Thanksgiving

Ruby enjoyed quality time with Grandma.

We tried peas for the first time ... she didn't really like them.

Jason did a good job carving our turkey.

On Thanksgiving morning, Ruby was ready for her breakfast.

The day before Thanksgiving, Ruby learned to spit her food all over the place.

Grammy Deb was with us to celebrate the week of Thanksgiving. We did some shopping (and Ruby got spoiled with clothes and a new toy that she loves) and got new family pictures taken. We had a lot of fun spending time with her.But, Thanksgiving was a very hard day for us.

My sister, Maggie, had her baby early Thanksgiving morning. Natalie Ellen Anderson is in critical condition at a children's hospital in Minneapolis. Please keep Maggie, Dan, and Natalie in your thoughts and prayers.

Back by popular demand....

As a famous cartoon character once said "Hey Hey Hey!!!". I don't want to name names - mainly because of the potential infringement and the like. The RIAA and MPAA are real sticklers - especially in tough economic times.

Piracy is no joke!

Ruby is rapidly approaching the 6 month checkpoint in life. I suppose that's saying a lot given that I'm one of her parents (Jason...not Jessica - Jessica is the good parent). As we gear up for turkeys with 12-18 drumsticks and John Madden worshiping Brett Favre at every turn, we're extremely thankful for the wonderful little fireball of a daughter that we have.

"I would marry Brett Favre".

It has been a pretty quiet two weeks since our last posting. Today was a sad day as we got to watch/listen to Michigan get creamed by Ohio State for the 5th year in a row. As College football season started I vowed to get Ruby to say "Go Blue" before the Wolverines were done playing for the year. About week four it became apparent that Ruby's growth curve wasn't steep enough to meet the level of play that was seen in Ann Arbor this year. By the time next August comes around we'll be singing Hail to the Victors together. My thanks to Miami of Ohio, Wisconsin, and those lovable Gophers from Minnesota for making this year tolerable (barely) and allowing first year coach Rich Rodriguez three wins, two in Big Ten play. I hear the local sports team (the Tennessee Volunteers) are looking for a coach - note to Rich: Knoxville is warmer than Ann Arbor all year.

Rocky Top needs a new coach...

I digress. You're here to find out more about Ruby. She weighed in at 17 pounds 7.5 ounces at the doctor today. We took her in because she's not sleeping as well as she used to and as concerned parents do, we sought medical advice. Healthy as a horse. Sheesh. On Tuesday this week Ruby got to see her first bit of snow. Now it was only flurries and the snowflake that landed on her head melted before the shutter on the digital camera could capture it, but it was snowing.

Really, I swear it's snowing in this photo

The dueling banjos in the bottom of her mouth are visible (if you can get her tongue out of the way). Still sharp as piranha teeth, but I think she's getting used to them. She's starting to use the teething toys and water filled rings, but drools like she has a faucet in her mouth. I'm considering purchasing a raincoat for use indoors. Ruby's working on pulling herself up from a sitting position and Jessica and I are working with her on standing.

Watch out people I'm almost mobile!

As you all prepare to embark on the marathon of turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole, and other goodies, know that we're thankful that you tune into the blog and that you're all such a huge part of Ruby's life. We can't wait to see you all at Christmas time - well those of you in the Iowa and Nebraska area at least.

Happy Thanksgiving to all - and to all a good night!!! (Wait.....that's not right!?!?! as Jessica hits me over the head with the keyboard once more....)

Sweet Potato pie

Not quite pie, but we tried sweet potatoes tonight. Here's part 1 of 3 of our video installment tonight (not all food related).

Flying baby (part uno)

Here's some fun video of Ruby from tonight, more to follow - we can only put one video in each post.

flying baby (part deux)

Here's Ruby having more fun tonight.

Don't look a gift horse in the mouth....

If you didn't know the origin of the post title, look it up on Wikipedia - or alternatively here's a link .

Your poster, Jason here, as Jessica has given me free reign tonight to post. buwhahaha.

Okay. On to news about Ruby -why you're all here. This weekend her first tooth started to pop through her lower gum. Exciting times! She's been somewhat unhappy about the event, but is coping quite well with plenty of Tylenol. It's sort of like Sasquatch in that we can't get a clear photo of it yet, but I'm sure as time goes on we'll trace down the tricky bugger. It also appears that teeth travel in packs as we're seeing the imminent arrival of a few more on the lower side of the mouth. Who knew teeth traveled in packs? Dr. Suess never said that.

Sunday Ruby also had another "first" event - she sat in a highchair in a restaurant. It was also the first time we'd tried to sit her in one, so it looks like as parents we're batting 100%. WooHoo! (We've included a photo of this historic occasion.)

Ruby sits in a highchair!

Thanks to Jessica for giving me the opportunity to post. I'm sure this will be the last for quite some time. I'd like to thank my sponsors, Deuhs Brother's Industries (read Dan's blog here), and the Hooked on the NFL 2008 Office Pool, without their support I wouldn't have gotten this far. But wait there's more! If you call now, you'll get double your order for the exact same price!......(Jessica yanks the keyboard out of my hands and throws me out of the office)......

Another video posting ...

Here is another video of Ruby playing on the floor.

Video posting

Here is a video of Ruby playing with a teething ring. I'll post another video in the next blog ... it only lets me do one video per posting.

An uneventful week

Thankfully we have had a fairly uneventful week in the Hill household. Ruby is on the mend (and I'm crossing my fingers that we don't get sick again any time soon). We have been out of all of our activities for the week, so nothing too exciting to share. Ruby and I did meet with a realtor and start looking at some houses, so that was fun. I'm also working on uploading some pictures to flickr, since I haven't done that in quite a while. But, here are some pictures that I thought everyone would enjoy. They're not great because they are from a disposable camera, but oh well ...

Ruby "visiting" the hospital. She wasn't happy.

Ruby reading her book.

First Trip to the Emergency Room!

So, Ruby wasn't acting like herself yesterday. She was really fussy and generally a cranky baby. Around 4 in the afternoon, she started hysterical screaming ... and it lasted off an on for about 7 hours! And, when she would cry, she had a really nasty wheeze when she breathed in.

We called the nurses line at the Children's Hospital and they told us to bring her into the emergency room. The doctor there thought that maybe she still had a stomach bug, but didn't want to rule out something else. He told us to go home and see if it would go away on its own, but if she was worse in the morning, to take her to the doctor.

So this morning she woke up -- coughing and sneezing and generally gross sounding. We took her to the doctor and told her what had been going on. Ruby started coughing in the room and the doctor took one look at her and said -- "That's a Croup cough!"

Apparently, Ruby never read the medical books. She has a backward-presenting croup (she started with the wheeze and then developed the cough and nose issues). AND she has a stomach bug! We're homebound again for about a week, which is really going to suck. But, she got weighed again this morning ... we're up to 16 pounds, 7 ounces.

I'll put up some pictures from our first hospital visit later. Now, I think we all need a nap.