When Five Became Six: Ruth at one and a half

Ok, so, she won't actually be one and a half for another five days, but I am thinking about it now, and I know next week I will forget.

Ruth is so much fun these days. She loves to snuggle still, and considering the other kids don't as much anymore, we soak it up every chance we get. She is also a complete clown, loves to spin in circles, try to stand on her head, and just run around laughing. She also has started to love to play "I see you" with Naomi, where they chase each other through the house, hide, pop out at each other, and laugh incessantly.

She still puts EVERYTHING in her mouth, and it is becoming more and more obvious that there are a lot of times she does it on purpose because she knows we don't want her to. She kicked the wall through the bars of her crib every time she's in there, and has started kicking pretty hard.

She is talking a ton, really, there is not much she won't repeat, and her spontaneous vocabulary is very large. She has a couple words that are her own, like "me-me" for drink. She will point at pictures of babies and say "baby", and the other day made a possessive statement for the first time-"my baby!". She loves to drive cars, hug babies, and, most of all, play with balls. "Ball" is her favorite word. She also can say her siblings names, but, just like Naomi, refuses to say Tobiah, she calls him Bubu.

She is also big on non-verbal communication, including a couple signs, lots of pointing, waving, and the like. Considering Naomi's non-verbal communication is still basically non existent, this truly is a relief.

Ruth adores her siblings, and obviously loves Rich and I, but, rather frustratingly, she kind of hates everybody else. She has extreme separation anxiety, won't let me leave her in the nursery without going into hysteria, and flips out every time my mom comes over. Having her go from contently playing to clinging to me just because Grandma walked in the door gets old pretty fast.

She also is starting to follow directions. A couple of times she has taken things out of her mouth when told, she will run to the door when told it is time to go, and twice today ran into the playroom to happily play after I asked "go in the playroom please".

Over all, Ruth is an amazing one and a half year old, and I love her more and more every day. Who couldn't love this kid?