a little buzz going on

"Where there's danger, there's a Space Ranger!"

I'm usually not excited about trash.



Hopefully, Buzz has saved the day. Because Ruby's been refusing to poop on the toilet for tooooo long.

We took her to see Toy Story 3 and she became enthralled with him - and the movie. So after trying various other bribes, treats, etc. to get her to potty somewhere other than her pants, I figured we'd take a field trip to Wally World and purchase a big 'ol Buzz and see if that helped. It has.



I could hardly get her to look at me.



The road to getting him was pretty bumpy, but it was the best success we've had yet. I told her if she went on the potty three times she could open him and play with him. If she goes in her pants now, Buzz goes back in the box until she's back to the toilet.




Hopefully it sticks because I am SICK of cleaning poop out of little girl underwear.

She opened him and I asked her if she liked her new Buzz. She said "Oh, yeah, he's good peeps!" She's also said "Hey, mom - I pooped THREE times for Buzz!" Everything has been about Buzz today. And he's made it into the rotation for her role playing - where she assigns us each a member of the family to be instead of ourselves.

He also has an impressive amount of buttons and gadgets. I confess I spent a bit of time playing with him myself.



Praying for poop deposited regularly in the same spot. Is that too much to ask?

And yes I'm aware that I can get much better quality photos than my iPhone. But it is sooo handy!

emmett etc

My big lil guy turns four months TODAY. Manalivewheredoesthetimego!?! I am more acutely aware of the time this time around probably because he is my last. Even though I'm still not sleeping as much as I'd like to at night, I'm taking it all in.

This kid is sooo giggly and smiley. He smiles instantly at Ruby especially. He coos at and sings with her. He's also a mama's boy, although dad's gotten into his good graces a little more lately.

He rolled a month and a half ago, but is doing it constantly now. If I lay him under his playthings, flip he's over. And he's not mad about it either, at least not right away. So that's a good thing.

He is the wiggliest of wiggly worms. Strong is not the word for him. Sturdy. James and Ruby were both strong and James was very wiggly (we thought he had RLS because of how much he kicked his legs in the early days)... but Emmett is another story. He will wiggle out of anything he's not strapped into. He will wiggle out of anything he IS strapped into. He was tightly strapped into his swing and guess what. Yeah that couldn't have been a soft landing. He has also catapulted himself out of the Bumbo seat. Another not soft landing, but not as bad as the swing. Which makes me sad because I really loved using that with Ruby, it was her "stay" spot when I was doing whatever. The kid is wiggly and tough.

This is not an optical illusion, a trick, he was not propped. He is standing, holding on to the back of the couch. 3.5 months.



Daddy calls him EmStar. I call him WigglyButt, Stinky, Schnooks, Ottobot. Ruby still simply calls him Baby and that is probably what he is most referred to as around here, period. He will always be the baby. So I guess it's fitting.

Here is an approximate 3 month photo.


And one at 3.5 months


One with Sister


And another

friday.

It's been a while since I've been here. I've been choosing which things to spend my time on and which to neglect. Guess which way I went with this blog. I really wish I'd posted at least weekly for my own taxed memory's sake. I'm pretty random anyway with what I've been posting, so I guess it doesn't matter if the timeline or dates are just right.

The thing that's been on my mind most in the past week is Ruby's friend, 3 year old Abby. Her mom is my friend, Kris. I have photographed her kids since they were babies and I also photographed her wedding. A week ago Abby got e.coli and got dehydrated -- her kidneys began to fail and she was diagnosed with HUS. We have been to see her in the hospital and trying to do little things to help Abby feel better as well as help out her mommy and daddy. Ruby has been telling everyone, even at the grocery store, that she has a friend named Abby who's in the hospital because she's sick. Yesterday we went to visit and it was so hard to see someone else's baby, my own baby's age, in so much pain and miserable. We brought baked goodies and meals as well as things to try to help brighten Abby's day. At first Ruby wasn't sure what to say to her lil' buddy that was whimpering on the bed with all the tubes coming out of her from every which way. But finally she got comfortable and sat on the end of Abby's bed and chatted. The girls shared glow in the dark bracelets (we'd had fun at the dollar store buying little things to wrap that Abby could open randomly). They were a hit.

Abby is on the left with the orange bracelet. Ruby is wearing a pink one. Kris posted this on Abby's CaringBridge and I took it from there.


Ruby's also been making a drawing or writing a letter or sending a card every single day to Abby in the hospital. This morning I documented what we have been doing - or at least what we did today.

We had picked flowers previously and Kris said that was the first that Abby had smiled while in the hospital - opening the flowers from Ruby. So Ruby wanted to do it again.

Picking flowers


More picking



The flowers


Proud of the flowers


The card.



Please pray that Abby's kidneys are working correctly soon. It sure puts in perspective how small my problems are.

