OK smartypants!

Brady and I were playing "Would you rather" this afternoon:

K: Would you rather fly to Saturn or to the moon?
B: That's too easy, Mom! [sounding very exasperated]
K: It is? Why?
B: The moon of course.
K: Why?
B: Because I would sink on Saturn. Saturn is all gases.

A budding astronomer?

Not

Typical two year old that he is, Rudy is finding his independence and seeking ways to express himself. Recently, we've heard:

Not cut it! (his pancake, at breakfast)

Not sleep me, Mommy! (when he thought I was taking him up to nap)

Not handsome! (he didn't want me to comb his hair)

Me not sweetie! Me RUDY!

Dese muffins not bery rully good Mommy. (referring to my pumpkin muffins, which are actually very really good thank you very much!)

Seagull hunting

Taken before the second camera broke...

(Although we did get good news that one camera is under a recall and should be repaired for free!)

Rudy's artwork

We signed Rudy up for a once-a-week Mommy-and-me art class. The teacher is awesome and actually uses the real, grown up words for everything. Rudy told my parents about one picture that he painted: "Monet. Giverny. 'crylics." (It was modeled after Monet's Garden at Giverny.)

The one below is a purple iris with a hummingbird. The art teacher sketched out the outlines in pencil. My contribution was the hummingbird beak, the black lines for the petals, and the black dots in the middle. Rudy did the rest himself, using his fingers for the petals and very gentle brushstrokes on the bird.

This one is snow-covered mountains with fireweed in the front, which is exactly what Rudy would tell you. He decided to add his own element of the snow falling down the mountain.

Brady just started his art class at school and his projects usually take 2 weeks...his work will be coming soon!

Mt. Trashmore

Yes, there is actually a park made out of trash!

Cool dude Rudy in his new "Rudee's" restaurant t-shirt:

Everyone (but me!) and my brother's fluffy dog Coco:

How funny that I actually helped build this playground when I was in Key Club in high school...

Oceana Air Show

I have a feeling the air show is going to be a regular event on our calendar for many years! We all love going. It's even better because my brother usually gets us access to the sponsor tent, where they have free food and beverages as well as front-row seats!

I'll admit...there is something very disturbing about seeing your 4-year-old behind a machine gun. Let's just hope pretending is all he ever has to do.

Notice how considerate Rudy is? He's covering James' ears...

I was standing on the tarmac waiting for the group to catch up and this little robot creature rolled up and stopped right in front of me. His "head" would mimic all of my actions...I'd wave, the head would bob. I'd shake my head, his head would shake. Fascinating, and a little creepy!

One of our neighbor's brother is a Blue Angel pilot. One of the highlights of the day was getting to meet the pilots and have our picture taken with them. What a cool souvenir!!

Let's go fly a kite

We took advantage of the windy weather to try out our new pirate kite at Mount Trashmore.

It was so windy that, at one point over the weekend, Rudy gripped James' hand and said, "Daddy! Help me not blow 'way!"

Nana and Popsie at the beach

We caught up with Kathy and Tony at their timeshare Thursday evening and Friday morning.

It was insanely windy; the foam was up to our waists even when the water was only up to our ankles.

Breezy beach day

We had a great weekend in Virginia Beach. It was breezy and chilly, so not really ideal beach weather, but that didn't stop us from spending some time at the oceanfront!

The boys and I were watching the "magic shells" [periwinkles] that would disappear into the sand right before your eyes.

We got the boys all de-sanded and wrapped up before we left. Rudy kept calling himself a popsicle, which was funny until he decided he wanted to eat a popsicle...which led to a mini-meltdown. (Thankfully it was dinnertime and he was satisfied with pizza!)

Bittersweet

As I told James, I feel like I really know the definition of bittersweet now that I'm the mom of two boys...

Momma's Little Helpers

"Momma's Little Helpers"...am I referring to these:

Or these?

Nothing wrong with using a little chocolate to get through the day, right?!

