Her sleeping habits have changed. A nap is no longer a guarantee but they still happen, for the most part. Instead of nap time we call it quiet time though. She doesn't have to sleep as long as she stays in her room and is quiet she is free to play, color, read, whatever. Most of the time she ends up falling asleep. On days she doesn't sleep an early, or at the very least, easy bedtime is all but guaranteed. In the morning she usually doesn't sleep past 8 any longer which really sucks and our attempts at subliminally telling her to sleep until 10 have so far been unsuccessful. We've also found her asleep in random places such as on a massive pile of books on the floor in the corner and right behind her bedroom door. In both cases she had her pillow, a blanket, and had been reading. 

We've backed off on the screen time quite a bit. There was basically none for the first two years then we realized how glorious it was to just throw on Dinosaur Train and be able to run off and do something, anything in peace. However, the tv (and iPad) just turned Ruby into an even more of a whiny little punk. She's much better behaved when tv isn't involved and listening to her as she's off playing in her room is adorable and hilarious. She still watches stuff, but it's usually only an episode or two of something on the weekends. 

We are now officially in the terrible threes and it's been, well, pretty terrible. 

Oh, Rubes. 

She doesn't listen AT ALL. I can tell her something ten times and she won't do it. For example, putting her coat on in the morning so we can get to daycare on time so I can get to work on time. I am probably more generous than I should be as far as how many times I tell her to do something before some sort of punishment is dished out (spanking, time out, revoking of privileges). I guess I do that because I want to give her a chance to do the right thing before I deal out the punishment that I dealt to her not 5 minutes ago for some other offense (or maybe even the same offense). Other offenses are eating on the couch, shoes on the couch, messing with the cats, spitting, etc. I seriously feel like all I do lately is punish her for one thing or another.

She doesn't DO crazy things. Like, I've never found her in the kitchen with a full bag of flour spread all over the place. Well, I did find her behind a chair spreading Neosporin all over her face...and there was the incident with the Chapstick...And when she ate all those TUMS....Okay, so she does do crazy stuff like that. But at least in the case of those things I can find the humor in them. 

What I don't find funny and what super pisses me off is the back talking and attitude that she gives us. She does this chin thing where you'll say something and she'll look at you, jut out her chink and go, "ungh!" And recently she's started doing the same thing but instead of the chin jut and "ungh" she looks at you and hisses like a snake. There were a couple times this past weekend where I told her to do something, probably a billion times, and she walked away from me down the hall and I heard her say, "shut up" under her breath.

She can be kind of cruel too. There have been several times where she's said stuff like, "I don't like you!" and "Go away from me!" One time H walked in the room and she said, "I don't want you here!" I don't particularly care that she says, "I don't like you" to me. I don't know if she understands what she's saying or not and it's not my job to be her friend, I'm her parent. H on the other hand does take it quite personally when she is mean like that and his feelings get hurt.

I've spoken with her daycare provider and other than wanting stuff when she wants it and taking it, she is fine there. She assured me that the behavior that I described to her is typical of a three year old. I figured as much but I wanted to make sure that there wasn't something going on that needed to be addressed. It was nice to have confirmation that I am not just being a terrible parent after all. 

On top of the general terribleness she has suddenly decided that 6:00 am is an appropriate wake up time. So. Not. Cool. H got up with her this past Saturday (and I slept til 10am-glorious!) and then I got up with her on Sunday. Needless to say it was my turn to be grumpy pants. So what if 6am is the time that I usually get up to go to work. I swear my body goes into weekend mode and it does not matter that I've been up at the time 5 days in a row. Weekends are for waking up no earlier than 8am. although I'd prefer 9am. When I asked why she was getting up so early she said, "Because it's light out!" Ha, barely! Light blocking curtains have officially been purchased and I am looking forward to sleeping a little later this weekend. Or at the very least really, really hoping for it. 

I've been dealing with a sinus/cough funk for almost two weeks now. Annoying. Mostly because my energy is zapped and by the time I get home from work I want to do nothing but sleep or zone out on the internet. I'm mostly unproductive but some things have happened. We decorated for Christmas already. Usually you're lucky if the tree gets up at all but this year we put it up the day after Thanksgiving. Last year I waited until after Ruby's birthday but decided that this year I'd just go ahead and put everything up. If at any point she has a problem with Christmas decorations before her birthday we'll deal with it but for now, it's up. 

A few weeks ago we did a little family portrait session. The photographer was a 15-year old high school, a student of a friend of mine, named Abbey. I was pretty impressed with her in many ways. 1. She's already taking pretty good pictures and 2. She is already certain that she wants to do photography for a living. Hell, I am 36 (I still can't believe that) and I still am not 100% certain what I want to do when I grow up. Or at the very least I am constantly doubting that what I'm doing is the right thing…

Anyway. 

Ruby basically ran around non-stop the entire time and since there was a swing set at the location we were shooting, well, that's pretty much all she wanted to do. Until she saw the horse, then she just spend 10 minutes yelling at it trying to get its attention. 

This is my favorite of the outtakes. Ruby, in the middle of one of her mega-cheesy grins (which were plentiful that day), Me rolling my eyes because dangit, why can't she just smile a normal smile? And Heath, probably thinking about how crazy we all are : )

Confession: I don't ever rake my leaves. a) I think they look pretty, b) I like the sound of them crunching underneath my feet, and c) there is just so dang many of them. Oh, and I always miss the day when the city comes by and sucks them up with the giant leaf vacuum. But the other day I decided to rake them up, for the sole purpose of letting Ruby jump into the pile. I remember loving that as a kid and I wanted her to have the same experience. We have two oaks and a maple in our front yard so the pile was HUGE. When she got home from daycare she saw the pile and went right for it. Must be in a kids DNA to just know that you just jump right on in! 

