Life with Ruthie

In no particular order, I give you: Life with Ruthie, the May Edition!

Here she is, "swimming" with her Sunukjian cousins at my parents' house on Memorial Day. She is screaming; not sure if that comes across in the photo. She really didn't like the cold water. Oh well. We'll try again in a big pool soon, when we can both go in there with her. Maybe she'll like that better.

We just got a bike trailer off Craig's list, and since we're first time parents (and one of us is named Ian McCurry), we got a helmet for Ruthie. Isn't that just about the cutest thing you've ever seen? Safety first, you know.

Here she is in the bike trailer. As you can probably see, she isn't wearing the helmet. We're introducing it slowly, and staying on non-busy streets in the meantime. =) Thankfully, we live very close to the LA Riverbed Trail, which is perfect for biking. Ian, Ruthie and I took a family ride this past Saturday and it was super fun.

On Memorial Day, before we went to my parents' house, we stopped by Ian's uncle's house, since Ian's grandfather was in town. Ruthie got to meet her Great Grandfather McCurry, which was very special.

One of the best things Ruthie is doing right now (and there are many) is open-mouthed kisses. She gives them, and gives them generously. She even moves her little tongue around. It is pretty awesome. Here's Ian getting a good, slobbery one.

I put Ruthie in shoes for the first time, not too long ago. They came out of a box from my oldest niece, Sophie. She's almost 12 now, but somehow the shoes are in amazing condition. And Ruthie was very interested in them.

Here she is, standing up in the shoes. How is it something as simple as shoes ages a child? She looks so big and grown up in these!!

One of Ruthie's favorite pastimes is "reading." As you can see from the papertrail around her, she's a very aggressive magazine reader. Be sure you're finished reading it before you let her borrow it. =)

This was actually the first picture we took of her in her swimsuit. It's a super cute little two piece.

We are really looking forward to summer and taking her to Mexico, the pool and Huntington Beach. Hurry up, summer!

Bloom: Finding Beauty in the Unexpected

I've posted here before about a blog I follow, called Enjoying the Small Things. The author, Kelle Hampton, just released a book called Bloom: Finding Beauty in the Unexpected, about the first year of her baby's life, a baby that was born with un-diagnosed Down Syndrome.

It is beautiful, well-written and stirring. In fact, I have been moved to tears several times. And I'm talking tears. For the past two days that I've been reading it, I have struggled to figure out why the book is touching me so much. Yes, hearing other people's pain is hard and I can be a sympathy crier, but it seems more than that. She has a section in which she talks about reading on the Internet late one night and coming across a You Tube video of a girl with Down Syndrome singing and in the comments, people are making fun of her. Oh, man, that sent me to the Kleenex box in a hurry. Or the story of her husband searching in the garage, tears in his eyes, looking for a heater for their baby's first bath. Grief strikes everyone differently.

I don't really have an answer, and as most of you know, I wouldn't  consider myself a very sensitive person, so my own response to this has startled me. But I think it's that motherhood is changing me. I am softer now, my heart more like butter. When sad or hard things happen to babies, it's almost more than I can bear.

Don't even get me started on my baby. When even the tiniest thing happens to Ruthie, I almost go to pieces. She'll scratch herself and I get so sad. One day, I let my mind wander too far into the future and I imagined her at school, sitting alone at lunch. Geeze, I almost had to get in the shower to calm down. I used to feel silly for having this sort of response, knowing I was over-reacting. But when I read these words in Kelle's book today, it made total sense:

"It is a rite of passage not just for special needs, but for motherhood - to worry, to cry, to go to the awful place of 'what would I do IF?' We ache when they ache, and we writhe with distress at the thought that they will, at some point in life, be hurt. And they will. Our children will hurt, many times along our journey, and there's nothing we can do about it but love them and hold them and whisper in their ears, 'Oh, baby, Mama's here.'"

I was reading the book last night while Ian was doing the dishes and he could tell I was getting worked up, crying and sniffling. He asked me if I was alright and I started a conversation about what we do if it were us. It's funny, because saying it out loud almost makes it feel like it's going to happen (which I know is ridiculous - God is in control and has good things, whatever that looks like, ordained for our family). But as I was talking with Ian on the couch, I wondered how we would handle it if our next baby was born with Down Syndrome. It's not that uncommon and the more children we have, the older I'll be and the more likely it will become. I said something to him last night about how perfect and amazing the 14 babies in my family are and how statistically, it's likely something would happen and since we're one of the last families having babies, it will probably be us. Again, ridiculous. Why do we think things like that?

But the truth is, even if something unexpected were to happen to us, we would be okay. Ian and I both said that last night - we would be okay.

