Nance/Barrett Tour '07

Last week our good friends Debbie Barrett and Chad Nance brought their kiddos up from Bluffton, South Carolina to spend a couple of nights with us. Chad & Debbie have 3 year-old Aidan and 2 year-old Abby as well as 2-year old Anmei, whom they adopted from China. The reunion in Raleigh was their first chance to connect with many of the parents who also adopted babies from China on the same trip.

Amy & I and the boys were very happy we got to see them as we don't get the chance to get together quite as much as we used to pre-kids. In fact the parents got a good chuckle reminiscing about the things we used to do when it was just the four of us together -- trips to the amusement park in Charlotte, haunted pub crawl tours in Savannah, a tour of a local brewery here in Holly Springs, watching football games on Saturdays. Now it's diaper changing, Curious George, and trips to the park. My how times change! But life changes are great.


Aidan, Debbie, Abby, Anmei & Chad ride the train on an expedition to the North Carolina Life & Science Museum in Durham.

The two year-olds pause for some PB&J at the museum park before revving it up in full gear again.

Anmei, Owen, Gus & Abby discuss gas prices, the latest Pixar movie, campaign finance reform, and Lightning McQueen over sippie cups and pizza.

Pool time gave the little ones a chance to beat the heat as Chad and I manned the inflatable pool while Debbie & Amy got away for some well-deserved time away together.

The zoo view from above.

"Beat up Elmo and Shout"

Looks like Elmo is finally saying himself what many of us parents have wanted to do to the little furry red monster after listening to him for hours. ;-)

Cheers!

http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?g=08658f2e-a0be-475e-8dc6-78b88b51d78f&f=00&fg=copy

Golden Dog

After reading the story of a family's golden retriever staying with a two-year old who wandered away from home and barking to alert rescuers, it is evident to me that dogs are absolutely wonderful animals.

Long live our canine friends.

"Faithful Dog's Bark Brings Searchers to Missing Toddler"
http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/1547429/

iPhone

The "next big thing" is coming out on Friday -- the iPhone. Prepare for the media onslaught -- although I must admit the commercials they have running for it are pretty darn cool. No longer will people have separate devices for their mobile phone, music player, & Internet access.

Here's an early review from Newsweek. Good read.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19444948/site/newsweek/

[T]he bottom line is that the iPhone is a significant leap. It’s a superbly engineered, cleverly designed and imaginatively implemented approach to a problem that no one has cracked to date: merging a phone handset, an Internet navigator and a media player in a package where every component shines, and the features are welcoming rather than foreboding. The iPhone is the rare convergence device where things actually converge.

Summer Read

Last week I experienced a luxury that is unfortunately all too rare around our house these days -- I finished a book. These days mine and Amy's free hands and attention are devoted to entertaining two little guys -- feeding, chasing, playing, etc. So last week I made myself stop & relax with The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. And what a tremendous book it was to read.



The story is of Amir, a boy who comes of age in Afghanistan in a priviliged family. He lives with his father, and they have two Shi'a servants -- Hazaras -- one of which Amir befriends, but only at arms-length due to the social structure in Afghanistan. Amir longs to impress his father, and will do anything to win his affections. An event occurs when Amir is young that haunts him for many years until he gets a chance at personal transformation.



That's all I'll say without ruining it for anyone. If you are looking for a good summer read, I highly recommend it. I know this book has actually been out for four years, and Hosseini actually released his second book recently. But I'm a bit behind on my reading for trying to keep 2 two year-olds from biting each other's arms off.



Cheers!

Little Pink Houses on the OBX

I took the week off of work last week and as it turned out a week off from blogging as well. Amy & I ventured over to the Outer Banks to visit with our friends Chris LeDuc and his fiance Pam Burke at the beach in Kill Devil Hills. Our friends Scott & Christen Krynock also made it over from Apex. This was our first chance to visit with Chris in over a year since he moved from NC to Boston and our first chance to meet Pam, who was charmed enough by Chris's wit that she agreed to marry him next spring.

Our friends were troopers in that being the couples there without children, the gang got to experience the ups and downs of spending 4 days with 2 two-year olds. Although Amy & I were a bit jealous at not being able to sleep past 6 a.m. due to boys waking us up raring to go, for the most part Gus & Owen were really good. They took to everyone really quickly, even bonding so much with Scott that he became "Uncle Scott" for a few days (the boys have an Uncle Scott back in KY).

