On Monday Ruby and I had a surprise visit with my aunt Leidie and uncle Rudo. They were in town because Leidie's stepmother is ill. Despite hanging out in a hospital cafeteria for a few hours, we really had a nice time talking and playing.

Ruby was happily amused with some new presents while I checked out all the great pictures and articles about my cousins David (who has a business providing assistive computer software) and Marco and Issa (who have an awesome bakery and cafe in Amsterdam).

It was, by the way, freezing cold out and the trek to meet them was quite an ordeal. Ruby however always manages to make light of challenging situations. Even though I was afraid her ears would freeze off, she insisted on not wearing her hat because "I want my hair to blow in the wind mama." She did however ask for gloves because "my hands are freezing cold."

Her language skills are simply awesome and fun and generally amaze me, given her age. She's up to full paragraphs and has close to perfect articulation.

It's also a delight to hear her put words to the things she's trying to figure out. In the last few days she's been thinking about what it means to miss someone. But she's not quite there because after telling me that she misses her David, she'll snuggle up to me and tell me she misses me too. Missing is clearly attached to loving someone and she hasn't got them quite sorted out.