2 more weeks ...

4 months ago today, we welcomed Ruby into our world!  It's kind of hard to remember what life was like without her, now.  But at the same time, Kev and I often find ourselves quite astonished that we have a little baby that we're responsible for.  It's still quite shocking, sometimes.

Very little time to blog these days -it's been total survival mode to keep our heads above water.  2 more weeks and we'll be done.  Friday night was the last school event for me (Erin) before the final exams, grades, and closing up of the classroom.  Kevin planned a wonderful "getaway" in Taipei for us this weekend as a mother's day present.  Everything about it was perfection.

The room was lovely, spacious, and even had a crib. Kev watched Ruby, and I got to work out in their gym (and even stretch afterwards!) Kev went out and bought breakfast and coffee and brought them to the room for a relaxed start to our day while we watched CNN Breaking News (we don't have our TV hooked up at home.)  We took Ruby to the pool for her first swim!  And I got a fabulous and relaxing bath where I soaked in peace.

On a side note, we were even staying in the same hotel as some dignitaries from various countries who were in Taipei for President Ma's inauguration, which is today.  We felt a little underdressed in our casual attire as the police-escorted limos pulled up to the hotel and the fancypants ambassadors from little tiny countries like the Marshall Islands and Belize got out. :)

Though the house is a wreck, there are papers to grade, study guides to make, and exams to write, I feel like I can make it through these next 2 weeks - with the Lord's help.  Here are some recent pics. 

  

Busy, Busy Spring

The spring semester is always N.U.T.S. for us.  School events, tournaments, the flea market, 8th Grade banquet, school-wide assessments, end of the year goals, and on and on ...  Even now, I should be grading writing assessments, but I'll get to them later.  We're trying to find the time to just be, breathe, and enjoy these precious days with Ruby.  She's three months old, and growing up so fast!

Over the past month, we've been going to physical therapy sessions at the hospital where Ruby was born.  She was diagnosed with torticollis (twisted neck) just after her 2 month well baby appointment.  She's always looking to the left because the muscles in her neck are stronger on on the left side, than on the right.  The doctor said it is probably because she didn't have a lot of room in the womb.  So, she gets ultrasound heat treatment, a neck massage, and then does stretching exercises with a physical therapist 2-3 times per week.  She's made lots of friends in the physical therapy department as other therapists and patients stop to see why a little baby is getting physical therapy.  She smiles and coos at everyone and they say, "Ah, waiguo xiao hai." "Oh, hao ke ai!"  "Ta de yen jing hen da!" "Hao piaoliang!"  (Ah, a foreigner baby.  Oh she's so cute! Her eyes are so big!  So pretty!)  It's a bit strange to have so many people looking in on your daughter's medical treatment, but I just have to remember that we're in Taiwan.  Things are different here.  People don't mean to be nosy or intrusive; they're just curious.  They don't consider it rude to peek their head behind a curtain to see a little baby getting treatment.  In fact, they consider it a friendly gesture!

On Monday we had an appointment with the rehabilitation doctor.  He said her torticollis is getting better, but she still needs to do physical therapy for a while longer.  Scheduling the appointments around feedings, naps, and school responsibilities has been a big pain, but we're making it work.  Guess we'll be seeing our friends in the physical therapy department some more!

The neck issue really doesn't bother Ruby at all!  She's really a happy little girl and loves to smile and "talk" to herself, or anyone who is around.  Yesterday she was playing on her little play mat gym and while she was on her back, she scooted all around the mat, and even scooted herself off the mat.  Today she rolled from her back to her front - and then didn't know what to do!  She scared herself!  She still isn't a big fan of being on her tummy, so when she rolled onto her tummy by herself, she was kind of upset about it.  We let her try to roll to her back again, but rescued her after she became pretty frustrated.  Then she was all smiles again.

This has become the Ruby blog.  Ah well ... gotta remember these days.  They won't last long. Here are some pics from this week.

She loves playing with her O ball! 

Sound asleep - growing! 

Happy after a bath!  

We can't get enough of this smile! 

Sunny Saturday Morning

We've had a lot of rain and gray skies lately.  Kevin and I took advantage of a sunny Saturday morning this past weekend to go out for coffee and breakfast and then walk to the flower market near our apartment.  We had so much fun introducing Ruby to one of our favorite places in Taipei!
   

Ruby's first time to the flower market!

                                         

Ruby draws quite the crowd.  Lots of people stopped to say, "Hao ke ai," which means so cute!  

It sure is nice to be able to hang bags from the stroller and wheel home the heavy potted flowers, rather than lug them home.  Ruby was pleased with our purchases! 

We strolled through Da'An Park on the way home with Ruby and our new flower plants.  You can't tell from this picture, but there were a lot of people at the park walking, jogging, practicing soccer, playing with their dogs, doing tai chi, and just enjoying the fresh air and sunshine. 

Here are our new plants on our balcony.  We got a purple plant that is called a paper flower.  It's supposed to bloom 4 times per year, so we're looking forward to that!  We also got a bright orange begonia.  I wish we would have gotten 2 or three more begonias in different colors.  They're so bright and cheery outside our window. 

