We're back, from the beach. Tomorrow it's Ruby's 3rd birthday and first day at school. She's actually going to go to school all week (once the phase-in has happened she'll only be going full days on Monday and Tuesday). David starts teaching a class Thursday evenings and is preparing feverishly. I am flying to Miami on Thursday for a 3 day meeting for my work. And on Sunday we have a huge birthday party planned for the babe. Busy week?! Vacation, when, what?!

But just so we remember and relish the beach, here are some choice videos. This is what happens when David and Ruby head out with the camera and don't realize it's set to video and not picture-taking. Very cute is all I can say. And they are all quite short.











Finally, a few fun interactions that happened at the beach:

* While on the beach Ruby was singing "I'm a map, I'm a map, I'm a map" around the sand castle she was building with David. A couple sitting close by looked over at us and I apologized, saying I had no idea what she was singing about. "Oh, but we do. That's from Dora the Explorer." Ruby had been watching Dora on the tv in the beach house where it's connected up to cable, unlike chez nous in Brooklyn. Clearly we hadn't been paying attention.

* Ruby decided we needed to call her cousin Ellaina. So we did. There was Ruby walking down the boardwalk with the iphone hovering around her ear and often elsewhere. She told Ellaina we were on vacation, and that we would come visit her soon. "We'll be there soon," she told Ellaina about 10 times. That was basically the conversation until we saw a deer. Ruby pointed the phone towards the deer so Ellaina could see. Then I rescued Ellaina for a few moments until Ruby demanded to talk to her aunt Lissa. "We'll be there really soon," she told Lissa.

Happy night before your birthday my baby girl. This time 3 years ago I was mere hours away from labor. I love you!