Grandma and Grandpa Visit!

My parents came for an impromptu visit last weekend and we had an awesome time just hanging out, the six of us. In these pictures you can really see how long RUS's hair was getting before we had it cut!
Because my mom and R are kindred spirits, my parents always remember to bring yummy desserts for R. Here she is eating a bunny cookie as big as her head. I looked over after she'd been working on the cookie for awhile and said, "Wow! Did you eat that entire thing?" and R shook her head no and proceeded to hold up a crumb about the size of her fingertip.
Here's my mom with RUS, who spent practically their entire visit asking people to read him books.
My dad joined in the reading fun with the kids, too!
A rare picture of just the four of us.
The big highlight of their visit was driving down to Baltimore to see the National Aquarium. We were especially excited to do this because one of RUS's absolute favorite signs is "fish" and he has an uncanny knack for recognizing any fish that appears--whether a live fish, a drawing, part of a logo, anything--wherever we go or whatever we are looking at.
We weren't wrong, either: RUS went ballistic for all the fish. I was almost worried his hand was going to fall off because he kept signing and signing fish EVERY SINGLE TIME he saw a fish. You can imagine that that happened a lot at the aquarium. It was a really nice aquarium, too--we all enjoyed it quite a lot.
After the aquarium we walked around the Inner Harbor briefly, but it was a pretty cool day, with a brisk, cold wind blowing, so we didn't linger too long before heading to lunch at Phillip's and then home.

Wrinkle, Wrinkle, Dirty Socks

R loves to sing. Loves. To. Sing.

One of her favorites is "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" which she frequently requests from us as well as sings on her own. The other day at dinner, we were talking and this song came up. Somehow, "dirty socks" got worked into the conversation--of the sort in which I exclaim, "Dirty socks! Did you just say dirty socks?!?" and R erupts into peals of laughter.

J chimes in by singing, "Wrinkle wrinkle dirty socks" and R sings along with "Put them in the washer box."

J and I immediately looked at one another with looks of amazement, and then J sang, "Hang them on the line to dry" and R said, "Put them on after dinner."

At that point R took over and said to J, "You say, 'Clean them off after dinner' and then I say, 'And squeeze grape juice on them!'"

Baby Chick Cards

R made some Easter cards for her cousins and grandparents and great-grandparents. We dipped her heel in yellow paint and used that to make baby chicks. Then we feathered grass (or drew grass, in the case of the cards we made on white paper, which I forgot to take a photograph of before sealing them in envelopes) and added black legs and eyes and orange beaks. Finally she embellished the cards with stickers and wrote names on the backs of the cards.
EDITED TO ADD: I found this project online but what I read wasn't a detailed walk-through of how to do it, complete with pictures, but instead, a general description of the project. Later, I discovered some pictures of the actual final project and realized that I understood the instructions (and the image of the final project) entirely differently than was intended!!! So, I present to you the actual baby chick footprint card (below). Isn't it totally and completely adorable? I am even contemplating doing the project again, especially because I know R will be thrilled at the opportunity.

Before and After

Before:
After:

Fun with R's Hair

We started with some braids
but she really wanted "buns" so this was the final product!

Zombies!

Of course, R likes to tell her own stories as well. Especially when she doesn't think anyone is listening. She tells stories to her animals and babies after tucking them all into her bed and giving each one a pillow, blanket, book, and sometimes their own stuffed animal. She tells stories to herself in the car while S and I are talking to each other. On the way to Grammy and Grampy's house yesterday, she was telling a story for a long time while S and I were talking and I was catching bits and pieces of it. Particularly when she started repeating "A zooombie. A zooombie. A zooombie." I also caught something about "Oh no, the zombie is walking, going thump thump thump." and "It's going to break the house - oh no!" So I signaled to S to listen in on her story and see what she could get. At this point, R said "It's a zombie, but it doesn't look like a zombie, it looks like a big mean grinch!"

I thought it was pretty entertaining. I'm not sure S was as tickled, though.

Talking to Monsters

In the car, no matter where we are going, R always, always wants one of us to tell her a story. I almost always start my stories with "Once upon a time, there was a _________________" (insert type of character--princess, little boy, mail carrier, whatever). And I started thinking I shouldn't always focus the story on a character. I need to tell more varied kinds of stories.

