Happy Birthday Brooks!

Today is Brooks' first birthday.  12 months old.  Wow.  Here he is this morning - right after waking up while snacking on some cheerios.

We celebrated his birthday by taking the boys fishing this afternoon.  I'll be sure to post pics of that trip in the next few days.  We're having a party for the birthday boy this coming weekend, so this week is packed full of prep work for that.  He's having a Very Hungry Caterpillar party - I hope he loves it :)

So as I promised, here are 12 fun facts about Brooks this month (one for each month):

1. He's all over the place.  He's been taking steps for a few months now, but now he's full-on walking and chasing his brother all over the house.
2. No more bottles!  He hasn't had a bottle in a few weeks.
3. He is very headstrong (not sure where he gets this!) When he gets something on his mind, he will not rest until he's done it.
4. He also has quite the temper.  This is evident when fact #3 goes badly.
5. He adores his brother Will.  Will constantly keeps Brooks laughing and Brooks wants to go and do as Will does.
6. He's a Mommy's (and Poppa's) boy.
7. He loves shoes.  Not so much wearing them, but carrying them in his hands at all times.
8. He shakes his head noooooooo (Gamma taught him this).
9. He will put one finger to his mouth and say "shhhhhhhhh".  
10. His hair is incredibly curly when wet and even dries this way.  It straightens out however when he sleeps on it.
11. He wears sizes 12-18 months, size 4 shoes, and size 5 diapers.
12. He isn't a fan of blueberries.

We all love this little guy soooo much.  He is such a cool guy with a super sweet personality.  I can't wait to see him grow to be a rambunctious toddler and to see what the future holds for this cute munchkin.  Here is a picture of the birthday boy after we turned his car seat around forward-facing - such a big one-year milestone ...

One Year Ago Today...

Tomorrow is my sweet baby's FIRST BIRTHDAY.  I cannot believe it.  Will's first year went by quickly, but Brooks' has absolutely flown by.  I guess because we're doubly busy these days.

One year ago today, I was having mild and inconsistent contractions and was a week overdue! Three days prior, I had worked my last day of work (I think my boss was tired of hearing my complaining!) and gone to my weekly check up.  My lovely Venezuelan doctor (I really do love her) had told me that I was 3 cm dilated and progressing nicely.  I remember being very concerned about the baby's size because with Will I had been diagnosed with gestational diabetes and I was not diagnosed this way with Brooks, so I was afraid that he would be huge.  Don't get me wrong, I was very glad not to have the diabetes, but I was super skeptical.  Most women that have it once, have it throughout each of their pregnancies.  After I passed the diabetes test, they never mentioned it again and were not watching for a "big" baby.  So because of my fear, I ask my doctor what she thought about his current size.  She estimated 7 - 8 pounds.  She knew that I didn't believe her so she agreed to induce if I had not had the baby in the next three days.  But she was sure I would have a baby within the next 48 hours.

Three days later (one year ago tomorrow!) Brandon and I checked in to the hospital for an induction.  We had to be at the hospital by 6:00 AM and we had let big brother Will stay at his grandparent's house the night before, to hopefully avoid running late.  I remember being so torn and sad to let his last night as our only child be spent away from us, but I did what I felt would be best for him.  By 7 AM, I was in a hospital bed, and they were starting the pitocin (a drug commonly used to induce labor).  I was 4 cm dilated.  Our families started to trickle in for the long-anticipated wait.  Somewhere around 10 AM, I was starting to have pretty regular, but light contractions (not painful at all).    I was still 4 cm dilated.  My doctor decided that breaking my water would help me progress.  I was fine with this, but insisted that I have the epidural first.  I learned by my 45 minute labor with Will, that once my water breaks, it is GAME ON!  She reluctantly agreed and they ordered the epidural.  At 10:45, the anesthesiologist came to administer the epi.  I hit a rough patch and my blood pressure dropped to 70/30.  I passed out.  They quickly worked their magic and I was sitting up and eating ice chips in no time.  Because I had passed out, they started with a low dosage of anesthesia and told me to let them know when they needed to turn it up.  They broke my water and our families came back in to chat.  At 11:45, my contractions were becoming painful and about 1 min apart.  I'm still sitting in bed chatting with my mother-in-law, but every time a contraction hit, I would look at the ceiling and breath harder.  She suggested calling my nurse and having her turn up the epi.  So we did.  My nurse came in around 11:50 to turn up my epi, but said "let's go ahead and check for progression before we do that."  Her next words were "No wonder you're hurting!  You're at a 10.  His head is crowning.  You're having a baby."  She yelled out to the nurse's station and to my husband who was standing in the hall.  Several nurses, my mother, sister-in-law and Brandon came rushing in.