One of the great things about having a kid is that you have a perfectly good excuse to jump in the pile without the neighbors giving you funny looks : )

She was just as excited about helping to clean the leaves up at the end. I hope that she's that happy about yard work in a few years. I'll happily pass the lawn mowing duties on to her!

'Twas a good thing that I raked the pile when I did because the next day we had a little bit of snow! She digs that too. 

This past weekend started off on a high note. The reception for a group show that I was invited to participate in was on Friday. When Heath and I walked into the gallery I noticed a little red dot by my piece! (for those of you who don't know, that means the work had been sold!) Yay! But at the same time I'll miss those little guys. (yes, yes, I know I can make more but I still get attached to them) After hanging out at the gallery a bit we went over to West Sixth for some beeeeeeer! And then to pick up Ruby from daycare. 

Saturday we took Ruby to get a haircut. Her first haircut was really just a trim so this was her first major cut. We were going back and forth as to what style to give her. I was all about going all out and giving her a pixie cut. After all, she really doesn't care at this point. (we kept asking her during the week if we could shave her head and she kept saying, "okay") Heath wasn't completely sold on the pixie but he was adamant about not wanting the short, across the forehead bangs. What we got was a assymetrical bob, short in the back, angled, and then long in the front. 

 She wasn't 100% cooperative during the cut. We tried Netflix but that didn't work very well because she kept pressing buttons that would start the movie over again or hits the home button and backed out completely. Instead we ended up bribing her with suckers. It wasn't happening otherwise and our stylist had already made a major cut so it had to be finished at that point. In all, about 8" was taken off of the back but the sides were basically just trimmed. Her hair looks much, much healthier and so much thicker. Way better than her Christopher Lloyd-esque hair before, right? I tried to get a different "after" picture but alas, she was very angsty for the rest of the day. 

Sunday was our typical get shit done we should have gotten done during last week so that things aren't a total disaster this week day. This means laundry, dishes, and other general cleaning. We also went grocery shopping. Oh, and there were naps. We always gets naps on the weekends. I think I sleep when Ruby sleeps more now than I did when she was an infant. She definitely wears me out way more now! 

It's the first daHow did you spend the gorgeous fall weekend? 

It's no secret, I like to curse. And out of all the "bad" words my favorite is fuck. There's just something so satisfying when you say that word. It's one solid syllable that is able to express perfectly the frustration and/or anger I feel in the situation where I feel the need to use it. I dropped my iPhone, shattering the screen? Fuuuck!  Forgot my wallet at home? Fuck! I just got an $800 bill from an ER trip where they literally just took Ruby's temperature and sent us on our way? Fuck! See? It just works so perfectly! 

So I am guessing that you know where I am heading with this. Ruby has started to say the f-word. The first time she said it was months ago. I think I said it while on the way home and in traffic. I said it and from the backseat I hear her sweet little voice repeat it. ''fuck''. I didn't react, didn't say, "Don't say that bad, bad word!" or anything like that. I just let it go in the hopes that by not drawing attention to it that it would just be a one time thing. 

Weeeeelll, that didn't exactly work. I'd hear her say it everyone once in a while but I still ignored it. One time, again on the way home from daycare, I heard her in the back saying, "fuckfuckfuckfuck fuck  fuck!" over and over again. She did this several days in a row. I am certain that I didn't say the word and that send her off in a diatribe of fucks so I really don't know where it came from. She'd even started using it in the right context. She'd be struggling to get her shoes on in the morning and she'd say"fuck!'" One time she dropped her glass and spilled milk everywhere..Oh wait..I think that was dammit...probably after hearing me say that, too. Oops. See, I am an equal opportunity swearer. 

Anyway. So I wasn't too concerned about it until the weekend of Woodland when Ruby was with her grandparents and she used the word, again in frustration because she couldn't get her shoe on, but this time grandpa heard her say it. And he spanked her. Yeah. So since then we've been working on trying to get her not to say the f-word anymore. I've explained to her that ''fuck is a word for mommy and daddy to use" (even though H very rarely swears) and that she shouldn't use it. Then she'd say, "I not say fuck!" lol. So I've given her alternatives: Can't get your shoes on?? Say, "awwww, man!" instead! Spilled your drink? Say, "bummer!" instead! 

So far I think we've made some progress but we are not totally out of the F-in woods yet. Occasionally something will happen and she'll start to say, "fuu....." but then I'll  catch her and give her 'the look' complete with raised eye brow and it turns into, "fuuu...awwww man!" I've caught her whispering it over and over again very, very quietly under her breath. When she knows that I've noticed she breaks out in a huge grin and starts to giggle. And I laugh right back, which I know is probably not cool, but dangit! It's funny! Yes, Mother of the Year I am not, not that I am really trying for it. The funny thing is that daycare has not mentioned anything about it and I've never heard her say while we are out in public, only while we are at home. 

In 4 months she'll be three. Seriously?? Here's what going on with her right now:

• She is not potty trained yet, and although she has shown interest in the past, she is not currently caring. That's okay with me because, honestly, I don't really care either. I've been dreading potty training, simply dreading it. I've said before that if I had the money to pay someone to do it I totally would. It's not that I haven't tried but I don't care enough to have the patience to deal with the whole thing right now. In time the stars will align all of three of us will be ready to tag team the hell out of some potty training. Until then I'm not stressing about it. 
• I know a lot of other kids her age that are sleeping in the "big kid" bed but not Ruby. We did attempt this in early July things did not work out so well. H insisted on her sleeping in the bed without a rail (the one that I had bought did not work with her convertible crib) and although it allowed me to get these shots...