Birthdays and Bouncing

We had a double dose of birthday celebrations today - both about 1 1/2 away so we just made a long day of it. We left this morning to go to Tyler's 5th birthday party at a place with lots of big bounce inflatables. Rudy walked in and was just in awe.









He had a blast playing and totally wiped himself out to the point where he finally told us he was ready to go. Of course, once we said good-bye to everyone and actually started to leave we got a tantrum where he threw himself on the floor of the lobby yelling "I don't want to leave!!". What fun! Obviously he was very tired, but did he sleep on the 45 minute ride to party #2? Of course not.

Then it was off to Chris and Patti's house to celebrate all the family birthdays from January to March - Renee, Chris, Max and me. The boys as usual had fun playing together. Patti even bought a pinata, which was a lot of fun to swing a bat at (and the boys got a lot of aggression out) but really never opened on it's own so it was eventually just ripped open.











Then we celebrated with cupcakes and singing.

Just for Fun - Some Videos

Running with his remote control race car.



Dancing... what a riot....



Christmas questions

Rudyisms and WHY?

Rudy is in the questioning stage right now. He asks questions about everything and the questions are now the typical "Why?" questions. Some examples:
R: Why are we driving?
Me: We're going home.
R: Why are we going home?
Me: To see Poppy.
R: Why we going to see Poppy?
Me: Because we missed him.
R: Why we missed him?
Me: Because he's been at home.
R: Why he's at home?
Me: Because he's sick.
R: Why he's sick?
Me: Because he didn't feel well.
R: Why he didn't feel well?
Me: Because he's sick.
The last two questions were asked several times over as I had run out of answers and was just repeating the same two answers over and over hoping Rudy would get tired and move on.

He also cracks us up with his questions sometimes:
I was telling him that he and Paul were going to take Grandmom to a doctor's appointment.
R: Grandmom hurt?
Me: Yes.
R: She fell down?
Me: Yes.
R: She go boing?
Me- no answer just laughter

One day on the way home from school Rudy was talking about animals. He was asking my favorite animal and telling me his favorite animal. Then he asked about Poppy's favorite animal.
Me: I don't know since he's not here. Let's ask him when we get home.
R: NO! what Poppy's favorite animal?
Me: he's not here so I don't know. We'll check with him when he gets home.
R: NOOO! What Poppy's favorite animal?
This question repeats several times with me trying different variations of answers including asking him what does he think Poppy's favorite animal is. He is not satisfied with my responses and finally gives up but he is not happy. Then he starts spitting in the back seat. Since I know he's just mad, I ignore it rather than telling him to stop. He continues for a while then spits again and says "I said PSST PSST. You hear me?" I ignore him and he says it again. So I responded with "Yes, I hear you."
It's quiet again for a few seconds until we pass a Wawa. Then I hear "That NOT a Wawa. That's a store." I respond with "OK" and am met with silence for the rest of the ride home.

FFF- Reading the Comics

Last Sunday, while picking the newspaper up from the floor, Rudy became very interested in the comics. He sat on the floor for about 10 minutes very seriously looking over the comics - turning the pages, staring at each one in turn, doing nothing else but reading them. If he had started laughing at them I would have been signing him up for school!

Rest-or-not in the Forest

Today we took Rudy to the Rainforest Cafe. We started talking about it the day before and he was instantly intrigued. He talked about it all day calling it various names, The Rest-or-not in the Forest, Cafe Water and Cafe Rain Water. Once we got there he was just enthralled: he loved looking at all the animals and decorations while we waited, in fact our almost hour wait went by without a complaint from him or us. He was a little nervous about some of the animals at first. In the lobby, there was a crocodile. Rudy loved looking at it and would tell us it wasn't real, but when it moved and Grandpa was sitting near it, Rudy tried to pull him away from it. We had a great sit among the gorillas that went off every 10 minutes or so. There was a baby gorilla in the tree that Rudy watched very carefully as if to make sure it wasn't going to come down and land on us. He even told me it didn't have a rope so he was stuck in the tree. All in all it was a great experience and one Rudy won't forget for a while.



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FFF-Love

I just love this face. Rudy insisted on wearing my gloves but as soon as I put them on him, he told me they were too big and to take them off. Of course I had to snap a picture first!

