Rua - 3 months

Dearest Rua,

I looked at my phone today and saw the date and then suddenly realized that you are 3 months old today! How did that happen? You have had a wonderful 3-month-day. You have been so happy and all smiles (and have taken some great naps).

What a fun month you have had! You had your very first Christmas and New Years. Unless you count waking up at exactly 12:00am on Christmas Day ready to smile and be awake, you didn't really seem to notice any of it, but you did like all the lights and music.

Some things about you at 3 months:

• You laughed for the first time. You've done some little half laughs in the last couple of weeks, but today you gave us your first real full-on laugh. I loved it and the way your little eyes just lit up. And what made you laugh for the first time? Abby of course.
• You have started to talk to us a lot more in your little noises. You usually make a cute little 'guh' sound.

• You have been making lots of bubbles with your mouth and drooling a ton. 
• Along with drooling and bubbles you have been putting those little hands in your mouth a lot. Maybe the start of teething? I try to get you to suck and chew on your teething toys but you aren't interested yet. 
• You sleep so well!  You are usually in bed around 6-6:30pm and don't wake up until at least midnight and often not until 2 or 3am. That is such a welcome change from the consistently dreadful two hour wakings (EVERY two hours) your sister did for a really long time! You are still taking several naps during the day.

• You took your first ride in my new (yay!!) jogging stroller this month. You liked it for about ten minutes and then you screamed. Same thing every day so far, My best bet seems to be to try to get you to fall asleep if I want any sort of run. And while you cry, Abby is usually happy as a clam, singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star or The Itsey Bitsy Spider next to you. We'll make a runner out of you yet.
• You are getting stronger and stronger. You hold your head up like a pro and love to stand up on your feet.
• You love your baths! You are all smiles and coos while we wash you. Abby loves to help wash you too.

Love you little girl!

Love, 

Your Mamma

Abby and her babies

Abby loves her babies. She feeds them, pretends to breastfeed them, dresses them and changes their diapers, takes them for walks, wraps them up in blankets and rocks them, and puts them to bed. She is pretty darn adorable with these babies of her (includes two baby dolls, a monkey, and a bear). 

Rua - 2 months

                                            

December 5th, 2014

Dearest Rua,

Two months old! This has been a great month for you! Best thing of all has been your smiles. You had smiled a little bit in your first month but this month you've really been flashing those adorable smiles. It is the best right when you wake up, especially in the morning. I love seeing that you are happy!

You've also gotten so much stronger this month. You can hold that little head of yours up, no problem! You also love it when we stand you on your feet. You push down with those feet and stand up strong and straight, and will happily stay like that for a while. We put you in your bumbo seat for the first time today and you just loved it. I think you enjoyed being able to sit on your own and look around. Of course, Abby thought the bumbo was the greatest thing, and once you were out of it, her dolls went right in. 

Abby loves taking care of her dolls, just like I take care of you. She told me today that her babies are 2 months old, just like Rua. She changes their diapers, pretends she is breastfeeding them, cuddles with them, and puts them to bed. And she loves you so much! She is the best big sister you could ask for. She always wants to be by you and hold you and love you. 

You've started making more sounds, not just the same crying voice we've been hearing, but cute, adorable little coos. So fun to hear your voice!  You also are making lots of little bubbles with your mouth, lots more drooling happening!

Things seem to be setting into a rhythm around here. You wake up in the morning around 7-8ish, are super happy and cute for about an hour and a half, and then you are ready to sleep. And each time you wake up from a nap, I know we have about that same amount of time and then you will need to go down again. Most days you are taking two nice long naps, though some days, like today, it's tons of little cat naps. And then you are ready for bed, super early. Usually around 6pm. 

                        

You absolutely hate your car seat, so taking you out anytime in the car that might overlap with a nap is really hard because you just won't fall asleep in the car seat, you scream and scream instead. And you cry most any other time you are in the car seat as well. So it's been interesting trying to time things so we can still get out and do things, without completely ruining your naps. You sleep amazingly in the moby wrap, thankfully. I wear you for at least one of your naps every day, and that is usually the one where you sleep the longest.

                       

You are growing and getting so big. I think you are around 10lbs. We had your two month doctor appointment a little early, at about 6 1/2 weeks and at that point, you were 9lb, 12oz. 

Some big events for you this past month: You got to meet your grandparents and great-grandparents on your dad's side when we drove to El Paso for Thanksgiving (a looong drive with you not liking your car seat). You also got blessed at church by your daddy.

                      

I love you so much Rua! Every day is beautiful with you here. 

Love, 

Your Mamma

Thanksgiving 2014 - El Paso

We made the long drive out to Texas for Thanksgiving this year. But we only went to El Paso instead of all the way to Eric's parents place in San Antonion. Instead they, along with Eric's sisters Kimberly and Brittany and their families met us in El Paso. Eric's dad's parents live in El Paso and they can't really travel so we wanted them to be able to meet Rua. This was also Eric's parents first time meeting Rua as well. Unfortunately we thought we didn't bring our camera charger with us (turns out we found it in our suitcase once we made it home) so we only had our lousy phone cameras, and then took a pitiful amount of pictures. Didn't even take any of Eric's parents with the girls! Sad

Anyway, we spent a few days at Eric's Uncle Don and Aunt Janet's house where we got to spend fun times with Eric's family. It was sad to each have to drive away in opposite directions Sunday morning. Too bad we can't all live closer!

