Life with the Magic Number: The Red Paint Incident and Other Fun Times

Monday, September 17, 2012

The Red Paint Incident and Other Fun Times

Some days.

Last week my dad was nice enough to help me spray paint an old chandelier I bought. I bought two cans of red paint and Dad rigged up a way to hang it in the backyard to spray it. Rudy and I went outside (because if someone is out there, Rudy has to be too!) but were very careful to stay away from the spraying. Rudy was shaking one of the cans of red paint, it rattled and I was right there in case he were to somehow get the lid off (but that wasn't likely to happen, right??) Right. EXCEPT, what was likely to happen was for him to drop it. Unlikely (or unexpected!) was for the can itself to break and paint start spraying in all directions out of the can. We were standing on the patio, so not only did the patio get full of red paint, but Rudy's Nike shoes that would last all fall/winter, one of his favorite pair of shorts, and his Fire Truck Cozy Coupe. I quickly grabbed the can and threw it in the gas, only to turn around and see Rudy squatting down in the paint, smearing his hands around in it. He was covered. Not to mention, Rudy found Gran's china cabinet earlier that morning and broke one of her nice china bowls. It was not our day!

I was asked recently for some pictures of Rudy and Rufus together. It's getting harder to take Rudy's picture because as soon as he spots the phone, he usually stops what he's doing to come and grab it. And Rufus is either chasing after Rudy because Rudy has a snack in his hands (and Rudy knows to run away from Rufus), or Rudy is pestering Rufus -- not a lot of "photo ops" per se. However, I did happen to catch the sweetest interaction one morning...

Me: "Hi Rudy"

Me: "Can you give Rufus a kiss?"

Me: "Can you give Rufus a hug?"

Serious talk

Rudy: "Rufus, get up!"

Rudy: "Seriously, get up"

Me: "Rudy, show me 'touchdown'" (we've been practicing)

The cutest Patriots fan

We spend A LOT of time outdoors these days. Rudy could play outside all day if I let him. He can't get enough of it. He will stand at the back door and whine and complain until we take him out (or at the front door, or any other place you can see the outside from). It got us thinking...there is no where in the new house to distract him from the outdoors, everywhere he looks he will be able to see it. I don't mind if the weather stayed like this forever, but something tells me we will have our heavy coats near by a lot this winter.

A second too late on capturing the "touchdown"

Helping Gran with the ladder

Hiding his toys

We are still in crunch mode at the house. I don't have many new pictures because things are just moving so fast! John has almost all of the trim up and several doors, we had the backyard "scraped" (?? I don't know what to call it -- a guy came with a bobcat and took away all the junk and left us with a big yard of dirt), and I planted grass seed this weekend. We made it to Chicago and after a VERY frustrating process, we picked out all of the granite. We met with the Closet Guy and got our closet designs all figured out. Today and this week I am meeting with several fence companies to give us bids on getting the yard fully fenced in for Rufus. All of that should be installed in the next 2-3 weeks. And the biggest job we've been getting going is having the painting done. My uncle John Ballweg is helping us out tremendously!! I know he's busy and has other jobs going on, but he's come over almost every day since we've asked for his help. We are so thankful! Having a professional do the painting just seemed like the way to go. And having it be family is icing on the cake! Our normal paint crew -- Mom, LeeAnn, and myself -- doesn't have the time or energy that we had before and there is a lot to paint! They have been working on the trim work that will be black fox and should have most of that painted today! It's getting there!!

Our master

The kids' hallway

Front hallway

Play room

Rudy's room

Master sitting room (check out the new door!)

Backyard

John will be taking about a week off starting tomorrow for Maria's wedding. LeeAnn and Ray are leaving today so John is on Rudy-duty until we leave on Thursday. We are flying to DC for the weekend and we are all looking forward to it!

Rudy and I went to his first music class today. He had SO much fun! He was his typical, social, active, happy self. He's such a show off for a crowd! He greeted every baby/mom/dad there and was a dancing machine. However, he didn't want to follow the class, per se. The other babies would sit with their grown-up and follow along with the songs. Rudy would either follow along -- but in the middle of the circle, or be up walking around. At orientation yesterday they said to just let them do what they wanted and not push it - they are there to have fun, however they what to get it. So I let him do his thing. There was another little boy there, Liam, that danced just like Rudy. They made friends fast and it was hilarious to see them dance together. Another highlight -- our "kit" of instruments included two sticks. Rudy couldn't have been more happy with that 3 minutes of banging sticks together (and equally as mad when it was time to put them away). I'm really happy we decided to do this. I think John, Rudy, and I are going to have a lot of fun with it.

Over the weekend, Rudy has been pretty adamant about using the fork or spoon himself. He will still use his hands or let me give him spoonfuls (gotta get those prunes in!), but he tries to pick up food with his utensils. Sometimes he pokes it and then uses his other hand to take it off the fork or spoon and put it in his mouth. Other times he pokes it and as he works to get the fork to his mouth, the food falls off and he gets a mouthful of nothing. I've seen a few successful bites of fork action, though! He's learning, that's for sure!