**There's been a request for this "recipe". I can hardly even call it a recipe though because it's so easy! (And I can't take credit for it either - I got the idea from my friend Roxanne at our holiday cookie swap a few years ago.)

1. Preheat oven to 200.
   
2. Spread pretzel wheels or pretzel snaps (squares) on a baking sheet and put a chocolate kiss on each one.
   
3. Bake for 5 or 6 minutes, until kisses are just a little melty.
4. Press a plain m&m into each kiss. Allow to cool completely.

The trick is finding ways for the kids to help without them actually eating all of the ingredients. They're great at spreading out the pretzels and putting on the kisses - as long as they get to taste some at the end!

Religious Ed

We've instituted a new "game" with Brady (as of yesterday) where he has 10 circles on a chart. He starts with 5 on each side: smiley face and frowny face. Every time he does something good, kind, or helpful, he moves a frowny circle to the smiley side; every time he has a meltdown or is rude or mean, he has to move a circle the other way. Well, it worked beautifully at church yesterday! He was great the entire time.

Rudy, on the other hand, was wound up. He wasn't really bad - no screaming, flailing, crying - but he acted more like he was at a playground than at church.

We had a running commentary the entire time...I'd say a transcript would go roughly like this:

I no hungry. [handing James his pretzel]

Pretzel in dere. Pretzel in DERE. Pretzel in dere. [putting pretzel in his shirt pocket]

James: Rudy! We need to whisper!

Wooo. Wooo. [his attempt at whistling]

See green. Daddy! See green? [pointing to the stained glass window]

James: Rudy! We need to whisper!

Wooo. Wooo.

James: no...sssshhhh!

Can't see dat guy! Can't SEE DAT GUY! [Every time we stood up (which is frequently, if you've never been to a Catholic mass!)]

Dat guy Jesus. [pointing at the priest]

Light out. Light out. Dat light out. Dat light not out. [pointing at the various lights around the church]

Can't see dat guy! Can't SEE DAT GUY!

James: Rudy! We need to whisper!

Wooo. Wooo.

All done. All done. Rudy all done. Go my house.

James: Rudy! SSSHHHH!

All done all done all done!

A boy and his [three legged] dog

Don't know why we're always hurt?

I don't know why we're always nursing injuries around here...

It couldn't have anything to do with the fact that the boys are allowed to wrestle together on the floor.

Or the fact that we're consistently involved in some sort of athletic endeavor - hiking, biking, baseball, soccer.

Or certainly not that both boys were in roller skates yesterday when only one parent was home and said parent was busy cleaning out the garage...

Hurt Uncle

We headed over to a local trail today for a walk. It was crazy hot and we planned our timing poorly - right around Rudy's nap time. As you might expect, we got off to a rough start: neither kid wanted anything to do with me, instead preferring to cling to James (par for the course on most Saturdays), there was a lot of crying and whining at first, and generally a terrible time was being had by all!

We decided to stop and have lunch near an overlook, which seemed to give the boys a second wind and got everyone's moods turned around. We walked back down toward a pond, when I stepped on an uneven part of the path (the only one on the whole path, I'm pretty sure!) and twisted my ankle. It's the first time ever that I can remember twisting my ankle so bad that it actually hurt - I fell down and cried it hurt so bad, and I kind of pride myself on my tough tomboy image :)

James tightened my shoe laces and went to help me up. Once standing, I promptly proceeded to pass out. (First painful ankle twist ever, second passing out ever - exciting day!) Needless to say, we were both pretty freaked out.

Bonus though - the boys' behaved spectacularly on the walk out after that. After spending all morning ignoring me, they both held my hand to "help" me walk. Rudy kept saying, "I sorry Mommy. Hurt uncle." [Note to self: can we try the 'mommy got hurt tactic' on the next cross country flight??]