Happy Friday!

jesse's girl - and boy.

Roobs (what we call her 99% of the time) is very in tune with tunes and what's on the radio. We were listening to the radio yesterday while daddy was in Radio Shack. The song 'Jesse's Girl' came on the radio. She's usually toe tappin and dancing to music, but I guess being strapped into the carseat makes her do less of that and more paying attention to other things like lyrics.
I heard her thinking out loud. "Jesse's girl? Jesse... "
She said to me, "Hey, mom - that's you! Jesse!"
She paused. "If you're Jesse, then this song is about ME! 'Cause I'm Jesse's Girl!"
--Can't argue with that.

She was running around the other morning. She put on her apron and declared that she was to be called Baker. And I was to be called Maestro. And then she suggested we buy a really big violin. All day she was Baker and corrected me if I called her anything else. She would occasionally call me Mom and then say "Sorry to call you Mom. I mean Maestro."

The other day she was on the phone. Her play Princess phone. She was talking to James, asking him when he'd be home from school. I asked her to pick up a book or something. She SHUSHED me. "Shhh, mommy, I'm ON THE PHONE."

We went shopping at Target and picked up some new hair barettes. She was very excited. I had nothing but a little basket to hold her fun hair stuff. I remember having a fun dolly head to put mine on, and I had bought a cute little dolly purse at a garage sale for $1 and washed it up. I had some yarn on hand not serving any purpose so I had an idea. We did a little crafty hour and made the dolly purse into a hair accessory holder. I didn't take any before pics but I'm sure you can imagine the doll without those long braids.










Emmett is eight weeks. The little man is ridiculously smiley. I do feel bad because he seems to reserve all his smiles for ME. Mommy. While I feel bad for daddy (he gets the cries and fusses when he picks him up) I am relishing this because I know that it's probably temporary and when he learns that daddy is far more fun than mommy that'll change. It's so much fun to have him more interactive rather than a cuddly sleeping little lump. Which I didn't mind either.

Here's a little video clip that I shortened showing his darling face and huge smile. He has dimples like Ruby. Not sure where my kids get dimples. But they're sooo cute.

we have rollover

Today the little man rolled over. Of course I don't have it on video - although my new camera has video, my point and shoot camera has video, I have a Flip AND we have a regular Sony Handycam. Poor third child. Then when James got home I was doing something in the kitchen and Emmett was lying under the little plaything. James had been down on his hands and knees and cooing and playing with him and startled, said "hey, MOM! He rolled over!" So, he's got it. But he hasn't done it since - although now I'll have to tie him into the bouncy seat like good parents do because he tried to flip over onto his belly in that, too.

He has also figured out how to smile about a week and a half ago- unassisted by gas. It's the real thing, folks. Because I can just coo at him and I get a big whole-faced smile and sometimes even a bonus coo back at me. And this can go on for a while until someone gets bored. It's always him.



A lot of people say he looks "just like daddy"... I don't think he looks a ton like either of us. He does have pretty blue eyes, but so did Ruby at this age - I had to wait a year to find out what color her eyes were REALLY going to be.

I'm uncertain how "big" he is right now as we have yet to go to the dr. Appt will be made this week though. He's comfortably in 0-3m.

Nights are still kind of long, but we are up only twice now usually. I won't complain. He at least doesn't want to stay up and party, just get down to the business of eating, burping (the time consuming part) and go back to sleep. He's up for longer periods during the day, which I love, except for when I have some work that has to get done.

He also holds his head up steadily. Today was the first I really noticed it was a constant thing. Not like 24/7 constant because I assume his neck gets tired, but he is certainly doing a great job of just holding it up and looking around without wavering or losing control.

All three of my babies have been excellent at the physical stuff as small babies. Ruby held her head up so well in the hospital she freaked us out. James rolled over at 3 1/2 weeks. So I knew he would probably hit these milestones soon, just not so soon! Ahhh my baby is growing.

UMTYMP - the beginning

My kid is officially a college student. I never thought this would happen before he hit puberty. But on Thursday night we went to the UMPTYMP parent orientation at the U. It was from 5-630 pm. (By the way, UMPTYMP stands for University of Minnesota Talented Youth Mathematics Program.) I wasn't nervous getting there, because I had myself a handy dandy map that I printed off of the U's website. Let's just say I was on track to be almost 30 minutes early and ended up being 15 minutes late. James was with me and was not happy. He hates being early but hates being late even more.

Anyhow, following the map looked so very easy. But it turned out notsomuch. I got caught up at Seven Corners and ended up on the East bank instead of the West Bank. Or the West instead of East. I was so confused and flustered and it was rush hour -- I couldn't remember. I don't consider myself to be bad with directions but this was ridiculous. Finally I got back on the freeway and took the exit that was labeled the correct Bank. We parked in a public ramp and ended up running like mad across campus, through buildings, over buildings, you name it, asking a student here or there if we were going the right direction to Smith Hall.

