Infirmary Week

Unfortunately Infirmary Week continues here at the Rutledge house. Gus has a rotten cough, Owen continually wakes up in the middle of the night with a stuffy nose, Amy has a sinus infection, and I have a sore throat. Tucker decided to add to the mix by getting sick at his stomach at 6:00 a.m. yesterday. So despite the sleepless nights that have reared their heads, the troop tries to march on and stay in the Christmas spirit.

At nights we have our routine pretty well down. The boys are mighty fond of sweet potatoes and butternut squash, a little less so of green beans but they tolerate them. Once dinner is over for the boys, they remain in good spirits in their high chairs. Owen, the first of the two boys to utter a "ma-ma," has cut back on his chatter lately. He is more into shrieking and cooing. He is still completely glued to the dog and the cats whenever they enter a room. Gus has developed into quite the little chatterbox, keeping himself entertained with happy babbles of "da-da" and "ba-ba." So while they find their voices, Amy & I can usually find a few minutes for our dinner. I must say it is much easier now than back in the day when one of us would entertain boys while the other wolfed down food.

The boys have moved up to the next round of car seats. I was just skilled enough to get the seats out of the box and into the van. Amy took them by the fire department on Monday to make sure they were in tight. I still contend that the box should point out that one needs an engineering degree to install car seats correctly and a masters in English to understand the massive instruction booklet. But I digress. Owen appears very happy to have progressed to the next size. Next thing you know he'll be asking to stay up late to watch Letterman.




And finally Owen helped me put the last of the Christmas decorations up this week -- although I don't think he thought the Santa hat was as cute an idea as Amy & I did. Cheers everyone!