Summer fun

We have been blessed with spectacular weather lately. Today was another bright, sunny day with no humidity. Yay! We went back to gymnastics class, where Nora and Caroline both had lots of fun (Nora discovered hula hoops...we've got to pick up one on our next shopping trip!), and then headed to the pool to hang out with Bronwyn and daughter Lauren, Erin and daughter Margaret, and some of Bronwyn's mom friends from the USS Wasp.

After decent naps, we played outside and enjoyed the cool breezes blowing up our street from the water. We blew bubbles, drew with sidewalk chalk (Nora practiced her N, O and learned E) - and then Nora decided to take her tricycle out for a spin "up and down the streets a little bit." Nora has gotten to be quite good at riding her tricycle. At first I balked, but then agreed to let her ride, bringing along the double stroller just in case she tired out in the end (which she did). We had a great stroll/ride: while Caroline finished the second half of her afternoon nap, we stopped to chat with our next door neighbor John, and then ran into the Bohl family on Cedar Lane (Jamie and Ted and kids Teddy and Jenna), who tipped us off to a Lemonade stand struggling for business on Monterey. We went back to the house to get Willy and some spare change, and headed over to Monterey where we bought 2 refreshing 50 cent cups of lemonade from two little girls (isn't Lemonade supposed to cost a nickel?) and sipped them while walking Willy back to Bernadette's, who returns tonight.

Nora gave Willy a big hug before we left and we told him we'd miss him. I'm sure he'll be thrilled to have Bernadette home again - he's probably attention starved! Although I enjoyed having him for the week and have no regrets, I came to learn that having a dog is like having another child, and I'm not quite ready for either!

Pictures worth a thousand words

It was another clear, bright beautiful day. We spent the morning at the zoo. Just after I finished parking the car, Nora asked me "What about Daddy?" She obviously has lots of good memories of going to the zoo with Daddy and wanted him to be there. So, I explained to her that he was on the ship and would be home soon, and then I asked her if she missed him, to which she replied somewhat dolefully, "Yeah." I told her that he misses her, and that it would make him feel good to know that she misses him too. After we got home, Nora refused to nap, so we walked to our neighorbood "Great Clips," where Nora got a haircut and then we continued on to the local copy shop to copy wedding music for Aunt Alli. Monica and the boys joined us for dinner again; I was all excited to share our Farmers Market corn with them (especially since Thomas likes corn), but was disappointed to discover that only 1 ear was edible! Oh well. Monica's delicious chocolate chip cookies made up for it. We've really enjoyed all our time with them lately...it's so hard to believe their big move to Kansas City is just around the corner. :-( Here are photos of Nora trying to keep up with some boys on the rope spider web at the zoo, Caroline eating her toes in front of the zoo (after finishing a delicious lunch of cream cheese and jelly and canteloupe), Nora showing off her Jumperoo skills (she climbed in herself...she was in that kind of mood all day, if that tells you anything!), and, finally, a mostly-naked Nora and the Harris boys calling out to Willy from the back window, with Caroline trying her best to keep up.

Hangin' out with Willy

We all took it easy today, since yesterday was a long day and we're all fighting off some kind of cold. Nora broke out with a runny nose on Saturday, then I started getting a sore throat yesterday, and Caroline woke up around 10:30 p.m. last night crying because of her congestion. She just did it again tonight, but it was easy to calm her back to sleep, for which I'm very grateful. We went to 10 am Mass yesterday (we managed to stay in the sanctuary until the homily, when Nora announced she had to go potty, her new trump card), had a quick lunch, and then returned to church to meet up the Migrant Ministry group and drive out to the Eastern Shore (Exmore, VA) to deliver donated toiletries, clothes, and household goods to some migrant workers living there. It was a long trip - we left our house at 12:20 and didn't get back until 6 pm - but I'm glad we went. I was so happy to reconnect with a people and culture that mean so much to me and to share that experience with our girls. The migrants are mostly Mexican and harvest tomatoes for a big farm - they live in barrack-looking buildings that have been subdivided into individual apartments. Most are unaccompanied men, but there are lots of families too and a few pregnant women. Although I wasn't able to help as much as I would have liked to (since the girls woke up from their naps and needed my attention), I did get to use my Spanish to recruit some volunteers to move a crib. I'm looking forward to going back, loaded with more toilet paper and diapers to hand out.