What a great weekend!  Ah, now I need to get back to the housework and grading! 

Catching Up

Maternity leave is over.  Never has 8 weeks gone so quickly.  Ever.  I've been back to work for 9 days now.  There's about 47 school days left.  Yes, I just counted.  I may be a little off because there may be a day off that I missed, and I don't think I counted Olympic Day, which is counted as a school day, but it's a Saturday.  

I'm loving my students.  They are very sweet.  Many of them performed or helped put on an excellent production of Henry and Ramona this past weekend and it was so fun to watch them perform!  

4 new students started in my class while I was on leave.  Another one started today.  Not only do I feel like I'm a completely different person with a completely different life now that I'm a mom, my class has grown and changed so much in 8 weeks.  

Over the past few days, I've been struggling to find the energy to catch up.  Mostly with grading and other work-related stuff.  But also with cleaning, laundry, and errands in general that multiply and never end.  Oh yeah, and sleep.  I feel ever-so-behind in all of these areas, and find myself just trying to do what I can and let go of what I don't get done, and not let it stress me out.  It will all get done somehow. 

6 Weeks of Ruby!

Today Ruby is 6 weeks old.  We just cannot believe how quickly she stole our hearts and took over our lives!  She is truly a blessing and we're loving watching her grow up so fast!  I was going to upload a short video, but I can't get it to work.  So instead, here are a couple pictures from today. 

6 weeks old! 

Buckled in and ready to go! 

See ya later! 

She's ready to go!

Ruby's passport arrived in the middle of last week - way quicker than I expected!  She's ready to leave the island and be a world traveler at 4 weeks old.  At this point, it looks like the first time she'll leave Taiwan will be June 5th when we fly back home for the summer.  I hope we're all ready for 24 hours of traveling with a 4.5 month-old. :)  We'll be back in the States until July 31st when we'll head back here for another school year.

But this time, I (Erin) won't be teaching.  I've gotten a taste of of being a stay-at-home mom while on my maternity leave and I'm really looking forward to staying home with Ruby starting as soon as I finish grades and turn in my checkout form at the end of this school year!  

She's official! 

Ruby's Passport Photo Shoot

Apparently this is going to be our first blog post.  There are many things I (Erin) should probably write about - like Ruby's birth story, but I just haven't felt inspired quite yet to get back to blogging since I took a hiatus - oh, about 4 years ago.  But today I decided to blog about our morning in the Bowden house.

Today Ruby Evangeline Bowden is one week old.  We are SO blessed to have her in our lives!  It is also Chinese New Year break, and Kevin has the week off.  He has been totally on top of getting all the paperwork ready to get Ruby registered as a U.S. citizen, a Taiwan resident, and a U.S. passport holder.  There are a lot of hoops to jump through in a short amount of time, and I have no idea what they all are because he's been handling everything. For that, I am very thankful, because there's enough to learn and juggle being a new mom, and figuring all the paperwork out on my own would have been bad news.

Today Kev said we really needed to get Ruby's passport photo taken.   Think about getting a passport photo taken as an adult.  It must be the right size, background color, distance from camera, size of face, space at the top of the photo, etc.  For the baby photos - add more requirements.  Eyes must be open, mouth closed, both ears visible.  Um, yeah.

There's a website called epassportphoto.com, where we can upload our own photo and crop it to the specific sizes and save it to your computer or USB to print at a photo printing shop, rather than paying the $10.00 to have the photos taken at the shop.  We used this website last year when I had to renew my passport and it worked great!

So this morning while I was feeding Ruby, she was actually alert.  (My biggest challenge with her has been  to get her to eat and not sleep through feedings.)  So I took a break and laid her down a white sheet on the bed for a little photo shoot.  The lighting wasn't quite right at first, so I had to change that up a bit to minimize the shadows. And I didn't know the rule about the ears at first; so when Kevin got home from the market, we decided to get a few more shots.

Her little ears are so tiny and pressed up against her head. They're not visible behind her adorable, chubby cheeks.  So we wadded up little bits of tissue and stuck them behind her ears so they would stick out a bit.  Man, these requirements!  I hope she doesn't hate us for doing that later down the road.  I think we got an acceptable shot, finally.  But I love all her little expressions, so I'm going to include some of the the photos here.

"What's going on here?  I thought it was breakfast time." 

"Seriously?"

Too much shadow, and Ruby is very concerned about the interruption of breakfast.

"Mom, this is my good side."  

So alert! 

"Really? Still?"  

"Enough with the pictures, Mom."

"I'm only a week old!"  

"Is this necessary?" 

"This is what I think of your newborn passport photo requirements."

"AAAGGGHHH!"  

Her little ears are pressed up against her head.  Time for mom and dad to rig up something to make this passport photo happen.  In that time, Ruby decided to take a snooze.

"I'm done here ... done."

"zzzzzzzzzzzzz" 

Little Ruby with tissue balls behind her ears to make them stick out.  This is the one we actually used after we cropped it; we hope it works!