Please Hold Your Appliance.

Here is some video I took just this morning at Cecilia's "Author's Tea." The parents were invited to watch as all the children from her class came up and each read two poems. She was very excited that she got to give the welcome, and we were very impressed with her two poems.

(Sorry the video quality isn't that great, but until we get an actual video camera it will have to suffice.)

Ruby.

We're less than a month away from the anniversary of Ruby going into the hospital, and just this morning, as she was plowing through her second bowl of Trix (it was a birthday present from Grandma Two), I suddenly remembered what a hard time we had getting her to eat after she finished with her dialysis. She lost a lot of weight in the hospital, and her inability to eat after being fed intravenously for so long was one reason they kept her as long as they did. Even after she did come home, we worried for a long time that she just wasn't eating enough.

It's hard to believe that now, considering the child stuffs her face at every meal (and between them), loves vegetables and spicy food, gets frequent compliments from waitresses on her ability to tuck it away, and yells for snacks from her bed both at night and in the morning.

It's surprising to me how quickly I've forgotten so many things about that experience, but it's important not to forget everything. We are very lucky things turned out the way they did. Happy birthday, Rubester.

Blog Central.

Check it out -- our brand new computer! All the better to blog with, my dear.

Birthday Girl.

Here's our girl at her 3rd birthday party. Could she look ANY happier?!

I love love love this girl!!

Subscribing To The Adventures Of Cici And Ruby!

I know some of you we saw at the lawn-dart tournament today mentioned that you wished you could receive updates when new posts go up. Well, as it turns out you can. If you scroll down to the bottom of the screen, you'll see a link that reads 'Subscribe to: Posts (Atom).' If you click on it, you'll be given a couple options to subscribe to the blog using a feed reader - it gives you a couple different options, but if you already have a Google account you can simply use the reader available through that. It's very simple - I use one for work - it basically is a 'one-stop shop' that makes checking to see whether the websites you visit have been updated as easy as checking your email. You'll find these feeds at all sorts of websites (often with an orange 'RSS' icon), so you might find it useful for things other than our modest little blog as well. Give it a try, and let us know if you run into any problems.

Genius.

[Ruby is looking at the children's bulletin from Grandma and Grandpa K------'s church, which they send the kids in the mail every week.]

Ruby: Daddy, where did this come from again?

Dadam: It came from Grandma and Grandpa K-----; they sent it in the mail.

[pause]

Ruby: Grandma sent this in the mail?

Dadam: Yep.

[pause]

Ruby: SHE'S A GENIUS!!!!!

Great Literary Quotes 101.

Last night we all watched Oliver! as a family, and I was a little surprised at how attentive they were, considering it's approximately thirteen hours long. But they kept with it the whole way through, although when I asked Ruby what was her favorite part, only one moment really stuck out. Good thing it was the most important one:

"My favorite part was when the guy went up to the pirate and he said, 'I want some more' and the guy said, 'MORE?'"

[Above, incidentally, is a picture of "the pirate," in case anyone was confused.]