Take me out to the (soft)ball game

We went to James' softball game last night. The kids love going, but they hardly pay any attention to the game itself. Instead, it's all about playing...on the bleachers, on the playground, with a ball, in the dirt (or in the dirt with a ball!)...generally just doing what boys do best!

Last night, the game was at a park that thankfully contains the red dirt to the infield, rather than the bleachers and surrounding areas, so they managed to stay relatively respectable looking...

First day of school

Today was Brady's first day of school. He has been very excited for the past few days, and today was no different. He had a tough time falling asleep last night and popped out of bed early this morning. We had letter pancakes for breakfast and, due to some car repair confusion, James even got to come in for the first drop off of the year.

After school, Brady said he had a good day (about the most positive adjective he uses!) and that he made two new friends, played on the playground, and had a crackers and carrots for snack.

In Threes?

I always thought things came in threes and so I thought we were all done for a while with pesky unexpected expenses (Maggie's surgery, new washing machine, doctors appointments)...

We must be headed for six, or even nine, because we just put new brakes and headlights on the car; we got a bill from the dentist for my crowns and it's significantly more than we had expected. This morning, I found that none of the automatic locking system on the van is working...turns out it needs a new computer which will surely cost only pocket change (!).

Most depressingly, our good camera seems to be broken and some potentially great first-day-of-school pictures are not so great after all...

Bedtime movies

For the past 4 1/2 years, Brady's door has been closed at night. At first, we did it because it kept his room quiet and dark. Then, he didn't like Maggie coming in at night so we just kept closing it every night.

The past few weeks though, he's requested that it be left open. We decided that we didn't really care either way and weren't going to fight about closing it. Besides, with the AC off and the whole-house fan on, it kept his room significantly more comfortable at night.

A few nights ago, he started telling us that he was going to watch a movie until he fell asleep. Turns out, he has a movie screen on his door so he can be in bed, watching movies after we tuck him in. The next morning, we often get very long and detailed descriptions of the script.

Apparently, he's upgraded his system because he told me last night that he didn't feel like watching movies so he was going to play video games on his door.

I say - whatever it takes to keep him in bed at night!!

Surprise Party

Tony organized a surprise birthday party for Kathy a few weeks ago. We left our camera at their house, so it took me a while to get to the pictures.

The boys were really well-behaved for such an adult party. Once we sensed they were nearing the edge, we let them watch TV for a bit...

They even managed to keep their fingers off the cake until it was time to serve it up!

Pizza and Jesus

We stopped at a local pizza place for dinner on the way home from DC. As we were waiting for our food Rudy said, "That Jesus". Kelly asked where, exactly, Jesus was in the pizza restaurant. Rudy said, "Jesus talkin'".

We were very interested to find out what Jesus was telling Rudy! When James asked what Jesus said, Rudy replied, "Haa!". That sounds about right.

Reminds us of a magnet that Kelly's mom gave us several years ago when we were frantically trying to plan out our lives...

Day in DC

The dinos were a big hit at the Natural History museum. In fact, everything was a pretty big hit for a while. The kids were SUCH good listeners and we had a really great day...until!

We got to the Air & Space museum and Brady was suddenly struck by a stomach bug. Once he told me he had to "spit up" we made a beeline for the exit. No need to have my kid be the one with that mess in the museum! I carried Brady and managed to keep Rudy out of traffic all the way to the Metro stop, and Brady made it all the way down the yellow line and out of the Metro before he lost it.

It must have been something he ate (no comment CH!), because once he cleared his system and napped on the drive he was as good as new - ate 3 pieces of pizza for dinner and played basketball and chase when we got home. Weird!

Puddle jumping on the mall

We walked from Natural History over to Air & Space. I'd packed extra clothes and shoes because of the rainy day and we decided we might as well use them! The boys did some huge puddle stomping!

Look Mama!

James had a business trip to Ft. Belvoir today, so we rode along and took the Metro to the Smithsonian. From the time we got out of the car, Rudy was a constant refrain of, "Wook Mama, wook!" and "Wowww!" He loved all of it...the "train," the diNOsaurs, the bugs, the planes...

The audio is horrible in this video, but you can get an idea of his excitement with all the "ay-planes"...

Wiii!

We had a fun (or fabulous according to Cindy!) evening with some friends last night. Now that Brady's friends are all in kindergarten, we have to work a little harder to find time for them to get together. Brady and Rudy both claim Bella and Ben as their "best friends". With Ben and Rudy, it tends towards more of a love/hate relationship at times though.

I didn't get a picture of it but my favorite part of last night was their superhero time. Each kid had a cape or superhero costume on when James got home and they mobbed him as soon as they walked in the door.

Of course, hooking another family on the wonders of the Wii was a bonus too!

Working hard

We got some yard work in yesterday before the hurricane rains settled on top of us (not that I'm complaining; we were way overdue for some rainy days!) The boys were very helpful with watering the plants (yeah, love how we watered them right before 3 straight days of rain!) and sweeping the sidewalk.

