What happens when the grandparents are left in charge...

James and I went out of town for the night on Saturday and left my parents in charge...it looks like everyone had fun!

And...yes, they did clean up before leaving :)

Cheerleader

Author / Illustrator

Brady has been enrolled in an enrichment program at a local university. He was taking an author/illustrator class, where he made his own book: Who Took the Clue.

Doesn't he look proud of himself?

Pancake maker

Rudy has really been wanting to help me in the kitchen a lot lately. This weekend, he "helped" make pancakes...they were some of the most uniquely designed pancakes I've ever seen!

Rudy's dream

I usually ask Rudy if he had any dreams and he almost always says no. This morning he told me about two. One was a scary dream about dinosaurs. They weren’t being friendly and there was no one there to help. Then his face lit up as he remembered another dream. It went something like this:

R: We were going to see Nana and Popsie at their river house. And I asked Popsie, “What are you doing?”. He said, “I’m eating a snack”.

I said, “What?”

“I’m eating a snack”

[louder] “WHAT?”

“I’M EATING A SNACK”

[really loud] “WHAT?”

“I’M EATING A SNACK”

[At this point Rudy is in the kitchen yelling at 6:30 in the morning]

R: [normal voice] “I knew he was eating a snack, I was just being silly”

J: What kind of snack was he eating?

R: Gummy bears, and I had some with him. They were good.

Train song

Ready for spring

We made this rainbow cake last week in an effort to hurry spring along. It worked, temporarily; the weekend was warm enough to play outside without jackets.

Rudy and I got outside this week to play with the sidewalk chalk. He wrote his ABCs and we wished all the cold weather away!

Rudy did a little snow-golfing too.

Rudy faces

Rudy keeps asking me to take his picture. I agreed today, and this is what we got from our photo session!

Airplane Expert

Rudy, filling Ben in on some of the details of his favorite airplanes. (Yes, they are both in their PJs. It was around 11 am when I took the movie...)

Pattern practice

Every few months, the boys rediscover the poker chips as a fun "new" toy. Over the past few days, we've used them to make and copy patterns and to build castles and bridges.

Telling time

Brady has been writing us a lot of notes lately. He brought me this one before Christmas. His class had been working on telling time to the hour, which he had no trouble with. We introduced the concept of telling time to the 5-minute one evening. The next day, I got this note:

Questionnaire, kid #2

Our latest version of Kids Say the Darndest Things...

I asked Brady these questions a few years ago from an email questionnaire I received from my dad. The instructions were to answer the questions about the sender. I gave Rudy his turn to answer today...

Where did we meet: in Virginia
What was your first impression of me: he was nice
Take a stab at my middle name: Papa
How old am I: 69 maybe
Can I sing: yes, a night time song
What's my favorite food: pasta
Where did I meet my significant other: Virginia Beach
Do I make my bed every morning: yes, but not every day. sometimes at nighttime some days.
Do I get along with my parents: yes
Color of my eyes: blue
Do I have any siblings: no
What's one of my favorite things to do: clean up
What's my favorite type of music: Kum-ba-yah
Am I a rebel or do I follow the rules: he makes up his own rules
Any special talents: glass blowing, writing. He's good at coming here to see me.
How many children do I have: none
If I were stranded on a desert island, what is one thing that I would bring: a boat and some toys
My favorite color: blue

Snow Baseball

We took advantage of the warmer temperatures last weekend to play outside. The boys did a few sledding runs, captured the monsters in the snow mountain on the street, and played snow baseball.

Rudyisms, old ones

2009

Rudy: What does a squirrel do when he wants a walnut?
Kelly: Don't know, Rudy. What does he do?
Rudy: Climbs up in the tree and gets it.

Rudy: What does a monkey do when he wants a walnut?
Kelly: What does he do?
Rudy: Climbs up in the tree and gets it.

Kathy, inquiring about Crabby and Pinchy: are they the same age?
Rudy: Yes.
Kathy: Are they twins?
Rudy: No, they're crabs!

James, leaving the science center: Rudy, did you like the big dinosaurs or the little dinosaurs?
Rudy: No. (not rude, just sayin...)
James: Do you like big dinosaurs?
Rudy: No.
James: Do you like little dinosaurs?
Rudy: No.
James: How about medium dinosaurs?
Rudy: No.
James: How about tiny dinosaurs?
Rudy: No.
James: How about extra large dinosaurs?
Rudy: No.
James: You don't like ANY dinosaurs?
Rudy: No.
James: Oh. That's too bad because I like dinosaurs!
Rudy: Me too!


Rudy: What does a dog do when he wants a dougnut?
Kelly: What does he do?
Rudy: Climbs up in the tree and gets it!!

[Note that is pretty much how I heard that joke too. He asked me about the squirrel and the walnut, and then the monkey and the walnut. Then, about an hour later, apropos of nothing, he randomly asked me about the dog and the doughnut!]

An old one, from March 2008:

Kelly was cleaning upstairs and had a pack of diapers by the stairs to go down. When she and Rudy went to head downstairs, the diapers were strewn all down the staircase.

Rudy, pointing at the 'mess': Uh ohhh.
Kelly: Did you do that?!?
Rudy: Nooo. Bubba.
Kelly: Brady did that?
Rudy: Noooo. DAAADDDEEE!
Kelly: Daddy made that mess? [Daddy was at work!]
Rudy: Yeah!

Valentine's Day - Book 2

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