At the beach Owen is developing into quite the little water bug. He took to the beach like a duck to water, tugging us out of our chairs down to the ocean where the waves crashed at his feet. When he wasn't giggling as the water rushed over his feet, Owen had a grand time dumping sand and shells from his toy dumptruck. Gus was more of a sand fan than a water fan. I think the loud waves scared him a bit. He would run down the sand toward the water like his brother, only to turn back and run when the water got within 10 feet of him. Once he grabbed a handful of sand, ran up to the edge of the water and threw the sand at the water as if to say, "I do not like you water! Take that!" It was pretty amusing.

As for us adults, we had a great time catching up with each other. We all took turns cooking dinners. Chris and Pam brought some Napa valley vino from their trip last year to the wine country. And on Monday night after some rousing games of Sequence, Chris busted out the acoustic for some raucous singalongs (long live Mr. Mellencamp).

The highlight of the trip for me was Monday when the guys ventured out for an eagerly anticipated fishing trip. Keep in mind that neither Scott, Chris nor myself are accomplished fisherman of any sort. This was evidenced by the fact that each of us had to buy a rod & reel, fishing license, hooks, and lures prior to the trip. Another dead giveaway was the fact that it took us 30 minutes from the time we arrived at the pier to even get our lines in the water. By the end of the morning though, everyone around us was so intimidated by our expert fishing abilities that they all moved three stations away from us, giving us ample room to show off our skills. We didn't even get a nibble all day long, but it was a fantastic time anyway. We topped off Man Day 2007 with a trip to the Outer Banks Brewery where we sampled some of their finer microbrews over lunch and discussed the finer things in our lives.

So the trip was a great one and we hope to continue the event as an annual trip. Next year we're locking the boys in their rooms until 7:00am and I'm practicing up on my guitar skills in advance for the inevitable singalong.

Cheers!

Chris and Pam check out the Outer Banks lighthouses.

Bill Dance has nothing on Scott Krynock.

The site of the greatest fishing display on the East coast that people will be telling their grandkids about, the Avalon Fishing Pier (complete with web cam - check it out).

Jockey's Ridge State Park, home of the largest sand dune on the east coast. (View this pic full screen for the best perspective of how big the dunes are.)

"Pull Gus, pull!"

Scott & Christen soak up the sun.

Low Country Pix

As I blogged previously our trip to Charleston took a bit of a U-turn with Gus's incident. However that didn't mean that there wasn't fun going around. Here are some pictures courtesy of GJ that captured some of the moments.

Baby Corinne gets the Baby Bjorn treatment as she dons her pink cap.

GJ was well acquainted with her granddaughter, shown here in full disguise.

The Rutledge grandparents with their grandchildren at Uncle Dude and Aunt Mel's house.

Owen missed his brother Gus, but had a grand time of his own playing in the sand and ocean at the beach.

A rare shot of both boys looking at the camera at the same time as Pappy teaches them to play in the rocks.

Roger Shmoger

Grand slam tennis returned to the airwaves as the French Open tennis tournament dominates the TV at the Rutledge house this week. Or as Owen calls it, "baseball." Amy's beloved Roger Federer -- for his tennis ability, right Amy B? -- tries to win his first title on the Paris clay. Now that Andre Agassi has retired I watch for the entertainment more than anything. Although I do make sure to sneak in a disparaging comment or two about Amy's hunky Swiss sensation. ;-)

On the kid front Gus has really made some strides since his accident. He is completely 100% back to his normal self physically. Just in the past couple of weeks he has really learned to use more of his words when he wants something instead of throwing one of his trademark tantrums. "Need help please daddy," "Open door please Mommy," and "No Owen, no bite" have emerged in place of his frustrations. The improved communication has made life much easier in la casa de Rutledge. Gus seems to be learning he can pretty much get whatever he wants (within reason) as long as he asks for it nicely.

Owen notices that his brother is getting more positive attention lately. As a result he may have a twinge of jealousy. Owen has a deceptive little streak in him as he will shove or bite Gus and then look innocent as only little Owen can. He has gotten reacquainted with Time Out in the past couple of days. Still, Owen is a relatively easy kid.

On the homefront Amy & I are working on the backyard at our house. Last week we had several small trees and brush removed so you can actually walk back there now. We kept all the big trees -- poplars, oaks, maples -- and got rid of the sweet gums. We have essentially more than doubled our usable space so we hope to get to the point where we can fence it in so the little monsters have a containable area to play. It is really starting to come along. The ticks are hellacious back there -- I pulled 10 off of me yesterday when moving some logs -- but we'll get those under control as we continue to clear out the brush.

