First of all, we are thrilled to be expecting Abdalla baby GIRL #3 in January.  Many of you already know, but we haven’t yet announced it on the website.  Emma is very aware and excited about the new baby and often asks me how big she is and how she is moving about.  It’s really cute.

The highlight of this summer month of August was definitely Ruthie’s 1^st birthday!  We had a party for her down at Lake Monroe.  Sittoo and Giddoo came for a few days and we were able to relax together in a different setting than usual which was nice for all of us.  The Jay’s and Loughery’s came down for the party and we so enjoyed lake fun with them as well as with the usual Smith family suspects.  The birthday girl just took it all in.  She was a champ when it came to birthday hat wearing and cake eating.  She is a very laid back little girl. 

We just cannot believe how this first year has flown by.  Ruthie is such a light in our lives and a sparkle of love in our home.  Every day we awaken and are greeted by that sweet smile and her pointing to every animal in her room she wants to kiss.  Daddy is usually the one who spends the early morning hours with her and they take time to walk around her room and say good morning to all of her little animals and her baby doll.  It is so cute.  Steve and I are amazed at how quick this kid is.  She is a thinker and loves to figure things out.  The other day she took this toy that is a string with a dowel on the end of it and she threaded it through a shape with a hole in it like it was nothing!  She is now very proficient at stair ascending and descending.  This month she has begun to eat with a spoon (well, sort of).  It is a work in progress.  She demands eating utensils, though.  Her absolute favorite things are dogs.  Every evening that we can we go outside and visit the neighbor dogs.  She gets such a kick out of them.  She signs dog and pants and giggles as they approach to kiss her.  She even says “Molly,” which is a neighbor dog’s name. 

She communicates so well through her sign language that we are able to say, “Ruthie, use your words,” and her whining or grunting will be turned in to signs and words.  It is so amazing to communicate with a little child who cannot yet speak through words completely.

Of course her most frequently used word is “Em-ma.”  She absolutely adores her sister.  As soon as she wakes up (even if Emma is still sleeping—which she usually is) she goes to her door and knocks and says, “Ehhh-mmma!”  That is if we don’t catch her first so Emma can sleep a little longer! 

Emma is our big 3 year old.  She has really changed from a toddler girl to a little girl this summer.  It is sad and thrilling all at once to see her grow up so much.  Her independence is expanding every day.  She likes to try to make her own food and to clean up her dishes.  She enjoys getting dressed by herself and she takes her time to actually pick out what she is going to wear that day.  She will say, “Dad, does this match?”  One day she excitedly ran in to Steve and I and said, “Mom, Dad, come look at this!  You won’t believe it!”  We quickly followed her to her room that was spotlessly cleaned up!  She had cleaned up her room all by herself without being asked.

Emma asks lots of questions about how things work.  Steve is particularly good at taking the time to thoroughly explain everything he is doing when she asks.  It is a really cute exchange to watch.  We were driving in the car last week and she was asking about how flowers and trees grow and we talked about the planting of a seed and the whole process and she said, “Oh, that is very interesting.  That actually makes a lot of sense, Mom.”

The biggest excitement of the month occurred last week when I was sitting on the little loveseat in our kitchen.  All of a sudden a chipmunk casually strolled passed me toward the oven.  I thought, “That was a chipmunk.  A chipmunk just walked passed me in the kitchen.”  I then asked Miss Jan if she would go to the store and get some traps (preferably a live trap).  While she was gone, with the stove drawer removed, I sat in waiting on the couch to see if that little bugger was behind the cabinets next to the stove.  I sat poised with my camera (for proof), a broom (for protection) and a flashlight (don’t know why I had that).  Sure enough he crept out from behind the cabinet and was under the stove cleaning his paws as if he was very comfortable in this kitchen.  That was a little disturbing!  Whenever he came out from behind the cabinet I shooed him back in with my broomstick so that I would know where he was and could set the trap there.  Goodness knows I didn’t want him running around the house! 

When Jan and Emma arrived with the traps I then sent all of them off to lunch so that I could catch this guy.  I set the trap under the stove, just as the directions suggested (with a little peanut butter).  As soon as he came out of hiding he went around the trap!  I shooed him back in to his hole and had to realign the trap several times before he actually went in the thing.  When he finally got curious enough to enter the trap, he went all of the way to the back of the trap and didn’t set the thing off!  He just walked out of trap with no problem and I shooed him back to his hideout.  Finally while I was on the phone and only about 2 feet from the trap (I was realigning it and thought surely he wouldn’t come out while I was right there, let alone while I was talking on the phone).  Sure enough he comes out, I give my dental hygienist a play-by-play, as the darned thing goes in to the trap and sets the door closed behind him.  I am thrilled that this is finally over until he starts to climb out of the holes of the trap! Drat!  This time I drop the phone, grab my broomstick and proceed to push his head down so he can’t crawl all of the way out.  Oh boy was I in a pickle!  I grabbed a Tupperware bowl and was poised to catch him in the bowl when I discovered that his hind legs were stuck.  I then stood up still holding his head down with the broomstick with one hand, the trap with the other and banging into cabinets and furniture as I tried to rush outside to get this creature out!  It turns out I actually had to help him get unstuck and he finally ran away.  This whole ordeal took 3 hours!!  I wasn’t going to quit until that furry critter was out of my house!!!!

I’d say that that was enough excitement for one month, huh? 

Blessings to you all.