Monthly Archives for February 2008

Write to Ruby

Now that Ruby is old enough to understand communication methods like snail mail and the telephone, I thought I’d try explaining email next. I’ve set up an email address for her that goes into a separate folder (in my email program). If you’re interested, I invite you to send Ruby an email whenever you have something to say, and I will read it to her. As soon as she’s able to understand replying, I’ll try to transcribe and send her response. I’ll also save all the messages so she can re-read them when she’s older.

I don’t want to post the address here publicly (to avoid spam). Send me an email or comment on this entry if you’d like the address and I’ll give it to you.

Surprising things from Ruby

We often have idle and fun chitchat during dinner with Ruby. She tends to respond with one-word answers (if at all) when I ask her about her day so we often stick to silly topics and making faces at each other.

We sometimes play a game where we make happy, sad, angry, cold, or surprised faces at each other. Today, I asked her to show me “mystified” — a word she doesn’t know. Instead of staring blankly at me, she put on a big smile and cheerily said, “I’m mystified!” Kate laughed until tears streamed from her eyes.

Also, today I asked her what day it was and she said, “Tuesday!” Which it is. And we have no idea how she knows that.

Brief Accomplishments Post II

Ruby’s favorite thing to do with blocks is no longer dumping out the whole box! Now she is intent on building towers and tunnels (and enjoying their inevitable collapses, and laughing at the word “collapse”).

A few new photos

I’ve posted some new pictures from the end of January.

You may notice that Ruby’s online photo album looks different. Our previous album was hacked (by lazy hackers that didn’t cause any real damage and just put spammy links everywhere), so we switched to a newer and hopefully more secure program. If you’re a member of the family who wants to post pictures in this album, please contact me for new login information.

Ruby read her first word!

Ruby can identify roughly half of the letters in the alphabet and is currently very interested in letters. We have this book in our bedroom:

One day a week or two ago, we were hanging out in the bedroom and Ruby pointed to it and said “M – A – P”.  I told her the word was “map”, and it was easy for her to remember when looking at the book because the letters are made of maps.  It got me wondering if she could identify the word in a different context.

Today, I showed her the word MAP written in crayon on a piece of paper, and asked her what word it was, and she said “map!” We all did a happy literacy dance.

Birthday Gifts

Ruby’s birthday is coming up in about a month. She sort of understands birthdays (and what one does to celebrate), but is too young to go so far as to request or even expect gifts. I’m sure this is the last year she’ll be so naive, and we’d like to take advantage of it.

So, if you are family or a close friend who is already planning to give her a gift, please read on. You may be wondering what kind of toy, book, or clothing item would be appropriate to get for Ruby. The truth is that she has plenty of all of those things. She received several great toys for Christmas that have not even been brought out yet (because she got so many). Instead, we ask you to consider a gift in any amount to her college fund. This is a gift she will appreciate for the rest of her life, and she’s too young to find it disappointing to get that instead of a toy. In 15 years, your contribution will about double, so even a small amount will make a difference.

If you already have a great gift in mind for her, something you’re excited to give, by all means go ahead! This is just a suggestion for those who are still searching for an idea. Ruby will, of course, be perfectly happy to receive birthday wishes from people instead of presents.

There are several ways you can contribute to her college fund. The easiest is to give us cash or a check written to us (which we will deposit). If you’d prefer to be more discreet, let me know and I can provide you with the necessary details to send your gift directly to the college fund. We appreciate your consideration of this idea (even if you decide to get Ruby something else).