3squared

My little baby is three years old. (incidentally, my big baby is also three years old until June but I just won't go there right now). On Friday the 25th of April we had Ruby Claire's birthday. She started out wearing what I wanted her to and then, mid-morning she insisted on putting her nightgown back on and putting a lacy, swirly DI dress over the top of her pajamas. So that is what she looked like the rest of the day...pajamas with a dress on top. There are so many things I care about more than this (relatively) unphotogenic aspect of her life so that's fine. you
Wear whatever you please, Ruby, you know you're going to whether anybody 'lets' you or not.
There isn't anything about life that I love more than my little Booby Claire Sanchez. There are, roughly, 50 minutes a day when she is so sparkly and funny and happy and sweet and somehow, in my mom-mindedness, that's enough. the rest of the time she's just confused about life and her place in it I think. Why nothing works like she thinks it should. Why she can't do things as fast as she wishes she could. Why I don't understand what she's saying when she's being so emphatically clear. Why she came here to these morons who are probably ruining her and her potential to be a top accountant with their focus on frivolity and songs and mental instability.

This was the cake I made after she said she wanted a flower cake. Kind of conceptual I'm afraid but it was colorful and had three little fires on top for a while so that was enough. We decorated the cake in the morning

This is Ruby doing her part to preserve the sanitary nature of the project.

Then my dad who was still in town took the girls on a walk down to his house to have a last look around before he left later that day. My children love my parents. All they have to do is say, 'oh, let's not cry' and they just don't! what is up with that? This was a kind and happy thing for him to do and, amazingly, 30 minutes by myself with music very loud was very therapeutic. I like to think of it as a preview of sorts to future quiet times with my parents down the street.


Then we took my dad to the airport and went to get Gabriel at work downtown on our way home. We took Ruby to eat 'macaronis' at Noodles and Company where they sell really good macaroni for small people and big people and then Ruby wanted the gum out of Gabriel's mouth. gross.



At home we put them down for a nap which they didn't take so we sang and ate cake and opened her gifts. My mom and dad got her a strawberry shortcake book with a little musical thing and a wooden tool box and a puzzle. Of course she loved these things. A lot. I got Ruby a lovely princess dress that was all long and floaty and sparkly and...she hated it. Didn't want to wear it, didn't want to touch it, didn't love it. Then I tried to see if Dellah wanted to wear it to get the jealousy thing going for Ruby so Dellah put it on and wanted it removed immediately. Tough crowd. Grandparents 100% Parents O...

It was a good day. Pretty relaxed. No party bags and kids and carpool. I'm not ready for that. Not until she asks for it.
I like remembering when Ruby came to join us. It feels like a really long time ago and not just 3 years because she has had such a slow evolution to be who she is now. The birth certificate says 2005 so I guess it's just 3 years.
Ruby has taught me what it means to be a mother. Dellah was first but Dellah was easy and I knew what to do somehow. All her problems were solvable. All her crying stopped eventually. like they say in a League of Their Own, "It's supposed to be hard...it's the hard that makes it good". So I thank you, Ruby Claire. Without you my life would be too easy to deserve my mansion in Heaven. You are a precious girl to us.
As I tucked them in to bed that night and stood in the doorway while Dellah told her usual 5 minute story about yellow dinosaurs with blue mountains on their backs and the 3 little pigs and huffing and puffing and blowing everything over, I was going to leave when Ruby said, "Mami, I wan to tewl yu sometin"....she was obviously thinking very hard for something meaningful or coherent and after a few seconds she said, "um, lolipops aw beaudifow". Yes they are, Ruby...And so are you sweet baby girl.