I Hate A Tease.

The weather gets nice, then goes back to nasty bitterness. I can see spring just up ahead, then winter is slapping me in the face again. I’m getting really tired of it. Not to mention that everybody in my house has some level of sickness and I’m sure the bipolar weather is not helping it at all.

Yesterday, the weather was nice again (today it’s pretty foul) so what did Rudy and I do? How predictable can I get: we went on a little walk. There, sadly, is just not much to post about right now. I’ll get more creative soon, I promise, once my foggy-winter-head clears up.

Dreaming of Spring

In order to help me through this last dragging-on of Winter, I am trying to surround myself with Spring in whatever way I can. My lovely flower in the kitchen is one of my most cherished mood-lifters at the moment. My whole family has gotten the biggest kick out of watching this monster grow. It’s amazing, isn’t it, science and plants and growing and life?

And speaking of science and plants and growing and life, Rudy Mae’s 2nd birthday is right around the corner. I am having quite a difficult time with this. I never experienced this with the boys, I was always super excited at every age change, but I always knew there was the possibility of more children along the way somewhere. I think now that I know Rudy is our last, I am having a much harder time dealing with her growing up. She is getting so incredibly smart, and so silly (I love it!), and so loving, and so beautiful. I am excited to see the little person she’s becoming, for sure, but I just want to keep her my baby for just a while longer.

I’m A Model, You Know What I Mean

I was looking through my “photographs” folder on my computer today, and I noticed that when Rudy Mae gets a hold of the camera, she tends to take a lot of photographs of me (well, that, and walls/ceilings). Apparently I am her muse ;)

I was getting a kick out of looking through her photos and I thought it would be cute to pick some of her better ones and make a post about them.

A Brief Warm-up

Taking full advantage of the oddly warm weather yesterday, Rudy Mae and I ventured out for a (wet and mucky) walk. She was so happy to be out of the house in fresh air, as was I. We really had a lovely time.

Please hurry, Spring.

Coffehouse Crouching

I have been a little under the weather, two separate occasions with barely any time at all between them. I have thus been slacking on anything “ericanichole” related and I was itching to get something up, but a) since I have not been doing much, there’s not much to post and b) since I have to go to work soon, I really think I ought to nap so I don’t feel like double crud before a long shift. So, I wanted to make this short and sweet. This photograph was taken a week or two ago when my husband and I went to our local coffee shop with Rudy Mae for a quick pick me up (chai tea for me, hot chocolate for him, and a blueberry muffin for all).

Some Favorite Presents – Toddler Version

As the holiday season really kicks into gear, I thought it might be fun to showcase some of the presents we have received, to be able to share with those who are interested what things we were super excited about. Today, I am going to show a couple of Rudy Mae’s presents that she is really loving from Caleab and I.

These photographs are a mixture of two presents, both of them from the company Melissa & Doug. The first one we purchased at our local toy store here in Yellow Springs, Mr. Fub’s Party. It’s called “Pizza Party” and is a wooden play food set that the individual pieces stick together with velcro. The second is called “Wooden Kitchen Accessory Set” and we bought it on Amazon.com. It consists of three wooden pots and pans with lids, two wooden utensils and an oven mitt.

Rudy picking a topping off of her pizza. This topping we call “Veggie-roni” instead of “Pepperoni”.

What Rudy really likes to do is take all of the pizza toppings and put them into the big red pot and stir it up.

Little Hands, Little People

Watching my 20 month old daughter play with toys that I, myself, used to play with as a child and absolutely loved playing with, makes me feel completely warm and fuzzy.

Outdoor Playtime

Being the youngest in a family where even your siblings are 10 years your senior, you almost live as an only child. Rudy Mae’s brothers are extremely involved with her, but they are almost more like a second set of mini-parents than siblings. When it comes to peer-interaction, Rudy is lacking, and sometimes that worries me as far as learning important life skills like sharing, playing nice, etc. Luckily, I have a friend in town in a very similar situation whose baby daughter is 3 months Rudy’s junior. Therefore, we try to get the girls together often so they can play and learn. Mostly this was being done at a house, or even a local coffee shop, but a couple Wednesdays ago, Victoria asked me to join her instead at a local playgroup that meets at a playground for approximately 2 hours in the morning. It is attended by kids from about 11 months up to almost 3 years old. It was a lovely time and Rudy Mae and Ainslee Mae continued to solidify their friendship and thoroughly enjoy each others company.

Ainslee Mae and Rudy Mae share a slide at the park.

Rudy is still a little more hesitant than Ainslee.

She’s saying “bebe” in a terribly goofy voice.

Shhh…don’t tell: we got this toy for Rudy Mae for Christmas because she loved playing with it with Ainslee so much!

Photo Shoot!

Once the boys were home, Operation Make Up For Lost Time started. That very first weekend, Caleab took Ziven and Calum to see “The Amazing Spiderman” at the theaters. Although I would have loved to have shared that with them, I had to be with Rudy Mae, and anyway, I really like that they get some special alone time now and then. So what were Rudy and I to do? Stay at home and be bored and lonesome? Not likely. The theater which the movie viewing was to happen at was at a beautiful outdoor mall called The Greene. It was an absolutely gorgeous day out, so I chose to tag along, drop the men off at the theater, and walk around with Little Lady taking a bazillion photographs because apparently that’s what I do. Here for your viewing pleasure, all raw and unedited, are the results of Miss Mae’s photo shoot. (If I had time to doctor these up, they could be just divine, but due to the subject, even as unedited photographs, they are still pretty dandy.)

Singer/Songwriter

It probably comes as no surprise that living in a household that is constantly filled with music, most often, music from her dad Caleab, Rudy Mae seems to be a music lover. Since she was old enough to understand that music was being played, she was clapping to it, dancing to it, tapping to it, or singing to it. In his love for music, Caleab makes sure to have plenty of extra instruments that can be shared by all, from Ziven, Calum, and myself, to Rudy Mae. These instruments, although they technically make music, are not in the best condition, and would therefore not be much of a loss if a wife or child, not as familiar with those particular instruments, might damage one. Rudy Mae has been enjoying Caleab’s ukelele of this kind lately and can often be seen carrying it around with her. One afternoon, when she was in the kitchen and, in her mind, out of sight, she was absolutely jamming out. In the fashion of most children I know, once the camera got pulled out, she quieted down. I asked her a few times to sing me a song and she wasn’t having it. Once I kind of gave up and accepted the fact that she was not going to oblige me, she gave me a lovely, albeit short, performance.