So this time I started with, "Once upon a time, there was a city. It was a lovely city. There were lots of restaurants and bookstores and coffee shops . . ." (we happened to be driving down our city's main street so I was pretty much describing the places we were passing)

". . . Then one day, there was a dark cloud over the city. There was a MONSTER! Oh no! R, what do you think the people of the city should say to the monster?"

R's answer?

"Please, monster, please, monster, please, monster, go ruin a different city!"

Hooray for Family Visits!

A slew of Connecticut family came into town last week, which was so wonderful.

First, Great-Aunt T and Great-Uncle D stopped over on their way home from vacation in Florida and spent the night mid-week. Sadly, I didn't get to visit with them because of work busy-ness, but J took the kids over to Grammie and Grampie's on Thursday morning to hang out and visit a bit (he also got work done while over there). My kids were being weird in the pictures so we couldn't get them both in the same shot with Great-Aunt T and Great-Uncle D. Oh well, more pictures of Great-Aunt T and Great-Uncle D for us!!!!

Then, Thursday evening Great-Grammie and Great-Aunt L came in town and stayed through Sunday. We got two great visits with them, including a deeeeeelicious spaghetti dinner on Saturday night. Ever since Grampie stopped working in New York he's had a lot more time on his hands, and this has translated into amazing gourmet meals 4-5 times a week. Thank goodness we get to go over there at least once a week and enjoy it--he's a fantastic cook and it's great to have all the work of cooking and clean-up taken care of for us. We finally pulled out the camera after dinner and got some good photos. I love this one:And then last, but not least, I've mentioned before that one of RUS's absolute favorite things to do is read books. He walks around bringing people books and asking them to read to him. He does this everywhere. Here he is reading after dinner with Grampie and J . . .
. . . and then again, not 5 minutes later, on the floor with Grammie.

Upgrading the Kitchen

R made a few kitchen upgrades this week: she added some cookbooks to the shelf next to the microwave, and she installed some "buttons" (stickers) so that she can actually turn the microwave on and set the timer. Here she is showing off her latest at home improvement.

A Warm March Saturday at the Park

The weather has been glorious lately! Here are a few shots of the kids at the park this morning:

Luck o' the Irish

By the Numbers

R has started to grasp the concept of using numbers to indicate how much she likes, wants, or needs something. Some recent ones:

(In the car on the way home from day care): "I'm so hungry! I'm FIFTEEN HUNGRY!"

(At night, before bed): "Mommy, I love Daddy FIFTEEN!"

J has tried to beat her at this game by mentioning infinity but I'm not sure she grasps that quite yet.

Matzo Ball Soup: A Video Thank-You

So, my awesome friend D made me some matzo ball soup. I was super-excited to share this with R, because we have a book called Matzah Ball Soup that she really enjoys, because it's all about a girl named R who makes matzo ball soup with her grandmother and learns about her family's Passover traditions.

Without further ado, here's R enjoying the soup and sending huge thanks to D!

RUS Feeds Himself

This is nothing new, actually--RUS has been great at using utensils to feed himself for ages. But for some reason I felt like showing him off a little and took this video yesterday at dinner. He's SO GOOD at self-feeding!!



ADDED: In the comments, someone asked about whether RUS was left-handed. The answer is that we don't know yet, and I thought in the spirit of even-handedness I'd put a video up of him eating with his right hand.

Princess Pictures for Grandma!

Lately R runs away from the camera if we try to take pictures. She makes a huge frown and yells, "NO PICTURES!!" and turns her head to avoid being in the picture. But today she looked so cute, and I even did her hair in two french braids, and I really really really wanted to take pictures. So I told her Grandma really wanted us to send her some pictures of her in her princess dress (really, her Christmas dress, but who cares, we'll get as much use out of it as we can!) and could we get some pictures for Grandma??

She finally agreed, especially when I suggested taking the pictures outside. The weather has been warming up and it's been so so so pleasant. It was a little chilly (the kids probably should've had jackets on in these pics, but it wasn't so cold that I felt really bad about it or anything, plus we were only outside for maybe 5-10 minutes before we had to go inside and put coats on and get ready to go to day care).

Crunchy Flakes, Crunchy Flakes

My brothers may remember the title of this post as one of the songs we had to learn how to play out of the John W. Schaum Red Piano Book. But it also accurately refers to RUS's hair on a regular basis. The kid loves--I mean loves--to put food in his hair. Just about every meal ends when he starts taking his food and smearing and smushing it in his hair. Or pouring the last dredges of whatever was in his cup on his head. Or doing the classic baby pose with his bowl sitting upended on his head.

