Guardian Angel

Remember how we've had a diaper genie visit us a few times in the past? Well, apparently, our little family is a magical beings magnet, because we had a Guardian Angel visit just last week. Someone left a card about having a Guardian Angel on our doorstep. That, and a generous sum of money. What a beautiful world we live in. We feel so blessed to associate with people who are so mindful of others' needs, and so generous with the means they have been blessed with. I'm committed to looking out a bit closer for ways I can bless others' lives.

Breaking and Entering

The other day, we were doing what has become the default time consumer of our little family: looking at houses. Sometimes it's dull, sometimes it's fun, and sometimes it's downright adventurous. This was one of those adventurous outings.

Jason and I were busy checking out what a Springville home had to offer when we simultaneously heard a door slam and noticed that neither one of us 'had' Rudy. Hum. "Rudy...where are you?" I sang down the hallway. Oh, he's in the bathroom. I prepared to do our ritual "knock knock" game, when I realized that the door was locked.
Eeek! Stay calm, Maria, Rudy sounds fine...he's not even asking to be "found" yet. Don't let him know you're worried, and try to reassure your sweating husband that everything is under control. Deep breaths, now. Deep breaths, old girl. This is a simple lock to pick, just find a long skinny something to stick in that hole and it'll pop right open.
Jason procured the inside of his ball point pen. Very Maverick of him, don't you think? Trouble is, it didn't work. Then both Jason and I thought of the same thing at practically the same time: "Isn't there a window in the bathroom?" We headed for opposite exits, both thinking we were taking the quickest route. (Jason's was the quickest, of course. He has a much better sense for space than I do.) I looked at what could easily be a 70 year old window and thought, "Oh no, surely it's painted shut!"
This time, however, we were in luck, the unscreened, unlocked window slide open like it'd been oiled that morning. Jason gave me a boost up to the little window and I awkwardly threw myself in, landing in a crumpled heap at the base of the toilet. Rudy looked at me with a face that said, "Mama, if I had just done that, I'm sure you would have scolded me!" (And I would have!) With Rudy safely rescued, we finished our walk through with a close eye on our little man. Sheesh. What if we'd have had to take the door off it's hinges or something?
I remember being a little tyke myself and accidentally locking myself into a friend's bathroom. They had take the knob off to get at me, 'cause I just couldn't understand what I was supposed to do to let myself out. (I think it was one of those knobs that you push in to lock, or something myserious like that.) Apparently, that bathroom didn't have an accessible window. :)

Naps!

Rudy, the child I thought just wasn't a napper, has become a regular napper!!! (knock on wood). For the last two days, he's even napped for 3 hours straight! He's come into the pattern of having a morning snooze while I go for a run or walk, and then sleeping in his crib every (and I mean EVERY) afternoon. Sigh. It's lovely. Before, Rudy would just nurse FOREVER in the afternoons and kinda zonk out while attached to me, but he would rarely go down for a nap on his own. Now that he's a bed time nursing only kid, afternoon naps have emerged! Hooray! Hurrah! Haroooo!
Weaning is a good thing. A very good thing. As soon as we're back from our Bear Lake trip, I'm cutting our last session. I don't think it'll be too bad, 'cause even the last two days, I've put Rudy down after some nursing time but before he was asleep, and he did ok.
One problem with all this napping and no nursing: I'm not getting near as much reading in. I have a book I'm really interested in right now, which I would have normally flown through within 2 or 3 days, but I'm still under 10 pages into it. I just can't justify reading when I could be doing other things. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to wait till baby # 2 is nursing 8 hours a day. Although, Rudy will be around too then...hmm...I have a feeling my reading days are kinda over until I'm a little old lady sitting in my lazy chair stroking my lap dog and sucking on my dentures. :)

Baby

We welcomed a new baby into our home last Friday.

Baby doll, that is. Rudy's been really cute with some of his friends' baby dolls, so I thought I'd buy him one. It'll be good practice for caring for his yet to be conceived little sibling. That, and I just really wanted a baby doll to dress up. :)


As it so happens, I haven't really found a good opportunity to make respectable clothes for our newest addition (who came to us naked as can be from DI). Right now he's wearing a shirt sleeve off of one of Rudy's old stained shirts. Hopefully I'll find a moment to make something a bit cuter in the near future, but it'll have to be when Jason's around to watch Rudy while I sew. Since day one, Rudy has slept with "Baby". Here's a shot of them at nap time today:

Baby's been a real pal for Rudy:He has had his head iced, cream applied, and nose suctioned to list just a few of the things he has let Rudy do so that they wouldn't be so scary or irritating when Rudy had to have them done. Rudy also looks out for Baby-making sure he gets his share of food and water, and reminding me to get him out of the crib when I'm getting Rudy. This could be the beginning of a long friendship. Then again, maybe Rudy will move onto something new in a few days. You never know with toddlers. :)

Fireworks

After the race and some R&R time, we headed up to Midway for some burgers and time with my family. Heidi and I picked up a few little fireworks to mess around with while we waited for the big show on Memorial Hill to begin. Here's a few shots of the "kids" playing with fire. Rudy had a blast with a bag of poppers earlier in the evening, but he was out long before the sun went down, as usual. Maybe next year he'll have enough stamina to make it to the fireworks show. :)

VICTORY!

