Medieval Times

The annual related-arts night at Rudy's school had the theme Medieval Times this year. The first graders did a dance.  Here you can see them walking in (Rudy is carrying his crown instead of wearing it).

All lined up as the Phys. ed. teacher moves the classes to their spots.

Rudy's class was directly across the gym from us and he was facing us most of the time.

This is how the dance started.

And then they spun in circles a few times, clapped and came together in the middle. Apparently this was the second dance they learned because the first one was too hard. This was certainly wasn't (although it was funny to see how some classes really had it down and were in almost perfect formation and others (like Rudy's) were kind of disorganized.

The end of the dance and there's Rudy still sitting up and looking around.

In the lobby, to continue the Medieval Times theme, was a falcon.

And in the other lobby was a knight.

After a great performance, we went to YoGo to celebrate.

Rudyisms

Rudy has been talking a lot lately about good guys and bad guys and jails. This weekend, separately, he asked Paul and I if he was in jail if we would come visit him. When we assured him we would, he asked if we would bake him a cake with something in it so he could escape. We told him no, we wouldn't. His next questions was whether we would bring him legos then. That we could do!

The other morning, Rudy told Paul-If a bad guy does something really bad, they should put them in a chair and make them look at pictures of rainbows, hearts and cute little dogs. Cause bad guys don't like any of that stuff.

One morning Rudy told me, "Mom, I am really good at sports. I am so good I could beat the Phillies." I replied that I knew he was good, but I wasn't sure he was good enough yet to beat the Phillies. He said, "Yes, I am and I am really fast." He then sat down to finish his breakfast and ended with, "If you believe in yourself, you can do anything." I certainly couldn't argue with that!

I really think one day Rudy will become a vegetarian. At the store, he told me how sad he felt for the lobsters and other animals that people eat. He wondered why we didn't just make something that was 'like' chicken but didn't really require killing chicken to eat it. I told him we did have foods like that and that if he decides to do that as he gets older, that's fine. 

March Madness

Catching up on recent activities...

Wacky Wednesday outfit/

I told him the first picture he had his eyes closed, so this is how we fixed it in the next picture.

Notice the two different shoes- both left feet. I sent his other sneaker in case the boot bothered his foot, but he wore it all day.

Thursday Rudy had his first piano lesson. Bryan is the choir director/organist/pianist at church. Rudy really likes him and he was excited to teach Rudy.

Thursday night, while getting ready for bed, Rudy fell down the steps. The short version is, he was trying to get dressed on the stairs (after being told to go up to his room) and when he heard me coming up, he tried to go up the stairs, but his pants weren't all the way on.

Saturday we went into Philly to the Arden theater. They had a kids day with different activities set up including trying out some theater classes. Here, he pensively waits for his first class.

The first class he wanted to try was musical theater. Each class was just a 15 minute trial. During this class they learned a short song and did warm up exercises. He was very reserved and shy in this one, but except for not wanting to introduce himself, he fully participated.

Immediately after the musical theater class was a Mixed-Up Fairytales class. This one he loved and got right into. They all picked a fairytale character to be (he was Robin Hood- notice him clutching his bow), then made up a story as the went along.

We then walked around Old City and visited some other places that had activities- this class studio let the kids make seed balls to plant at home.

On the way here he had his face painted- a spider.

Then he made something else with clay.

The last class he tried was called Once Upon a Time. The first sentence of a story was given and then the kids talked about what was going to happen next and acted it out.

Doing ninja moves.

Jumping....

....and falling.

He LOVED the classes and asked when he could do it again. So it looks like we'll be signing him up for some and Paul and I will be hanging around in Old City some Saturdays (life could be worse!).
We went to lunch before heading home and Rudy continued his dramatic flair.

And ate a huge plate of pancakes. Notice his eye- two days after and it's nicely purple all around his eye with the lid a little swollen. Between his long hair and his darker skin, it doesn't seem to be really noticeable, though.