Happy Birthday, Uncle Bill!

Today is my brother Bill's birthday. He is Rudy's godfather and their birthdays are just a few days apart so he will always be very special to Rudy. Hope you had a great birthday, little brother! We love you.

Thanksgiving and Birthdays part 2

On Friday we had another Thanksgiving celebration with my side of the family. We also celebrated birthdays - Dad, Bill, and Patti. Their birthdays and Rudy's are within two weeks of each other. Every year our Thanksgivings are a little less relaxing and a little more active. We had tents set up in the living room for the kids to play with and we told them after dinner and after presents, we could watch Rudolph. Max and Rudy actually sat still for the first 20 minutes. It was a very peaceful time. :)

Lucy happily chasing Mario.



Rudy, Max and Patti playing a memory game.



One table (the 'adult' table)



The other table (the 'kiddie' table)



Grandpa and the boys watching Rudolph.

FFF- Thankfulness

I am thankful for the beautiful weekends we've had recently.


I am thankful for my best friend, Vincie. We have no recent pictures together because all we do is take pictures of the kids and fortunately for both of us, all of our older pictures are not digital.



I am thankful for the men in my life.





I am thankful for my father and brothers and sisters-in-law and niece and nephew (crazy though we are).





I am thankful that this beautiful boy has been home with us for over a year.


I am thankful for my husband who is my best friend.

A Thanksgiving Birthday

Since Rudy's birthday fell on Thanksgiving this year, we weren't able to go out and do anything special today but we did have a fun day. First we went to Grandpa's house for breakfast with Grandpa, Aunt Barbara, and Sr. Marian Jude. This is Rudy all ready to go on a sunny car ride.



After breakfast we came home and gave Rudy his birthday present - a guitar. Videos to come later with some great singing and playing.







He played his guitar for a while and then we went outside to rake leaves yet again (and we're still not done!). After that we took Lou for a walk. Lou must be paying Rudy - every weekend he now talks about taking Lou out for a walk!



After the walk, we tried to get Rudy to take a nap. he didn't fall asleep last night until almost 11pm and was awake at 6:45am so we figured he had to be tired. No such luck, though. He was in his room for about 1 1/2 hours and didn't fall asleep. And to top it off, now that he's 3, he's discovered he can just get out of bed when he wants and come downstairs. Paul was napping and I was watching a movie. In the monitor I could hear Rudy calling me and talking and all of a sudden his voice sounded very distant. A minute later I heard noises on the stairs so I ran to investigate. As I got to the bottom of the steps, Rudy had arrived at the landing above me. he told me "I throw tissue away and then I come find you." I also discovered many different toys in his bed that I had not given him before I left the room at nap. It was a nice run we had where he wouldn't get out of bed without us being there but I guess he's decided he's 3 now and can do what he wants. We'll see if it was a fluke or something that will start happening regularly.

So after his non-nap, we had to wait a few more hours before going to Aunt Pat's house for dinner. It was finally time and it was a nice day so we decided to walk over. We had a great dinner and a lot of fun and Rudy got to help his favorite person - Loco Neil - make the mashed potatoes. Here he is with Sean and Neil wearing his apron and mashing potatoes.

Happy Birthday, Rudy

Happy Birthday to our sweet son. He is 3 today! Here are pictures of past birthday celebrations.
First birthday at the Westin in Guatemala City.



Second birthday at home.



Third birthday at home.

Rudy's Party

Today we had Rudy's third birthday party. It was pretty small - mostly family with just a few friends.

The best idea I had today was to set up these tents and tunnels upstairs. It gave the boys somewhere new to play (Lucy went in there too although the boys tried to keep her out).

Rudy and Tommy using the tunnel for the cars.



Silly Max



My masterpiece



Delicioso cake



What could keep 3 boys so enthralled? A tow truck that makes noise!

Two Peas in a Pod (or Under a Blanket)

This is what I came home to after shopping last night....



They were happily watching Muzzy (for about the 500th time!). Muzzy is a program put out by the BBC to help children (and adults) learn a foreign language. We took a trial run of Muzzy after Rudy came home. He liked it but not well enough for us to pay the hundreds of dollars it would cost to purchase it. I requested it at our library and now, almost a year later, it finally became available. Rudy has watched these videos several times a day and does seem to be using more spanish as a result (although it's usually just random phrases like "yo soy listo" or saying the characters names). Paul and I are definitely brushing up on our spanish too by watching this. We watch it with the spanish subtitles so we can hear the spanish words, read the spanish words and use a combination of the two to try to translate what is being said.

FFF- A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Place: Guatemala City Marriott
Time: July 2006
Age: 7 months

This was our first visit to Guatemala and to see Rudy. He had a very hard time sleeping while with us. We tried everything - the crib, sleeping with us in the bed, walking him around, sitting up in the chair and nothing seemed to work. Then one day, at nap time, we tried this bouncy chair that was in the Family Room in the hotel and Rudy fell fast asleep in it. Later that night we went back to the Family Room and borrowed the chair for the night and got a great night's sleep because of it. Sorry to any other parents who were looking for the bouncy chair that day and night (and I can't remember if we held onto it for another day or so but that was very likely).
By the way, he still sticks his finger in his ears when he sleeps. We have to keep his nails cut short or he has all these little cuts in his outer ear.