Brooks Connor Rutledge was born at 11:59 AM at 21.5 inches long and weighing 9 lbs 12.6 ounces.

The weekend at home sweet home

Nothing too exciting this weekend - Will and I both have had allergy issues this week.  Booo for allergies.  Bad mommy moment - I thought we both had a little cold and I was determined that we would tough it out,  but once we both started having issues with our eyes (itching, swelling, watering...) I retracted my cold virus diagnosis and bought us some Zyrtec.  Needless to say, we've gotten a lot better since Saturday.

We stayed close to home this weekend, only leaving the house for a few necessary errands.  As much as I love our fun family outings, I must say that I also really enjoy just hanging out at home with my men.

We ate homemade whole wheat waffles, watched cartoons, practiced tracing our "W"s and tried our best to keep Brooks from climbing various pieces of furniture.  At one point while Brooks was napping, Will and I made it outside for some sidewalk chalking.  I managed to catch a few pics...

This is a famous "Will" look - probably telling me what I need to do! 

Look at the height on that jump!

And later, once Brooks woke up, we all went back outside for a walk/bike ride through the neighborhood.  This little green hat was his dad's :) 

Antiquing

This may come as a shock to many of you (especially my mother), but I have recently gotten into "antiquing".  Now this doesn't mean that I pile in my car every Saturday and ride around town stopping at yard sales and antique shops, but it does mean that I'm intrigued by the idea of turning something old into something new and awesome!

So when did this start?  Well, in the past when we were in the market for a new piece of furniture or something similar, I would drag my husband around and around and around all over the state of Georgia looking for something I looooovvvveeed.  And we never found it.  Honestly.  My husband will gladly back me up on this - I'm hard to please :)  We are still living with a sofa and dining room table that I'm not crazy about, because it was given to us (thanks Dad!) and I never found anything to replace it with.  If I'm not crazy about it, I'm not spending my money on it.  But now we are in dire straights - it's time for us to replace those two pieces of furniture, so we are on the hunt again.

I've looked on the furniture store websites - Haverty's, Thomasville, even Pottery Barn and nothing suits my taste.  I love old, but sleek lines.  Antiqued, but fresh.  I loathe carvings and scrolling wood.  I love browns, blues, greens, khakis, and soft accent colors.  I do not love reds, golds or hunter greens.  I have found plenty of things that I love at Restoration Hardware, but who can afford that??  Not I!  So anyhoo - we're on the hunt.

Check out this friend of a friend's blog - Wood Do It Again.  How awesome is this stuff??  Too bad they are in MS, or I would definitely be a customer.

And because Spring is just around the corner, I am already making my to-do list for the outside portion of the Rutledge abode.  I really love to restore (most of Brooks' nursery is restored pieces), so I am dying for one of these -

Before

I would love to find one of these treasures to put on our deck.

After

Holy Moly Batman!  

This would be so cute with some bright accent pillows, like these -

Now you're probably thinking that I have the worst taste ever, and I probably do (that may be why I'm so hard to please), but I love this stuff nonetheless.  So pray for my husband while we search for these perfect pieces of furniture.  He may want to choke me when it's all said and done :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

We celebrated Valentine's Day a day early with the boys this year.  With the holiday falling on a Monday, I just decided that we'd celebrate Sunday evening.  Monday mornings are CRAZY at our house (who am I kidding - every morning is crazy at our house!)  

