Father's Day

Father's Day morning we headed out for breakfast at Smithville Bakery, then walked around Smithville for a while. Here the guys pose on the gazebo on the lake.

This one doesn't miss an opportunity to say "Cheeeeeese" as soon as the camera comes out and then tries to get right in front of the lens so you have to take his picture!

Monkey one jumps...

Monkey two jumps...

Monkey one runs... monkey two runs...

Watching two birds fighting.

The geese on the lake included a few furry little ones.

Rudy wanted to go to the arcade but we didn't have any cash for the games. He said he would just pretend.
N had to do the same....

After walking around for a while, the train finally started running. The guys went for a ride. N didn't want to get off when it was over, so I guess it was a hit!

We spent a lazy day at home after that. We set up these tunnels and tents for the boys to play with and they had a lot of fun, especially when we put a tent at the end of the slide!

Rudy has been in Ghostbuster mode and he hasn't even seen the movie! He created his own equipment and costume. One of the tools (I don't have any idea what it's called) is made from an old phone cord.

How can you resist that face?

Just chillin'

Rudy's Ghostbuster tags.

Waiting to grill....

Rudy eventually changed his whole outfit to look more like the Ghostbusters, including snow boots, No Ghosts patches and name tag.

A Day at the Beach (in Maryland)

This weekend's plans were originally to go camping at Asssateague. Unfortunately, a tropical storm headed up the coast with warnings of thunderstorms and lots of rain. So for the first time we had to cancel our camping trip. We still wanted to get together with our camping buddies, so we made plans to meet on Sunday at the beach at Elk Neck State Park (the site of our first camping trip) and hoped the weather would cooperate.

We arrived to warm weather but cloudy skies. But the clouds quickly passed and we had sun for the rest of the day.  Here is everyone taking a lunch break.
Paul and N

The family H.

The family G (two sitting, two in back).

Rudy ate and then ran back to play. He was digging holes and then discovered the little gullies that had been formed from recent rain.

Soon all the kids wanted to check them out (especially once they realized how warm the water was).

Then they followed the waterways to figure out where the gullies came from.

N had a great time in the water. Charlotte kept watch over him and played with him and was a great babysitter.

He also loved splashing with Chris.

Rudy was hard to photograph because he and Lily G spent most of their time way out in the water. (The nice thing about this beach is you can be out where the boats are in the back ground, and the water is still only up to the kids' chests.) On one of the forays out there, the kids found a live and a dead fish. Rudy brought the dead fish in to show every one and then buried it.

And prayed over it.

The "big kids"- Rudy, Lily and Lily had fun on the playground.

Some views of the beach from the top of the hill where the parking and bathrooms are.

It was a beautiful, fun day and well worth the two hour drive to get there!

Baseball Star

As the baseball season draws to a close, I finally had the chance to take some pictures. Rudy had a great year. Baseball definitely seems to be the sport he enjoys the most. It's a hard sport because there is a lot of downtime in the field, but he had some great coaches who kept him directed to the game and really motivated him. Here are some pictures of him batting.

And on the field- first and second graders use a pitching machine.

It's always a danger when Rudy plays near the pitcher's mound and the coach walks away to retrieve the balls. Rudy's natural curiosity takes over and he has to get as close to the machine as he can and try to figure it out. He was constantly being reminded to step back and not touch.

Batter up.

And a short video of him batting.

Sunny Philly

Monkey See. Monkey Do. The little monkey wants to do whatever the big monkey does. So we give him a disconnected wii controller to play with while Rudy is playing wii.

Rudy's last class at the Arden was this weekend (he chose to go to it rather than baseball and later told us this was his favorite class so far). Of course, we had to go early to have lunch at "our place" where Rudy and N could get pancakes.

No pictures...

Really, no pictures.... (as dad's hand sneaks across to steal sausage).

Ha! Got you! (as he tries to stop Dad from taking sausage).

Once again. Monkey See and Monkey Do.

Hanging out in the park while Rudy has class.

Paul took off his shoes and socks and N decided the sock was fun to wear like a glove.

"Cheese"

Rudy as the narrator in the show.

A little blurry but you can see the fun he was having (this was right after the performance).

N-isms

I figured I'd keep track here of some things N does.
~When he first came to us, he screamed and yelled and tantrumed for so many things. He is slowly getting out of that and when he does have a tantrum the length and ferocity of it is greatly decreased.
~He is starting to have a real sense of humor. His language is delayed and he doesn't have a lot of words but one he has is HELP. So he will pretend to fall and scream, "Help! Help me!"
~This morning he put on my shoes as I was getting ready and just walked around laughing at himself, covering his mouth with his hand as if it was the funniest thing ever.
~He says, "Huh". A LOT. And you can easily get caught in a conversation before you realize he is just saying it. Like- "N, come here." "Huh?" "Come here, let's brush your teeth." "Huh?" "You heard me." "Huh?" It is funny and frustrating all in one.
~He loves Spiderman and is very happy when he gets to wear a Spiderman shirt.
~He is EXTREMELY stubborn. To the point of parental frustration.
~We joke that the Latinos in our house are taking over and their passionate tempers and energy is overwhelming at times. Especially when they get going together- especially when they are fighting with each other.

Rudyisms

~The first Sunday of every month is Children's Sunday at our church (AKA Chaos Sunday). For the petitions, everyone is invited to write prayers on an index card and the children collect them. The priest then reads them for our prayers. One week Rudy was sitting with the choir and working hard on his card. He handed it in as the prayers were going on, so everyone pretty much knew when the prayer was read, it was his. His card said, "For my cat and my mom and dad and N." After mass our priest gave us the card to keep.

~ Rudy: It says, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, but that's not true for donuts. I wish it was."
Me: (after trying to hide my laughter) I think it's talking about life experiences, not food.
Rudy: You mean like falling off a cliff?
Me: Yes, I guess it could apply to that.

~ Since we've had N with us Rudy constantly fluctuates between being annoyed by him and trying to be helpful and a "big kid". Some days he just picks up a dust pan, after I mutter that I really need to clean, and sweeps the floor for me. Other days he yells at and about everything N does- he's looking at me, he hit me, he spit at me. We are trying to cherish the good days. The other day I was getting N dressed and Rudy needed help with his sandals. I noticed his toe nails needed to be cut so I sent him to get the nail clippers. It took a long time for him to come back and when he did he came into the room yelling, "Who's a big kid? I just cut my nails!" They weren't perfect but there was no blood drawn either!