She helped draw a face on her pumpkin to carve at Halloween. (And she is in underwear because... potty training. Which I’m happy to report is going tremendously well. She is fully potty trained during the day, only wearing a diaper at nap and overnight!)
Scooping out the goop was a lot of fun!
Watching funny YouTube videos with daddy and sisters.
Ruth was delighted to have her hand traced on this big piece of cardboard.
Pretend sleeping with Caroline in Carrie’s bed. These two are so sweet. Ruth has enhanced all of our lives, but the comradeship between Ruth and Caroline has proved the most delightful thing to watch unfold. Ruth means “loyal friend” and I have no doubt that these two sisters will be friends for life.
I always have to include a crying picture because not every day is full of smiles. This was a morning she woke up and wanted daddy. But daddy was at work.
Ruth enjoyed creating a watercolor artwork. As you can see, she is always watching Caroline (and all the sisters) to see how to act and interact.
We had a lot of appointments and errands this month. Ruthie was pretty worn out after one such trip and fell asleep in the truck while chewing on a straw. When we got home the girls couldn’t stop giggling at the cute picture she made.
She loved “pin the tail on the horse” at Anne’s birthday party.
We couldn’t stop laughing at Ruthie with a mustache. Her cousin Emma is so good with all the younger cousins.
She’s getting really good at stacking blocks.
If you can’t tell, Ruth loves to “help”. Whatever we are doing, she wants to be in on the action. Here she is washing dishes with Trent and Caroline.
And helping make pancakes Saturday morning.
And helping roll up Mama’s homemade rolls for Thanksgiving.
She celebrated her first American Thanksgiving! We were with the Hess family on the Sunday before Thanksgiving.
Chowing down for the dinner of leftovers.
Hess family! Trent has two older brothers, and one sister-in-law. We are the only ones with kids, but it makes for a different kind of gathering for our kids as my side of the family is jam-packed with kids.
Thanksgiving at my sister Audrey’s house was more subdued than usual as one of our other sisters and her five sons were not there. It was a great meal with lots of time for chatting.
Ruthie thought it was so funny to walk around in her cousin, Matteo’s dinosaur costume.
A Hess family tradition is to go shopping for our Christmas tree on Black Friday. On Saturday, Trent leaves for the mountains to go hunting, so us girls are on our own.
Ruthie was so cute decorating the tree. She hung all the ornaments in one spot on “her side” of the tree. She is quite proud of her work and continues to point it out to us.
We decorated ginger bread houses that their Aunt Sarah brought for them on Thanksgiving!
We baked our first of many batches of Christmas cookies with varying degrees of excitement.
We spent a loooooong two hours in the Social Security office trying to get sorted out why Ruth’s social security card never came as it was supposed to. Thankfully we were able to get it worked out and should receive it soon.
And just like that, another month passed and we are more in love than ever with our daughter.
When I handed Ruth her 6 month sticker she hopped right up onto her chair in her room, ready for daddy to be silly while I snap away on my phone to get pictures.
This is her cheeky grin. Baby Listens is one of her favorite books right now.
Ruth finally had her evaluation with Early Intervention and we hope to be starting speech therapy in a couple weeks. She is so eager to learn and imitate and we look forward to giving her the tools and strength she needs to produce more sounds and clearer words. She knows a lot of signs (maybe 30) and we can understand about that many words. She does use a lot of substitution in her speech; most sounds that she cannot make she puts an /m/ or /n/ in its place. For example: baby is mayme. So while we know what she is saying, we need her to learn to make the correct sounds.
About a week ago as I was putting her to bed and doing the same routine I do every night, ending with “Good night, Ruthie. I love you!” She said very clearly, “Nigh-nigh, Mama.” This was really the first time she has put two words together in a way that was clearly recognizable and it melted my heart.
So happy half a year home, Ruth! We love you!
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