Status Update: Speech

One of the most amazing and hilarious aspects of watching Ruby grow up is listening to the things that come out of her mouth. Even though it's expected that kids Ruby's age can say a handful of words and understand basic commands, it never ceases to amaze me when she learns something new. Perhaps it's because I remember a time not long ago when she didn't even know she had feet, and nowadays she knows how to say shoe is two different languages, will go find her shoes when asked, and tries to put them on her own feet.

In the last few months, Ruby's vocabulary has grown significantly. She speaks an about equal mix of English and Mandarin and seems to understand both languages equally as well. Her favorite language appears to be the language of song, and she can often be found humming classics such as Frere Jacques, Old McDonald, and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

Ruby's current repertoire of words include:

1) Baby
2) Wa-wa (water)
3) Wa-wa (doll in Chinese)
4) Ball
5) Bowl
6) Chair
7) Shoe
8) Xie (shoe in Chinese)
9) Xiang (yummy in Chinese)
10) Na-na (grandma)
11) Na-na (banana)
12) Deng (light in Chinese)
13) Home
14) Bao-bao (bread in Chinese)
15) Bao-bao (pick me up in Chinese)
16) Gan-gan (cracker in Chinese)
17) Toe
18) Tou (head in Chinese)
19) Ya (teeth in Chinese)
20) Ah-she ah-she ah fa DONG (Ashes ashes we all fall down)

With this newfound expressiveness and increased understanding of the world, Ruby is seeming more and more like a little person. Just when I thought we had maxed out on cuteness during the baby days, I see her feeding herself dinner while exclaiming, "Xiang! Xiang!" or following me into the bathroom when I'm brushing my teeth and requesting, "Ya! Ya!" so she can brush her teeth next to me, standing on her tippy toes to see over the counter. Or we see this:



And we realize that she has simply taken the cuteness onto another level.

Full circle

For my birthday this year, Steve took me to dinner at Gary Danko, one of the best restaurants in the city (and ever). We realized that the last time we dined there, it was about 4.5 years ago, we sat at the same table, and I was wearing the same dress.

Moral of the story, I have no time to buy new clothes.

Layovers

Even though my mom was our only official guest over the Thanksgiving holidays, Ruby actually got to see each one of her grandparents in the last week. For that we have San Francisco International Airport to thank, for being such a popular layover destination.

Steve's parents laid over at SFO on their way to a cruise in Miami the day after Thankgiving. They were at the airport at the exact time that my mom's plane was departing back to Philadelphia, so we all met up in a waiting area in the international terminal so that Ruby could play with her grandparents.







A few days later, my dad stopped over in SFO on his way home from China. His layover was long enough for him to come to our house and play with Ruby for a couple of hours before heading back to the airport.





A few weeks ago, our good friend Shirley and her husband Rudy spent a day-long layover with us on their way to Singapore. They got to meet Ruby for the first time.



Going somewhere? Plan a layover at SFO!

You might get to see this one:

Gobble gobble

This was the best Thanksgiving I have ever had. Last year, Mommy didn't cook Thanksgiving dinner because we were going to Hawaii the next day, and besides, I couldn't eat food anyways. This year, Mommy cooked a BIG dinner. We had turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, mashed potatoes, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, asparagus, corn, corn bread, and pumpkin cheesecake pie! I tried a little of each.





I think the turkey was bigger than me.

One of the best parts of Thanksgiving was that my little buddy Zach came to have dinner with us!



The turkey was bigger than him too.

Zach was very excited to see me, and he asked if it would be ok to hold my hand.



I wasn't sure it was a good idea since I already have a boyfriend.



But in the end, I agreed to hold his hand for a minute, just as friends.



Zach and I were both eager to start eating, but we waited patiently while Mommy took our picture.



Finally, it was time to eat!



I asked Zach to please not tell my boyfriend Julien that we held hands because he might get jealous.



We all dug in and boy was it yummy!





I had a very happy Thanksgiving, and I hope you did too!

Walk the walk

Today, at 17.5 months old, in the African Hall of the Cal Academy of Sciences, on a rainy Friday afternoon, Ruby decided to start walking! It was very much as if a switch had been turned on. One minute I was telling people that she did not quite walk on her own yet, and the next minute she is strolling around the museum, stopping, turning, holding a conversation.



And another stage begins.

One two step

Ruby took her first consecutive steps today! (Sorry, not captured on video) For a long time, we have been trying to get Ruby to walk towards one of us, like the way I've seen babies do on TV. However, today I was behind Ruby with my hands just behind her back. I think since she knew I was there to catch her, she got the confidence to take a few steps. I should have known that for Ruby, it would not be about the incentive to get to something she wants, but the security of having someone to catch her if she falls.

Happy Halloween!

This year, we got our first real taste of the children's Halloween scene. Last year, Ruby was not quite 5 months old, so still far too young to partake in Halloween activities or even to realize that it was out of the ordinary for she and her little friends to be dressed up like animals.



This year, Ruby was able to enjoy the full Halloween experience, starting with a trip to the pumpkin patch.









The Tuesday before Halloween, we hosted a Halloween party for Ruby's playgroup. In recent months attendance at our weekly playgroups have dwindled due to moms having moved out of the city and conflicting nap times. Therefore, we were very excited that almost ALL of the moms in the group were able to make it to the Halloween party. With 10 toddlers running around, it looked like our house had been hit by a tornado.

One of the best parts of the party was to see the difference between this year and our playgroup Halloween party last year. Whereas last year, taking the group picture entailed nothing more than propping the babies up next to each other on the couch and snapping the shots before they slid down too far, this year having that many toddlers sit long enough for a picture was an impossibility, so we included the moms in the shot.





This year was also Ruby's first time trick or treating (and the first time for Steve and I since we ourselves were children). We walked along the nearby Lake Street, which is renowned for its abundance of candy and trick or treaters. Ruby was too shy to take candy from strangers. At the first house, after much hesitation, she chose a Smarties from the candy bowl, only to turn around and put it back a few moments later. Finally, she did accept one piece of candy, which she held onto tightly the rest of the evening.