South Dakota

A bit of a delay in getting this posted. Here's what I wrote Sunday night...

Hello from South Dakota! I don't know that I'll have time to blog aside from tonight and since we're leaving SD early tomorrow morning, it seems fitting to update now. This weekend was really fun but is already a bit of a blur. I'll summarize from the beginning...

Our flights to Omaha went well. Kyle was a charmer to all those around him and did really well with the 12 hours of travel we did that first day. He loved looking out the plane window and was conscious of everything and everyone around him. Mr. Curious kept us pretty darn busy moving, looking, listening, dropping toys, etc. Its been a peanut operation just trying to keep everything that belongs to us with us from place to place. Kyle is a good flyer and we're so glad for all the positive experiences we've had. It is A LOT of work, though and we're always so glad when we get to wherever we are going!

When we finally arrived in Sioux Falls, we were greeted with a houseful of family all having arrived around the same time. Kyle got passed around along with my cousin's new baby girl who is 3 weeks old. It was a good night. Then, Saturday morning, my friend came to see me and meet Kyle. We got to go out for coffee and just sit and talk without any interruptions. Usually we talk on the phone with our little ones keeping us pretty busy and are often exhausted. :) So this was awesome and much like old times. When she moved back to Germany after college, I thought I 'd hardly ever see her again, aside from our weddings. Turns out, we're averaging about once a year! :) Our time together passed all too quickly and now I'm sitting here thinking... Was she really here? Did I really get to see her? So glad she made the effort and the 10 hour drive to see us. (Wow!!)Thank you, friend! :)

Then, that afternoon and into the evening we celebrated my grandfather's induction in the the state's Hall of Fame for his basketball career. News stations and reporters were there to capture the event and pretty much all of the older adults in my family were interviewed and later seen on t.v. that night. My sister and I were both on t.v. too! The main newspaper, The Argus Leader, covered the story with a front page article. Out of 19 inductees from the 1930's to present, Gramps got the spotlight of the whole article. It is so cool to see my humble grandpa get recognized. He'd never talk about it otherwise, so I think people like that deserve their few minutes of fame!
Here's a link to one of the news stories: http://www.ksfy.com/home/video/89340827.html?video=pop&t=a
and another story here:
http://www.keloland.com/videoarchive/?VideoFile=032710thune&ld=98352

It seems like we just got here and are leaving quite early tomorrow morning in order to drive back down to Omaha to catch our plane to Chicago. Although the trip was a quick one, we had so much fun. Thanks, mom and dad!

Updates before we leave!

My interview went well. Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers. I've deleted my previous post about it, thanks to a friend who wisely suggested I do so. (I can just see her mouth turn to a little grin as she reads this. :) Even with the unlikely chance someone from the company would find it and read it, I'd still rather be safe than sorry. My apologies for being vague here, too, but maybe I'll go into more detail if I find out I didn't get the job. Anyway, I'm so glad it's over and I'll find out in a couple of weeks.

Ru's done with all his exams and is officially on spring break! It's great to have a day to be home, pack and do the million little things we need to do before leaving for our trip to the Midwest. He could use the day just to recover from the sleepless nights.

Shmu is working on at least two more teeth right now. We've been saying this for about a month it seems, but I think/hope he's close. It really seems like it anyways. Also, I'd read about separation anxiety starting around the 8th month. I knew our trip was coming right at that very time and I was hoping Shmu would be late with this, but would you believe that on the exact day, it hit full force? I'm sure it was around beforehand but on the 22nd, we were at a friend's house and the minute she held him he burst into tears. Then, every time I went out of his line of sight he was a wreck. It was so sad, but he really did think I was leaving him. So we've got teething, flying and meeting/seeing tons of people... great timing Shmu! :) He'll be fine if I hold him and introduce whomever we see and let him get used to the new environment. He's all smiles if he doesn't think I'll be leaving him. So please don't feel badly if he's hesitant to come to you right away. I'm glad we'll have plenty of time while in Chicago for him to get reacquainted with his family.

We are really looking forward to this trip! Our time in South Dakota will be a whirlwind of family and events plus a lot of driving. Kyle will meet a bunch of my relatives for the first time. I'm also really excited that my best friend from college will be driving over from Minnesota to see us and meet Kyle. Then, we'll get to spend the better part of a week with Ru's family in the Chicago area. I'd better go and get to packing!!!

Happy 8 Months, Kyle!

