Catching Up (1)

From 21st Century Digital Kid

Day 717: "I sleeping. I take a nap. I need change my diaper."

The week of April 7 (Days 721-723), Melissa was out of town for the SOPHE midyear meeting. Ruth and I hung out, we went to the park a lot, and I took her to eat at M&J's Soul Food for dinner one night ("restaurant!"), where she developed a love of football (every time the TV, on ESPN, went to commercial, I heard, "Where the men go? Play football, men!"). I took some photos and sent them along to Melissa so she wouldn't miss Ruth so much, and now I share them with you, the general viewing public.

From 21st Century Digital Kid

From 21st Century Digital Kid

From 21st Century Digital Kid

From 21st Century Digital Kid

I was worried that Ruth might be getting constipated, so I served her some berries. Like, I think, about four cups of berries. Oops.

Then, when Melissa came home, we went back to the park (day 725).

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Day 738 - Siu Mai

Random Photos From the Droid

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Day 712 - dancing on the porch

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Day 716 - after a hard day of working in the backyard with Daddy, holding the doll I got her in Rwanda

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Day 718 - saying "bye" before heading to the park

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From 21st Century Digital Kid

Day 718 - at the park

Shortly after this picture was taken, Melissa showed up and I did some laps around the loop in the Dell. On my third time around, Ruth decided that she wanted to "exercise" too - she ran alongside me for about ten feet, then decided she was going to do push-ups (a decent attempt, actually). But she didn't want to move off the path into the grass. So, she ended up riding on my shoulders for a lap (harder than it sounds) while periodically shouting, "EXERCISE!!"

Day 716 - Garden

We've started prep for our garden. Some seeds are sprouting away indoors - I had to move the Boule d'Or melons out of the little "greenhouse" box because they were pushing against the top already, and our tomatoes are all showing shoots. And don't get me started on the basil. Still no movement from the tomatillos, pink bananas, or strawberry spinach. Oh well.

Yesterday, Ruth helped me. First, we put down the clover seed that finally showed up. I planted too late in the fall and frost killed it all, so our backyard has been looking like a blasted wasteland. Ruth helped spread it.

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Then she helped me give the seeds a nice drink of water. "I hold hose, Daddy! There mud in there. I see mud!"

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We also planted blueberry bushes (not shown). It was the culmination of an anniversary day/Good Friday closed daycare Dad day. It was pretty fun. We went to the wine store ("I like wine. Beer! Is beer, Daddy!"), to Whole Foods ("I need muffin! Pleeeeeeeeeeeeese!"), and to the plant store where Miss Joan showed her a whole bunch of flowers that she smelled while I picked out the blueberry bushes. When I'm not giving myself an ulcer because I'm not writing, she's a fun kid to hang out with.

Day 697 - Dancin' Queen

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For my birthday, my brother David made me an awesome coffee table upholstered with studded punk rock belts. Ruth knew just what to do with that: "I get up table! I dancing, Daddy!"

Confidential to uncle David: though you were worried that she didn't know your name, since you've left, we've had about a daily, "I see David Meli?"

A quick update

Grammy and Grampy are coming to visit this weekend and Ruth is very excited. Every morning she asks, "Grammy downstairs?" or "I see Grammy?" She pointed to a picture of a squid in I'm the Best Artist in the Ocean this morning and said, "Grampy have moustache too!"

We are excited to report that Ruth is learning letters. She knows A, B, E, O, R and S. At first I thought she was just memorizing placement in books but one day we walked by the dry cleaners and she pointed out the S on their sign ("S on dat! S right dere!")

She wants us to read everything. Signs in stores, advertisements, magazine covers, junk mail. We frequently hear, "What dat say?" or "Words! Words on dat! Read it!"

She is a huge fan of stories. I would guesstimate that Daniel and I have told her Little Red Riding Hood approximately 6532 times.

Day 669 - Milton's Satan, Darth Vader, Dracula, etc.

One of Melissa's coworkers got Ruth a board book about Chanukah for the holidays, and she really likes us to read it to her (she's really into the Passover book our friend Joe got her too... weird kid). Anyway, as a result, I was treated to this exchange this morning as I came downstairs:

Melissa (reading): Suddenly, wicked King Antiochus of Syria sent soldiers to enslave the Jews and turn their Temple into a place of idols, impure animals, and sin.

Ruth: I LIKE SIN TOO!

Clearly, we are doing something wrong.