rUBY IS fOUR.

Ruby turned four recently. FOUR! It's a little insane but both Heath and I have really, really been looking forward to this birthday. Rumor has it that four is the magical age when kids stop being little demons and start acting somewhat civilized again. The jury is still out on that but here's hoping! 


As years past we had a simple celebration at home with Heath's parents and aunties-by-proxy. I swear we tried limit the stuff she got but even though we set a budget and stuck to it it still seemed like too much. She seemed to enjoy this birthday more than the others but she still hasn't opened but a few things that she got. Why this kid doesn't like toys I don't know. The big winner of the day were the giant RescueBots figures and the Lego table from grandma and grandpa.

The month leading up to her birthday I would ask her what she wanted on her birthday cake. Her number one answer was, "RESCUEBOTS!!!!" Until she saw Guardians of the Galaxy and then she wanted, "Rescuebots and Groot and Gamora!!!" I really did consider trying to cram all of those things on the cake but then decided that was a bit much. The cake didn't look anything like what it did in my head (it never does) but it tasted decent and she liked it so that's all that matters. 

Of course, along with all the presents and cake involved with a birthday comes a check-up. This one involved four shots. Oh wait. Make that five shots since I decided to get her the flu shot. I've been prepping her for this visit on and off the whole year. We watched a terrible episode of Sid the Science Kid that talked about immunizations more times than can be considered humane, along with an episode of Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood where they got shots. We talked about why she had to get them and that everyone (well, almost everyone) gets them and that they keep everyone from getting sick. She wasn't jumping at the chance to get them but I feel like she was pretty well prepared. 

As far as stats she's still average across the board. Her hearing is PERFECT, despite her behavior to the contrary. What I didn't expect at the appointment was the barrage of questions the doctor threw at her. "What is your mom's name? What is your dad's name? Where do you live?" When she started asking I had an Oh Shit moment. It was like my parenting was being tested as well. Thankfully, she passed with flying colors. Parenting FAIL averted!

Finally, the time came for the shots. I was presented with these two options: Have one nurse do all five shots one at a time or have TWO nurses tag team her in a coordinated attack. Truthfully, the thought of two people shooting her up at once horrified me. I didn't know what to do so I just went with what  the nurses said most parents did, two-on-one. Ugh. It was terrible. She started screaming bloody murder as soon as the first needle went in and didn't really stop until after we left the office. Her arms hurt so much that she refused to put her shirt back on. I was glad she had a hoodie with her. She took a brief rest from screaming to weasel her way into not one, but TWO things from the giant treasure chest. I was proud of her when she refused the Frozen coloring book offered her and went for RescueBots and Sophia the First (something she's never seen) instead. 

And just when I thought I had avoided the parenting fail it came back to bite me.  I made the mistake of promising Ruby a treat after her appointment not thinking that I might be totally exhausted after being woken up several times the night before, working early in the morning, rushing from work to pick up kids, and wrangling kids. On top of that it was a rainy, blah day and that totally zaps my energy. Anyway. By the time the appointment was done I was exhausted and very ready to be home. She was not pleased with me when I told her that we'd get something another day. Hey. You win some you lose some!