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Ruthie is 6 weeks old! It's so fun to see her developing - growing, cooing, smiling, slowly learning to sleep in her bed :) She's a chubby little bunny and is already growing out of this little favorite onesie here (0-3 mos) that was Vera's. We're all doing well adjusting.. I mean there are certainly *moments*, but overall I'd say we are adjusting.  It seems like every other day or two day is off.. crying, fussy, not sleeping night or day, sisters bickering and throwing tantrums. On the good days, everything is lovely and harmonious and easy.  Today and yesterday are good days.  Catch me on Thursday afternoon and I'd have told you our lives were falling apart :)   Good to keep it in perspective: there will be hard days, but the good ones will start overtaking them!

*casi 3.5

Edie will be 3.5 in April. It's amazing how different she and Vera are at this age.  For example - Edie rarely gets into our dress up box whereas Vera was in a princess dress or ballerina/superstar getup every minute of the day.  When Edie does dress up, it's usually in her puppy Halloween costume or some very strange combination. Tonight she came into my room in her feetie pajamas with fairy wings, a grass skirt and holding a pom-pom.  She is very deliberate when she dresses herself in the morning - she likes to look pretty and fancy every day, wearing dresses, skirts, fancy "jewelry shoes", her "dotty" tights and putting her "lip bom" on. She avoids having her hair brushed and I often forget or don't have time to get around to it - anyway it adds to her character.

I've been noting down some of the funny things this little stinkah says over the last couple months to record here. Just lately I've noticed her Boston accent is disappearing.  She still has trouble with 'R's but now it's more like... the oo sound in 'should' - like when she says 'dirt' or 'skirt'.  Or words like hair are 'hey-air'. Just writing this down so I remember :)  It's so sad when they grow up and these things disappear!

Anyway here are some notable quotes from our little stinkah:

Me: Edie please get that noodle off the floor.
Edie: I'm afraid I don't want to.

[while driving] Oh no, mom!  Someone put a bag they're not losing [using] on a bush.  That's called glittering.

Edie to Ruth: You selfish little baby [said in a very sweet tone].
Me: Edie, she's not selfish.
E: Well Rapunzel's mom is selfish. That means she has black hay-er.

Me: Edie, you have such pretty eyes!
E: Well yours aren't very pretty.

I barely ate lots of sugar. [did I share this one before?]

[with a grin on her face - this was many months ago] Mom, sometimes when I'm in my bed I dream that Vera doesn't get anything.

*milestones

Vera finally lost her first tooth two days ago!  She has been waiting for this day for years - poor thing was the last of her class to lose one and has been wiggling the tooth since last May at least.  She is a full believer in the tooth fairy of course and wrote her a note asking to keep the tooth.  Thankfully I remembered the tooth fairy at the 2am nursing! 

If you've read anything about Waldorf education [I have just the basics], you probably know that they don't push a child to read before they're ready and that readiness to read often comes when the child begins to lose their baby teeth. I mentioned this to Vera and it's funny the little nudge of confidence it gave her over the last two days!  She believes that she is ready to read now, even though she really has been improving in the last couple months in her reading.  It's amazing to see how it's all clicking!  She's been sounding out the words in my old Calvin and Hobbes books every night at bed, easily reading instructions in her science and craft books, yesterday she read a whole card that a friend sent and just now she started reading my first paragraph!  I'm going to have to hide the page if she comes back to read about the tooth fairy :)  It's really so exciting and I tell her often how proud I am - I hope she loves to read as much as I did!!

*un mesito

Ruth is a whole month old today!  That is so crazy.  I can't believe we've made it through four whole weeks.  I've had four weeks of nights up feeding this little one?? I guess I've made it through and that's encouraging.  She's grown and we've survived and ate meals and done laundry and gotten homework done and off to school - it's amazing.

She's a sweet little thing and we all love her so much.  I wouldn't say she's one of those mystical "she only cries when she's tired or hungry" kind of babies, but she hasn't been tooo difficult. Definitely prefers to be held most of the day and nurses pretty often.  At night she sleeps one incredible stretch of sleep in her own crib (from 8pm-1am!) and then won't go back down unless she is in bed with me in the crook of my arm. I wake at some point to slide her off onto the bed and she's up usually twice more [a couple days this week she fussed and fussed all night. So tired I wanted to die]. Ben slept with Edie for a couple weeks and is now in the guest room - sad, but better sleep for all. Nursing is going great and doesn't hurt at all!!! Thank you LORD.  She's even gained a little over a pound.

She's made cute little happy looks/expressions/near smiles since a little over a week old and they are becoming much more frequent which is so much fun.  I love how new babies look like they want to tell you something soo badly and have to work so hard to get a little sound out, so cute.

Poor sweetheart woke up with some horrible baby acne the other day - hoping it clears up as quickly as they say it does.

***

*Edie reads

I finally got a video of Edie 'reading' her favorite book - don't you love when kids do this?  It's amazing what they can memorize!! The messy hair and outfit are typical right now - she looves this pink dress and white sweater and will wear it every day that her "golden" Christmas dress is in the laundry.