of course I am thrilled to know that she will be protected against all sorts of diseases, but it's so hard to hear her cry from pain. I never knew what her pain cry sounded like until an hour ago. Apparently she is a "breath holder" when she's hurt because she let out a huge scream then her beautiful little face got redder and redder while she didn't inhale for what seemed like 9 or 10 long, drawn-out seconds, followed by another terrible series of wails. So sad.

She is happily sleeping right now and I still have some tears rolling down my face.

_____________________

It's been 2 hours now, I'm doing better - here's how she's doing...

No Mercy

Amazingly, the Scut Monkeys got mercied again in game 2 on Tuesday night. It didn't start until 9:15pm, so they got to play under the lights, but the mercy rule goes from 20 runs down to 10 for late games. The score was 10-1 when they called the game...

Here's a shot of the cheering section - apparently shouting "NO MERCY!" throughout the game just wasn't enough.

Inch-Worm

For the first time in her life Ruby went somewhere that I didn't put her. I don't know how she did it, but when I woke up this morning I found her wedged up against the top of her crib. I can't imagine that she could have rolled, because she would have first gone from her back to her front, then back to her back again to get where she was. She must have inch-wormed her way up there sideways.

I don't know why it startled me so much, but my first instinct was that she was dead, because of course she can't breathe as well when she isn't perfectly centered parallel to the rails in the middle of her crib. Right after I checked her breathing to make sure she was alive I got the camera and took a picture of this momentous occasion.

I wonder where she'll be when I wake up tomorrow morning!

Uncle John and Aunt Angela

Thank Heaven for Little Girls

We were in Marshall yesterday and had a chance to stop by and see our friends Drew and Rochelle and their girls Makenna (5) and Addyson (2).  They had bows and ribbons, frilly dresses, a kitten named "Sissy" and a love for our baby! So girly. So precious.

We learned that Ruby is quite a conversationalist when she's around little girls. Here's a video of her "talking" more than we've ever heard before! 

2 Months Old!

In a couple of days Ruby will be 2 months old. She becoming less and less of a floppy pile of squishy newborn... now she's more of a wobbly pile of drooley squishiness. This picture was taken when she was just 9 days old and I can't get over those dimples in her elbow. 

I love being a mom - staring at her tiny eyelashes while she sleeps, breathing in the smell of her sweet skin and enjoying every warm moment of her snuggly self resting in the crook of my neck.  I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the gift of her life. My capacity to love is nothing compared to the Love that Christ has for us... truly incredible.

Making Love...Last

I am so excited about Granger's new Family Life series! First of all, the trailer is so great. It made me smile a lot! Secondly, all the services will be available to view online for those of us who can't be there to experience it live each weekend.

• LOVE is a VERB - August 15/16
• The Art of LOVING YOU More Than MYSELF - August 22/23
• The EXPECTATION Trap - August 29/30
• The LOVE Triangle - September 5/6

Ryan and Ruby Montage

Introducing The Mino HD Flip Video Camera

Ryan and I decided that we needed to get a video recorder so we could capture Ruby growing up. We heard about the mino HD flip video camera and had to get one! It's as small as my cell phone, so I take it everywhere I go. It records in HD quality for a whole hour and easily transfers video clips to my laptop! I love it! It was only $200, much less than we expected to pay for a video camera!

Scut Monkeys

Ryan and some of his friends from the hospital are playing softball for the Kentwood Parks and Recreation league and last night was their first game. 

The Scut Monkeys started their season with a lot of heart... only 1 run compared to the 20 that the other team scored, but that's not the point. What is a Scut Monkey? It's a term used to describe doctors in training who have the worst jobs in the hospital. Pretty funny, eh?

Cox Family Reunion 2009

I'm having fun figuring out how to do this iMovie thing... Here's a glimpse into The Cox Family Reunion from last weekend.

"She's starting to feel more durable"

 - Uncle Chris

Books

Check out this cute hat Grandma Cox made for Ruby.

Ruby and I have a new tradition of reading a book each morning. Since she isn't quite old enough to be interested in her own books, I've been reading my books out loud to her while she sits on my lap. She quietly listens, yawns, looks around... obviously enthralled.

The following quote is from the book we read this morning called "Many Ways to Say I Love You - Wisdom for Parents and Children from Mister Rogers" 

"Being a giver grown out of the experience of having been a receiver - a receiver who has been lovingly given to."

 - Fred Rogers

4 Generations

Ruby meets her Great Granny and Papaw

Mom and dad brought my Granny and Papaw up for a visit on Thursday and my dad, who happens to love photography, captured some great moments of Ruby with her Great Grandparents.