We spent the day at home today. Nora entertained herself playing with her toys this morning. She especially loves the new magnet dress-up doll we bought on Friday (see photo). We went out to walk Willy before we were hit with a good sized rain storm, and then went to the commissary in the early evening to pick up essentials so that we don't have to go tomorrow, when it will be mobbed because of payday. When we got back, Nora had "Dora the Explorer" cereal for dinner and worked on the maze on the back of the box (see photo -- sorry, it's all I've got!), which led us to do more mazes together in her activity book. "I love the mazes!," she kept saying. Caroline is pulling up on everything in sight - the piano bench, the recliner, the couch - and loves to laugh at Willy. She also likes his bone, which, to my horror, I had to pull out of her mouth the other day. That girl will eat anything!

Bugs and Bluegrass

We were blessed with beautiful weather today - clear blue skies and no humidity. Although the sun was strong (I got a bit sunburned), the house stayed cool without air conditioning. We went to the gardens this morning to see the "Bug Idol" puppet show. Nora really enjoyed it, except for the part when a Venus flytrap came out and ate the mean slug judge (cleverly named "Slimin' Scowl"). Caroline didn't seem to care; she was having far too much fun sucking on my camera bag strap. We stayed in the gardens for a while and played with new friends we made at the library earlier this week, then left to pick up our latest installment of fresh veggies from the Farmer's Market and came home. After having mixed success with naps (Caroline yes, Nora no), we headed back out the door around 5 with Monica and her boys, mom, and brother, to walk over to the shopping area near our house, where there was a free bluegrass concert from 5-7. I made a chicken/spinach/mozzarella quesadilla for Nora (with leftover chicken from our bbq on Monday), a mozzarella/tomato/basil sandwich for myself (with a tomato from the Farmer's Market and basil from our garden), and even brought along some cooked fresh snap beans (also from the Market). I was so pleased with the way it all turned out! Caroline ate before we left (p.s. she loves tofu), but that didn't stop her from downing a bottle of watered down apple juice and fruit puffs. Once that was done, she tried her luck with the pretzel bag (the results are in the photo).


We all enjoyed listening to the music, spending ime together and feeling connected to our community. And it was especially fun watching Nora, Thomas and Zach run around. Why run on soft grass like all the other kids when you can race barefoot on hard concrete with yellow "CAUTION" tape in front of it? Our walk home took quite a while, after Nora and Thomas decided to walk on the fence in front of ODU, counting each post as they went along (see photo). Monica and I humored them for a while, but then I transformed myself into the "Fence Tickle Monster" and told them they had to get off my fence or pay the tickle penalty. Worked like a charm. heh heh heh. Now if only I could use that to get Nora to nap!!!

Funny races and funny faces

We had a wonderful day today. Although the day started at 5:20, much to my dismay, both girls were as sweet as could be all morning. After having a bite to eat, we drove over to Bernadette's to let Willy out and feed him breakfast. We came home in time to meet our landlord, who came to inspect our leaking windows, and then headed out to the new library in Ocean View where we borrowed a Mickey Mouse DVD, a ton of books, and attended a really fun story time, run by librarian Sarah. She took out different puppets from the "storybox" by her side as she read each book and sang lots of songs, including "Boom chicka-boom," one of my favorites from Girl Scout camp. (I haven't heard anyone else sing that song in 20 years!) After that, we headed home for lunch and naps. Caroline took a half-nap and Nora refused to nap at all, but we managed to have a pleasant afternoon nonetheless (I had a particularly moving bonding moment as I rocked Caroline to the Indigo Girls' "Love Will Come to You"). We delivered a Mt. Sunflower Tonka bar to our neighbor John and Caroline had fun reaching out to touch his face and nose, studying him carefully (John loved it!). Then we walked back over to Bernadette's to get Willy and bring him back to our house for the night. Monica, Thomas and Zach came over for pizza around 5...Caroline downed 1 1/2 slices of pizza, and Nora fell asleep on the couch watching Cinderella...they sure showed those boys a good time! Speaking of good times, Nora and Caroline made me laugh this morning as they had a crawling "race" across the rug...Nora would shout "Read, set, go!" and take off, and Caroline would just sit there laughing, not budging an inch. Caroline is also a woman of many faces now...when she's happy, she smiles, scrunches up her nose, and breathes in and out of it really quickly. And if you do it, she'll do it back to you. She also did her first version of what I think was a wink...as I was feeding her this afternoon, she smiled at me and then all of a sudden closed her eyes and shut them tight in a very deliberate way for a second or two. I did it back to her, and then she did it to me again, and so on and so forth for a few minutes. It was a riot! I'll have to try to get that on video. I'm posting a photo of this morning's "race," since both girls were so happy (note the lopsided bangs on Nora...which Mommy has since corrected).