A family at our church recently had a baby that was born stillborn, with no signs the days before that anything was amiss (if one of my pregnant friends is reading this, I am so sorry, because I remember very well how every little thing would freak me out). I was talking with Sarah about it, both remarking about how tragic it is and how hard it must be for the parents and how we could never carry on if that happened to us. But you know what? People do carry on. God brings healing and time and friends and family make you whole again. Scarred, but whole again. It's hard to imagine, but I've seen it in people who have dealt with severe grief. You do get better, you are able to feel happy again, not everything makes you sad.

Anyway, I don't even know where I'm going with this post, but I do know that when Ruthie wakes up from her nap, I am going to hug her, smell her sweet skin and kiss her all over her face. What a gift, that girl. Thank you, Lord!

One foot, eleven inches

That's how tall Ruthie is. I am filling out the application online for her to get a passport (so we can take her to Mexico this summer) and it just struck me as funny, as I filled in that field. She's 1 foot, 11 inches. They always do babies' height in all inches and now I see why. The doctor's would always be cracking up.

Ruthie is Learning To Crawl

I'm not just saying that because I'm a new parent who thinks her baby is the cutest and the best (though I do think that). She really is! It's incredible, watching her learn about her knees and hands and scooting. I know she may have a ways to go yet before she is officially crawling, but she is working very hard at it. (Even the nursery workers at church said she was close, so there's proof for you!)

Almost every time we set her down now, she gets up on her knees and rocks back and forth, or scoots forward (or backward). I am in awe of seeing how she develops and could truly sit around and watch her for hours. She even let me take some video of her doing it and she looks so cute!

Ah, better stop here before you're all throwing up in your mouths and vowing never to return to this biased, baby-absorbed blog. =)

Personality or Problem?

I've been thinking. (A dangerous pastime, I know.)* I have sensed in my spirit in the last few weeks the call for adventure. I love adventure. Of the two of us, I am almost always the one suggesting a trip, an outing, a stay at Huntington, etc. So when I heard the news that my cousin is getting married in North Carolina at the end of the summer, I thought, "Great! We've never been to North Carolina!" Obviously, since Ian's a teacher, time off during the summer isn't an issue for us, and we have just recently accrued enough points on our JetBlue credit card for a two free flights. In my mind, we were set!

So I excitedly broached the subject with Ian, who, Lord love him, was the more practical and realistic one, mentioning the five hour flight - twice in the span of a few days. He said he didn't think we were ready to take Ruthie on a plane for that long.

I was disappointed, but willing to let it go, since I trust Ian's leadership for our family. But right away, I was planning another adventure. (Mind you, we are already going to Mexico for a week in July with my family and to our place in Huntington in August with just our little McCurry family.) We had always talked of wanting to go to San Francisco, since the two of us have never been there together. Short flight, right? And Ian has an uncle who lives in SF, so maybe we could stay with him. If not, my former co-worker, who now works at the Queen Mary, said he could get me a friends and family rate for their sister hotel in Union Square. Perfect!

So Ian and I talked about that option, and I am happy to report he is open to discussion.

But the process did get me thinking. Is it a good thing that I long for adventure? Is it a natural part of my personality, a positive thing even, since it creates good memories for my family? Or is it a sign of being too much of a consumer, always looking for the next best thing, always trying to drum up excitement? Or could it be something (in my mind) even more alarming - the desire to be interesting, to have stories to tell, something to talk about? Now that I'm a stay at home mom, I go less places, do less interesting things. And on the whole, that's okay. Actually, it's more than okay, because I LOVE being home with Ruthie. But I still long for adventure and it's got me thinking about whether that's just my personality or if it's a problem in my spirit, something I need to examine as I seek to be content with the simplicity and humility of my life. No answers yet, just questions. But good ones, I think.

*Ten points for anyone who knows that song lyric reference.

An Awesome Hannah Story

I've written stories about my niece, Hannah, before. She is awesome. She does and says the funniest things. This past Mother's Day, she gave me fodder for a post that I couldn't resist. (I have more to say and share about Mother's Day, but I wanted to get this post up before I forgot.)

Each year, my mom throws an AMAZING tea on Mother's Day and invites all the ladies of the family. So of course, Ruthie and I went. The theme this year was Alice in Wonderland. At each of our place settings was one of these Izzie drinks, with a note that said "Drink Me." (Isn't my mom so cute?)

Hannah, who never really gets to drink soda, was THOROUGHLY enjoying her orange cream soda. So much so, that once while she was distracted, Sarah moved the soda away from her place and out of reach. When Hannah turned back around and noticed it was missing, she announced loudly to the table, "Hey, where is my beer?"

