A Way with Words

The other night Rudy was upset with Paul, over something horrible Paul did, like make him clean up toys by himself. After getting over the crying, but still not happy with Paul, Rudy leaned in to him and said, "You're breaking my heart."



Rudy was telling me about his day at school and I asked what he was doing during the day when he wasn't listening to the teacher. His response, "I can't tell you. It's shameful." (NOTE: It was laughing instead of listening to the teacher. As you can see, he can be very dramatic!))



On the way home from school Rudy was trying to convince me to stop at Wawa for a snack. When that didn't work he started in about wanting ice cream, which we rarely have in the winter, mainly because I get cold eating it in the summer,so there's no way I'm eating it in the winter! So he said, "I like ice cream. I miss ice cream."

Where Do We Live?

I am starting to think the US has shifted and we are farther north than we originally were. We just had our third snow storm of the winter - with more on the horizon. This time we really only got about 2 inches, but all the schools were closed.
After a lazy start to the day, we headed out to shovel at Paul's mom's house and my dad's house. This was the first snowfall this year where the snow was easily packed, so snowball fights ensued as we shoveled.

Rudy likes to try making "tongue prints" in the snow. He has such a fascination with eating snow, sometimes it is like having a toddler around because he's not always discrete about where he tries to eat snow!

A silly pose...

A nice pose. Paul had sunglasses on so Rudy insisted he needed his.

After shoveling, we decided to stop at the playground for some more fresh air. The play equipment was a little too wet and snowy so we took a walk around the pond instead. I put Rudy's clothes out for him, but he always manages to add his own flair- today's fair was his long johns on the outside. The worst part is, they are kind of big so he kept asking for help to pull them up.

We had fun looking at the snow tracks and trying to figure out what animal had been there. And then we had to make up animals that might have been there, like a turtle duck.

The partially frozen pond. You can't see too well, but on the other side are many, many ducks and some geese hanging out in the water and on the ice.

As we rounded to pond to the other side, the ducks came charging from the water toward us. You aren't supposed to feed the animals here, but obviously people do since they were excited to see us. They came right up to us and followed us for a while. Paul took a video of the ducks following us and Rudy saying, "Sorry, we have no food. Go find someone else."

Yes, they really were this close. Paul crouched down and held the camera low to take this picture.

Smart

At dinner the other night, Rudy told me that, because we were being Batman and Batgirl, we were eating fried bats. I asked how he knew that's what they ate and he said his friend, S, had told him. "S is pretty smart," I said. Rudy replied that S is smart about Batman stuff but not other things, like Rudy knows about. When I asked about the other things, Rudy said,"S isn't smart like me about why the leaves fall off the trees." I asked him to tell me why and he told me that when it's cold the leaves shake because they are cold and then they fall off the trees.
Such a smart boy!

The Best Laid Plans

Saturday was supposed to be a fun day. Rudy and I were supposed to meet my best friend, Vincie, and her boys for a late-birthday and Christmas gift exchange. We had attempted this get-together first in December, and then I was sick the day we were supposed to go. So we rescheduled for this weekend. I knew it was a bad sign when, earlier in the week, Vincie's husband and then kids all had stomach viruses. But we were still hopeful they would recover in time. Sadly it wasn't meant to be; the boys still weren't 100% better and then Vincie caught it, so Rudy and I had to fend for ourselves on Saturday, since Paul was working.
Next plan was to go to the library, maybe do some shopping, and clean. Then Paul left for work and called me almost immediately to tell me I had a flat tire.
Before calling AAA I went out to look at the tire. Rudy soon followed - having put my sneakers on so he could get out the door quickly.

Within 20 minutes of calling AAA, my car's tire had been changed - surely a record and, I hoped, a good omen. The man who came told me the tire should be able to be patched for about $25. I had the name of one place, but decided to head out to the mall, since we would then have something to do while we waited for the car.

First we had lunch at Johnny Rockets.

After seeing the servers dance, he had to show off some of his own moves. I think this would be the perfect place for him to work - he loves to pretend he's a waiter and always has great moves!

After eating, I looked for some shoes, we visited the pet store, where Rudy told me he used to have a chihuahua when he was little but it got taken to the pound He later recanted the part about the pound. I always wonder if there is some measure of truth/memory to his stories. Then he played in the play area for a while.

W went back into the department store, where I did a little more shopping, then headed to the rest room. While in the restroom, fortunately, Rudy had a little accident. At the same time, I got a call from the automotive department. After having my car for over two hours, they discovered that there were three hole sin my tire and the most they could patch was two, so I needed a new tire. I wanted to take Rudy home, and didn't feel like waiting longer, so I told them I needed to go home and we headed up to get my car. As we drove home, I kept trying to figure out what my nest step was- I could wait but I wasn't sure many places would be open the next day, Sunday. I could try to do something later when Paul got home, but again, I wasn't sure how late places would be ope. There was one automotive place, right near our house, that I was aware of but had never been to. I decided to just stop in on the way home and see what they could do. I arrived at 2:45 and they closed at 4:00, so I wasn't too hopeful. However, the workers there were amazing, said that was plenty of time to do the work, especially because everyone seemed to work faster when it was almost time to go home. Rudy had fun watching them through the door as my car was put on the lift,

and within half an hour I had a new tire and was heading home. I also now have a great, very close, auto place to go for tires, oil changes, and other work that may need to be done, so at least something good came out of the day!

Rudy Explaining About the Dudes

This is from Paul and Rudy's "Dudes' Camping Trip."

The Spiderman Song

Now that my videos seem to beworking, here are some older ones!

Rudyisms

"What do you want to be?"
Paul and I are asked this phrase several times a day. We have to be careful how we answer because Rudy could be referring to what kind of dinosaur we want to be, and we might answer a Superhero. He doesn't always give us enough clues the first time he asks this questions, so often one of us is asking, "What are my choices?" In any given day we could be a wild animal, a dinosaur, a superhero, a monster and a villain. And just answering this question is not enough, there are always follow-up questions: "What do you look like?" "What powers do you have?" "Are you the mommy or the kid?"





One day after school, Rudy got in the car and was very excited to tell me this:
I finally learned "Meenie meenie miney mo. Meenie meenie miney mo touch a tiger on his toe." I actually like his version better than the original!