An interesting current event this week was Billy Donovan pulling an about face in backing out of his new NBA contract with Orlando and wanting to return to Florida. In terms of quality of basketball in the SEC and for the rivalry's sake between Kentucky & the Gators, I'm glad he came back. Now I just hope Billy G can help UK give Billy D the whipping the Cats haven't been able to deliver in a while. :-)

Finally on the family front, we were visited by GJ and Pappy this past weekend on their return trip from Charleston to Glasgow. Amy & I were certainly glad to see them and put a positive spin on the visit after the drama that pervaded our trip last weekend. The boys were still asking about their dog Sayla and pointing out "Pappy gone" as of yesterday.

For the record I'm willing to bet that although my forehand is pretty weak that Roger Federer can't change two diapers, bathe & dress two boys, and have them in bed by 8:00 to save his life. Cheers!

Speed Racer

Along with Gus showcasing his harmonica skills, this has to be one of my favorite videos of the boys. Recently Owen discovered a racing path at our house on his little fire truck. The track from the driveway down the sidewalk is slightly downhill and led to racing fun, including several wipeouts into the grass & bushes. In true boy fashion though, Owen actually thought it was fun to crash and get back on the plastic horse. Over and over. After about the third or fourth time, I had to catch it on camera.

I'm not sure if my favorite part of this is Amy putting a fearful set of hands to her face like she can barely watch or Gus looking at Dad with the "Well if you're not going to help him up I suppose I will" look on his face.

Riley D

This weekend Amy & I got to meet young Riley Darrin Destasio, who is the new arrival for proud parents Darrin and Courtney. Riley is a champion sleeper and a future Florida Gator season ticket holder. Coupled with the news that Billy Donovan may return to coach the Gators, I think it's safe to say that Darrin D is a happy camper. ;-)

Congratulations to Darrin & Courtney for their little bundle and their dive into the wonderful world of parenthood!

Politico Friday

Eugene Robinson's op-ed in the Washington Post is terrific. I couldn't agree more. We aren't in high school anymore.

"An Egghead for the Oval Office"

One thing that should be clear to anyone who's been paying attention these past few years is that we need to go out and get ourselves the smartest president we can find. We need a brainiac president, a regular Mister or Miss Smarty-Pants. We need to elect the kid you hated in high school, the teacher's pet with perfect grades.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

The conventional wisdom says that voters are turned off when candidates put on showy displays of highfalutin brilliance. I hope that's wrong. I hope people understand how complicated and difficult the next president's job will be, and how much of a difference some real candlepower would make.

I don't want the candidates to pretend to be average people, because why would we choose an ordinary person for such an extraordinary job? I want to see what they've got -- how much they know, how readily they absorb new information, how effectively they analyze problems and evaluate solutions. If the next president is almost always the smartest person in the room, I won't mind a bit. After all, we're not in high school anymore.

Hat tip to Chris LeDuc for the link.

Sweeper G

Gus would like everyone to know that he has fully recovered from his fall and is back to his old self. And he is very appreciative for the vacuum from GJ & Pappy. Cheers!

Congratulations

A big congratulations goes out to our friends Jason Vance and Amanda Moore with the birth of their second child, Ada Louise, who joins young Henry in the mountain clan. Jason's witty writings on his blog were the inspiration for the rutlfarm. Some of our readers in Glasgow will remember Jason from our days together in school growing up.

Cheers to Jason & Amanda!

A Tale of Two Vacations

As some of you may know Amy & I had quite an experience over the Memorial Day weekend during our visit to Charleston. We went down to visit Aunt Mel, Uncle Dude, Baby Corinne, GJ and Pappy for a long weekend getaway at the beach.

We had good days on Wednesday and Thursday as we got to play in the sand and the water at the beach, at a local park, and at Melanie and Roman's house with young Corinne and all the dogs. Then on Friday after we arrived back at the beach house from breakfast Gus fell off some steps about 5 feet onto concrete and hit his head. The paramedics took him to the emergency room where a cat scan revealed a small patch of blood on the left side of his brain from the fall. Gus had symptoms of a concussion as well -- vomiting, irritability, etc. Amy and I stayed with him at the hospital in the pediatric ICU unit that day and the next for observation, and he was released Saturday evening. Unfortunately his vomiting persisted and he got dehydrated so we had to take him back to the emergency room on Sunday for a follow-up scan and IV fluids. The scan came back with good news as the blood had dissipated so we mainly dealt with the prolonged effects of the concussion.

