Roobathon

As the Roobs marches towards double-digits (in months anyways), she has been amazing us with a variety of developmental leaps.  Luckily, she sometimes takes the time to take a break and just spend time with the family.

As far as those developmental leaps go, Asha has taken to practicing all of them on a regular basis, as if she is training for her own special Olympic event - the Roobathon.  Let's examine each of the events she is training for:

Eating
Little Asha Ruby's "interest" in swallowing food that we told you about last time has now grown into a full blown mini-appetite.   She now joins us in eating at all of our "sit down" meals.  The only caveat is that she eschews use of a spoon - the food must be close to "whole" and picked up with her pincer grip.  No purees for our princess!  Her usual menu includes fruit (blueberries, pears, apricot), vegetables (yams, carrots) or other foods (oatmeal, black beans).  She also likes to have many snacks throughout the day, especially her favorite treat: rice puffs!  Mama says they are such a hit because they taste just like paper...

 

"The Sign" & Flapping
In addition to eating, Ruby-rama as also started to be more communicative with more than just her face and voice.  For starters, she has started doing "the sign", which consists of holding her hand out and opening/clenching her fist repeatedly.  (You'll have to look real closely in the video later to spot it since it goes by quickly.)  This "sign" can mean (1) hello, (2) goodbye, (3) I want that, (4) I like that, or (5) come over here.  Or, so we think.

When in need of showing her general excitement, Ashasaurus Roobs has taken to just flapping her arms like nobody's business. Mama and Papa really think the world would be a lot more fun if everyone adopted this habit.  When it does, just remember it all began with the Roobs...

Sharing
We're also happy to say that Rubycakes has learned that it can be a lot of fun to share her toys (or other random objects) with those around her.  All we can ask is, if you are around her and she is holding an object in your direction and looking at you expectantly, do accept the gift and say "thank you"!  (And please don't forget to offer it back before she gets the idea that sharing means losing toys.)

Peek-A-Boo
The final Roobathon event is the most fun.  We have played peek-a-boo with her by placing the silks on top of her or us enough times that she has started to hold them up in front of herself for a few seconds before peeking out (usually laughing).  To take part, just be sure to say "Where's Asha Ruby?" whenever you see her under the silk:

 

In addition to those official Roobathon events, A.R. is also busy working on some unsanctioned extreme sports.   These include:

• Free-standing: standing for up to 10 seconds with no safety equipment (or other support).   Luckily most of the training for this event is happening on the bed!
• Baby sign language: Mama and Papa spotted a "more" sign the other day while we were eating, after Asha had run out of blueberries.
• Potty training: Let's just say that we've had regular "catches" in the potty.  (That sounds sporty doesn't it?)

We'll be working hard to capture those extreme events on video. (Well, maybe not the last one...)  In the meantime, enjoy our official Roobathon 2007 coverage:

Video: Roobathon 2007