Desert Downpour

What is it about us as human beings that ties us so strongly to routines, patterns, "the way it's always been"? Why is it so hard for us to switch gears?

In fact, thinking about it now, the whole world is set up to resist major changes in a short period of time. Desert ecosystems are perfectly adapted to dry conditions-if we should suddenly get a coastal area's share of precipitation, we'd have a natural disaster on our hands.

Do you ever feel like a desert getting coastal downpour?

The good news is, adaptation is just as primal as our tendency to hold to routine. Somehow, the world adapts as climates change and so do we. It may feel like a natural disaster in the moment, and when all is said and done, we may have a whole new look and feel to our lives, but things work out. They always have, I think they always will.

Last night, Rudy slept the first night of the rest of his life in a bed, instead of a crib.

He's slept in a bed before, but yesterday, he and Jason took the crib apart together.

It's sitting in our garage, an affirmation of Rudy's total transition from crib...

to bed.

I know, I bet you're thinking, "Sheesh! All that natural disaster talk was about a stinkin' piece of furniture?!!"

But putting the crib away felt like putting Rudy's babyhood away. It felt like closing the door to that stage of his life-of my life with him-and opening the door to so many other changes.

We transferred him to the bed in preparation for his move to his new room downstairs (we didn't want him to go to a new room in a new bed.) He's moving to a room downstairs because a delightful little girl is maturing within my womb as I type.

I'm about to be a mother of two, first time mother of a little girl. My body is changing as it nurtures my little child, and prepares to welcome her into the world. My heart is changing as I consider raising a daughter as well as a son. Our house is changing as we work to prepare it for two children. Even my workout routine is changing, as the best running partner I've ever had moves on to a great new job, changing our availability from compatible to incompatible.

That's probably why even though Rudy transitioned from one piece of furniture to the other almost seamlessly, I had nightmares last night about my little baby boy morphing into strange things in the night. My life is morphing-in beautiful and happy ways-but it's still morphing, and so it's still hard.

No Old Spice Necessary

My man dug a 6' by 5' by 3' hole THROUGH THE CONCRETE using a big metal spear (San Angeles bar), a shovel, two buckets, and a rusted out wheel barrow. No Old Spice needed: He's already the man of my dreams. (Although, if you want your man to at least smell like mine...) ;)

P.S. To all you 2 year old young ladies out there-Rudy's a stud muffin in the making. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, you know. ;)

Possibly my favorite Rudy Prayer to date:

"Dear Heavenly Father, we thank thee for...in the name of...that nobody will come and eat us up. In the name of Jesus Christ, AMEN!"

This was his prayer over our dinner meal after he and Jason had been hunting and hiding from monsters down in the basement for a good hour.

I love that kid! :)

Apricot Jam

Two sink fulls of apricots from friends' trees...

countless bubbling sweet concoctions of pureed fruit, pectin, apple juice, and a touch of honey or sugar...
Every canning worthy jar we could muster from our stash, a friend's garage, and another friend's mom's basement...
Lots of stirring, stirring, stirring...
makes for a delicious bounty of my favorite kind of jam ever, and a day well spent with a great friend. We both felt extremely domestic-glowingly domestic I'd say.
Sometimes, (definitely NOT all the time, but SOMETIMES), I don't mind the old and extremely biased statement, "A woman's place is in the kitchen." Sometimes, the kitchen is a perfectly heavenly and productive place to be, and I feel right at home there with friends and family and good conversation.

Birthday Celebrations

Jason turned 28 on July 31st. I've been putting off the post because I haven't gotten a picture of him enjoying his rockin' hammock he got from his parents, but I figure now that it's the 22nd of August, this is getting a bit ridiculous. I'll just have to do a separate post for the hammock. It really deserves it's own post anyway-Jason has been LOVIN' it. I'm surprised I haven't gotten a good pick, but usually when he's relaxing in his hammock, I'm relaxing in the bed...