Heidi and I ran our first 10K ever on July 4th. 1,358 people joined us in Provo's Freedom Run. (Or at least that's how many people finished) It was really cool to be running in such a crowd.

We've been training separately for just over 3 months-this was our first time running together. We both have "barely faster than walking" paces, so we chose the 12 minute a mile pace marker to line ourselves up with. That was just about perfect.

Finally, it's time for the rubber to hit the road. :)

And we're off to a strong start!

Here's Heidi, running down University Ave. It was cool that we ran along the parade route for a lot of the race, 'cause we had a good crowd to cheer us on. I had fun gettin' some skin and performing for the crowd.

At the Finish Line. Those water bottles were our "prize", though I think our sense of accomplishment was a way better prize than a little plastic and some free Gatorade. :)

Posing with Captain America. We pretty much felt like super heroes, having accomplished our goal, and even beating the time we were shooting for by almost 15 minutes. (We finished in 1 hour, 15 minutes. We thought it'd take us about 1 and a half hours.)

Ahh, sweet victory! Heidi and I decided to try to eat 25 dollars worth of food at the end of the race, since we got gauged with the "almost late" registration fee. I'm sure we didn't even come close. :)

Even though we had to pay an extra $10, I think it was worth it. It helped me so much to have Heidi doing the training program with me. She helped me stick to the program, and actually get signed up for a race. Our next goal: run faster. Hopefully in about 3 more months, I'll be posting about running 10K in under an hour. Woohoo, baby!

A Cure for "The Uglies"

On Wednesday morning, I woke up with a bad case of "The Uglies". Do you ever get those? You know, when everything about you seems a thousand times frumpier than the day before? I'm especially prone to the uglies the day before my "cycle", so I was feeling grumpy about the probability that I would soon get the signal from my body that we have not yet achieved our pregnancy goal. This made me feel not only ugly, but somewhat of a failure too. Needless to say, a cure was in order.
I arranged with Jason to have the car for the afternoon. I put Rudy down for a nap, and took a luxurious shower. I dressed in some comfortable, but unfrumpy clothes, styled my hair, and prepped Rudy's and my hiking pack. When Rudy woke up, I whisked us both up into the mountains for some fresh air and fresh perspective. Sigh. It works every time.
We had a great time enjoying the beauty of the world our Father made for us, and I couldn't help but feel a part of all the beauty. My self image began to recover. As we hiked and played in the woods, my heart softened and opened to the idea that God loves me, that He is aware of me, and that He has my best interests at heart. I began to remember to trust Him. Funny how the woods can do that to me-can remind me of eternal truths. Rudy and I dawdled at the beginning of the hike, basking in the vibrant life around us. Then it was time to strap Rudy on my back and book it up the mountain. I really wanted to see the Stewart Falls after all the rain we've been getting, and my deadline to get home in time to pick up Jason was fast approaching. Though I puffed and perspired up the trail, I felt strong, healthy, and full of life. With my mind no longer half occupied with keeping Rudy safe, I was able to fully concentrate on the peaceful, reassuring whisperings of the Spirit. I was reminded of the many mercies of the Lord our family has enjoyed lately. I was reassured that though our house hunting has hit several brick walls, it has not been a waste of time, energy, or emotion. I felt sure that God would help us to find the right home, the best home for our family. I remembered that He sees far more than I do. It was a really restorative afternoon, and just plain fun, too. I'm so glad that I live so close to so much beauty.

Making silly faces at each other.

Taking a moment for further inspection.

A very excited little boy pointing out the raging white waters of the Stewart Falls fed stream. (He's standing in a little eddy, a good 6 feet away from danger) :) I loved seeing the stream and thinking of what was ahead as we started the hike.

Taking a look at some more rapids. Rudy's holding onto my ear for security. :)

Safely away from the "water front" trail, Rudy's off on his own, sorta. :)

Taking a break to admire the canopy.

Inspecting an abandoned snail shell.

One of the many wild animals we saw on the hike. We also saw a snake, a lizard, a chipmunk, a bunch of birds and...

GIANT ants. Rudy loved them. He's trying to feed this one here.

Speaking of giant things, check out this flower! The rain has been good to the plant life along the trail, very, very good.

A peek at where we're headed!

What a beautiful, view, huh? Breathe deeply and pretend you can smell warm, moist earth, blooming flowers, and a hint of water, and you'll get a taste of what it was like to stand there. (Or you could just go there. That'd probably be better.) :)