Little dinosaur

Rudy has two or three favorite bedtime books recently. One of them is the "Ay-plane book," which is a nonfiction library book with pictures and facts about airplanes. From this one, he has learned to identify the space shuttle, jumbo jet, Concord, and "Daddy's pav-rite" (favorite) the Blackbird.

One of the other favorite books is How Does a Dinosaur Say Goodnight?. He's pretty much memorized the book and can tell you exactly what is on each page. Last night when he took Rudy to bed, James said, "Good night. Good night little dinosaur."

Rudy replied, "Good night BIG DI-NO-saur."

Rudy sleeping through Brady's birthday party.

No crib at my aunt's house, so Rudy slept in a "nest" on the floor beside our bed.

Cucumber (?)

Rudy kept saying something today that sounded like cucumber.

He dropped his M&M..."cucumber".
He spilled his yogurt..."cucumber".
I dropped his spoon..."cucumber".

Finally, when I took him up to nap, he tripped and said it again. I finally realized that he was trying to say "Oh, bummer". I'm still not sure if he's just pronouncing it funny or if he really believes he's supposed to say cucumber when something goes wrong!

Take me out to the ball game...

My brother got us great seats at a minor league baseball game Friday night. We were the second row off the field.

Rudy liked cheering for Oscar, one of the home team players. Every time Oscar wasn't batting, though, Rudy just kept asking, "Oscar is? Oscar is?"

Once we convinced Brady that we weren't going to be snacking the entire game, he settled in and had fun watching.

We're learning that Rudy has very sensitive ears. (Between that and being hungry for the first several months, it's no wonder he was a little on the grumpy side as a baby!) Every time the crowd would cheer or clap, he'd cover his ears and say, "Too loud!"

Of course, even though it isn't all about the food, that is part of the fun of a baseball game. (Especially a minor league one where the prices aren't quite as overwhelming as MLB.)

Go-karts

Papa requested go-karts as part of his birthday celebration last week. We started on a long, slow course. Since the kids loved it, we upgraded to a slightly faster one. We got big grins the whole time they were riding with us.

We tried to let Brady drive his own gas-powered kiddie go-kart, but he did NOT like it...too loud and too fast! Once he moved over to the battery-powered cars, he was a happy camper.

"Breakfast" in bed

All four of us were in our bed yesterday morning watching the Olympics. I (jokingly) asked Brady to run downstairs and bring us breakfast in bed. He said he couldn't do that, but then disappeared a few seconds later. He then came back upstairs with two glasses of water. He'd pulled the kitchen chair over to the cabinet and gotten two glasses, which he then filled with water and managed to bring upstairs without spilling. He said he wanted to bring breakfast, but this was all he could reach.

It's the thought that counts, right?

Word door

Brady has started reading and has gotten to a point where he thinks it's fun. He used to just get frustrated and angry. We've been writing the words he knows on our back door so he can practice them during the day. So far, there are 20 words on the door. He still sounds many of them out, but he's getting faster!

Sports Illustrated Poses

Way back when I used to be amazing, we'd practice our Sports Illustrated pictures at soccer camp...where, in the midst of making an amazing dive to save a shot to the upper-90, you turn to the camera and grin.

Here's our version now...

I'd have to say that these pictures are about guaranteed to make you giggle! James was trying to explain to Brady what it means when we call him a blur because he's so fast...

Mr. Potatohead

Rudy's preferred toy the last few days has been Mr. Potatohead. He is very proud of his creations, even if they are a bit mixed up!

2007 Picture Movie

All right - 8 months later...here it is...our 2007 picture movie. Well, the abridged version. I managed to whittle this one down to a mere 10 minutes which borders on miraculous, since I started with over 4000 pictures! (The full length one is shaping up to be 30 minutes. Don't everyone jump at once to see that one!)

Reflections from the slow lane

I have a tendency towards a bit of a lead foot when driving. But, in an effort to save money, I've been trying to slow it down a bit...at least to the speed limit :) I have to say that 15-mile trip home from town today seemed to take forever but it did give me ample opportunity to ponder, since Brady was happily engrossed in his Leapster and Rudy was passed out after our marathon errand running.

-When will this mommy-brain go away? I had a list of about 15 things on my mind when I walked in the door and *poof* they're gone now!

-It still makes me laugh that I live somewhere where I have to go to "town". Growing up, everywhere we went was within a 20 minute drive. I'm finding it takes a lot of planning on my part to try to condense all of my errands into one day (another byproduct of our effort to save money is to limit trips into town). Even with the best planning, we never manage to finish it all, so we have a constant backlog of store returns, about-to-be-overdue library books, and shopping lists.

