David and Ruby have been in Detroit for a few days. So I have time to upload another picture to the blog--one from last weekend. The Prospect Park carousel opened up after a long silent winter and Ruby was thrilled beyond belief to have a ride (or two) on a horse.

Other Ruby tidbits:

* The babe can have phone conversations! She'll ask Marie to call me and then when I pick up, expecting Marie, I get a huge happy "hi Mama!" on the other end. It's a thrill. This morning she told me that she'd seen our friend Jen yesterday, gone to a playground and that there was a fly on the slide and she was scared of the fly. She doesn't last long though, but will calmly announce that she's done talking and then ends with a well-placed goodbye. She won't, however, hand the phone over to anyone else afterwards, but she also doesn't yet know how to hang up, so I generally get a few seconds of background negotiations before I hit the "end" button.

* This is Ruby's first trip, or time away from me, where she is both in the moment (she's having fun in Detroit) and also able to articulate what she doesn't have right there with her, which in this case is me and home. So the first thing she tells me when we speak on the phone is that she's coming home soon. She told me she missed me today. She's upset after we get off the phone and a tad stressed out for a little while afterwards.

* Ruby is definitely on the diaper-weaning track. Most evenings she runs around without diaper for a few hours. She tells us at some point that she needs to pee, then asks us to lave the bathroom and a few tinkles later, voila! We have a huge ways to go but I am impressed with how she has taken charge of this new phase in her life. It's completely Ruby-led, as was the weaning from breast milk. We need to give gentle pushes (she doesn't ask for us to take off her diaper for example), but I don't think its taking away from the sense that Ruby is in charge of the situation. While I foresee situations where we will need to be actively pushing her on whatever issue, and possibly finding ways to nudge her (aka bribes), I love that so far we haven't had to do that and hopefully it makes Ruby feel like she has some real control over her life. The only bribe Ruby demands is a pollipop for cutting her nails. She's always had easy access to pollipops as a result and ironically, lately, doesn't seem interested in them beyond unwrapping them and making everything sticky as it travels, uneaten, through the day with her.