*Ruth at 18 mos

Little Ruth is one and a half today!!  I look back at baby pictures and hardly recognize her. What an amazing little firecracker and sweetheart she is.  Everyone tries to decipher who she looks like, and I'm still at a loss. Sometimes a glimmer of Vera or Edie... I sometimes see my older sister and brother when they were babies. Ben thinks she looks like his grandfather, Hoyt (husband of the original Ruth Cater). Anyway, she is a little beauty and just adorable in every way (to me anyway :).

She still doesn't have a ton of words but communicates really well. Her newest words are BOP which she says very seriously and emphatically when she wants you to stop doing something (tickling, changing her diaper, taking an iphone away..), NO (which she learned pretty quickly after meeting her cousin Zuzu), shio - cheerio/cereal, Siiii - outside,  I love how she says "oh" after a comment you make (she's done this forever). Like, "mom's at work" - R: "oh". "This isn't for babies" - R: "oh". Like she knows and understands what we are saying when obviously she doesn't.  She also says "ummm" when you ask her a question, usually followed by gibberish.

A couple of my favorite things lately are when we first met her little cousin and she spontaneously started playing duck duck goose with the group, ducking everyone's heads and saying gooo then running (out of the room sometimes). I didn't even know she'd played it before and thought it was pretty sophisticated! :)  At mealtimes, she loves to initiate saying grace - holding everyone's hands and saying "meh!" when we say amen.  After I fed her once using the spoon airplane method, she will now make airplane noises and fly her own spoon to her mouth - it's pretty cute. I love how she gives good hard hugs and kisses, loves her Lion, says hi and charms everyone in the grocery store, airport, airplane, etc.

She is quite the firecracker though - emphatically saying UH-UH! if you ask for some of her popsicle - unless you catch her in a sweet mood. She screams so loud sometimes that her little fists shake. Usually she is good about grounding herself enough to quiet down and say/sign please or whatever the better option was.  I have to be very vigilant when she's around other babies because she tends to hit them in the face, pull them to the ground, etc. It's so disconcerting!!  At least she'll usually sign/say sorry afterwards if I make her.  I seriously think she just loves the reaction and look on their poor little faces :(  She fought like a little cat with her cousin in CA, but I think that was more rivalry than looking for a reaction. Wish we'd got a video of it! Anyway, hoping it's all a quick phase.

Anyway... I'm sure I'll add things as I think of them.  Basically we all adore our little Root.

*Spring!

After such an intense and snowy winter, Spring was especially wonderful this year.  It took weeks to get used to how much space there was with all the snow gone!  

The girls played outside constantly and just had so much fun in our backyard.  For several weeks, they played 'house' out there, cooking and baking with flower petals, living in the fort, etc. They each had their own little role and were very engrossed in their little story line. I love love love it. 

This was their pretend oven - "banana bread" and something else. It made me so happy :)

Family bike ride at the Arboretum. Edie learned to pedal/balance on her bike last Fall, but couldn't get started on her own until this day. She actually isn't super excited about it and would rather use her scooter for now.

A day at the zoo with Elaine over Spring break I think - perfect coolish/warmish weather with hardly any crowds.

Another perfect coolish/warm day at Drumlin Farm with friends. I could have sat with the baby lambs all day!!   I'd never been there before and was really impressed. So incredibly clean - even the chicken coops and the goat barn didn't smell.  Reminded me of Wheeler Farm days and how much fun we had there with Sam and Mimi and all our Utah friends.

The Spring blooms are so incredible. A beautiful Spring makes the long winter totally worth it in my opinion!

Ruth met the ducklings at the Public Garden for the first time. Really, she is seeing everything again for the first time since she was so small last summer! It's so fun to see her experience it all. Still so excited every time we see a bird or a duck or even an ant :)

We've had a few hot days as Summer approaches, but for the most part the weather has been just perfect still - so grateful!

*little miracles

"The truth is, raising a child is like watching a continuously unfolding miracle."

About a year ago, I came across this quote that I had written down from some Montessori book that I read when Vera was small.  It's come to mind so many times as I watch Ruth grow and wake up to the world around her.  I have always loved looking back on the blog here, remembering all the little moments I'd post here of both Vera and Edie and am sad that I just don't have the time or the motivation [or the computer space to store photos!] to keep it up anymore.  It truly is a miracle watching a child grow, to see where they started and what they become.  I especially love this age Ruth is at now - between like 10 months and 2 years. I could sit and watch her for hours.

I took these pictures several weeks ago when I noticed that she would go up to the little handle here on the cupboard and either pretend to wash her hands from it or fill up a cup and drink from it - among her first "pretend" play.  I love it.

*La Pascua 2015

We have really loved our (3!) Easters here in Boston.  Park Street is such a wonderful church and Easter Sunday is just glorious.  Beautiful orchestra, choir and hymns, gorgeous flowers, special treats passed around after the service. It's not a 'show' though in any way - it's a genuine and heartfelt celebration of the resurrection of Christ and what that means for us.  It looks sunny in the pictures, but it was freezing and so after church we headed home to decorate and quickly hunt for eggs. We later had a nice dinner with our small Bible study group.

Ruth was so enthralled by the music and singing - at one point she looked like a little composer with her arms in the air.

This was the little coat and bonnet I wore when I was about 18 months old.  See pictures of of both me and Vera wearing the coat here.

The wool coat I'm wearing here was my mom's from the 60s!

love this one:

she was so cute - a little young to get it, but super fun to watch.

I took about 60 pictures to get a decent one. Ben was making faces behind me here:

other attempts to get a picture in their sweet matching dresses:

Percy was an Easter addition this year. He and Trixie are so cute and close already!  Their first meeting was pretty hilarious.  Ben and I awkwardly missed an opportunity to explain where baby bunnies come from.  [Percy came to us fixed btw though I kind of wish we could have babies!!]

*Rudy

Some favorite moments of our almost 14 month old from the last week or two:

first time with play-dough. she put it in her mouth repeatedly for the first five minutes but finally seemed to get the picture that it's just for play.

going for a soulemama look this day:

she climbs right into the lockers at the Y:

she likes seeing her face on the phone screen :)

we went to a 'maple sugarhouse' this weekend... Ruth loved the chickens they had!  It's been so fun watching her rediscover the outdoors now that Spring is here.

watching her sisters play down in the yard:

She had fun today with Edie, Isaac and Finn playing in the driveway with mud and melting snow:

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I was just talking with a friend today about our blog and thought I should post some random moments from the last few weeks. Life has been busy and exhausting lately, but with sunny days, snow melting and a pause in illnesses we are feeling so much better!!

Sometimes Ruth gets tired of being held and hugged:

Ruth and her sweet little friend, Iris. Shortly after this photo, Iris put Lion's paw in her mouth and reacted with the most hilarious look of disgust - it was so funny :)

superheroes: 

Grandpop and Lola gave them tickets to see the Wild Kratts Live for Christmas - it was such a fun outing!! Elaine slept over that weekend and we could get her a ticket too.

Vera has been wanting a special picture of her and Trixie - like one she had with Eloise. Trixie is growing on me - she's such a gentle and sweet bunny!

Ruth is growing and changing so much. She has lots of little 'plans' - for some reason she likes to put the wooden ice cream cones on these stools and push them around.

Edie is in a major puzzle phase. She does these four puzzles from Melissa like six times a day.