Moving Right Along

Just to give you an update on Ruthie's walking....

At 15 months and 1 day, she took her first steps. After that, she took it slow- observing everyone around her, taking one little step here and there. After a while, she progressed up to several steps at more frequent intervals. Finally, Ruthie has proven that she is ready to cut loose. I think we can call her official walking start at 16 1/2-16 3/4 months. With that slow but clearly observational and introspective progression from stepper to walker, Ruthie managed to bypass the entire falling down period. She stands on her own two feet quite well.

The Constant Gardener

As you can see in this picture, Ruthie is enjoying her time in the garden. She may as well start helping out with the gardening, since she is certainly reaping the benefits of the yummies which are growing.

Just like every other summer, zucchini is our top growing crop. Thank goodness Ruthie likes it. In fact, she seems to like it in every possible way... grilled, sauteed, steamed, in circles, wedges, sticks, in chunks, chopped, ground up, liquified, as a main course, in lasagna, on the side, with a fork, a spoon, her hands....

Another favorite of Ruthie's is our second highest yielding crop. Actually, it's really the highest yielding, it's count is way beyond that of the zucchini, but it seems less so because the produce is so much smaller. That would be our strawberries. Boy, does Ruthie love strawberries. She loves them so much that she is willing to go through the arduous work of picking them herself. As you will see in the video, she can even discern between those that are ripe and unripe. Since picking strawberries is a bit of a chore, I have no problem letting Ruthie do it. Except, you might also notice, that if I leave it solely up to her, there's a good chance that no one else will ever get to enjoy them.