A New Experience

I had the most marvelous experience today! A first as a mom. I woke up because I was done sleeping, NOT because Rudy was awake and needed me. It felt FANTASTIC! Rudy took a super long nap for him (just under 2 1/2 hours). I had put him down and immediately went down myself. When I woke up two hours later, I was absolutely refreshed. Even better, I got to mosey around for a bit before Rudy woke. I'm so used to the hop out of bed and go straight to the nursery routine, I hardly knew what to do with myself. It was luxurious. Lovely. Wonderful. Splendiferous!

Breaking in the Sewing Machine

At last, about a month after receiving my sewing machine for my birthday, I have put it to use! It's been a long time coming because I needed to get all set up. I got a small sewing table off of Craigslist and put it in our bedroom so that I'd have a door to close on unfinished projects, since I'll be doing my sewing mostly during nap time. Then I needed notions, especially thread. To Savers we went, and came home with a grab bag of slightly used thread spools. Last, I needed a project. Rudy generously provided.

His Dumbo costume head gear didn't fit him well, and he hated wearing it. I'd put it on, and he'd pull it right off. So, I altered it a bit, so it wouldn't be so cumbersome. I'm super pleased with how it turned out, and so is Rudy. He consents to wear it all around the house and neighborhood, showing off his extreme cuteness and holiday spirit. It makes me feel great to be able to whip something up (simple as it may be). Thanks so much for your rockin' gift, Mom!

The sewing machine in its new home.

Rudy in his altered Dumbo hat.

Rudy in his original Dumbo hat.

An Introduction to Rock Climbing

Jason loves to climb. He goes to the climbing gym every Tuesday and Thursday, which helps him maintain his Zen throughout the rest of the hectic week. Anyway, he's always wanted to bring Rudy to the gym to introduce him to the sport. This week we finally made it out as a family.

Jason demonstrating the idea of climbing a wall to Rudy.

Acquainting his apprentice with various holds.

Rudy's first attempt on the wall. We chose a nice deep bucket hold for him, but his little hands could hardly fit over edge. He still clamped on pretty good, though.

Pumping Iron with Daddy.

Victory!

After the proportions problem on the adult bouldering wall, we shifted over to the kids wall. That suited Rudy just fine, and he actually supported his weight a few times. (Don't worry, we were hands on spotting him.)

The fam. Maybe our little guys a little overloaded, ya think?

Little Rudy and the great big bouldering wall.

Watching Daddy climb.

Rudy and Jason relishing in a good climb. Jason's showing off Rudy's chalky feet. It doesn't show up very well in the picture, but they really were covered in climbing chalk.

Bedtime Helmets

Jason and Rudy are goofing around before bedtime. These are Rudy's fancy nighttime cloth diapers. They handle the volume of pee better, plus they're easier to change in my middle of the night haziness. (Someday I won't be nursing in the middle of the night anymore, but today is not that day...maybe soon though. I just have to get fed up enough with it to find trudging through a few sleepless nights more desirable than getting up a couple times a night for 15 minutes and then slipping back into blissful sleep.)
Rudy usually fusses about getting into his jammies for bedtime, so Jason was helping him to see how totally awesome his nighttime gear really is. They went buzzing around the house in their bedtime helmets for a bit before I slapped that diaper where it belonged and got to the soothing story time part of his bedtime routine. Silly boys. :)

Pregnant?

So, over the weekend and into Monday, I was really tired. At first I just thought I needed to get more sleep. I did, and I was still dragging. I thought to myself, "Man! I haven't been this tired since I was pregnant! ....hmmm." With the pregnancy bug buzzing in my brain, I found all sorts of other symptoms to match my diagnosis; unusual squeamishness, low appetite, minor weight loss. When I told my mom my suspicions, she said she'd just been thinking the same thing after a few comments I'd made earlier in the day. Ha! If both Mutti and my pregnancy radar is going off, it must be true! Mutti and I chatted about how far away in age our children would be as Jason sat hyperventilating in a (luckily) very supportive chair.
Well, I took a test and it turned out negative, plus that very night I developed a fever and threw up. I'd probably just been fighting some bug that had finally gotten the best of me, accounting for my symptoms.
I was actually kind of disappointed, which is surprising to me, because up until now, I've thought I was a million miles away from being ready to be pregnant and go through the whole early infancy insanity again. It's been quite a revealing experience for both of us, I guess. Jason discovered that he is really really, most definitely NOT ready for a second child. I don't blame him--he's the one who's trying to finish school while working full time, being active in his church calling and being the stellar husband and father that he is. I'm just a full time momma, so, the more the merrier, right? (Well, I guess I also work at my church calling and being a stellar wife, but mothering is much more flexible as far as finding time to fit other things in than say, class schedules or work shifts.)
Anyway, post pregnancy test, our splendiferous home is filled with both extreme relief and a growing baby hunger...hopefully the two feelings will settle into some sort of middle ground Jason and I can both be delighted with.