Rudyisms

"I NEED a hug." (Said as you are leaving him or trying to put him to bed. A great delay tactic because how can you resist it?!)

Talking about his birthday : "I have a firetruck and a police car and a jeep car and presents for me. What else I have, Mommy?"
"How about cake?"
"MMM. Yeah, that be good. And a jukebox." (Apparently Little Einsteins had a jukebox.)

"Grandpa has a full belly." (I thought you'd get a kick out of this, Dad.)

Rudy is using a lot of emotion words lately. "I happy." "I sad." "I miss mommy." Sometimes they are in context and sometimes not. I think someone in his class must be a little sad when their mom drops them off because for about a week he told me how sad he was because he missed me, even though he shows no sign of it when I take him to his classroom.

We stopped at the bank and at the window I asked for a deposit slip. Rudy then yelled from the back seat "I need a milkshake." The funny part is only once in the past year (except maybe when on vacation) have we gone to a fast food drive thru. And it was a day I was craving a milkshake. It was also several months ago.

Last weekend we were taking a walk with Lou. Paul was holding Lou's leash and Rudy was walking with me. He looked at me and said "You pull her string." After a few questions I learned he wanted to walk with Paul and he wanted me to hold Lou's leash.

Rudy's memory is amazing and this really comes out in books he reads. We can get a book from the library, read it twice in a row and he can then go page by page and tell much of the story. He is definitely using picture cues but he also memorizes much of the story which is evident in the way he will sometimes repeat a phrase word for word. It's really uncanny. I predict he's going to be one of those kids who never has to study and just retains everything he hears in class.

He still gets the biggest kick out of the pop of the toaster. When we are making waffles or "chicken muffins" (english muffins) he just watches and listens for the toaster to pop and when it does he makes this surprised face like he can't believe it happened again.

FFF- A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

I decided on the weeks I don't feel like doing the theme for FFF, or it's something I just don't have pictures of, I'd start my own theme. This is for pictures that have a great memory involved and a story to go with them.
This week's picture is one I was just looking at this week as I cleaned (a rare event of it's own). We took this picture in June 2007 when we visited Rudy in Antigua. He was about 18 months old at the time. As with most of our days there, we were walking around Parque Central and Rudy just looked so cute, I ran in front of him to take a picture while he was walking. To get a good shop, I crouched down so I was closer to his level. Rudy proceeded to copy me and crouch down also and I snapped this picture. It's slightly blurry but still one of my favorite pictures.

The Perfect Weekend

What most made this a perfect weekend was the fact that we had NOTHING planned - a real rarity for us - so we decided our focus would be on two things: yard work and potty training. And we got a surprise dinner out to our favorite Italian place when my dad called Saturday and said he was in the mood for Italian food and would we go with him - doesn't get any better than that!

Rudy has been doing really well with potty training at school. Most days his diaper is dry and when he does sit on the potty he usually goes. At home we haven't had much success lately but we figured this was the weekend to do it. We bought underwear for Rudy and planned to have him in it most of the day (except for during his nap) and try to take him to the bathroom regularly. Saturday ended with 3 accidents and no action in the potty. He does like his new underwear (race cars and trains) and by the end of the day at least he was willing to sit on the potty. I set the alarm on my phone for every 30 minutes and he responded well to hearing it and knowing what that it meant potty time. Sunday morning when he woke up, I took his diaper off. He ate breakfast and played for a little while and then I told him it was time to go on the potty. He sat down and almost immediately peed. We cheered and gave him stickers he'd been wanting and even went to wake up Paul to tell him. As of 5:00pm we haven't had any repeats but we also haven't had any accidents. He was in a diaper more today because of going to church and then taking a very long nap. So we're by no means finished with this, but he is definitely doing better. His teacher is going to do the same thing in school - have him without his diaper for certain times of the day- so we'll see how he does. And we're going to have him do the same at home (when we're home for any length of time in the evenings!).

As for the yard work - we got a lot of leaves raked both days, trimmed some bushes and just enjoyed the mostly sunny, warmer than usual November weather.

Some pictures from our weekend:

Beautiful leaves that fell from one of our trees.



Our helper who wanted to "rake the trees".



What's a fall day without a game of baseball?



Taking "My Lou" for a walk. We took Lou out on Saturday and by Saturday night Rudy was already planning our Sunday which included walking Lou again. Lou doesn't realize how lucky he is that Rudy was pushing for him to take a walk!



Helping?



Where's Rudy?

