Who ARE you?!? And what have you done with my baby?

Ruby has entered a new phase. For the sake of everyone involved, I hope it's a short one. Now when she gets upset, she doesn't just cry. To say that she wails is even an understatement. Now she screams as if someone or something is ripping off one of her limbs. It doesn't even take her long to wind up to this hysterical state. Within a split second, she goes from the cute and cuddly baby pictured above to inconsolable wrath pudge. The only positive in all of this is that she can just as quickly wind back down to the pleasant and happy baby we know and love. However, it takes her parents a little longer to recover from her spells. After she finally went down to bed tonight (after midnight), I was absolutely incredulous as I stared at her peaceful sleeping face. All I could think of was that line from When Harry Met Sally (one of my favorite movies): "It's absolutely amazing. You look like a normal person but actually you're the Angel of Death."

On a brighter note, Levi is doing well with the potty training. Knock on wood. From the scoreboard in the previous post, you can see that he's catching the vision. I'm glad that all along we've been pretty restrained with his intake of sweets and candy (he had his very first taste of chocolate this last Halloween), because it's proven to be a very powerful incentive in getting him to use the potty. It turns out that he loves chocolate (duh), and now he likes to use the potty because he gets a piece of chocolate for doing so. Our next step is to venture outside the house with him and see how well he can hold it in. It's a brave new world indeed.

Potty 101 Status

12/30/07 Update: It looks like our incentive program (chocolate) is working a little too well. Tonight we found Levi on the potty at least 3 times within the space of 2 hours just squeezing himself dry in order to get yet another Hershey Kiss (or "chocolate cone" according to the boy). Clearly, Jeff and I need to make a few strategic revisions.


Levi loves walking around the house half naked (not a big surprise). If it weren't the middle of winter, we'd let him take it all off. You can check his progress on the scoreboard below, which I'll try to update daily.

Hooray Levi: 20

TGF Nature's Miracle Stain Remover: 8

Tis the Season

Merry Christmas everyone! The stress of braving the hordes at shopping malls aside, I relish the little things that seem to happen only around this time of year. We've really enjoyed reading all the Christmas cards and letters. Jeff even made one for us, although I'm not sure how successful he was at sending them out. We've also really enjoyed the generous exchange of treats that happens during the holidays. In fact, on Thursday morning, I opened the front door to find that a friend had left us an assortment of beautiful Christmas cookies at our doorstep. The first thought that came to my mind was, "I love this time of year!" We've got a mission/agenda for Christmas 2007: potty train The Boy. All the requisite gear arrived from Babycenter this last week (books, potty seats, travel potty seat, big kid pants, carpet cleaner, etc.), so starting tomorrow Levi will go commando around the house. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this will work, but realize that Levi holds all the cards this time. It'll happen only if he's ready for it. Anyway, wish us luck and have a wonderful holiday. Here are some pictures, of course.

Note the bib. The good thing about naming your kid like a clothing brand is that you don't have to pay for monogramming.

A father-daughter moment: Jeff loves giving Rubytoons what we call "scruffies", where he combs her scalp with the stubble on his chin. I think she likes it too. It's like watching some strange dance as they move their heads back and forth in complementary directions.

Ruby makes her debut at Levi's playgroup to a captive audience of 2.5 year-old girls and a teddy bear.

Ruby enjoying some tummy time on the wedge pillow. Front view.

Back view. Note the basketball-shaped head with elf ears sticking out at the sides. Thanks to Jeff for passing that onto our children.

playing dress-up

It looks like we have a break from sore throats and dripping noses this week (knock of wood). Ruby is chugging the milk and well on her way to fitting into Levi's wardrobe. I'm only half joking. Levi is a petite 25 pounds at this point and still fitting comfortably in his 2T clothes while Ruby weighs in at 15 pounds and already filling out her 3-6 month outfits. This past week I've been having a great time dressing her up in all the cute girl clothes we've inherited from generous friends. Jeff got jealous of all the fun I was having with Ruby and dressed Levi up in his Halloween costume again. At least now we have some decent pictures of Levi as a funky chicken.

Just a little something to go with my favorite socks.

The latest in Dubai baby fashion. Pink camels are all the rage this season.

Phew! Modeling is tough work. I need a break.

Bock bock!

Germapalooza 2007. We rock.

Not much to report this week except that we're all sick. This is the second time since Ruby's birth that we've shared a family cold. I'm not going to name any names, but we have a certain squeaky little boy to thank for this. During Levi's first year (oops there I go dropping names), he didn't get sick at all. I thought it was due the magic of breast milk, nature's panacea to all infant illness. But now I realize it's just because we didn't have any other young kids around. Ruby's a trouper and continues to coo and smile in spite of the snot. Levi's also taking it pretty well and really enjoys talking about the snot. I'm doing alright so far. But, as usual, Jeff is taking it the hardest. He walks around the house in his wool beanie (which he seems to only wear when sick) with Kleenex in hand and a vapid look on his face. Poor Jeff. Poor poor Jeff. We're bummed we couldn't see Grandma Joan while she was in town, but so it goes. Here are more pix.

Levi loved the SF Auto Show. He pretty much said, "This car is great, Jeff!" with every car he saw.

Beautiful sleeping baby

Thanks to Aunt Heather, everyone can see how much Ruby loves NY.

Same goes for Levi.