Lazy Long Labor Day Weekend!

We had a wonderful, lazy (well, as lazy as you can be with a 2 year old) long weekend. We didn't have any plans and ended up having such a nice, family weekend. We went to the Palm Beach Zoo on Sunday for the first time since being here and had an awesome time. Ruby loves animals and even got to pet a leopard gecko named Cleopatra. Fortunately, she hasn't carried on her mommy's intense fear of birds. There were lots of very big birds walking around and she wanted to pet and chase all of them. To Ruby's delight, there were also splash fountains at the zoo and she had a blast running around in the water with all the other kids. Ruby's one tough cookie, she got plowed over twice by bigger boys and ended up with a skinned elbow but she didn't miss a beat and wanted to get right back in there and play.

Today, we had a great time at the beach. The water was amazing and the weather was perfect. When Doug had Ruby out in the deep water with her floaties ("ploaties"), she kept telling him to leave and go back to the beach so she could swim by herself. She's very independent and the phrase we hear over and over again lately is "NO, I DO IT!!!"

Ruby's love for her baby dolls is intensifying and we now have to take baby, dolly AND their stroller everywhere. Makes for a very long grocery shopping outing! She plays with her dolls for long stretches of time now and is very loving with them. She's always patting them on the back and kissing them and talking very sweetly to them.

Ruby has figured out how to effectively use the word "now". As in, "I want my milk NOW" or "I want to watch Curious George NOW". We're trying to teach her that that's not polite but she seems to be very pleased with herself with the reaction she gets.

Some of my favorite things that Ruby does right now are:

Sometimes she'll just look up at me and say "hi bubbalooba" and then give me the most heart breaking smile.

When she wants me to pick her up, she says "Mommy carry you", she hasn't quite gotten the way "me" works. Funny since she has "MINE" down! :)

Her dancing. She's got quite the moves which usually is a combination of the wheels on the bus motion and the Elaine dance.

Every time she hears loud music, she says, "Uncle Stephen's music?"

How she wants to snuggle with me at the end of her naps. How she wants to copy everything I do. She likes to take her purse everywhere now, she carried it half way around the zoo and when I wear a headband, she wants to wear one too.

How she calls Tom Bergeron on the phone every day and says "Hi Tom Bergeron...it's Ruby...good...I live in Florida...OK...Bye."

I could go on and on but those are a few fun things that come to mind. Ruby also loves to sing, take a look at the video. Hope you all had a fun, relaxing long weekend!

Her beautiful Cinderella dress from the Ficarros.

I love her mix of girly-girl and tom-boy.

Her morning ritual of taking baby and stroller in and out, in and out...
Little Mommy.

This is what her hair looks like in the morning. Poor child.

She's got a silly personality. She's taking her juice box for a ride.

Bedtime stories with Daddy.

Ruby reading to Daddy.

Feeding the goats at the zoo. Check out the peacock just wandering around!

Ruby LOVED the fountains. We didn't bring her bathing suit but it didn't stop her!

Dancing!

Dancing again. There was loud music playing and she couldn't resist shaking her groove thing every few minutes.

Napping with dolly and baby.