Irish Dancing

Rudy recently informed us that his favorite kind of dancing is Irish dancing, and then he gave us a demonstration. This apparently came from a movie that he watched at school about a leprechaun. We have to find an Irish festival soon to take him t so he can see some Irish dancing!

Cousins Without Chaos

Today we got all the cousins together for the annual picture. We expected chaos since our numbers have doubled and the three that are experienced at this event, are often not very cooperative. Lots of bribing went on up to the minute pictures began, and something worked because the big kids all followed directions and participated wonderfully and the babies were just there along for the ride. In the first 30 seconds one perfect picture had been taken and we knew that it didn't matter what else happened, at least we got one!

I don't yet have copies of the pictures to put here, but here are some pictures from the rest of the day. Besides pictures, we also celebrated January and March birthdays.

The kids enjoying their ice cream cone cupcakes and water ice.

Paige listening intently to Patti.

Charlie trying a kiwi.

The 'big' kids.

Chris and Charlie - as I snapped the picture, one of the kids dropped something that made a loud noise and Chris reacted to it.

Renee and Charlie.

Lucy

Charlie

The babies had fun checking each other out and getting upset when one was fed a bottle but not the other. I wish I had gotten a picture of the two of them together - Charlie is 3 weeks younger but about 10 pounds bigger - and he is the smallest of Chris & Patti's kids at this age!

The Evolution of the Teeth

When Rudy first came home, his front teeth were in really bad shape - brown, rotting. So about 6 months later, he had caps put on them, giving him a beautiful smile. Here is the blog I wrote about that.

Last month we went to the dentist and the dentist was concerned by the x-rays. He said there was an infection behind his capped teeth and they needed to be removed. All of them. He said Rudy would then just have to wait until his adult teeth grew in - until then, he will be toothless. So, today, he had his teeth removed. All 4 top front teeth. They had been getting loose in the past few months - apparently another sign of a problem. Paul was in the room with Rudy and said the removal of the teeth was very simple - the teeth really just popped out. Rudy handle it all very well. He was a little groggy at first, then on the way home started asking if he could play on the computer- a sign of normalcy. When we got home, we discovered the tooth fairy had left him a gift under his pillow - a Spiderman tag book. He was supposed to eat mostly liquids today- although our son seems to feel no pain, so he wasn't bothered at all by the exposed gums and lack of teeth. We id keep him to soft foods - lunch was a Dixie cup of ice cream and a pudding. Dinner was soup and then some pierogies. I think tomorrow he will want to eat his usual food.

Here are some of the after pictures. They really don't do him justice. He looks very cute with all his teeth out - and is very excited because no one else every loses 4 teeth at once! Paul claims he looks like an Irish boxer - I'm still not sure exactly what he means , but maybe we can come up with a good story for why he doesn't have his teeth!

And here is a last look at his old teeth. You can't see very well but the teeth had no roots and are very brown and rotted. Two of the caps came off of the teeth. These are going under his pillow tonight to see if we can trick the tooth fairy into giving him some money this time! :)

Spring Fun

Some recent pictures:

We went to a Dr.Seuss celebration at our local bookstore. Here Rudy is drawing a picture of his favorite Dr. Seuss book - "Oh Say Can You Say, Di-no-saur?"

Last Saturday Paul and I had a night to ourselves, since Rudy went to visit his cousins. We went to dinner and did some shopping (much easier to do, but also much more costly because it's easy to do without a little one along). Paul's big purchase - his "camping" hat.



Friday was a beautiful. sunny day, so after school, we met up with Rudy's friend, Tommy, at the playground.

Alison taught Rudy how to play "Mother, May I?". He loved it!

When you ask two boys to stand together for a picture, they automatically break into superhero poses.

Today Paul's basketball team had a tournament, so we went up for some of the games. In between games, Rudy had fun running around outside.

Bill, Paige and Grandpa joined us at the game. Rudy really had fun talking to Paige and entertaining her- he even tried to share some of his peanut butter cup from his ice cream sundae with her!

Grandpa with 2/5 of his grandchildren.

When we got home after the game, we decided it was time to get Rudy's bike out of the basement and go for a ride. We just went to the end of our street, but he rode back and forth for more than 30 minutes.

Rudy and Lou checking out a log.

"Look! There's the bug that rolls into a ball!"

What A Weekend

Saturday we went to Tyler's birthday party. I can't believe he is 7 already! I didn't get many pictures during the party, I honestly wasn't thinking much about it, but after the gifts were opened, and Tyler received his DS, all the other electronic equipment came out, too.
Here is Tyler allowing Noah to watch him play.

Rudy was more interested in the fact that they had different Leapster games than he does, so he was content to play with them.

Sean was playing with the Tag Reader but I couldn't get a good picture of him.

Three boys getting as close as possible to the cake.

If Rudy was covering his eyes, they could be saying "Speak No Evil, Hear No Evil, See No Evil".

A crazy boy on the ride home.

On Sunday, we celebrated restaurant week by going out to a 'fancy' restaurant (Rudy's words, but it really was). There were dinner specials, so Dad took us out to The Palm - not something we could normally afford, but very delicious (and they had a children's menu, so we could bring Rudy). Rudy did very well at dinner.

This picture's a little dark because of the restaurant and it's taken on my phone.

Even fancy restaurants get silly faces!!

Fascinated by the fountain and decorations to make the inside look like the outside.