clotheslines

during our two years in greece i loved hanging our laundry out on a clothesline. so ive started doing it here too. at first i didnt do it here because i thought our basement was too dark and humid.. and it is - in comparison to our 4th floor balcony in athens, where everything would be dry in 30 minutes or up to a few hours for the heavy stuff. but here, even though it takes a full day for the normal stuff and two solid days for the heavier stuff to dry out, i have started to appreciate line drying again. theres something about the feel of hung clothes.. maybe because theyre stiffer, and require less ironing (not that i ever do that, but its nice to not wear wrinkles!).. and theyre already half folded when you take them down.

i also started washing everything in cold too. now i keep a basket downstairs for HOT washes on things that really need it, in smaller loads. i did this in athens because i couldnt figure out the washing machine (haha... true confessions... but i later figured it out that the hot wash took like almost 2 hours and the cold was only 1/2 hour, so it was still easier)

so now im "going back to athens" in my laundering habits, and i feel great about it. its greener for the environment and my pocketbook too! especially if you factor in the extended life of the clothes themselves.

sentences

ruby went to her 1 year checkup on monday. for those of you who love the stats... she's 78cm =31 inches tall, weighs 9.5 kilos =21 lbs. and her head is just over 46cm. that puts her in the 90th% for height and the 75th% for weight!

she has about 8 words that are identifiable (and a handful more that i cant quite understand yet!). so after we got home from the dr. i was putting her in her crib to see if she could put herself to sleep, she sat up, looked around and asked "woo-woo go?". (woo-woo is her word for all stuffed animals, borrowing it from the name of lucas favorite lovey).. and i was surprised, but really i thought, "nah, she's too young to be constructing sentences yet,... probably just babbled an extra consonant. no need to get excited, mama" and i ended up rocking her to sleep.

but later in the afternoon lucas left the room, and she turned and asked me "wuca go?" (where did "lucas go?") and i about fell over!

happy first bithday, ruby!

today my sweet little girl isnt a baby anymore! all day today, as we slowly make all the preparations for her small party this afternoon.. i have been thinking back to this day last year that i spent in labor. it started at 2am, went to the hospital at 8am, and she was born at 8:33pm. its 12:20 now, so at this very moment last year i was about to get my epidural at 1pm. but enough about me, this is her day.

she is talking more and more, repeating words after us, and surprising us with a few of her own. yesterday we were at a friends house and she was pushing around a big car - and said so clear as day, "car!". she is walking more and more often, but still prefers crawling as her primary means. so for her birthday, i got her her first pair of real shoes. and they are cute! i wish they made them in my size.

everyone is taking a nap right now. but at 3pm, we will have two families come over for a mexican-themed bday party for ruby. mexican food is so perfect for feeding lots of people casually. we will just have a build your own burrito/taco setup, chips & salsa.. and margaritas for us! hey, really, the first birthday is really for the parents, right??

i told lucas he could "help" her blow her birthday candle. he's pretty excited about it and has been talking about it all week. he says "birfdy cake! bwoh!"(birthday cake! blow [out the candle]!) or sometimes he will ask me "wuby upenit pwesens, mama?" (will ruby open presents, mama?) and he's proud he helped me make the cake.