A New Chapter Begins...

As many of you know, Louis just began basic training for the National Guard. After lots of research and thoughtful consideration, we thought this would be the best decision for Louis and and for our family. As you can imagine, this decision made me feel proud, anxious, excited, worried, sad, and relieved all at the same time! Whew!

Louis is currently at Army basic training in South Carolina. He just started his second week. During this training, communication is pretty limited. I've talked to him once so far, and am eagerly awaiting his letter home which will provide his mailing address and graduation information. After the 9 weeks of basic, Ruby and I will be traveling to SC to attend his graduation and hopefully get some much needed time together! Yay!

After basic, Louis will then go to Virginia for Advanced Individual Training (AIT), part 1. He will be there for 11 weeks. As he progresses, he will get more priviledges, which generally means more communication home (yay!) and more time away from base. This means we might be able to visit during his time there, if we're lucky! We can also attend graduation once he has completed. Once he successfully completes this AIT he should be returning home to San Diego! Hooray! At this point, we don't yet know for how long, but they estimated a couple of months, which would be awesome.

Next up, Louis will be heading to Arizona to do AIT, part 2. This training will be 27-28 weeks long! Yikes! We didn't know this when he signed up, and it's probably better that we didn't. I'm not sure I could have done it... But it is what it is now. Ultimately, Louis will be working on UAVs:

and attached to a military intelligence unit. Apparently this requires a lot of training, fair enough =).

So for those of you who are doing the math, thats a total of 48 weeks of training away from home, not including the processing time and time off etc. Louis has made a huge sacrifice to do something great for his country and his family! And while it will be a long hard road, I know that the benefits for our future are worth it. I will certainly do everything in my power to make the most of it, and make this a positive experience for my husband, my baby girl, and myself.

Thanks to everyone for your ongoing support as we've made this transition. Your letters, phone calls, messages, posts etc have really been heart warming. While I'm missing my husband like crazy (already!) it's always nice to be reminded about how many people are out there rooting for us, and that no matter how lonely I might feel, I am never alone.

Pro Pictures from February

Vikki did her magic again! This time we met Vikki in one of our favorite places, Old Town. Ruby was literally running around during this whole photo shoot, so I was worried all the pictures might be blurry. Thankfully we got some great shots! I'm glad to see these pictures captured what a happy little girl we have =)

18 Months Old

My baby girl is now 18 months old!

Louis and I took Ruby for her 18 month check up and were happy to get confirmation that she is right on track for her age. She now weighs 22 pounds 6 ounces and is 32 inches long! She has met all of her developmental milestones as well, so I could not be happier. She has come so far, and continues to exceed all of our hopes and expectations. Her comprehension continues to amaze me, and I'm anticipating a verbal explosion in the near future. She's said so many words a few times, but still only uses about 10-15 on a regular basis. Her favorites are still Hi, Bye, Meow, Mommy, and Daddy, but we've also been hearing a lot of Please, No, Up, Mine, Puppy, More, Woof, and Weeee!

Here's my baby girl, growing up way too fast!

2009

As 2009 came to close and we embarked on a new year, I was amazed to look back and see all that we had accomplished in 2009! Sometimes time passes so quickly, it’s hard to remember how much we’ve been through and just how much fun we’ve really had! Here is a look back at some of adventures from the year:

Took Ruby to Disneyland

Celebrated Ruby's First Valentines Day

Celebrated our Irish heritage at the St Patrick's Day Festival

Spent Easter at Mt. Diablo

Raised Money for Charity, March for Babies

Celebrated our 2nd Wedding Anniversary

Learned to crawl, stand, walk, run, and dance!


Celebrated our first Mother's Day and Father's Day


Celebrated Ruby's First Birthday and my 30th Birthday

Went to the zoo, a lot!

Ruby's first plane ride, our family reunion in Michigan

Made my second Halloween costume for Ruby, a cookie =)


Hosted Thanksgiving at our House

Celebrated Christmas in San Leandro


I can only imagine what blessings 2010 will bring to my little family. I am so grateful for every moment I have with Ruby and cherish all memories that I have had with Louis by my side. Happy New Year everyone! Thank you for being a part of our journey…

Christmas Part II

For Christmas this year Louis, Ruby, my sister Michelle and I piled into the truck and made the 7 hour drive up to San Leandro. Ruby hadn't been feeling well the day prior, and ended up losing her cookies twice on the drive. I felt so bad for her! And us, for having to pull over, change her clothes, clean her up, clean out the car seat etc, all in what felt like 30 degree weather! Thankfully, we still made decent time and arrived safe and sound, with a load of laundry to do =)

Christmas eve was spent relaxing with family (who were making tamales-yum!) and loving on Ruby girl. She loved the attention of course, and enjoyed entertaining a new audience with her belly exposures and "meows"! By Christmas day, Ruby was making herself at home and got the hang of opening presents. She didn't quite understand that there were presents inside, but she loved taking out the tissue paper. She also enjoyed wandering around and shopping in other people's present piles =)

We had a great Christmas with family and the trip went by fast. Just when things settled down, it was time to go home. The drive home felt sooo long... But we still hope we can go back soon because Ruby had such a great time playing with all of her cousins! Here are few pics from the trip...

