Rain, Rain, Go Away!

We have had about two weeks with some rain every day. The last few days, the rain has been accompanied by rather strong gusty winds--YUCK! I guess I was just totally spoiled by those nice days that we had because now I really want summer to come and stay! Our extra time indoors has given Ruby lots more time practicing walking on her little twinkle toes. We've discovered that if she hold something in one hand (e.g. her xylophone mallet!) she seems to be able to find her balance and walk better just holding one hand. She is very wobbly though, to the point that we really wonder if something isn't going on with her ears. Skip ahead if this is too much information for you...

BUT, Ruby has always had LOTS of earwax. Not a big deal, but you have to be pretty diligent about cleaning up or else you end up with rather yucky ears after say a week. Well, for the last month or so there hasn't been much of any. Could this mean that they aren't draining properly and maybe it has her a bit unbalanced? We aren't really sure, but it just seems like she has been at this "almost walking" stage for about 4 months (or maybe more!). Everyone kept telling us that once she walks with your hands it will be no time at all. Well, that was at LEAST two or three months ago that that started, so obviously she is really taking her time or something is holding her up. I guess I just need to be thankful that she's taking her time becuase I'm sure she'll be even more of a monkey once she has that extra bit of freedom and mobility.

We had a "don't you just HATE technology!?!" moment last weekend when we discovered that the bank had de-activated both of our bank cards. This was totally our fault becuase eons ago they sent us new cards saying that the ones that we had were screwed up. Well, since we had never had a problem with them, we never got around to activating the NEW ones and eventually they got lost (well, I think they were actually thrown away--OOPS!). So, here we are at Baby Sam with about $80 worth of stuff for Ruby and we had to just leave. To make matters worse, Thursday and Friday are national holidays, so the soonest we will get our cards is Monday. Couple that with our upcoming trip to Legoland and the fact that about half of the Danske Banks don't even have paper money (other than the ATMs), this really has been a pain in the neck. Jared has, as usual, fixed us up just fine to get through the weekend, so we should be peachy (I hope!).

I thought that this picture I took of Ruby this morning kissing Trixie was so cute! She really does love that little doll and drags her all around with her. She loves to have Trixie use her toys like the rocking horse and her little walker. She'll even lug her through the tunnel with her--what a nut! It's nice that she has her little "best friend" to do things with because she really does play with her for quite a long time on her good days!

I'll end with a quick tadpole update. I know that some of you (well, maybe just Rachel!) are as interested in this whole process as I am. That whitish blob beneath the visible tadpoles are all the egg sacs and eggs that never hatched. They seem to be munching away at this day and night, though some have started to work on the duckweed, etc. I thought I could just barely see little nubs of legs starting, but it's really quite difficult to see in the pond water without actually sticking your face in and well, I guess I'm just not that curious!

Have a great day everyone! And stay tuned for some quick video clips of Ruby playing in the next day or so...