Amy & I drove the boys back late Sunday night once Gus was released. Getting home was good for our mentality as we could get Gus back in his bed, in his routine, and in his own surroundings. Monday was a good day for him, and he continues his progress today. He is riding around on his trucks, playing with his new bubbles, and enjoying all the doting from his mom and dad.


So while the time we spent with family did not go as any of us planned, there were some good things on the trip despite the episode with Gus. Owen had the time of his life as he received twice the attention while his brother was being poked and prodded in the hospital. Owen played with his Pappy, played with trucks and tractors, went to the beach with GJ, Pappy and Aunt Mel where he played in the sand and the water, and learned high-five/knuckles/elbows from his Uncle Dude. As Owen normally doesn't let his mom out of his sight for very long, the time away with the rest of the family was good for him to bond. Amy & I were very happy to have the family there to take care of Owen while we tended to Gus.


Likewise Tucker was a happy camper as well. He got to spend the week as the lone male dog among females with his dog cousins Sayla, Chloe and Tera. He got to run on the beach and play in the sun. It was a good old dog dream time for Tucker.


And as much as no one likes to be in a hospital, they did show Cars on-demand in the hospital rooms so we watched Lightning McQueen and Mater four times in three days. We know that movie by heart now. ;-)


So the Charleston trip was not at all what any of us expected. We were counting on a trip with lots of time for family bonding and relaxation. But life doesn't always turn out like we expect. The trip will be one that none of us -- Mom, Dad, GJ, Pappy, Aunt Mel, Uncle Dude -- will ever forget. At the end of the day Gus is recovering fine, and we'll chalk this up as one of many bumps along the way. We just need some time.

Cakes, Thumps & Poop

The latest happenings in the Casa de Rutledge....

• Amy is taking a cake decorating class in hopes of enhancing her skills. We have already seen her handiwork for the boys' birthday as she really has a knack for it. The hope is if returning part-time to IBM in a few months doesn't work out that she will have a nice supplemental income option to fall back on. And if it doesn't work out, the boys & I get some pretty tasty treats out of the deal anyway.

• Owen and Gus can now completely crawl out of their cribs. Joy. So we have abandoned the full-blown crib by taking off the side rail to make their cribs into toddler beds. The first week was oh-so-rough, as the boys were hyper with excitement at their newfound freedom. They would finally stop screaming long enough to fall asleep in the floor for a couple of hours, only to wake up several times in the night. They have settled into the toddler beds this week, although we still get up in the middle of the night at the sound of the occasional "THUMP" as they fall out into the floor.

• Amy had a rather unpleasant experience this morning with the boys. Through the baby monitor we could hear them playing & laughing from downstairs, and everything seemed fine. I left to go on a jog around the block only to return to a beaten-down mother standing at the door. Gus had gotten his hands into his diaper and smeared poop all over his room -- floor, carpet, walls, bed, Owen's face. When Amy got on to the boys telling them that was bad, Owen kept responding "Gus bad, Gus bad." CSI fingernail evidence proved that Gus was indeed the culprit, and Owen was only an accomplice. Ah, the parental joys of two-year olds. The day has gotten better since this morning. ;-)

• Amy & I are looking forward to seeing Uncle Dude, Aunt Mel, Cousin Corinne, Pappy & GJ in Charleston. We can't wait to get down there to see everyone.

• The Bender Ball has arrived. More on this from Amy B, I'm sure.

No Wonder They're the Bungles

The things people do for money. From the "endorsements that famous people should have avoided" file comes this ad that featuring Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer. Unfortunately for Palmer it was in the Sunday edition of newspapers all of Ohio. ;-)

http://www.aolsportsblog.com/2007/05/16/carson-palmer-would-like-to-sell-you-a-hot-dog

Gus the Music Man

In celebration of Wilco's release of "Sky Blue Sky" today, Gus shows us his best Jeff Tweedy impersonation. Play on brother!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to those wonderful underpaid, overworked, do-it-all moms. Cheers!

Coming Home

Amy & I have returned from our extended getaway -- me from work trips to Las Vegas and St. Louis and Amy from spending time with family in Kentucky. We got to see lots of family and friends in Glasgow and Paducah over the past three weeks. Owen, Gus, and Tucker got spoiled with all the attention while Amy got a well-deserved break from watching the boys all day every day.

Nothing like a good old-fashioned road trip with the family.

Pictures to come.

Bluegrass Diary -- Glasgow

The Rutledges left their nest in North Carolina for a trek to visit family in Glasgow, Kentucky last week. We loaded up the van with boys, dog, gear & DVD's for the 9.5 hour journey. Owen and Gus did surprisingly well on the long journey, and we were all rewarded with a hearty welcome and a needed break.