TAG

So, I'm publishing this post for Kat, and 'cause I think it'd be fun to take a moment and ponder on my eccentricities. Pretty much everyone else I know that blogs has been tagged, so, I don't tag anyone else, unless of course, you'd like to elaborate on your quirks...I know that most of us have way more than 8!

1. If I ever hear a new name, I try it out in my head for one of my future children's names. Even if it's a name like Bobisita or Lazarus and there's no way I'd go through with it. I just try it out. I'm constantly on the look out for children's names. Maybe I'm gonna have sextuplets next or something and I'm unconsciously preparing myself with plenty of name ideas. :)

2. I cart surf and don't try to contain myself. Once in a while, I think, "come on, Maria, you're 27 and a mother...be RESPONSIBLE!!!" But then I think to myself, "You're responsible about so many other things, let 'er rip, baby!" And Rudy and I go flying through the parking lot. (I do keep an eye out for traffic, lest anyone feel the need to add my or Rudy's safety to their prayers tonight.)

3. I'm afraid of the dark. Used to be deathly afraid. I'm getting better. Now the only thing I absolutely CANNOT handle is looking into a mirror in the dark. EEEEK! It's an anxiety that is hanging on from sleep over ghost stories when I was like, 10 years old. Maybe some day I'll grow up, but in the mean time, it's Jason's job to tell Rudy there's no monsters in his room.

4. I lean back on my chairs. Jason's says I'm ruining the chairs, but I just can't help myself. I do it and don't even realize it.

5. I have food obsessions. I'll eat the same thing over and over again (at least daily, sometimes a couple times a day) until I'm totally burnt out on them. Then I move on to a new one. It's been cottage cheese, yogurt and oats, scrambled eggs, tuna pasta, Grape Nuts, etc. Right now it's pancakes, though I'm thinking I'll be done with them soon.

6. I am always barefoot in the summer. If I'm wearing shoes, I slip out of them when ever I can (standing in line, sitting in church, etc.) In the winter, I'm always in socks-my feet get freezing! Which leads me to my next quirk...

7. Jason jokes that I only have one ventricle because we read one day about how turtles or some other cold blooded thing only has one ventricle. I get cold really easily (if I drink ice water in the summer, I get goose bumps), so Jason says I'm cold blooded (but warm hearted) :) Lucky for me, he's always hot, so I've got an eternal space heater at my side. :)

8. Dirty ears are a pet peeve of mine. I clean my ears every day, and I check Rudy's ear for any sign of grime or wax every time I nurse him.

TA DA! Maria's nuttiness in a nutshell. :)

Snowy Smorgasbord

Here's documentation of a good snow on October 12th followed by random pictures of Rudy's absolute cuteness. :)

It snowed Saturday night and into Sunday morning. In my desperate stubbornness not to be chased inside by icky weather, I insisted that we still walk to church, as has been our custom through the summer. With Rudy's weather shield plus his fleece bunting on, by the time we got to church he was sweating. I guess I need to find my bundling touch again. :)

Rudy loves to open and close drawers. He especially likes this one on our rescued-from-the dumpster-desk because it often sticks and keeps things interesting with multiple opportunities to problem solve.

Rudy found a great treasure on one of his morning exploration expeditions; an old mirror leaning against the dumpster. It's one of those flimsy cardboard backed ones so that he could jiggle it and distort his image. He thought that was fantastic!

Rudy's finally starting to understand that sand is for playing with, not eating. (Though we often have minor relapses into his younger days of sand ingestion. I guess its a tough habit to kick.)