The hall was HOT and crowded. And full by the time we got there. And stunk like Doritos. I prefer to think of it as Doritos and not someone's nasty b.o.

Nothing spectacular happened, just a basic info session followed by a question and answer time. In a nutshell, it's a 5 year program. My baby will be doing high school math the first two years and college level the remaining three. One night a week he will have class for two hours, (ON campus, yuck for that drive) and in each class they will cover three weeks of a regular high school math (Algebra to start) class. The idea is that the kids in this program are able to get a concept the first or second time it is introduced, as a regular high school student needs to see it about a dozen times. He will do some online course work. He will do some traditional work. It's going to be a big time commitment on his part and ours.

The majority of the kids beginning the program with him in the fall will be in the 7th grade while some will be starting in 8th grade and a few from 6th (James' grade). He will be the youngest of the group at 11.

After he completes the five years, and assuming he does (grades need to be a B- or above), he will be able to take advantage of other perks from the university including tuition for additional classes for which the University will pay as well as for books, etc.

Whew. I am exhausted thinking about it. This has been in a way, an answer to prayers about how to accommodate him and keep him challenged. Not sure how our crazy.smart.but.very.disorganized.and.a.bit.immature child will do with it, although we have no doubt at all he will be able to do the work. I want to keep him challenged and this seems like a good way, at the same time he is just a baby who's been grade skipped and that rocked his little world for a while. I do think it will be excellent to have him in with his true peers. We'll take it as it goes, I suppose.

terrible terriffic three

Where have I been? Good question. I've been all over the place. Waiting for an extra minute of time to have so I could update my blog. Yeah-huh that's gonna happen. As it is I'm wrestling with a squirmy boy who's got some gas to work out and trying to keep a little girl from destroying my studio. Right now I'm on Emmet's schedule and he doesn't care what I want to do.

Rewind a little I guess. Ruby turned three. In the days leading up to it she would ask "is it my birthday yet?" and she ran around wearing my photography prop birthday hats.
We had two small parties for her. One on her actual birthday. Attendees were mom, dad, James, Emmett and the birthday girl herself. I made some cupcakes and we sang and opened a few gifts. We got her a little camera that works and actually takes some decent pictures. She did not put it down for a looooong time and we had to teach her to stand and hold the camera still or the image would be just a big blur. She also got Candyland, a bat/ball set, and a glove.

The second party was the following Tuesday the 27th. Grandma and Grandpa, Auntie B, Andie, Adam, Jenna and Auntie Kim graced us with their presence. She got the dinosaur cake that she requested. I have photos, lots of them but it'll have to wait for another day. The day that has extra time in it. I think her favorite toy, though, has been the Fisher Price Cool School - it's kept her attention and taught her a ton!

For now, I'm going to make this post more a "Ruby Update" -- her funny sayings and doings and things at this point.



First, on a slightly negative note - still no potty training going on. She is very much into what Baby is doing, and thinks she should be doing that too. i.e. Pooping her pants. I take solace in the fact that she won't go to kindergarten untrained. She has also been quite a handful. I do believe it's a combination of the baby (although it doesn't seem to be jealousy, she just sees him getting attention in a certain way) and being THREE. James was harder at three than two. Not sure why they call them the terrible two's, because frankly both of my kids were quite easy at two.

I digress. Here are some funny things Ruby's come up with lately:

The other day she walked over to Emmett, kissed him on the head, and said "You're a funny looking guy, Otto."

Emmett is a very loud baby. Even when he's sleeping. One day Ruby said to me "Mommy, what's going on with baby? He's squeaking like a rubber ducky!"


I overheard her say to her sippy cup: "Mmmmm... I'm absolutely loving my.... (big pause)... glass of water"

This morning, I told her NO, so she went to Daddy, asked him and followed it with "Mommy is getting on my nerves."

We've had some potty training challenges. Daddy, trying to psyche her out, or be sarcastic (I'm not sure why exactly) - tells her LOVES changing poopy diapers. So one day while I'm changing one, she asks "Mommy, do you love changing poopy diapers?"
"AbSOLUTELY NOT, Ruby!"
"Well, DADDY Do!"

She's been a rockstar at writing and drawing letters - and has been practicing on her Cool School deal she got for her birthday. She was drawing a number 7 and drew it upside down. I told her she had it upside down. "Well then I'll just have to try to do it Upside UP!"

She has an amazing vocabulary and will pick up some crazy words and use them correctly. She does have some interesting pronunciations also.

Computer: Com-pu-du-der
Guitar: Mc-Tar

Her L's are usually either "w" sounds or "y" sounds. But sometimes they're L sounds. Go figure.