Throughout our day at home Ruby follows me around like a little puppy. If I leave the room she's never far behind, whimpering & crawling her very fastest after me. She likes me within plain site of her & as I try like mad to accomplish my "list" she's often firmly attached to my leg looking up at me with those big blue eyes. She loves to be held. She loves to sit in my lap. She loves to give me hugs & kiss after kiss. But what she loves most is my undivided attention for about 90% of the day. Sometimes that can be so frustrating when there are so many things that I need to get done. And sometimes I just want to have a moment where no one is touching me & have a little personal space. But then I remember that this stage is temporary & there will come a time when I won't be her world anymore but instead a much smaller part of it. And I'll have a place on the sidelines instead of right in the middle of the chaos. And man, I think I'm going to really miss that. So I'm trying my very hardest to embrace this time & enjoy it for what it is, because aside from the challenges, it really is a beautiful time of life. Tonight as Ruby sat in her highchair talking happily to herself I looked over & saw her take bite after bite of the Pad Thai I made. My picky, picky baby was eating Thai food & it felt like such a victory because I have been working so hard to get her to eat well. And I could look at her & proudly think to myself, "I did that." And maybe that's something that doesn't really make sense except to me, but in a small way it made me feel like what I've been doing has been worth it. And tonight I feel especially grateful that she loves me enough to want to be attached to me all day long. Because really, that's pretty awesome. And if I had to choose someone to hang on my leg 24/7 it'd be Ruby. Hands down, every time.