Apparently, Eric's two or three beers a week has made a real impression on Hannah - or at least the shape of the glass bottle has. 

Isn't This Just the Epitome of a Loaf of Bread?

I was tired of the recipe I had been making for our bread so I tried a new one recently and man, it is GOOD. It makes the most beautiful bread and so yummy. I love how much like a "loaf" this bread looks. Makes peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch almost feel like a special treat. Almost.

See This?

Our dishwasher is broken. Boo. When I went to unload the dishes on Friday, I found a pool of water in the bottom of the machine. Huge bummer. Of course, when we lived in our little apartment on 2nd Street, we didn't have a dishwasher and didn't really think anything of it (especially me, since Ian is the resident dishwasher in our house.)

And just now, after dinner, he says, "I thought having a dishwasher wasn't actually saving me that much time. But let's go this week and see if we can get a new one." Happy to oblige, my dish-washing husband. Of course, my natural thought is to look on Craigslist, but Ian says he thinks we should get a new one. We did have a repair man come look at it and after $45 and about 10 minutes, he said he thinks it is the pump, which is what the plumber told me (which only cost me $5 because my plumber is the awesomest and he only charged me for his gas). But to replace the pump, it would be around $200 for parts plus at least another $100 for labor, and new dishwashers are only about $400 (at lease the kind we would get).

I did ask the repair man, since he obviously looks at lots of machines, which is the best. And he said, much to my surprise, that they are all basically the same. He said to get anything but a really nice one, since no matter how much you pay, they all pretty much break down in 5-7 years anyway. Huh. Who knew?

So, it's off to Home Depot for me sometime this week. I'm sure my husband would prefer tomorrow over sometime later in this week, so here's hoping I can make it happen.

We Did Not Put Her In the Pose

Isn't that just too cute? Just relaxing in the tub during bath time...

Cinco de Mayo: Our First Guacamole

Yay! Our avacado tree is finally producing! We've had two avocados so far, that we've eaten in salads and on toast. We've also given two away. And then today, in honor of Cinco de Mayo, I made guacamole with an avocado that fell to the ground a few days ago and we ate it with our super nachos.

I am pleased to report that our avocados are green and lush and buttery. Let me know if you want any! Today, we lay on the grass in our backyard and spotted probably 100 more avocados. Ian got out the super long plucker device and cut down six of the biggest (most of the ones we counted were small). I'm conducting a trial now, to see what ripens them faster/better - I put three in a brown paper bag and left three on the counter. Stay tuned for the riveting details!

A Food Post (Shocking, I Know)

As I was titling this post, I realized how very many of my posts are about food. But what can I say? I like cooking and I like eating!

I recently bought a ton of pecans for the cake I made for Ian's grandparents anniversary and you know how I like to use up things before they go to waste. So, I began searching for recipes with pecans. Naturally, I added pecans to my weekly batch of granola, but I after two weeks of that I still had lots left.

Then I remembered a Cooking Light recipe I had cut out a few months ago called Pecan Crusted Trout. As is my usual way, I subbed the trout for tilapia, because that's what I had. But it still turned out great! I also tried my hand at creamed spinach with mushrooms and shallots - also very delicious. Here's a photo of the final product (that's my standard cous-cous with parsley, cranberries, lemon juice and almonds). Very yummy!

Date at the Melting Pot

Several weeks ago, Ian and I took Ruthie to Brea so my parents could watch her while we had a date night. It was a date day, actually. =) In the early afternoon, we went to see Hunger Games at the movie theaters on Birch Street. We went back to their house where I nursed Ruthie and then we headed out again to find a restaurant. We were originally thinking of something low key (and cheap) but then we stumbled upon the Melting Pot and were hooked. We had a little bit of my Christmas bonus left (which I think we blew through on the first course) but boy did we have a good time. If you haven't been to the Melting Pot, you should for sure check it out!

For the first course, we had cheddar cheese with beer and chives melted in, with fresh veggies, fruit and bread. Yum!

Then we had salads, which I didn't take a picture of. But you all know what salads look like. =)

Our main dish was beef, pork, chicken, mushroom dumplings and shrimp. They serve it to you raw with a boiling mixture of broth and wine in your melting pot and you skewer each piece one by one. It's so much fun. One of our favorite things is slow dinners and this is the epitome of a slow dinner - you have to wait for each bite to cook! But so delicious.

Naturally, for our fourth course, we had chocolate fondue. Sadly, I was so excited about the marshmallows, strawberries, vanilla wafers and other goodies that I didn't take a picture of it. But trust me, it was super good.

I tell you, there is not much better than free babysitting and a great time out with my husband!