Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day started out FANTABULOUS! We had a fun breakfast that Jason made while Rudy and I decorated. Unfortunately, as the day progressed our sick little man just got sicker, and his stressed out mama just got more stressed out. Phooey. Let's just say, if you had absolutely no interaction with me after about 11 am yesterday, count yourself extremely blessed. To the two sweet and wonderful men in my home, I apologize a thousand times. Jason and I agreed to give each other a rain check for a real valentine's date (when we can even go OUT, and when I will not be trying to feel romantic when what I'm really feeling is anxiety over Rudy's increasing cough and fever, exhaustion at the fact that he's not sleeping except on me, and generally overwhelmed trying to be the perfect wife, mother, housekeeper, financial planner, chef, etc.) whoo. Bad timing that my frothiness over flowed on Valentine's Day, but I'm happy to report that my valentine maintained his sweetness and rode in to save the day with kind understanding, no nonsense pep talking, moose tracks ice cream, and a funny movie to round the evening out. Hooray for my knight in shining armor! I love you, Jason. Thanks for loving me back, even on my batty days. :)
Anyway, back to the FANTABULOUS part of the day.

The finished product: cute table and scrumptious french toast. Rudy helped by decorating some of the hearts I hung up, and 'supervising' Jason's cooking.

Jason showing Rudy that french toast is delicious.

Rudy's not so sure he's ready to eat. I think he got a bit weirded out by all the fanfare. Usually it's just Rudy and me at breakfast (or any meal, for that matter-Jason is a busy guy!) and we always eat at Rudy's little table. Here he was at a decorated grown up table with both Mama and Daddy, who were a bit more into each other than him. Hmmm. What could he do to get more attention towards HIM? Pushing off the table and tipping back his chair definitely did the trick. (No worries, the tipping never got any further than what you see) :)

By the end of the meal, Rudy had established himself upon my lap, and was enjoying chocolate filled french toast with the rest of us. (Which, by the way, is the most decadent way to eat french toast, and the only acceptable way to eat it on Valentine's Day, which may as well be dubbed Chocolate Day, as much chocolate is consumed on that day.)

I had cut several bite size pieces for Rudy to stab with his fork, but instead, he went for the rest of the piece. A man with ambition!

Ta Da! That was our scrumptious breakfast. My compliments to the cook!

Rudy's New Hat

As we were getting ready to head out the door to run a few errands today, I realized that Rudy's hat was chillin' in our car, which was with Jason at work. Well, Rudy needed a hat for sure today, 'cause it was snowy and windy and just all around chilly, so (because I have a rockin' mom in law who gave me a sewing machine for my birthday last year) I sat down to sew Rudy a quick hat out of some fleece remnant I got for free at a garage sale last summer.

Rudy was totally stoked about the pattern: cars. Its the first time that he's ever shown any interest in what he's wearing. Maybe it was also cool to him because he watched me sew it on the machine which makes a very boy friendly whirring sound, but either way, he could hardly wait to put the thing on! It made me feel great to be able to not only provide for my baby's needs, but do so with flourish!

Hooray for sewing machines!

Hooray for free fleece!

Hooray for an excuse to use them both! :)

An Example of Forgiveness

Man. If the whole world could approach forgiveness the way little children do, this world would be a much more beautiful place. Heck, if I could approach forgiveness the way Rudy does, my world would be more beautiful too.
So, yesterday was not a model motherhood day. Nope. I woke up in that stressed, "I just can't take it anymore!" mode and hovered just shy of a blow out all morning. (Ever have those days?) Anyway, by the time Rudy had refused his second nap, my hovering was finished. I angrily sliced some cheese squares (hacked away at the cheese block would be a better description of what was actually happening) while Rudy bawled and writhed on the kitchen floor (he was also having a bit of a meltdowny day). Next I slapped the cheese plate down on his table, and plopped him into his chair with more gruffness than I care to admit. I stared him down with what I'm sure was a withering glare and commanded: "Eat!"
There was a moment of shocked silence as Rudy figured out how he had suddenly gone from a meltdown on the kitchen floor to a seated position in the living room. Then he got a look at my glare and changed his cry from angry, impatient protest to sad, forlorn, my mama's mad at me heart break. He got up from his table and kind of wandered down the hall crying in this pitiful way, like I'd just thrown him out of my life and he wasn't sure where he would go or what would become of him.
Now it was my turn to be heart broken. I felt terrible! Through my own tears, I reached out to him and asked him to come back. He hesitated for a moment, then burst into new tears and came running into my arms. He leaned his head on my shoulder and we just rocked for a good 5 minutes or more, until we were both reassured and ready to get on with snack time.
Rudy went to sit at his chair and he happily munched on his hacked up cheese, laughing and kidding with me like he always does. It was a beautiful feeling to know that he was totally over my angry outburst and was ready to enjoy my company again, trusting that my repentance had been sincere. We had fun for the rest of the day, and I am still basking in the beautiful simplicity of his forgiveness.
He let love conquer all the other emotions that were swimming around in his heart, and gave that love to one who had just mistreated him. His example greatly illustrated to me why the Lord would have us become "as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father." (Mosiah 3:10) Parenting is the best! (Even if sometimes I just can't take it anymore!) :)

My Little Helper

Rudy loves to "help" around the house. By now, he's actually beginning to clue into our routines enough to actually come close to real help. Here he is doing one of his favorite house chores: clearing the table and putting dishes into the dishwasher.

I always get nervous when he carries unfinished food to the kitchen-its hit or miss as to whether it ends up on our poor carpet or in the sink where it belongs. He's getting better and better about understanding to hold things level, though, so that's good. :)

Loading his dishes into the dishwasher: most of the time I need to rearrange after he finds a spot for his things, but he gets the main idea.

