Wednesday, November 17, 2004

Moving On

Whew. My election blues aren’t gone, but my cynical sense of humor is slowly returning, and I’m able to blow off some of the frustration that I still feel so strongly. Ruby also has been providing many distractions. She’s figured out how to crawl very quickly, which has led to a flurry of baby-proofing, including obtaining a cabinet with closing doors for the TV, Xbox, DVD, VCR and all the related electronics. She really seemed intent on pulling the TV down upon her head, so we had to hide it. Ruby was a great help while I put it together, and even though we were all getting over our cold that afternoon, the task was completed with minimal swearing.

It’s much easier to put those things together if you have plenty of your own tools and hardware, so you can do it your way when the instructions fail you. For a build-it-yourself model, it’s really nice. It’s dark hardwood, not that fake pressboard stuff, and with a little help from my toolbox, it’s nice and sturdy.
In addition to her crawling, Ruby has been pulling herself up into a standing position wherever she can.

This is extremely cute, but we are continually flinching as she falls face forward into whatever happens to be in front of or below her. We bought a Persian style area rug so that there would be a little bit of cushion between her nose and the hardwood floor. Her toy bucket and our coffee table have been the catalysts of several screaming outbursts.

We are finally all recovered from our sicknesses and their relapses, but the suffering continues. When Ruby was really sick, and she was waking up coughing and choking, Ani slept with her in the super comfy chair that my mom got us, so that she could be close and comforting for that poor pitiful child. Ruby had difficulty breathing until about a week ago, and even then, she had developed an ear infection and was in real pain. Now, when all of these things have been treated or have run their natural course, Ruby’s sleep patterns have regressed drastically: she is only sleeping an hour at a time in her crib. She just screamed as I was writing this, and Ani, with a defeated look on her face, trotted out of our bedroom and into the dark of Ruby’s room to soothe her. We are trying to gradually break her of sleeping in the chair by leaving her in her crib an hour longer every day, until this weekend, when we are going to keep putting her back to sleep in her room all night long (and we'll be able to nap all day with her.) I hope that she’ll snap back into her pre-sickness routine fairly quickly, because Ani and I are both about to get pretty busy at work for the holidays, and our rest will be very important. I really feel bad for Ani, because Ruby doesn’t want to have anything to do with me in the middle of the night. If I pick her up, it’s almost more distressing than if we were to just leave her there. She wants Mama! I don’t blame her. I know how hard it must be for Ani to have to answer that call all night long, but I get all misty and full of love every time I see their silhouettes rocking gently back and forth in the dark as Ruby’s cries gradually dissipate into sighs and the deep breathing of sleep.
Ruby’s first word is Da Da. She has made other sounds of course, and she continually makes raspberry noises and clucks her tongue often, but this is her first real repetitive vocal sound. Da Da. She repeats it all day long. I know that this isn’t a sign that she loves me, her Dad, more than Ani; because she says it to Ani as much or more than she does to me. She says it when she’s happy, when she’s serious, when she wants to play with Nora, and when she’s a little angry. Da Da Da Da Da Da… I don’t care if she’s not referring to me when she says it, It makes me so happy to hear it. The only sound I like more is her belly laugh. It is so sweet and funny that I can’t help but laugh with her and repeat over and over whatever stupid thing I did to cause it in the first place, until she’s bored with me and turns and crawls away.