Anyway-we had a lot of fun celebrating Jason's big day. We started about a week early and celebrated every chance we got. My parents took Rudy for us the night before Jason's birthday and kept him until 5 pm the next day. We had a blast being just us for a while, deciding on the spur of the moment what to do, not having to worry about getting home for a babysitter or for nap time or what not. Probably my favorite part of Rudy's sleepover with my parents was waking up and just staying in bed until we felt like getting up. That was a treat!

Here are the pictures I have to commemorate Jason's big day. :)

The birthday card Rudy picked out from the multitudes of cards at the store with Oma. She said he took a LOOONG time to choose, carefully examining each card. When he found this one, Rudy laughed, "Rufus is eating a cupcake! Daddy will like this!"

The Death by Chocolate Costco Cake that Jason requested for his birthday celebration.

Rudy placed the candles. The eight represents the fact that Jason is now 28. The other candles are because we couldn't find a two, and Rudy really thought we needed more than just a couple candles on the cake.

Here's Rudy leading the Happy Birthday song.

Jason and Rudy blowing out candles.

The remains of the giant slice of ultra chocolate cake we had as a dessert at Tucanos.

Jason's birthday wish: a night out at Tucanos. We decided to bring Rudy along and it turned out to be a really fun family outing. Rudy at most his meal with the mini tongs they give you to grab meat off the slab as waiters come and slice it off for you. He called the tongs his "baby alligator".

The Zoo!

Sigh. I'm way behind in my blogging. I wish I felt more creative right now, but, alas, you'll have to put up with a strictly documentary style post to record my son's first trip ever to the zoo. It really was a blast...

Feeding the ducks, geese, swans...various other water fowl. Rudy really loved it when the ducklings came by to get his food pebbles. Jason's blood pressure stayed above healthy until his son was no longer in peril of drowning. (Yes, those are fences all around the water. No, they did not help my poor husband relax in the slightest.) ;)

Deciding if this really was a 'safe choice' to drink from the mouth of a lion.

A family shot with the giraffes. Rudy was actually quite nervous about these big guys. More so than the alligators or tigers or any of the other deadly predators we saw.

Favorite Rudy quote from the whole trip: As the carousel sets into motion, and his eagle begins to rise, Rudy exclaims ecstatically to me: "I'm fwying! I'm reawy fwying!" Of course, milliseconds later he realized that his eagle was in fact, attached to a pole and was just going to go up and down through the ride, but that moment of exhilarated flight was enough for him (and me). Totally made the ridiculous price of the ride worth it. :)

Family shot riding the train. Rudy loved it...so I guess that's good enough. :) I'd never recommend the ride to anyone over 3 years old though...unless, of course, you're accompanying a small child, in which case, their excitement almost makes up for the scripted jokes of the engineer. ;)

We brought home two souvenir peacock feathers we found along the way. They were Rufus' favorite toys for a good 2 weeks (after which they were so thrashed I finally threw them away.)

Rodeo!

Jason's whole family went to the Rodeo last week. What a blast!

Some of us met up before hand for a cowboy dinner at Cracker Barrel. Rudy was quite impressed. I think mostly 'cause of the toy store they have in the front of the restaurant. It was the easiest place ever to wait for your meal with kids, although getting him back to the table for dinner was a bit tricky. :)

Rudy was turbo excited through the whole almost 3 hours of rodeo. He goofed off with his cousins, cheered for the cowboys, oggled all the cool vehicles that came rolling into the arena at one point or another through the rodeo, and gobbled junk food like red vines, peanut M&Ms, cotton candy, and a snow cone. Pure toddler bliss, I'd say.

He held through strong all the way home, and fell into an exhausted sleep about 11:00 (maybe even 11:30) that night. We had a bit of a bumpy day the next day, but all that fun the night before was worth a little thin skin the next day. Thanks so much, Mom and Dad, for the fun family outing!

Making fishy faces with Daddy.

Watching some poor soul being tossed off a bull like a rag doll.

All the cousins!

Revving up for the bucking horses.

Watching the cowboy holding on for dear life.

After the cowboy got 'saved' by the other cowboys.

Our little family. :)