-We managed to buy a birthday present for Brady's friend Aiden today with no whining from either of my boys about buying a toy for them at the same time. That has to be some sort of milestone, right?!? Brady waffled between a remote control Incredible Hulk car and a skateboard, finally deciding on the skateboard. I did call Aiden's mom to get verbal approval for it before we bought it...now I'm kind of thinking I should give it to Aiden with a liability waiver as well. I do like the fact that, being slightly younger than many of his friends, Brady doesn't have to be the first to try these sorts of things! :)

-Brady was so stinkin' happy today that he couldn't stop himself from dancing (rather than walking) everywhere. It was driving me nuts, and likely irritating the other shoppers, but I couldn't really bring myself to reprimand him. We should all be so lucky to be that happy. He loves running errands, plus today he got to get a haircut, which he loves in itself, but it also means he gets a lollipop - what more could a kid ask for (besides the cookies, SweeTarts, ice cream, and gum at the grocery store of course). **Haircut picture coming soon!**

-We went to a local farmers' market yesterday. Rudy insisted that we buy a watermelon at the first stand we came to. Obviously, I was thrilled to lug it around with us! We went straight from there to James' softball game where Rudy was quite disappointed that he couldn't bring his watermelon to the bleachers. As soon as we came home, we sliced it up and ate it out on the deck. It's funny that he says watermelon so perfectly - he precisely pronounces every letter in the word.

-And, finally, I need to get back to my latest project which is our 2007 picture CD. I usually have it done by, oh...March...just a little behind this year. I am completely overwhelmed with last year's though because I have SO many pictures to choose from...where to start?!?

Brady flips

Perhaps he's been inspired by the Olympics...which we can't seem to watch enough of around here. Even Rudy got up this morning and said, "TV on. Watch 'lympics."

Rudy's ABCs

We still haven't managed to get a video of this, but Rudy has his own version of the ABCs. (The video below is not the ABCs...just him singing to himself.)

His version goes something like this:

A B C D E F G H I big enuff emenempee T U V sing with me.

He stops singing if he sees the camera or if he sees us watching him.

Favorites

Here's a lit of the boys' favorites right now. I'd like to think I'll manage to record this on a somewhat regular basis, but we'll see how that works out. (The best laid plans...)

Ellybelly

A few of my favorite "Rudyisms"

Rudy is growing up so fast; it's hard to believe sometimes, but he's actually a real kid now...no longer a baby.

1. "Wait da me!" Which means wait for me but sounds like wait the me.
2. He LOVES his big brother. Right now, Brady is sleeping and Rudy is coloring on the floor. He's got a toy shark and he keeps picking it up and calling, "Braaady. Come see! Da shark."
3. If you do something he didn't want you to, he just says, "Heyyyy!"
4. "Me too!"
5. The number of ways he's come up with to say NO. It seems like an unusually large variety, even for a two year old: No. No like it. Nope. Nah. No way! No panks.
6. "Listen. Kids songs." And then, Rudy sings the kids songs. His current favorite seems to be My brother did it (also one of my favorite these days)!
7. "Pank you, Mommy"
8. "Wook, Mama" (Look, Mama)
9. "OK Mama" or "OK Dad"
10. "Ellybelly" which is everybody. We find ourselves concocting ways to get him to say this!
11. "Read da book"
12. "Blanket is?" "Airplane book is?" "Mustache is?" This is how he asks the location of any missing object. And, apparently, he calls a mustang a mustache.

Blueberry picking

The boys were great helpers at the blueberry patch today! We got two quarts of blueberries....in about the time it would have taken me to pick three quarts alone ;) Brady worked really hard; Rudy ate really fast!

Work, work, work

This is the saga I got from Brady on the way home from blueberry picking today:

I just got an email from Tom and they need an antenna on the aircraft carrier. My team has to do it. Matt, Brian, Kyle, and me have to start working on it right now because they are going to need it really soon.

First, we need to get a little cup and pour the "feel" inside of it. I can't really say it, but you know what I mean. [For some reason, fuel is the only word he can't pronounce.] So we pour that inside and then we have to put a little tiny tiny tiny hold into it and then we glue that onto a stick and you have to put that on the aircraft carrier.

I'm not sure what we need after that but we'll probably have to put some plastic on it and then that's what they're going to use to see all the bad guys.

One of those mornings

All before noon today...
-Kelly's temporary crowns both fell off
-Brady spilled his milk at breakfast
-Rudy fell off the monkey bars and got a fat bloody lip (see pictures below!)
-Brady spilled his chocolate milk at lunch
-Brady dropped his frosty at lunch
-Brady hit his funny bone and scraped off the scab on his elbow

It's just been one of those days!

And this is all while still trying to recover from a week at Oma and Papa's house!

See rainbow

There was a gorgeous double rainbow when we got home Sunday night. Both kids were awed by it, insisting on continously running to the front porch to look at it while James and I unpacked the car. Rudy doesn't quite get the whole concept...he's been running to the front windows several times a day saying (and then crying), "See rainbow! See rainbow!"