Ruby's first manicure and pedicure

I painted Ruby's fingernails and toenails a very bright hot pink. She loves them! She does a good job holding still until they dry. Toddlers sure are rough on their hands though...it doesn't last long!

Little Gym birthday party

Ruby went to a birthday party for one of her playgroup friends at the Little Gym.

She is getting to be quite the climber!

Friends riding the parachute. What a fun party!

Grapefest

Grapevine has several festivals throughout the year, but the most recent was Grapefest. Ruby and I met our playgroup in the kid's area for a bit.

She got to go in the petting zoo.

And rode a 'purple beep beep.'





But especially loved the miniature train...she got to sit in the front!

Neighborhood playdates

We have weekly playdates with some neighborhood friends. Here's Ruby with two of her buddies.

Ice cream and snow cones

We went out for a summertime ice cream treat one day. Ruby wanted chocolate with sprinkles...




We went to our local snow cone stand on its last day of the season. Ruby loves rainbow flavor!

Video Monitor

We've always had an audio monitor for Ruby, but after a rather messy (and rather humorous) incident where she removed her own dirty diaper while I thought she was napping, we decided to upgrade to a video monitor.

She, of course, noticed the new addition to her room very quickly. I just keep telling her it is just a flashlight and to leave it alone.

It is great because I can see what she up to when she is supposedly napping, or what she does when she wakes up first thing in the morning. Another nice benefit is that I can watch as Alex reads Ruby her bedtime books, and sings to her at night. We've observed tea parties, babydoll feedings, dress up time, and her rolling out of bed twice.

It is very entertaining and hopefully will prevent another messy diaper episode, or at least help me minimize it.

Macnab Family Portrait - September 2011

Ruby came home with a note from her preschool asking for a recent family picture for a craft they will be doing. I looked through our pictures and realized we didn't have any decent ones since around Christmas of last year.

So, we did an impromptu family portrait session...and amazingly we managed to catch all three of us smiling with the camera's self timer!

So, here is the result!