Inspecting her new phone, trying to figure out why it doesn't have a touch screen:

Saying "Cheese" for cousin Sarah:

The best present of all, Ruby!:

Christmas with Grandma

Since we'll be traveling to the Bay Area for Christmas year, we decided to start our celebration by heading over to my mom's house before we went. And oh what fun we had! Ruby wasn't sure what to make of the wrapped gifts, she was more excited about playing with Grandma's remotes and chasing the "meows" around. But once Louis got her started she was very excited about all the new things to play with.

I think her favorite thing was the baby and baby stroller, although she had a hard time deciding between pushing it around or sitting in it! =) Here are some pictures from the day...

17 months old!

Ruby is now 17 months old, can you believe it? She is such an amazing little girl and I am so proud to be her mommy.

Chatterbox: In the past few months Ruby has started talking more and more, but her favorite word is still "Meow!" She loves kitties. She has many stuffed animal kitties she carries around, and will turn through all of her books to point out the cats and give them kisses. It's pretty adorable. If she wakes in the middle of the night she will say "meow!" in the hopes that someone will come to return her kitty which she has chucked over the side of her crib... =) Ruby gets to go on weekly trips to the zoo with her Dad, so it's not just kitties that she is fan of. (Although she does like to walk around meowing at the lions, cheetahs, and other big cats.) She also likes to watch the monkies and gorillas play and make noises at the elephants! Ruby recently started calling me Mommy (instead of mama). It melts my heart! Even if most of the time she's yelling it at me because she wants me for something =). She is also saying "boo!" to be scary... And "ho ho ho!" just in time for Christmas.

Dance Party USA: Ruby loves to dance. When I get home from work I'll turn on some music, and we'll get our dance on. She has some interesting taste in music. She likes Lady Gaga, Black Eyed Peas, boy bands, and most TV commercials. She'll be playing in the living room and a song will come on and she'll just freeze, then start shaking her booty. Needless to say, we laugh a lot at our house!

Eating: Ruby is tall and lean and for her age, so as a mom I'm always worried about her eating enough. She has the metabolism of a hummingbird, and like most toddlers, she doesn't eat a lot. She does like to snack though. She can eat her weight in pancakes and french fries, but otherwise she eats like a bird. Thankfully she continues to grow =) We try to offer her a variety of healthy foods, but in the end, if she wants to carb load, so be it!

Sleep: Sleep, glorious, sleep. Ruby was a frequent waker for so long, that once she stopped it was a shock! She still goes through phases when she's teething where she will wake up during the night and want to make sure we're still there. (She has 8 teeth now though!) But it's amazing to have a toddler that wants to go to bed when it's time, runs to her room, gives you a kiss, and says "Byeeeee"! For that, I am so very thankful. (I'm also thankful for liquid Melatonin which has helped my sleep more than any other method I've tried. yum.)

Holidays: What a difference a year can make! Halloween this year was awesome. It's my favorite time of year, and Ruby was able to run around and have a great time. I made her a cookie costume and we went to a Halloween block party. We also took her to the Dia de los Muertos festival in Oceanside which was awesome, aside from the 85 degree weather!

Last year:

This year:


I hosted Thanksgiving this year which Ruby loved. She spent the day entertaining us all as we enjoyed some good food and family wii time!

Last year:
This year:
This year for Christmas, we're taking Ruby up to Northern California to spend the holiday with our family there. I can't wait! I just know Ruby is going to have a great time and I can't wait for some La Pinata! More to come...

14 months old!

Wow, get a new job and a busy toddler and you hardly have time for blogging anymore! I'm sorry it's been so long and I will do my best to stay on top of my updates...

Ruby is 14 months old! And definitely in toddler mode. She enjoys climbing furniture and standing on it, much to my dismay haha. She says hi to everyone when we're out and about in the hopes of getting their attention. When we're reading her books, she can find and point out the puppy, kitten, shoes, cup, ducky, bath, baby, potty, elephant, etc... I am so impressed with how big her vocabulary is comprehension wise. She's still working on her vocalizations, and mainly only says hi, hello, daddy, mama, and her versions of yes, no, up and other basics. Her little voice is just the cutest thing.

Her diet mainly consists of bananas, eggs, toast/bread, turkey, chicken, fish, shredded cheese, crackers, yogurt, potatoes, pasta and the occasional other fruits and veggies, usually mixed into other stuff... Some days she eats a lot and some she hardly eats at all, which I suppose would make any mom worry. Since she was a preemie, I think I may always worry thats she's not getting enough! But she drinks a lot of milk, and her growth is stable, so I try not to dwell.

Ruby also got two new teeth (the top middle) and may be working on more judging on her lack of sleeping through the night the last two days. Hopefully it will pass and we will have our good sleeper back! I was just getting used to it...

All in all, we are doing well. We're trying to enjoy our end of summer with trips to the zoo, beach, and family visits while we can. Here are some pictures to catch everyone up!