Will was excited to attend the children's Valentine's Day party at his Nonna and Pop's church this morning.  They packed him full of sugar and sent him home with a craft.  He loved it.  When I tucked him in tonight, I told him that tomorrow is Valentine's Day.  He then asked "Well are we going back to church in the morning?"  Ha!  I guess we can only celebrate Valentine's Day at church :)

Before supper tonight, I gave the boys their little Valentine's from Mommy and Daddy.  I ask Will if I could be his Valentine, but he told me no - he wanted his Gamma (my mom) to be his Valentine.  hmph!  They each had matching Valentine gifts, right down to the cards:

I try to use practical "gift bags" - you know, something that can be used again.  For Valentine's Day, I chose red sand buckets.

Their main gift was a sock monkey :)  So cute and it kind of went with the "red" theme.  Will really loves his stuffed animals.  We're up to six sleep-in animals in his bed.

They also each got a book.  We love books, so they're easy gifts for my boys.

In keeping with the red theme, they got these nifty little fruit treats too - strawberry of course.

Finally, they each got a little red t-shirt from Target.  I tried to find a pic, but I'm coming up empty-handed :(

That rounds up the boys' Valentine's Day.  Brandon and I will probably celebrate tomorrow, with dinner at home.  Maybe we'll put the boys to bed and actually eat dinner alone.  You know - without having to take breaks to fetch thrown sippy cups or force feed a stubborn eater.  We decided not to do gifts for each other this year.  No real method to our madness there, other than it's kind of unnecessary for us at this point.  I did get him a card, and I'll try my best to write something mushy and sentimental in it :)

UGH! Little boy clothing is for the birds!

Okay, I will preface this post by saying that this is a huge pet peeve of mine.  I get so frustrated at the turn of each season because most children's clothing companies produce nothing but cheesy and down-right ugly choices for little boys!  I mean - are our boys not allowed to be stylish?  Are they always meant to be wearing a cartoon character playing basketball? NO!  I refuse to except that.  I wish I were talented enough to design little boy's clothing, but I'm not so there's no need to dwell on that :(  In the mean time, I have in many ways come to enjoy the "thrill of the hunt" in finding decent boy clothing.

*By no means am I implying that my boys always look picture perfect - I realize they do not.  They spend the majority of their days on their grandparent's farm enjoying the great outdoors.  They wear a lot of play clothes that are hand-me-downs or from Target or the like.  However, on the rare occasion that we go out, I  attempt to dress them nicely :)

BACK TO MY RANT - why do clothing manufacturers think that every little boy must be wearing a truck, a puppy or some sort of sporting equipment on their chest?  WHY do they think I want my 12 month-old wearing a shirt that says "lock up your daughters"??  

Let's look at a few examples -

Now I generally adore Baby Gap - but WHAT THE HECK IS THIS?

Baby Gap again, sigh.... they ruined a good pair of shorts that could be worn with anything, with a bright red number stamped on the front.  Does that add to the look of the shorts?  NOPE.

From Gymboree. The color alone makes me want to gag.  Not to mention the ginormous sail boat that takes up the entire left side of this shirt.

But enough with the negative, lets move on to the things that I do love.  I am completely the opposite of most women (not that you are surprised!) in that I am not crazy about "baby" clothes.   I really like the "big boy"  or little man style of clothing.  Because of this, most of the things I find that I am crazy about are for Will (sizes 2T and up).  I have a much more difficult time finding things for Brooks that are not covered in puppies or monkeys.

Things that I love for Spring -

This awesomeness is from JCrew's CrewCuts.  LOVE CrewCuts.  I think this would look super cute with black or distressed jeans.

This is also from CrewCuts.  Simple.  No brand name on the front of the shirt.  Goes with anything.  Love it.

This is a super cute Spring jacket from CrewCuts.  I also really like the neon yellow one.

Baby Gap redeems itself a little here.  I like the retro feel of this shirt.  Unlike CrewCuts, Baby Gap offers looks like this in smaller sizes like 12-18 months all the way up to 5T.  This is great for coordinating outfits between my boys.