In the middle of nowhere, somewhere on our way to El Paso.

Abby absolutely loved all the time she got to spend with cousins. 

Thanksgiving dinner! 

Rua with her great-grandma Anderson

Rua with uncle Neil

Sigh, only picture we got of Grandpa Anderson, and he's sleeping

A little girl sooo happy to be back home!

Rua's blessing day

Our beautiful little Rua was blessed on November 23rd. Here are some pictures from her special day.

We were able to have lots of my family come. We had a picnic at a park afterwards together.

Later in the afternoon, Eric and I took Abby and Rua to a park so we could take some more picture of Rua. We had a lot of fun, and Abby ran circles around us the entire time!

(see Abby in the background? She was having a blast running around)

The outfit:
I made Rua's blessing outfit. I found a super simple peasant dress tutorial and then found this tutorial to make the shoes. Love how they turned out!

Ectrodactyly

We haven't yet mentioned it on the blog, but Rua was born with a condition called ectrodactyly. It's a rare condition, happening in just about 1 in 90,000 babies. We don't have many specifics yet, as we are still waiting to meet with an orthopedic specialist to learn more about Rua's individual case. Here is an email Eric sent out to family on October 9, a few days after she was born (the pictures are all from those first few days too).   

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We thought it would be nice to send out an update on Rua. She is wonderfully healthy, and checked out well by both the pediatrician and the nurse home visit this week. So far she has astounded us with her ability to sleep and her calmness when awake. It is nice, and we are crossing our fingers that it doesn't change (not that we don't like the fussy babies too). 

She was tongue-tied when born, but thankfully we were able to identify it immediately, and the pediatrician clipped it on Monday (the day after she was born). Her nursing seems to be improved already, and hopefully it keeps getting better.

Rua was born with a condition called ectrodactyly (in my Sunday email I called it syndactyly, which is more common and different). Only 1 in about 90,000 babies are born with ectrodactyly, and it is most commonly hereditary but we don't know of anyone in our family that has it. In Rua, it affects both of her hands and both her feet. We've attached pictures for you to see. Rua's right hand and right foot appear to be classic ectrodactyly, where her right hand is missing two of the middle fingers, and her right foot is missing the three middle toes. Ectrodactyly is also sometimes called split hand foot malformation (SHFM). Her left hand appears to have all five fingers, but the thumb and index finger are fused all the way to the tip and the ring finger and pinky are partially fused. Her left foot also appears to maybe have all five toes but the three middle may be fused together. The malformation happens at 6-7 weeks gestation when the fingers are supposed to form but in some cases don't.

We don't have a lot of information right now, but we'll be meeting with an orthopedic specialist in the coming weeks and probably also a geneticist to learn more about it. They'll do x-rays to look at the bone structure, and also probably chromosomal tests to see if it is related to anything else. Right now, from our observation, it appears to only be her hands and feet that are different. We're not sure what this means down the road. Most of the malformation's will probably be with Rua for her entire life, but surgery may be a possibility to correct some of it or increase some functionality depending on what the specialist sees possible.  

Of course, we think she is absolutely adorable and are loving every bit of her. We are very hopeful for her and know she will do great, but we also realize it will be a challenge for both her and us at certain times. We can't wait for you all to meet her, but for now you'll have to be satisfied with pictures. We'll keep you updated as things go along.

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We are still waiting on a couple of things to meet with the specialist, but hopefully we will be able to get an appointment soon so that we can have some idea of what we have ahead of us. But for now, Rua is just a normal, adorable, occasionally fussy baby who we absolutely love.  I don't even remember most of the time that there is anything different about her.  

Halloween fun 2014

Happy Halloween! We had a lot of fun this year with Halloween, mostly because Abby was so excited for it. So I tried to do as much as I could to make it fun for her. Abby was an orange butterfly, per her request, and Rua was a caterpillar. I was hoping to get Abby to choose her own costume so in the weeks leading up to Halloween, I would periodically ask her what she wanted to be. At first I wasn't getting too feasible of answer (ex. 'purple dirt') so when she finally said 'orange butterfly' I was relieved. I made both of their costumes, which was fun. 

So, here is a run-down of everything we did this year for Halloween:

While in Phoenix with cousins Abby made Halloween cookies, went to a party with the cousins, and went to their Trunk or treat.

                           

                           

The day before Halloween, we had a few of her friends over to make Halloween crafts - spider hats, potato pumpkin stamps, and a candy corn paper craft.

                                                   

                               

                                                     

                                                     Yes Rua got one too!

                               

We went to a special Halloween story time in the library. Another excuse to wear her costume!

                               

Abby and Eric decorated our pumpkin. We decided to paint it this year, figured that would be more fun for Abby.

                               

                               

And of course, trick or treating! We went to a neighborhood nearby with some friends. 

 Abby with Remy (or should I say, Raggedy Ann?)

 Abby loved going through her candy haul.  That was almost the funnest part - watching her organize  by type and color. So cute.