(Gotta love her face, right? She's like "What the heck!")
(That face really is #1)2. She is curious about outside things. In the morning we sit on our patio and she watches the wind blow the bushes. She especially loves it when birds fly by.
3. She likes to sit in her own chair. She likes lap time, but after a minute she always wants to sit in her own chair. She grabs onto the arm rests like it's about to take off.
4. She has 4 teeth.
5. She loves to play with the springy door stops. She pulls on them and watches them as they vibrate. The neighbors below us don't like it so much.
6. When she's sick she is very cuddly.
7. She says "Hey Dada!" We think she's starting to understand that dada actually means Brad!
8. She's perfect when you need her to be, i.e. during tutoring she plays for the entire 1 1/2 hours like an angel.
9. She is curious about people and is starting to smile and not just stare!
10. She can crawl. If I leave her in the living room to play while I run to the bathroom, she is sure to be at least half way to me by the time I'm done.
11. She kisses herself in the mirror. I have a lot of slob covered mirrors. She also grabs at her reflection in the PUR water purifier on our sink.
12. When I play with her she plays back. I playfully bite her cheeks and she often tries to bite me back. That's a little more dangerous now with the teeth!
13. When she is excited she flails her arms and legs like she can't get enough.
14. She laughs when we hold her and run around the apartment.
15. She likes being messy. I love that she doesn't mind getting dirty, and that she haves fun getting dirty. It's just too bad that she doesn't enjoy the cleaning up as much.
16. She likes to play with kitchen utensils while I cook.
17. I can tell that she is tanned because when you separate the rolls on her legs it's pasty white in between!
18. She had DARK brown hair when she was born and now it's LIGHT dirty blonde.
19. She screams during sacrament meeting. You've just gotta laugh, there's nothing else to do!
20. She naps enough for me to get sewing done.
21. She licks her lips, for some reason that's so cute.
22. She's cranky when she first wakes up, and it takes her a few minutes to become playful. That's a thing I've just considered a grown-up thing, it's funny that's she's that way too.
23. She likes to go swimming, and LOVES to splash in the water.
24. When she wants to investigate things she slaps her hand on it.
25. When she gets hurt she only cries for a few seconds and then gets over it!
Having Ruth has been the most rewarding thing in my life after a celestial marriage. She is worth giving up a teaching profession. She is worth all the dirty diapers (which really isn't as bad as I thought it would be). She is worth getting up 3 times a night for. She is worth the discomfort of pregnancy and post weight loss battle. She is worth it because I know that she has so much potential and I am the one she is counting on to help her reach it. She is worth it because she is a real human being with her own spirit. She has intelligence and unfathomable potential. She has so many lessons to learn and so many to teach as well. It's funny because people say that everything changes when you have a child. And it's not that I didn't believe them, I just didn't know what it meant. I can't watch old episodes of Gilmore Girls without crying now. I can't substitute in primary without crying because the kids are singing "I Have a Family Here on Earth." I can't clip my nails without wondering if Ruth needs hers clipped too. Everything has changed, and it's so much better because I appreciate things so much more and see God's hand in the little things.
