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!