I can't decide if I'd rather have a kid who throws food off the high chair (like R used to do) or smears it in their hair (like RUS).

What do you think?

A Day With RUS

Yesterday while having her mid-morning snack, R announced that she wanted to call her Grammie and Grampie, so I said okay. We called, and she told them she wanted Grampie to come pick her up. They were doing work out in the yard, so we got her decked out in outdoor clothes and boots and she went over and helped Grampie build a sandbox and move around dirt in his garden.

RUS stayed at home with me--he hadn't yet had a nap, and I wanted to be sure he got a good one in. (J was at an all-day work event so he wasn't home). Because the day was downright balmy and just such a nice day for being outside, RUS and I walked down to the park. He is still unsure about walking on grass (he will stand there and fuss until I come hold his hand!) but he is a pro at walking on the sidewalk. We had a great time at the park--he loves climbing the play structure and going down the slide--and then came home and got lunch, nap, and otherwise just really had a good time together.

It was great to spend a day with him! Most of the time having two kids is great because the kids play together and they are just so cute, BUT I do feel as if I often don't have the chance to really focus on RUS the way I did on R when she was this same age.

Things he did yesterday that blew me away:

1) When helping R on the potty, I try to come up with things to keep him busy so he doesn't come in the bathroom and get his hands all over everything. I told him "Go get Old MacDonald!", referring to a tiny book that is part of a set of 5 books that look identical except they're all different titles ("This Little Piggy," "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," etc.). I should also mention that the area in front of our living room bookshelf is continually strewn with books because RUS pulls them out and looks at them right there. So this book was buried in the mess somewhere, not right on top. He comes back within a minute (so much for "keeping him busy!") with the exact book, plus Bambi.

2) He is fearless on the park climber! I mean not daredevil fearless, but he is clearly working out how to use the climber, how to get around on it, and is really intent on figuring it out. This is in contrast to R who was much more careful and often uninterested in trying something new until she had watched someone else--another child, usually--doing it repeatedly.

3) He has learned to push chairs around to climb onto previously inaccessible areas, like our kitchen countertops and the back of the couch. We really have to keep our eyes on him at all times!

4) His two favorite books right now are Llama Llama Red Pajama, and Mama, Where Are You? He walks around saying "mama, mama, mama" asking for one of those two books, usually Mama, Where Are You?, and will read it over and over and over again. I tried hiding it the other night because I'd already read it 5 times in a row but he wasn't having any of it.

5) He is great at nodding his head yes or shaking his head no, and it is so cute. He is very clear about what he wants and does not want.

6) At one point I was folding laundry and about to take a pile of washcloths to the linen closet. As I was getting up, I said to RUS, "We're going to go have a snack but first I'm going to put these washcloths in the closet." He immediately--before I could even pick up the pile of washcloths--ran to the linen closet and began pounding on it. It's amazing to me what he picks up on and seems aware of.

7) Here's a video of the face he makes when "blowing" on his cereal or any other food that's too warm to eat right away. (This was the sixth or seventh video and he was getting a little frustrated with us, hence the crying, but you get a good shot of it right at the beginning. It's the funniest face!)

A House for a Penguin

Reading Books

J loves to read R long books at night before bed. He's read her The Hobbit three times and Alice in Wonderland at least once. I started Charlotte's Web with her, but she really prefers J reading to her for the most part. We've also started Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, but she hasn't seemed to enjoy that as much as she's gotten into The Hobbit and Alice in Wonderland.

This morning, I asked her if she liked The Hobbit--I knew she did, but it had been awhile since they last finished it and I was curious what she would say. Here was her response:

"I LOVE IT!!!!! But the dragon is scary! YIKES!"

R-isms from today

(While getting dressed this morning) "Mommy, you're dragging me crazy!"

(Upon finding out J had cooked beans and rice for dinner) "Nooooooooooooo! I only like four things! Spaghetti! Macaroni and cheese! Pizza! and Candy!"

(After playing with RUS and bumping her finger). "Daddy, I hurt my finger. It's bleeding!"

J: "Okay, show me the blood."

R: "It's the red stuff" (Looks at finger). "It's bleeding on the inside!"