Daddy's little hippies

We're ba-ack! After being put out of commission by a fried hard drive and then the general business of everyday life and the big trip to Washington, the Rudmann girls are back online to fill you in on their latest adventures. After a wonderful trip to the family farm and a visit with Corey, Jen and Reilly Shagensky, we're settling back into our everyday routine and getting used to being on our own. The transition has been a little tough. Nora, who became accustomed to having playmates 24-7, has been demanding a lot of attention (and apple juice) from her poor, nerve-wracked mother. Caroline has been a sweetheart (as usual) but is back to her old trick of waking up squealing with delight at 5 am. Too bad her mother is not as delighted as she is! But today was better than yesterday, and I suspect it will get better and easier every day. We made sure we had lots planned for today, to cut down on the whining/crying. Nora went to her first gymnastics class and LOVED it, and then met up with some of her friends at the mall to run around the playground and eat lunch at the food court. After having good naps, we walked over to Bernadette's house and got Willy-the-dog, who we're helping take care of this week. We came home to have a mini afternoon dress-up playdate with Taylor, ate a delicious, healthy tofu stir-fry dinner (the recipe was from a cookbook we bought at Mt. Sunflower), had baths, and then took Willy home. Tomorrow we're hoping to go to storytime at the library and then join Monica, Zach and Thomas for a pizza dinner. Although Friday's up in the air, we're looking forward to a puppet show at the Gardens on Saturday morning and early evening bluegrass on the lawn of our neighborhood shopping strip, and Sunday afternoon will head out to the Eastern shore with a group from church to deliver donations to migrant workers. Mommy has to learn how to say "Here's some toilet paper" in Spanish, a phrase didn't really come up much in her old line of work.

No Place Like Home

Well, the Rudmann girls have had quite an adventure since you last heard from us. We had quite a fun-filled 2 week trip to NY. There are far too many stories and photos to include in one posting, so I'll try to do it piecemeal. My mom suggested I work backwards, so I'll do that, but might jump around wherever appropriate/necessary. We left NY early yesterday afternoon and spent a fun evening at Janet Henry's beautiful old farmhouse in Owings Mills, MD. Nora got to play with her old playmates, Leila and Aden, in the big backyard (see photo). Leila and Nora also had fun streaking passersby this morning as they ran barebottomed around the yard. Nora was quite a sight to see as she ran down the hill, the ribbons in her rainbow headband (as seen in photo) blowing behind her.

Caroline had a good time watching all the fun from her perch on the hill, where she sat with Omi. But she didn't have quite as much fun as she did in the ball pit at the Chelsea Playground in Staten Island last Thursday (where we went with Lara, Avery and Gavin). I've never seen her giggle or drool as much as she did when I sat her down in the big ball pit. Just look at the joy on her face! (sorry the picture's so blurry). Hard to imagine that such a happy baby could also be in such moments of utter misery this past week as her top front teeth cut through her gums (the top left tooth has surfaced, and the other is not far behind).

Before we left MD today, we stopped by Kathleen and Pat's house to meet 8 week old John William, who is absolutely adorable. Kathleen is doing well and preparing to go back to work full time in June, while Pat gets ready to leave teaching and become a stay at home dad.

So tomorrow we attempt to get back to "normal." Nora goes to school, I go grocery shopping and unpack and try to figure which end is up. I'll be sure to write more soon. YAY MIKE!