A trip to Glasgow is never complete without a trip to the horse farm. We got to visit cousin Spencer and Carrie's farm where the boys got to see horses, sit on a tractor, and play in the gravel. Here Owen ponders which of those things he wants to do first.

The boys were in awe of the big blue tractor and got to honk the horn. It's the little things in life.

The boys got to visit with their great-grandmother and were more than happy gathering rocks that Mother can use to build a rock collection. :-)

The boys got to ride in Uncle Carroll's mini-truck to take a tour of the farm to see horses and dogs at Pleasure Acres.

Pappy was all too happy to take Owen & Gus to a construction site where trucks & tractors were moving earth for a new shopping center. A chorus of "Big Dump Trucks!!" erupted. It was a close call on who was more excited to watch big heavy equipment --grandfather or grandsons. :-) Here Gus is trying to figure out how he's going to get up on this big monster truck.

Of course there was time taken out for relaxation on the patio with GJ and Pappy. After all, happy hours on Central time are an hour earlier! Owen and Gus got to bring of their dad's old toy trucks and tractors outside to entertain them for hours.



Owen helped make sure the chimenia has plenty of sticks to knock the chill off a cool spring evening. As a bonus he got to look the part of a chimney sweep.

The trip to Glasgow was a much needed break for the four of us. It was good to see family and get back to the Bluegrass state. Finally, our thoughts and prayers continue to be with Uncle Carroll and the Benedicts as they continue to search for treatment options and face the unknown. Be strong -- we are all pulling for you.

Happy Birthday

Owen and Gus celebrated their 2nd birthday with a few of their buddies and a sugary version of that little red monster, Elmo. It was a very rainy Sunday, but the kids didn't let the weather get in their way of celebrating the fun. The boys were running around saying Happy Birthday to themselves all day. You can never go wrong with cake, kids, & pinatas. They are already ready for their next birthday.


We kidded Amy that paper mache is a better ingredient for candy pinatas than concrete, but either way it was no match for Abby's swing of the bat.

Sugar and Elmo -- tremendous ingredients for a fun birthday party for two year-olds.

Young Jack takes a break from trucks & balloons for a cupcake.

Owen gives Gracen his beads. In 20 years you may see these two at Mardi Gras.

Gus swipes a bite while Owen is enamoured with the party favors.

Be-ba's, Big Nose & Po Bear...oh my!

The weekend forecast calls for cloudy gray skies and rain Saturday and Sunday. So Amy & I celebrated the boys' 2nd birthday a couple days early by taking Owen & Gus to the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro. Today was a gorgeous day with blue skies, temperatures in the mid 60's, and two boys who couldn't get enough of all the animals.

"Be-ba's! Be-ba's!"



"Big nose!"



Cool dude insisted on wearing his shades before getting his photo snapped in front of Big Nose.




The giraffe was the first animal we saw as we walked into the zoo so I think the boys were just getting revved up. No comment from the boys on the big giraffe.



"Night night, lion."



The chimp statues were much more popular with the boys than the actual chimpanzees. In fact, Gus parked it on his can right by the chimp statues and wouldn't leave. He was content to stay there for the rest of the day if we would have let him. Here is Owen holding the hand of the "chee-ump."




The highlight of the zoo was easily the polar bear. The zoo rescued the two polar bears a few years ago from a circus in Mexico that had mistreated them. And while it can get pretty hot in North Carolina, the zoo keeps the water temperature in the 50's and gives the bears plenty of room to swim. Today, this bear was putting on a show for all the guests -- diving down into the water, swimming up to the window, and kicking off with a relaxing back stroke. The boys absolutely loved the "po bear."





The sea lions were popular too, swimming gracefully up to the window for all the people to admire. Although Owen seemed to think this one was chasing him.




The tortoise was bigger than Gus and Owen combined so the boys kept a safe distance until they saw what slow movers the tortoises were.




After seeing so many animals, the boys paused for a picture with Mom....




...and a juice break on a bench with Dad.



The second highlight at the zoo was the kids' zone, where kids have room to run free from their parents and paint walls and sidewalks with water. You can never go wrong playing with water.



This rare species of highly evolved "chee-ump" is quite demanding and energetic. Luckily they can be coaxed into submission with the sight of a sandbox and some shovels.




The trip wrapped up with a ride on the bus back to the parking lot. The bus is now the preferred method of transportation for our two young zoo-goers.



We didn't make it out of the parking lot before this young po bear was crashed out. What a day!

Cheers!