A Lovely Weekend

I am ready for spring after today. And despite Rudy's usual tolerance of the cold, we discovered this weekend that he is a summer boy at heart. Earlier this week, as he and Paul went home on a cold, snowy night, Rudy was heard saying "Two more minutes, winter. Two more minutes, then summer."

Yesterday we went to a fun museum that was having a jazz presentation. Rudy really enjoyed the music and was singing "Old MacDonald had a band, shoo be do be do" on the way home. Of course, all that way we went to the museum and what did he play with the most - the train table....



On the way back to the car we had to take some pictures of the beautiful buildings and scenery. And you can see there was still quite a bit of snow on the ground.







Today was an absolutely gorgeous day so we played in the backyard for a while, took Lou for a walk and played with Rudy's remote controlled car. He got this as a Christmas gift but it is just too big for our house so we've been waiting for a nice day to take it outside. He had a lot of fun with it, but seemed to think the only way it would work was if he ran along side it or around it while it was moving.

Night Light

Several people asked about the night light so here is the link to the site. It gives off the same amount of light as a regular night light even though it is blue during the night. Of course, since I wrote that post, Rudy has been waking up early again but he is at least staying in his room so I can doze in bed a little longer.

A Sleep Saver

A few months ago Rudy started waking up earlier and earlier. He would wake up between 5 and 6 to go to the bathroom and then be raring to go. Just the thought of going back to bed would set him off with screams or tears- definitely a sign that he was tired but not one that would successfully allow him or us to get back to sleep. I searched for ideas and suggestions and then remembered about a night light I had seen advertised. It has a sun and a moon and a timer which can be set for when the moon comes on and when the sun comes on. I purchased it (for quite a hefty fee considering it is a night light) and we started talking to Rudy about it. He has been fascinated with the sun and the moon and we are always talking about the sun being up during the day and down at night and the moon coming up at night, so he was already primed to understand the idea behind it. Before we even received the nightlight, we talked about how he would stay in bed until the sun came up and then he could get out of bed.
Once the nightlight arrived we showed it to him and implemented it the first weekend. We told him he couldn't wake up until the sun was up. It immediately worked its magic. The first few days he actually slept later than usual. I don't know if it was because he woke up early, saw the moon, and went back to sleep but whatever the reason it was great. Even now, a month later, if he wakes up to go to the bathroom before the sun is up, he will go back into his room and lie in bed uwithout a complaint until the night light changes to the sun. Of course, he now has to show us the sun every morning. So once he wakes up, he will stand at the top of the steps calling "Mommy, I have to show you something" and wait for us to come up and see his sun.
The nightlight has been a great tool for Rudy to learn to stay in bed and a wonderful visual reminder of whether it is awake time or sleep time. And the bets part is, we can adjust the time as needed. This weekend he will now be sleeping until 7am. :)
Some pictures of our miracle...

FFF- Melt

As you can see from this picture, the snow melted very quickly wherever the sun hit. There is quite a contrast between the green grass and shrubs and the snow still there.
Plus, doesn't that boy just make your heart melt?

Long Time....

It seems like so long since I've written anything other than the Favorite Foto Friday posts. As crazy as our lives were before, they've gotten even more so. Paul coaches a basketball team that has practice every Friday night and games every Sunday and I just started another job where I work Monday, Tuesday and Thursday
nights.

Last night Paul called me to say Rudy wasn't feeling well. Rudy never complains about feeling sick and he was telling Paul his stomach hurt. He had a temperature so Paul gave him some Motrin, cuddled on the couch with him, and then put him to bed. Amazingly, this morning, Rudy was fine - a little cranky but no fever and no complaints. So he and I had a lazy day at home, since I had already planned on taking the day off and figured a day at home wouldn't hurt either Rudy or me!

While I was putting clothes away, Rudy was pretending his closet was a submarine. He wanted me to get in with him, but when I told him I wouldn't fit when he tried to close the door, he settled for Pooh as his companion.





On top of all that we got snow yesterday. Not much - it snowed from about 7am- 5pm with little to no accumulation. Then between 5pm and 9pm we got between 1 and 2 inches. This morning the sun and was bright and much of the snow melted - typical winter weather around here!

Here a few shots we took of the snow on the trees. What we got last night was so fluffy, it just stuck to all the trees until the sun came out today. It was very pretty.





And here is Rudy eating snow. We walked out the front door and he walked right to the bushes and started picking snow up and eating it as if he was picking berries!