Somebody slow this down, please???!!!! I can't tell you how many times a day I have a "moment" where I want time to just stop for a long while. Everyone says that it only gets better and better and we know that there are so many things to look forward to but right now, in this moment, we are enjoying him so much and I want to stop it from going by too quickly. He snuggles for story-time just perfectly in my lap, lays comfortably on my shoulder, sits up so tall and cute in his wagon and is just all around fun. We love his personality and very alert, curious mind. Can't thank God enough for all the joy this little person has given us. Ru was saying that it's just almost too much to handle... our hearts are simply exploding.

Just last night, Ru and I were playing around taking turns impersonating Kyle one after the other. We were laughing so hard. I think we'll videotape it just for fun so we can remember all the things we loved seeing our boy do. We are already forgetting a few things we thought we'd always remember and we're also noticing how certain things he "always" did, have quickly become a thing of the past. That made me so sad!

In general, I've had mixed feelings about having a blog and writing such personal thoughts and posting pictures since before I even started this thing. I do have to say, though, that I'm so glad I'm journaling these things here, because someday soon, I'll be looking back at these words and trying to remember.

Kyle's new tricks:

• pulling himself up to a standing position
• goes from laying to sitting to standing pretty quickly
• crawling (sometimes hopping to move even faster)
• just started cruising around (walking while holding on to things)
• climbing on Daddy's homemade jungle gyms
• saying "Mamamama" a lot! :)

Kyle's favorites:

• water!!!!
• water bottles
• cameras
• phones
• wagon rides
• dad's yellow highlighter (sanitized with the cap firmly on and the ink removed!)
• our family picture laminated for him to hold
• paper
• the door stopper that makes noise
• waving his hand and fingers
• standing instead of being on the floor
• yogurt
• bath toys (boats and fish)

And a few more Kyle pictures:

Happy 8 Months, Kyle!

We love you, love you, love you!!

My cutie.

I try to refrain from saying how cute I think my son is. Everybody thinks their kids are cute. It's a given. Here, however, I just can't hold it back. As I watch him look around at the world from his little wagon, I can't help but smile at the dozens of ADORABLE faces and expressions I see him make.

It must be the hat or the fact he looks like my little, "big" boy ready to go out on the field... I don't know, but I love these, too.

Big Boy!!

I've been holding out on blogging about Kyle's latest move because his 8 month post with updates is just around the corner. But, when I saw this classic pose, I couldn't resist telling you all. He's been pulling himself up on to things for a little over a week, but today was his first time standing in his crib. It's a whole new world around here. One of my favorite times Kyle does this is when I turn on the bath water. No matter where he is in the house, his little ears perk up and he's in the bathroom in no time. He gets himself up and looks down at the rushing water and you'd think he was in heaven. Here are a few pictures I took a couple of weeks ago.

He heard the click of the camera and was turning around to see what Mom was up to.

He's such a happy kid! Everything is new when you're standing tall and it's so fun to watch him learn about it all.

Daddy time

Wrestling

Building tall towers

Rock climbing

Sumo wrestling

Going to school

And cuddling

Happy Birthday GGSal! :)

This post is dedicated to the birthday girl - Great Grandma Sally!! We hope you have a great day today with all 3 of your daughters. We are excited to see you in just 2 weeks! And in honor of your birthday, Kyle is officially crawling without any scooting. He can't wait to show you all his new tricks, too!

Hope your day is wonderful!

Love you,

Rudy, Mindy and Baby Kyle

5 in 1

Yesterday, we celebrated 5 babies birthdays with one party at the park. While I feel sorry that the little ones (all born within a month of each other) had to share their special day, I am glad for some pretty practical friends who came up with the idea. We had a fun time with our friends and it was no surprise that Rudy was a party favorite among the smaller ones...

...and the bigger kids, too. One of the babies didn't have shoes, so these two adventurous dads were climbing through the bushes in search of the perfect footwear. Here they are making the laces.

Here's the before... and unfortunately, my camera was well put away for the after.

Trying to get all 5 babies with their party hats and looking at the camera. It was all you'd expect.

The babies and their mommies.
And of course, some Shmu pictures...

Then, it was time to go home.

Who needs toys?

Who needs new toys when you've got paper? K-man was entertained for quite awhile with this single sheet of paper. He rolled, flipped and turned this way and that. He's a riot to watch.

I guess we've just found a new item to pack for our plane ride coming up. How on earth am I going to keep him entertained otherwise? Any ideas or suggestions are welcomed! :)

Every kid has got to have em'

Photos of messy faces while eating is almost obligatory and I've failed capturing Kyle's finger painting up till now. Apparently eating is really fun... when the food goes anywhere but in the mouth.