Rudy usually "trades" his stuff in. This time its a plastic bowl for a metal garlic press-a great deal if you ask me! (I always have to scour the house for stashed dirty dishes before starting the dishwasher)

Shutting the door

Locking the door. (Too bad he's figured out this feature-I have to keep knives up high on the counter until I'm actually going to run the dishwasher now)

And he's off to the next adventure at a run (of course)!

Rudy's Book Nook

My latest home improvement project was inspired by a 25 cent used poster being sold at our local library. It was so cool (and so cheap) I just had to buy it. The poster details the Land of Enchantment (or something like that) with tons of traditional fairy tales, etc. Some are really familiar to me like, The Three Little Pigs, Jack and the Bean Stalk, and The Princess and the Pea, but others are yet unknown- stories like The Seven Swans and The Drakestail.

Anyway, its fun to look at, and it fits Rudy's room colors really well. At first I was going to hang it over his crib or some other adult friendly place, but then I realized Rudy wouldn't be able to examine all the cool details and remember the stories he knows and wonder what the others are about. (I know Rudy's probably not thinking quite so complexly yet, but he'll be telling me fairy tales before I know it, I'm sure. Its amazing how flabbergastingly fast babies turn to toddlers and toddlers turn to preschoolers!)

Rudy has this special corner of his room he's kind of claimed as his personal hideout. It's where he runs if we're playing chase, where he hides if he's trying to be sly about something, where he retreats if he just needs some quiet alone time (which usually lasts about 30 seconds before he's ready to lead another expedition with me as his assistant). I'd already thrown a couple uncovered pillows in the corner to snuggle (or wrestle) with, which he had appreciated, so I thought, "Why not cozy this hideout up a bit?"

I was a bit worried he'd feel invaded upon (I know I didn't like anyone rearranging ANYTHING in my childhood hideouts) but I guess he's still flexible in that regard. Anyway, I taped the poster up as "wall paper", covered the pillows with a quilt cover to turn them into a "couch" and added a box full of some of Rudy's favorite books. Now we read books in our cozy book nook every morning to ease into the idea of being awake (I'm the one that needs the easing--Rudy's usually ready to conquer the world by 6 am.)

Voila!

Maria, The Barber

I have now given my first ever complete hair cut. There were no huge mistakes (i.e. no bald spots) but there is definitely room for improvement. Luckily for me, Rudy is still way too young to be worried about whether all his hairs are even. (Though he did notice the difference in his appearance: when we were brushing teeth before bed he did a total hair check out in the mirror. Super cute!) Anyway, practice makes perfect. Thanks to Sunshine for sharing her mommy, and thanks to Lauren for holding my squiggly little boy and getting ultra fine baby hair all over her. :)

I think the main reason the side of his hair is sticking out is from his still healing skull fracture, but I probably still need to clean it up a bit, too. Or maybe I'll just let it be-I don't want to end up trimming him down to his follicles!

"I Fart, Therefore I Am." A Mad Libs Date Night

Last night, Jason and I went out to IHOP and sipped on their scrumptious hot chocolate while working riddles, puzzles, and a few Mad Libs we printed off the Internet. It was a great time, and the crowning moment of the evening came as we were doing our last Mad Libs story. Jason and I were all snoodled up on the same bench (probably sickeningly so for some-but I don't care :) ) and it was Jason's turn to add a word to the story. I'd just asked him to give me an adjective, and he said "fart". I told him "fart" is not an adjective, and he (who was thinking "verb" when I said "adjective") proceeded to tell me how fart can be an adjective (read verb). He looked me straight in the eye and in a matter of fact kind of manner told me, "I fart, I'm farting, I farted." This just as a waitress walks by our table. I wonder if she rolled her eyes at Jason's miserable dating etiquette (we all try not to fart on a date, but NOBODY announces the transgression, especially not in a play by play kind of format!) Or maybe she held her breath as she passed by us moments later with the syrup the people a few tables down had requested. I don't know-by then we were both cracking up and I could barely see through my tear filled eyes. (I always cry when I get laughing really hard.) I know it's kind of juvenile to get so snickery over words describing bodily functions, but sometimes its fun to throw grown up out the window and revisit being 5 again. :) Here's the completed story that brought on Jason's announcement of flatulence. We think its great, but maybe its one of those "you gotta be there" kind of things. Read it if you want- Jason and I will have fun reading it to each other when we're so old there's no such thing as holding in your "fluffs" as a friend of mine was taught to call them. (Old age will be great that way- no one will expect you to abide strictly to social rules, plus, by then, we'll have tons of funny memories to cackle about in our lazy boys.) :) Anyway, back to the story. The words we provided are in bold.

We weren't allowed to go in the sauna and we really didn't want to--it was succulent and superfluous and smelled like fart. The steps leading down into the sauna were odoriferous and there was a luminous jellyfish next to the daisy. It felt confused and we wanted to run. We farted toward the sauna 27 steps at a time till our pyloric sphincters hopped fartingly and we were too scared to wretch. There was always a stammerous bread stick coming up from below the needle nose pliers and we weren't brave enough to spit it.
One day there was a pinging sound. It was coming from the sauna. We wanted to know what was making the sound, but we were afraid we might laugh. We shed and drank, but each time the fear would conquer over us, and we would back away, terrified. Finally, Dustin decided to face the fear and go down to the sauna. When we didn't hear leaving we became encouraged and followed behind, praying we would not be growled by whatever it was that mowed and incorporated down there. When we made it to the very bottom, we matriculated ventricles wrapped tightly around each other, barely coloring. Then, we saw it. It was splendiferous and it was complaining harmoniously. We moved closer, we couldn't breathe...It was Rudy incarcerating the salt shakers in the widget.

Jason and I should be published, don't you think? :)