Another bonus...I've gotten an entire afternoon on the couch with my feet up and magazine in hand AND Brady and James are making a chocolate cake!! :)

Raising boys

I would say the majority of the time, at least one of the boys has a bandage or wound somewhere. Tonight, Brady rolled off the exercise ball into the toy cabinet and now looks like he got a strong left hook to the chin. Rudy has nasty blisters on his ankles from his rain boots. Both kids were soothed with race car bandaids.

Wii (wee) boxer

Rudy tried boxing on the Wii for the first time last weekend. He's actually not bad...but I'm pretty sure that's not a good thing! (Although maybe it will help him keep his big brother in place!)

Latest project

We needed a more organized system for all of our paperwork and notes that accumulate around the door. James built this contraption - part white board, part bulletin board - to hold everything.

Batman and Superpouter

We've been working very hard at putting together the boys' Halloween costumes. They still need some final touches, so I need to hit the secondhand stores for the final details.

Brady loves his costume and would willingly wear it all day. Rudy, on the other hand, was not quite so impressed today!

Hurricane Hanna

Our "hurricane" ended up being just about perfect...a lot of rain but no damaging winds. We were long overdue for a rainy Saturday and enjoyed the time just hanging out together. The boys and I watched some Tom & Jerry, we did puzzles, James made waffles, and we did some "puddle tomping"...

Pinchy's Great Escape

During bed time preparations last night, Pinchy and Crabby sat on the recliner while Rudy and James read his book in bed.

James said good night, but Rudy called out and asked James to put Pinchy and Crabby in bed with him. James obligingly did so.

About 11:00 pm we heard Rudy crying so James went to check on him. James found him sitting up in bed sobbing "Pinchy is? Pinchy is?"

James: I don't know where Pinchy is, but I'm sure he'll be fine until the morning.

Rudy:Pinchy down dere, Pinchy down dere [pointing to the floor]

James: Well, I'm sure Pinchy will be fine on the floor tonight.

Rudy: No, pick 'em up, pick 'em up, pick up Pinchy crab!

James: You want me to pick him up?

Rudy: Yeah.

So James "picked up" Pinchy and put him back in the bed. Rudy pulled him close with a very happy smile and went right to sleep.

Math Lessons

So is this what happens when Dad is a scientist?

I came home from a meeting tonight and the boys showed me their charts that they had worked on with James. Brady's preschool class has apparently been doing charts so he's been talking about them a lot.

James drew Brady's axis lines and then Brady wrote in the numbers and graphed the number of LifeSavers he got by color.

For Rudy's chart, he and James traced the stack of LifeSavers and then Rudy colored them in (pretty well actually) with the appropriate colors.

Pinchy and Crabby

So, it wasn't bad enough that Brady has an imaginary chicken...now Rudy has his own imaginary friends...except that they're crabs.

Not coincidentally, I'm sure, these two pals showed up approximately 15 minutes after we dropped Brady off at his first day of preschool. At first there was only one, named Crab. Sometime during the morning, we acquired another crustacean and now they were renamed to Crabby and Pinchy.

Throughout our errand-running Tuesday, the crabs had to come into each store with us. They kept trying to run away, apparently, because Rudy kept saying things like, "Oh no! Pinchy come back!" and "No running. Get hurt!"

Toddler-speak

There are still some elements of toddler-speak from my brother and I that remain part of my family's lexicon. I already know some of Brady's (What say?; Buckle me out; parkinbot, turn the dark on); which of Rudy's will stick around?

-Hippowatermus
-Yemonyay
-Ellybelly
-Wait da me!
-Pank you

Fort Construction

One of the bonuses of Brady being back in school is that I am, once again, a fun play mate! We had a great afternoon today! While Rudy was napping, Brady and I cut out pictures from magazines to make story cards. (We glued them on to index cards and will draw them out of a box to formulate stories.)

Once Rudy was up, we headed outside. We started riding bikes but soon wandered over to the empty lot across the street to build our own fort. As long as we don't all get poison ivy, it will be one of my favorite afternoons!