Ruth is THREE!

The kids spent the morning at Beth's-having the time of their lives I'm sure, since Caroline had a grandma visiting :)- while Sterling played hooky from school and went to the hospital with me. We had a version...almost. Haha! We got checked in to the hospital, they took my blood, put in an iv, gave me two bags of saline fluid (I wasn't allowed to eat or drink for 8 hours beforehand) and then had to redo a bunch of stuff because my name had been spelled wrong and the forms and blood work and wrist bands all had to be reprinted...and FINALLY the ultrasound tech started the ultrasound to see where this baby girl was. Head down. So we didn't have a version after all!!!!! Yay!!! We are so thankful and feel so blessed. 

I loved our nurse while we were there. She was 8 months pregnant and her doctor is the same as ours and she said he is the best. She seemed really great so that made me feel more confident about our future delivery. I had thought that baby girl turned the night before. It was really painful and a ton of movement and I even told Sterling I thought she had moved. But I didn't want to get my hopes up because she moves so much and I'm still so uncertain about body parts (actually, sometimes I think I understand it a lot more than I say, but I never want to get my hopes up so I talk myself in circles in my head) that I couldn't decide. So here's crossing our fingers that she stays head down (Dr. D gave us a 90% chance of that being the case.) and I couldn't be happier! Yay!

Sterling probably could have made it to the last hour of class, but we would have had to drive forty minutes to get him there and really, we just wanted to hang out and spend the day together. We had found a coupon for Chuck E Cheese's and after throwing around some other ideas, decided it was too hot outside and we'd rather go there. It was perfect. Ruth's favorite food is pizza, which the coupon included, and even though some of the games were a bit too old she still REALLY enjoyed it. From getting coins to put into the machine, to the rides, to throwing balls at screens--she thought it was a blast. Apparently her daddy is on the same wave length because I think he enjoyed himself more than anyone. They had a GREAT time---and next time they go on a daddy/daughter date I think I'll send them to an arcade because it was so fun to watch them together!

Watching Chuck E Cheese dance.

 Ruthie loved the rides, Will was NOT a fan. It was pretty hilarious actually. We kept trying to see if he'd get used to it, but he never changed his mind haha!

Mom! Get me out of here!

On our way home from Chuck E Cheese's we stopped and let Ruth pick out a present at Toys R Us from Grandma Cindy. We had checked our mail on our way out--Ruthie helps me check the mail every day, its quite the event here--and there was a PINK envelope! Ruth exclaimed "It's for me! For my birthday! I am so happy! It's my present!" Luckily, it was! She got a gift card so we told her she could pick ONE thing and no throwing any fits--then let her loose in the store. She actually did really great. She looked at a few dolls, then a few princess things, and once she saw a princess dress and shoes she was pretty set. She loved it! (I was a little excited since her other presents were also dress-up related and I wasn't sure how she'd like them. Unluckily, they haven't all come in the mail yet.) After all that fun we came home for cake and ice cream and presents.

As requested: a chocolate, pink, princess cake with sprinkles. She loved it! 

Not a huge fan of the sparklers, haha. 

 Superhero capes! A Superwoman, Batman, and Captain America cape. They've been playing with blankets draped over them quite a bit recently, and while I know it might have been cheaper to make them myself, I ended up ordering this 3-pack off etsy for a pretty good deal. They LOVE them!

The princess dress and shoes she picked out from Grandma Cindy.  Those shoes. She has worn them EVERYWHERE--I've already had to gorilla glue the jewels back on, but now I think they'll stay. She even leaves them on to come down the stairs so it takes her ten minutes. Haha.

I can't believe I have a 3 yr old! 

After dinner we had to have some fun playing dress-up with all her new gear!

Superheroes!!!

A princess dance with daddy, or Batman. 

Will is 'getting' daddy and I can't get over his face, it is hilarious!!!!

Ruthie at three:

• Loves to help and is really great especially with Will. She also is really good at picking up her toys.
• Starting to know the words to all sorts of songs and she sings constantly! Every day it blows my mind how many words she knows to songs!
• Loves to read books, especially the ones we get from the library.
• Starting to focus much more on an activity for lengths of time, which is really nice and means we have started doing a lot more arts and crafts around this house.
• In nursery everyone says she is the "best big sister" because she gives Will hugs and toys until he stops crying and is ready to play.
• Says "swim soup" instead of swimsuit and a lot of other cute phrases.
• Gets up early. Always. 6 am brings a knock on her door and then I let her out of her room so Will can still sleep, unless he is already awake. Sometimes she crawls into his crib and plays with him and I can hear them happy as can be together.
• Loves pizza, rice, casseroles, pretty much anything--but if there is one thing she prefers out of a meal, it's really hard to get her to eat anything else off her plate.
• Really getting into the pink and sparkles and princess. I don't mind a bit--it's a fun age and I love seeing her prance and dance and twirl and sing.
• She is awesome at going to the potty but she HATES going in public places because the toilets flush 'too loud' and she is always worried it will flush before she gets off. Poor girl.
• She likes to watch Dragon Tales, Caillou, and Noddy.
• She LOVES puzzles. We have quite a few puzzle apps on our tablet and she loves them. We just upped the pieces number from 16 to 24 and sometimes she asks me for help, but usually she can do them all by herself, it's impressive!
• She likes to dress herself. About three times a day, at least. She likes skirts and dresses, usually both at once and paired with her cowboy boots.

There's so much more that I am amazed about every day with her, I can't believe how big she is getting! She is definitely starting to be less of a handful--knock on wood--which is good since Will is starting right in to that phase. We still have tantrums and messes and afternoons where I wish she still napped, but I could not ask for a better toddler! We love you Ruthie! Happy Birthday!

PS Grandma Rasmussen gave Ruth and Will our zoo pass for their birthdays, so we made sure that Ruthie remembered that too! She is so SPOILED!