I love these little outfits from Mini Boden for Brooks.  They also offer these styles in Will's size, but they seem a little too "baby" for my big boy :)

We have another family session with Karen Baker coming up at the end of March. This will be Brooks' one year portraits and Will's three year. I'm already brainstorming outfits for my boys.  (On a side note - I love dressing my boys, but absolutely loathe dressing myself, so if anyone out there wants to do that for me, hit me up!!) I'm still playing around with ideas, but I am really digging this outfit for Will - 

 Purple gingham from CrewCuts.

 Skinny dark jeans from CrewCuts.

 How stinkin' awesome is this?  Fedora from Baby Gap.

Keep an eye out for our pictures from Karen in a few weeks.  If my boys are wearing puppies and dump trucks, you'll know I'm sick.

Santa KNEW IT!

I was super excited this past Christmas.  First, we had a new family member to enjoy the season with - sweet Brooks.  Of course, he was way too young to understand the festivities, but his presence alone made this a special Christmas.  Secondly, Will was finally coming to the age of understanding the festivities.

For weeks leading up to the event, we talked about Christmas lights, Santa, Christmas trees and gifts.  Every time that someone ask Will what he wanted Santa to bring him, he replied with the same answer - "a green bicycle."  All parents anticipate this question from strangers with wild abandon. What will the child as for??  A doll?  Playdoh?  The moon?  And there it was - a green bicycle.  I won't bore you with all the crazy research and shopping that preluded the green bicycle.  But there was a lot.  Santa and I finally had a conversation and decided upon a silver and green Buzz Lightyear bicycle.  And boy did Santa deliver.

Let's just say I got a lot of raised eyebrows when I mentioned that Will was getting a bicycle for Christmas.  After all, he is just two years-old and he couldn't even pedal his cousin's tricycle at the time of his request.  BUT - it was what he wanted, and I thought "what the heck - he'll grow into it and maybe we'll learn to ride it this summer, after his third birthday."

Well, for several weeks after the big Christmas reveal, the bike sat in our living room unused due to the crazy arctic weather that we've had for so many weeks.  Finally however, the weather cooperated and warmed up enough last weekend for a trip outside with the Buzz Lightyear bike.  You may remember this pic from that weekend -

We were trying to teach him to pedal, by mostly pushing him along.

This afternoon we got out for our second trip with the bicycle.  Brooks and daddy stayed inside for some zzzzzzzz's and Will and I got our jackets on and met our neighbors for some bike time.  I put the little guy's helmet on, and the rest is history.  I'll let the video below speak for itself.

WOW!  I am one proud mama!  And to all the nay-sayers who might have mentioned how young he was or questioned our decision - na na na na booo boooooo :)   The man knows what he wants, and he wants a GREEN BICYCLE!

From the eyes of a two year-old

This past Christmas, Will was given a pint-size digital camera by his Gamma (my mom).  This was a genius idea because he looooovvveeees to steal our iphones and take pictures of random things like his knee.  So he really digs his Vtech Kidizoom Camera and enjoys having his own camera to use while Mommy is using hers :)  And I really love it because I get my iphone back and he's just so darn cute with his camera saying, "CHEEEEEEESSSSSSEEEE!"

So after the boys were tucked into their beds this evening and I was going through the house picking up the abandoned toys, I came across Will's camera and thought "What the heck - let's see what he's got on here." Ha!  While I don't think there are any prize-winning shots just yet, some of them are really funny so I thought I would share....

Mommy and Daddy being silly for Will.

Daddy's backside. hehehe

This must been close to nap time.  This is my "GEEZ!  Is it nap time YET?!" look. 

A little blurry (and off-centered) but cute :)

I'm not sure if Brooks' lightning walker speed is too fast for the camera, or if Will has shaky hands...

My husband really loves his plaid pajama pants! 

OK - I totally took this one, but couldn't resist putting it on here.  Blake - don't hate me :) 

I took this one too - pretty cute I thought :)

Nice Will.

Sweet Brother Brooks