"Oh, he's so smart!"

One of Jason's best friends from college, Chris, came over with his wife Jaidy last week.



While the guys did a necessary (but complicated) switch-out of our bathroom fan, Jaidy and I entertained Russell and then cooked dinner - shrimp scampi with pasta and salad - yum!

After a half hour, this was absolutely the only evidence left that there even was a dinner:

One lonely shrimp - I'm glad it was enjoyed!

About the title of this post: Jaidy was having a great time playing with Russell, and he really liked her too. At one point, we had this little exchange:

Me to Russell: "Where are your toes?"

[Russell grabs his foot]

Jaidy (in her adorable Puerto Rican accent): "Oh, he's so smart!"

Me: "hahaha...watch this. Russell, where's your head?"

[Russell pats his stomach]

I don't know why, but he always pats his stomach when I ask him where his head is! One day he'll figure it out, and then this will just be another funny when-you-were-little story :)

Movin' On Up?

Month after frustrating month of having our condo on the market, and we've had zero offers. So we decided to take the rental plunge.

Well, it's now been 2 days since we put it up for rent and we've had 10 phone calls and several of those are promising prospective renters! Thank you, Lord! We are really hoping to have this place rented out quickly, and to a responsible tenant.

Which begs the question: where are we going to go? Well, we're looking into several places. If we rent out our condo before we find a place, we are blessed enough to have family around here that we can stay with for a while.

Oh, and in the midst of repairing things around our condo, scheduling showings, and looking for our own place, we have a consultation with an ENT on Wednesday to talk about tubes for Russell (as he is now on ear infection #5). We are busy, busy bees.

Children's Museum

We met our MOPS group and our playgroup at the Children's Museum this morning. It was the first time Russell had been. Unfortunately, there were about ten million children there, so he did get a bit overwhelmed on occasion. But in the end, I'd say we still had a good time :)

This picture cracks me up: Russell doing his normal check-out-all-the-wheels thing, and Lily staring at him like what the heck are you doing, kid?!

Eliza and Lily playing nicely:

Russell and Cole. Sidenote: see how Russell's shirt is soaked? I've got to get this child a sippy cup that he can't figure out how to dump on himself!

Taking a peek at the play food in the kitchen:

I think this last photo captures such a cute, serious look. {There was an announcement coming over the loudspeaker, and Russell just stopped to figure out where that voice was coming from.}

Russell was definitely worn out by the time we left. Hopefully, this means a long afternoon nap!

just another family saturday

I love Saturdays. The weekdays are rushed when Jason gets home, with the dinner/bath/bed routine, and Sundays are pretty busy with church and church activities. Not that I don't enjoy those days too. But for us, Saturdays are for quality family time. There are usually no have-to-necessary-breakneck-speed chores, errands, or rushing around.

Just lots of swinging.

And playing.

And car shows. (Yes, another one this weekend - we may now be "car show people.")

And just because he's a cutie, here's a picture from last Saturday:

Even though Russell is still a bit unhappy (because of his ears), I think we cheered him up today. Another nice family Saturday :)

First-Name Basis

Since April, we have gone to the doctor about every other week. It is getting to the point that when I call, they will sometimes say, "Is this Russell's mom?" Poor Russell is having quite a time with his ears. He's now had 4 ear infections (including 2 doubles).

We went again yesterday, and the PA told us that both ears are full of fluid (explaining his fussiness and lack of napping yesterday) but not yet infected. Of course, if the fluid doesn't drain, they will be infected soon.

Yes, we are talking tubes. The PA said that based on his history, he will probably need tubes within the next 1-2 years. But, since he doesn't run high fevers with his infections, and since he still eats well, and has no antibiotic allergies, they probably won't consider tubes soon.

So until then, I guess we'll continue to spend many afternoons like this:

(cell phone picture, from a couple months ago)

...waiting at the doctor's office.

Wordless Wednesday: Pool Feet

Kruisin' for the Kids

That was the name of the car show we visited today. Mind you, I know nothing about cars, but we all had a great time! We love different (and free!) activities.

There weren't too many people at the show, but there was a DJ, and some food vendors set up shop nearby. Russell loved dancing to the music and really enjoyed looking at the cars.

This car was one of the prettiest. (I have no idea what make, model, or year it is.)

I thought the fabric inside this Gremlin was really interesting. Jason said Gremlins are dangerous cars - something about blowing up the gas tank, apparently I was really paying attention - so you don't see many around.

Several of the cars had little displays set up in or around them. This is a tiny replica of this particular car sitting inside of its own engine:

Sort of unrelated: I've been attempting to get interesting self-portraits (so far most have been duds) - here's one such attempt (me reflecting through a car window):



I love this picture - Jason, Russell, the cars - kind of captures the car show from my perspective:



Jason did a great job taking this picture - my new fave of Russell and me! (Of course, I did change the settings for him and frame the shot...but hey, he pushed the button ;))

I wouldn't call myself a car show kind of girl in general, but I would definitely go to another car show with these 2 guys.

Well, really, I'd go about anywhere with them :)

older and wiser ;)

Our "home" or "main" playgroup, of course, is our Wednesday playgroup, which we love. In addition to that one, over the past 2 weeks we have been graciously invited to play with a Friday playgroup. At 14 months - 2 years old, the children are all older than Russell, which (I hope) has given him the opportunity to learn from those who are older and wiser than he ;)

Like Miss Ella (and Isaac and his mommy in the background).

Caroline and Ella loved Molly's ball popper - the same one we have - so even though he's not in this picture, Russell did show the older ones how to push the button and make the balls pop. Although I'm pretty sure they could have done it without his help ;)

I haven't blogged about this, but whenever there are wheels around, Russell circles them, examining them from every angle. {I want to point out that he also plays with them the right way - as Jason says, this circling thing is just a game he plays that he hasn't told us the rules to!} He found some wheels on a walk-behind toy here, and of course had to figure them out:

We had a nice time playing and eating lunch - and Debbie baked some poppyseed bread, which was delicious! Come to think of it, I wish I had gotten a picture of that! Anyway, what a nice way to kick off our weekend.

whirlwind

Whirlwind weekend - in a great way :)

On Friday, Russell loved hanging out in our friends' neighborhood pool. It has a graded water line/ramp (like the community pool) so he could crawl at the water's edge.

On Saturday, we all got to celebrate Cole's first birthday! What a hilarious party. There were many little toddlers and preschoolers crawling, running, playing, squealing. Russell thoroughly enjoyed himself.



This was the chaos that ensued while Cole opened presents. (Take a second look - yes, there was a dragon at the party ;))



This is how tuckered out Russell was. And this never happens, seriously.



After a nap, he was ready to go again! Good thing, because his Pops and Mimi and their dog came to play!



(this kid will not sit still for a second)


Okay, so Bogie didn't actually want to play. This is all he wanted to do.



Here's to an amazing weekend with our fabulous family and friends!