8 Teeth!

As the title betrays, our big news today is that Ruby is the proud owner of EIGHT pearly whites. Just last week her sixth tooth was pushing through on top and then this morning I looked in Ruby's mouth and TWO teeth had popped up on bottom, pretty much overnight! I'm always glad when teeth pop through because I feel like it explains Ruby's difficult times. I'm coming to realize, though, that she just seems to have a lot of difficult times and is really just becoming a big performer. She knows that if she cries loud enough for long enough I will drop what I'm doing and pick her up. I really wish this kiddo came with an owner's manual, because these tantrums are really ridiculous for a ten month old! I feel like I'm always blushing uncontrollably on the bus while I attempt appease Ru. She just hates to be tied in to anything. I'm really not looking forward to our next overseas plane ride... it could get ugly!

So, I'm sure some of you wondered if I had totally abandoned the blog. Not exactly, though I did succomb to a kind of inertia that made it more and more difficult to post as each day passed. Things have just been kind of rough around the edges here. Once the flu let up on the three of us, colds hit. I, somehow, ended up with the worst cold and am still coughing away all day and night. I doubt poor Jared is getting much more sleep than me. To make matters worse, we seem to have entered another deep freeze with temperatures below zero most of the day. I have ventured out a few times this week, but this kind of weather really makes me want to hole up with a good book and cuddle my munchkin whenever she'll slow down long enough to let me. She's still not walking (at least not in the traditional sense!), though she's discovered that the vacuum cleaner makes a lovely dance partner and will sometimes scoot around for a while using that.

On other matters, we have come to some conclusions about the moms and tots ministry at church. We decided that we will have to hold off on MOPS for now, as we really don't have enough people to make it work properly. We will, however, be starting a weekly playgroup at our house. We even have a mentor mom that will be meeting with us. She has three grown sons and seems to be a wonderful Christian woman. I'm really looking forward to getting to know her better. In May, we will start reading a book to discuss during our meetings. It's a MOPS book about the needs of mothers. I've started reading it already and I think that it's really going to be wonderful for all of us.

Jared sang at church last Sunday with the men's quartet (which was actually a trio), to rave reviews. This Sunday, the "choir" will be singing for the third time. I really hope that it goes well, but I must admit I'm a bit nervous. Our leader (and pastor) insists that we sing from memory, which has resulted in quite a few mistakes during the last two performances, so I hope that this one doesn't totally fall apart! The nice thing is that the congregation is small and very accepting. They seem to get a lot out of the songs regardless of our poor singing!

Keep Jared in your prayers if you would. He's up for his six-month presentation and review in a week and a half. Things have been going alright lately and he thinks he will be ready, but you can never be sure in his field when a problem will pop up. I can't believe we're already coming up on six months... time flies! We will have to start looking for our new home soon as the lease will be up here at the end of June. We will miss having the garden, since most of the time we've been here it's been too cold to enjoy it much. I'm hoping that it will be warm enough by Ruby's birthday (May 2) to have her party outside.

Well, after all that hodge podge of information, I think I better get going. I have to get a few things done around the house before Ruby's up from her nap--which could be any time now!