A&Z

Our family according to Ayla. I came downstairs one morning to find that Ayla had tucked them all in to bed the night before. She had even made little pillows and had put the "Zeke" in a little crib.


Ruth here. I have been wanting to post a blog for so long now but just keep not getting to it. Since I haven't posted one yet since Zeke was born, I have so much I want to say that it is a bit overwhelming.

This is my fourth week being back to work and the transition is going well. I am finding that things transition quicker and easier with your second kid.It makes it easier that I really do enjoy my job and am so grateful for that fact! My summer off with the kids was lovely though, and went by so fast. Like I said, I have so much I want to say and it falls into two categories: A and Z!

I'll start with Z (for Zeke of course!)

He is just the smiliest little person I have ever seen! What a delight he is. I love Ayla with all my heart, but as you know I had a hard time when she was tiny. It has been a real gift to get to enjoy Zeke being a baby. He is so talkative and loves to be engaged. He'll "goo" at you all day and this week has started "bbbbbbb"-ing. He'll do this thing we call "telling you his troubles" where in a soft voice he really does sound like he's telling you a sad story. If he has his pacifier in and you look at him and smile, he'll respond with, "goya goya goya" and if you say that to him, he'll say it right back. He also just starting really laughing. He is starting to roll over to his tummy. What else can I say... hard to capture him in words. He is just a precious gift to our little family. I think Ayla is by far his favorite person and he loves to watch her and gets really excited when she talks to him (if we can get her to give him enough space that he can actually see her. Usually she's about two inches from him and shrieking) Her attention is usually answered by Zeke yelling at her (he has a certain tone reserved just for her) and trying to grab her and put her in his mouth... very cute!

Now Ayla...

Jake was right, she's amazing. Sweet, tender, strange, funny, dramatic, creative... She keeps me on my toes. I find that being her mom is always challenging me to be a more creative person than I feel I am naturally. This summer we had fun walking up to see the "strawberry man" (a farmer around the corner with a produce stand) and eating the juicy strawberries all the way home.

Some nights when she is having a hard time falling asleep I will tell her to think of her favorite things and then we will talk about them. Sometimes when I ask her what her favorite things are she'll just say, "you."--- that is the best feeling in the world.

Ayla likes to pretend she is making a grocery list. She will say the item she is going to put on her list and the spell it out as she "writes" it on her list. Goes a little something like this: "milk. G-O-N-I-G-Y." She'll just list off random letters. I love to listen to what she spells! I love her interpretation of things. Last week Ayla and I were singing "You are My Sunshine." Ayla stopped to point at Zeke and say "He's our sunshine!!"

She kept asking Jake and I recently for a "Plesh and Shore." We'd ask her what that is and she kept telling us that we know. We finally figured out that it's like when you make introductions and respond with "a pleasure, I'm sure." Hee heeheeeee. She makes me laugh!

She is also quite the artist and spends hours drawing. Every piece of mail in the house, each grocery list, paycheck stub, note to self... all covered in little drawings of Arthur and his family. It really is impressive how accurate of a likeness to Arthur she can come up with.

Well, let's see... I learned in my time off that I love the show the Office and that Dinosaur Train is one of the best kid shows ever. I think I like it way more than Ayla does. I learned that babies can be enjoyable, that Arthur the Aardvark has the longest running case of the chicken pox ever... I don't know. I'm babbling. Enjoy!