My Little Girl

When I had Will, my parents were AMAZING, and came and took Ruth for the next couple of days. It turned into six days because Ruth was sick, and so mom kept her so that we wouldn't bring the flu bug home to our house. My mom was in the middle of planning a multi-stake Valentines dinner/dance, and had a lot going on. They had about 500 people show up this year and mom said it was CRAZY PACKED (That is because everyone there knows now that my mom knows how to PARTY like none other. True story.) But she took care of Ruth because she is awesome like that, and let me recover without a sick toddler. I didn't realize how much I would miss Ruthie, she's never been away from me for that long before. Also, the fact that she was sick made me extra sad to not be able to be there to comfort her and hug her and kiss her. Because mom was so busy, dad got up with Ruth a couple mornings in the wee hours so mom could sleep. Ruth usually sleeps through the night, but like I said, she was sick, poor thing. Dad saw Sterling on campus one day and informed him that he was up at 4:30am  with our daughter. He said he rocked her to sleep and she cuddled right into him for a long time, and when she got fussy again, he just switched chairs and rocked her to sleep and again, she just snuggled right in. Sterling was at a loss of what to say, and dad said, "Just thank me for doing it, and I'll thank YOU for the experience." Of course, I bawled when I heard the story. And bawled again when I wrote it down that night. I am so grateful for such a wonderful dad! And that my parents did so much with Ruth over those couple of days.

When I brought Ruth home she was still a little under-the-weather, and so was I. The first day was absolutely miserable. She threw fits, I was exhausted, she was ornery and whiney and I just wondered where my happy little girl went. By Sunday she felt a lot better and things got much better in response. But the other afternoon I was talking to Sterling (who is virtually non-existent with his two jobs and two tests this weekend, sigh) and said that she just seemed like a MOODY toddler to me. Then it kind of struck me that that is exactly what she is. She loves Will and gives him kisses and hugs, but there are times when I am feeding him and she'll crawl up to sit beside me and then try to push him away so she can be the only one in my lap. Poor girl. Definitely a bit of a transition for her to not be the center of attention.

Ruth really is so sweet and so funny, though. She throws away all of Will's dirty diapers for me when I hand them to her. The other day I was showering and Will was on our bed (Ruth can't climb that one quite yet) and all the sudden this little hand pokes in between the wall and shower curtain holding a container of floss. "Thank you" I said, and took it from the hand, and her voice said "Welcome" (or her rendition that is somewhat close to that) and proceeded to walk away. A little while later, the hand comes back, this time holding toothpaste. We repeated this several times. It was just so adorable to me. A couple days ago, she heard me turn off the shower, and when I opened the curtain to grab a towel, she was standing there holding a towel for me! (She had gotten it out of the dirty laundry basket in the hallway, but still, SO SWEET!) This morning she spilled my water bottle (she is entranced with the one they gave me at the hospital and first thing every morning she says "PEASE!" for a drink) and Sterling wiped up the water with a rag, and then threw the rag in the laundry hamper. She proceeded to drop the water bottle on purpose, say "uh-oh!", got the rag out of the hamper, wiped a little at the carpet, and carry the water bottle back to me. She did this about four times, funny girl. She also likes to stick her hand in the toilet water (when I am unlucky enough to have Sterling leave the cover up) and then come running to me going "UH-OHHHH!!!!" with her wet hand outstretched. That one is not quite as awesome, but I just feel so lucky and so blessed to have time with my babies and even though we definitely have rough moments...or days...I am glad I am home, with them.

And another picture of my teeny-tiny man. He is SO SO cute! (And apparently monkeys were really big at one point, because out of the hand-me-downs I received, about 90% are monkey themed.)

I love them both SO SO SO SO SO much! So much.