Poor Ruby

Will you just look at that sweet baby?  Unfortunately for her, she had a little accident...

And ended up in a cast:(  She took a tumble all the way down the stairs, we were so lucky nothing else happened to her!  She just doesn't have enough brains yet to know that if you try to scoot down the stairs, it will hurt.  Pearl feels terrible, she had taken her upstairs while I was cooking dinner and didn't close the gate.  There will be no more unauthorized baby movement around here.

Fortunately, it was a mild fracture, in fact, the pediatritian didn't even catch it, the radiologist found it and I got a call the next day.   

I get comments a lot.  It is the cutest little cast you've ever seen, if it wasn't so sad, it'd be something to smile about.  I made sure to take pictures while it's still cute, one week later and it's pretty gross.  We're counting down the days until it's gone (she has to have it for 5 weeks.)

I think the saddest part is that she's supposed to be working on standing and crawling... but her ankle hurts too, so I haven't been pushing it, we'll meet with the PT soon and get her advice.  Other than that, it doesn't seem to be holding her back much.  She's getting good at feeding with her left hand, she does her little scoot with a CLUNK CLUNK throughout the house, and finds that she can still do important things...

like single-handedly removing all of the pea gravel from the playground (Maryann, remember how that was Sidon's favorite thing to do?) and playing with her grandpa.

How we love this sweet, good natured little girl!

Second Half Marathon

I did my second half marathon yesterday.  It was really fun.  No really, I mean it.  It was raining, I had stayed up too late the night before seeing the twilight movie with Tami and Mara, it was FREEZING cold, but I still had a great time.  I think it's partially becuase it was my second half, I wasn't so worried about it, I knew what to expect.  But mostly, it was fun because I ran with my friend Kate. 

Let me tell you about Kate.  We met in the back row of our Speech Pathology/Audiology classess junior year.  Turns out she was the very best kind of friend to have, always there for you, super smart, took REALLY good notes, and she's sneaky.  She's all quiet and sweet, if you didn't know her, you wouldn't expect her to be such an overachiever... but she is.  When you're not looking, she'll just quietly graduate head of the class, get a doctorate, meet her lifetime weight watchers goal, run her first half marathon faster than you... see... sneaky.  

I was actually really happy to run with her... she runs a 9 minute mile.  I didn't think I could run that fast... but I did with Kate!  And you know what, I did just fine!  I didn't pass out or anything:)  At about mile 5 I had to stop to go to the bathroom (of course) but I caught up a bit and ended up finishing a few minutes behind her.  

This means I shaved a full 26 minutes off of my last race time.  That's a lot, in case you're wondering.  I can now do a half marathon in 2 hours and 14 minutes!  Boo-yah!!!!  It was actually easier that way... I thought I would get too tired, but the miles seemed to go a lot faster and my body was glad to be done half an hour before expected:)

See?  Doesn't that sound fun?  Now that I know I can run so fast (fast enough to be in the top half of the finishers my age:) my next goal is to do a 10 K in under an hour.  We'll see....

Happy Halloween

Cutest.  Elephant.  Ever.

 Max, who was thrilled to be an astronaut because Sam was one too!

Somehow, Astronauts use their ninja powers to protect the universe.  Or something like that.  

Pearl girl as a kitty with her best friend, Molly.  Both at the school harvest festival and at the neighborhood trunk or treat, they just "hung out" and did their own thing.  Last night they talked on the phone for 15 minutes.  When did she decide to grow up?  And who gave her permission?

Mean (Crazy? Neurotic?) Mom strikes again...

Cross Country is over, and Pearl was doing so well by the end, able to run a whole mile without stopping OR crying.  We are doing a mermaid race together in 3 weeks, so I didn't want her to lose her ability to run, so I thought I'd try her on the treadmill Saturday (I ran 11 miles that day, I just didn't have it in me to do one more with her!)  It cracked me up because she LOVED it.  She got to watch whatever she wanted on netflix (my little ponies) and I set the speed for a little under a 16 minute mile, which was her finals pace.  That kid ran happily for 1.5 miles with a goofy grin on her face the whole time.  Just goes to show, to each is own.  I hate the treadmill, give me the outdoors anyday, but the treadmill works for her.  So, now she's on a 3 day a week running schedule (on the days she doesn't have taekwondo).  I feel bad making a 9 year old exercise (I think at that age you usually use the word "play" as a euphanism), but I think she's pretty happy about it.  And I'm really proud of her for doing something hard and being happy.  Nice work, Pearl!!!

Baby Lu

Little miss cutie pants is one.  (actually, it's little miss dirty pants, see previous post!!!).  Ryan Logan set up this really cool light thing and I took some pictures.  She was.... pensive, but still adorable.  

She loves her brothers and sisters, and she still loves her mommy and daddy.  She still refuses to stand unless you grab her thighs and make her.  She throws peas on the floor, and has decided chocolate milk is awesome.  She is starting to sign "milk" and will repeat duplicated syllables.  She will give you the hugest smile when you come back into the room after leaving.  We love her sooo much!!!  One year dr appt monday, stats and birthday party pics to follow!

Cross Country Finals

Today was Pearly's cross country finals.  She did so well!  I was so worried about her, I've been "pacing" her for most of the other meets, ever since she got lost the first time.  No pacing for the finals, though.  So, I made her wear her "sparkle" skirt and her coach gave her some super awesome sparkly bows.  This meant that both Jared and I (who were stationed at different places on the course) could see her coming from far away.  

She finished last, with a smile on her face.  I was standing in the crowd at one point, and she ran past, alone, obviously working very hard, in all of her sparklyness.  I heard someone say "look at her go, she's totally awesome."  That pretty much sums it up.  Nice job, Pearl, you never gave up even though it was hard.  So proud of you!

It's official.  Ruby is a Hulbert.  Which, for my particular branch of the family, involves vast amounts of uncoordination.  Her cousin, Quincy, (born 5 days after Ruby) can climb up and stand on top of the toilet tank (not that I'm asking for that, believe me!!!).  When Grandma is asked how the babies are doing, this is how it goes down... "Quincy can stand and walk and dance and run 5 miles...  Ruby has 8 teeth."  Or something like that.

But we are here to tell you that she's ON THE MOVE!!!  Just not in the typical way... she's been scooting for a week or two, but today she got really fast, and it's quite funny.  Kind of like one of those clams or something moving along the beach.

And she does have 8 teeth.  That takes some effort, right?:)