A Typical Week

Monday - I wake up around 5:45am, Paul gets up about 15 minutes later. Both of us try to get up early several days during the week to exercise - me on the elliptical, sometimes doing weights, and Paul doing yoga. I need to be in the shower eat breakfast, I set up his nebulizer treatments, and pack our lunches. After his neb, we brush teeth and hair and head out the door. Rudy and I usually leave for school around 8:15 (I have to be there by 8:45), but today we leave earlier because I need to take my car through a car wash, so we leave by 8:00am. Of course, I can't find a drive thru car wash that is open at this hour, so we get to school at about 8:30. Rudy plays in my room until just before 9 when I take him to his class. Today Paul picks Rudy up at school around 4:15 and the two of them go home. I leave work at 4:45and head to my other job (if it can rigthfully be called a job) where I provide in-home support for a young woman with cerebral palsy. I can't rightly call it a job because it is something I've been doing for about 12 years, and I can't imagine not doing it. They are just part of my family and I would go over there even if I didn't get paid for it. While there I feed Chrissy, change her, and we watch a movie. I left her house at 7:30 (a little later than usual) and headed home. Paul and Rudy were watching TV so I join them. Then Paul took Rudy up to bed and I got a few minutes of computer time, then ate dinner, packed Rudy's and my lunches for tomorrow, and looked over some school work. Around 10:00pm Paul and I watched the end of The Amazing Race (I fell asleep while we were watching it the other night) and then my light was out by about 10:45pm.

Tuesday - Another early morning for Paul and I. Pretty much the same morning routine and again Rudy and I are leaving early - this time to vote. We vote without much delay and end up at school around 8:35. Again Rudy chooses to play in my classroom (he could go to the before care program but the toys in my room are new to him so he prefers my room!). Tuesday is currently my early day so Rudy and I leave at 3:45. We have a video and some books that are due at the library, which is closing early because of Election Day so we run home to feed Lou and pick up the books then head out to the library. In the meantime Paul starts reheating dinner. When Rudy and I get back from the library I go on the computer until dinner is ready. We enjoy our mac and cheese dinner and some Halloween candy (thankfully Paul and I don't have to beg or steal for candy - this year Rudy willingly shares it with us). After dinner Rudy has another nebulizer treatment and gets to watch some of the new Little Einstein's video we got at the library. He and Paul then play while I go clean the bathroom. I join them downstairs for some play time (and Paul gets some computer time), then it is time for Rudy's bath. After bath he watched TV again (except for when he's on his nebulizer, in the evening is his only TV time) and then Paul put him to bed. Paul and I watched election results and took turns on the computer and I stayed up until about 12:30am.

Wednesday - I set my alarm for early again but really didn't plan on getting up. But once I hit the snooze, I was pretty much awake so I got up and exercised. Once again the morning was about the same although Rudy and I were almost late for school today. My day ended at 4:45, in a rainy, dark mess. We drove to Paul's work where we picked up our shopping bags and hung out for a little while and then Rudy and I went to do some food shopping. It wasn't a big trip but I went to an unfamiliar store so it took a little longer than usual. By the time we got home it was about 6:30. Rudy took his nebulizer (while watching his latest addiction) while I heated up some soup for dinner and got in some computer time. After we ate, I cleaned the kitchen and then Rudy and I went upstairs to get changed. I decided to skip his bath because it would have led to an even later night for Rudy, and he had told me when we were shopping that he was getting tired. So we watched another episode of Little Einsteins (well, he watched, I dozed) and then I put him to bed - 2 stories and 2 songs later and he was likely asleep by 8:30. I got in some computer time, did some homework (teacher work, that is), and went to bed around 10:30.

Thursday - When my alarm went off early today I decided to sleep in some and reset it for 6:15. I took my time on the computer and reading the paper instead of exercising and then went through our usual routine. Rudy and I got to school a little early so he played in my classroom. We left school at 4:45 and came home to dinner that Paul had cooked. We all had dinner, Rudy played, had medicine and then it was off to swim lessons. Rudy is the youngest in his class and so the least focused. He is easily distracted, smiles and waves at all the parents watching, and will spin in circles and go the opposite way of everyone else. But he enjoys it and is definitely learning something. After swimming we came home and Rudy went to bed. Paul and I watched The Office and I was again in bed by 10:30.

Friday - The last day of the week! I did get up and exercise. Our morning routine was pretty much the same only I had to get ready for swimming, which means wearing my bathing suit under my clothes and packing a change of clothes and a towel and flip flops. We got out the door a little early again (bribing Rudy with time to play in my classroom really helps to get us out early in the mornings!). Paul picked Rudy up from school today since it's my late night. I was scheduled until 5:45 but at 5:30we had 2 kids and 2 staff in our room so I was able to leave. I stopped at the store to buy some underwear for Rudy (we are attempting major potty training this weekend) and then headed to Chrissy's house since we had plans to go to a Scrapbooking night out. We got back to her house just after 8:30 and after getting her settled and talking to her mom for a while, I headed home around 9:10pm. I had a few pieces of pizza for dinner and went on the computer for a while. I then watched the end of Survivor (I started watching it while exercising this morning) and was asleep around 11:00pm.

Just writing out my schedule for the week has been exhausting. I'm really not sure how we survive it each week but we do, without too many complications. But now you know why I might not post on the blog, answer your emails, or call you back right away. :)

FFF- Favorite Family Foto

This week's theme is easy. This picture from our vacation to Outer Banks is one of my favorites.




For more Favorite Foto Friday pictures go to KisstheFrog4Me.