Playing in Kentucky

I always look forward to my visists home. Opportunities to relax abound when willing grandparents are around. Corinne is definitely beginning to enter a new 'phase' where she is babbling more and more noticeably trying new sounds for words, increasing her agility by climbing in and out of chairs, preferably rocking ones :-), and imitating our actions. She now brushes her teeth with me in the morning. I've never loved brushing my teeth more! Much of these things occurred over the week we were in Kentucky. She ended up cutting 3 teeth; so being in a new environment, off schedule and cutting teeth, her initial behavior was tolerable considering.

My college friend, Britney, and her son, Ryan, met us in a small town (yes, smaller even than Glasgow!) in Kentucky where the train runs through daily. We ate at a local restaurant then watched our kids ramble about the city playground.

When Ryan wasn't busy doing his Spiderman impersonation, he was waving his light sabor!

Corinne was determined to keep up.

Mom and Dad have a rocking chair in just about every room in the house. Corinne found and sat in every one of them. She was so proud of herself if she could climb into all by herself. She also learned to turn around and sit appropriatey, back to back. Don't think she wanted company. Her splitting grin told how pleased she was to be sitting in the big chair all on her own.

Here she's playing on the chair and stealing Pappy's heart.

Meanwhile, on the homefront...

Roman undertook yet another home improvement project (Go, Roman!). This time: the bathroom. We thought it would be a perfect time to gut and redo the bath while Corinne and I were well out of the way. He's almost finished. I'll photo the finished masterpiece soon. In the meantime, you can all be thinking of how best to rennovate this beauty:

Have a good week.

Happy Easter!

Like many young children everywhere, Corinne spent the Easter weekend involved in an Easter egg hunt. Many kids of all ages had the devine pleasure of 'hunting' over 1200 Easter eggs over our church grounds. I say 'hunting' of course because the eggs were merely thrown on top of the ground, not hidden, so Sherlocks like Corinne could find their fair share. gj tried to teach her the art of picking up the eggs, but Corinne wasn't too interested. She picked her first one up, took a few steps, then threw it down on the ground when she spotted the swing set in the distance. It was all about the swing from there on out.

We're not sure she was impressed with the Easter bunny, either. No offense to the bunny impersonator, but the face of that bunny resembles a mean Chucky, don't you think? Corinne kept her distance.

Many of the eggs for the smaller children had been filled with raisins and cereal. Jackpot! Corinne still wasn't too keen on finding the eggs, but she enjoyed cracking them open. Raisins are about all she wants to eat this week. Poor girl has another molar and a front tooth ready to break through. Her mood reflects her body's physical changes. Thank goodness for the little boxes of raisins.

Hope everyone had a good weekend.

Meet Maren

We finally meet! I mentioned earlier that my cousin, Jane Layton, adopted a Guatemalan girl whom she named Maren (pronounced like Karen with an 'M') who is only a month older than Corinne. We've been hearing so much about what a sweet, tentative child she is. This picture says it all. Could you gobble her up or what?!

Upon our first meeting she didn't venture too far from her mama, but the little sparkle in her eyes said that it wouldn't be long before she broke loose to play with us.

Jane Layton and Maren Benedict

I recently read about the socialization of 14-15 mo old children mainly because Corinne just completed her first week at daycare in the toddler room. (We've been promoted, folks!) Evidently, children of this age will play alongside each other but are not necessarily interested in playing with each other. I'm glad I read up a little because we've been dying to get the cousins together and now our expectations wouldn't be too high.

They definitely cased each other out in the infamous Rutledge Playroom, home of every toy made from 1971-1975 (lead free and still working!).

BFF!

By the time they left, Maren actually ran over to me, arms open wide. I was pure pudding inside. She granted me a hug which was more than I'd hoped for in our first meeting. Maren grows more secure each day and delights us all with her dancing and ear to ear grins. We plan to see quite a bit of Miss Maren during our Easter visit.

Our Great Friends to the North

This past weekend Jane Anne, Mike, and their son Harlan Dempsey made the trek to Chucktown for some catchin' up.

Corinne: "Harlan, I think your moving a bit fast"

Harlan says, "Uh, girls don't play ball!"
Harlan pulls Corinne from the edge of the deck

Knight in shining armor!

Corinne's new favorite toy-yep, believe it or not a portable high chair!

She would get in, then get out, then back in and grab the tray. This went on for hours-seriously!

Harlan helps Corinne find her nose

Close encounters of the cutest kind. Obviously both are having a blast!

A Funny Story...

This morning, March 17th (St. Patty's Day) I woke Corinne up to get her ready for school and chose some clothes. The clothes were given to her in early February by her Mimi. In fact, I thought that they would be a good weight for the weather (a bit chilly) and she's only worn them once-how perfect! I bring Corinne out, and to Melanie's surprise I had dressed her in her Valentine's outfit. All red hearts, on St. Patty's day- As H. J. Simpson would say D'OH!

Blast from the Past

Once again we cannot seem to escape the illness floating around. Corinne left daycare on Friday with a fever which prohibited us from visiting the newest addition to the family, cousin Tess. Derek and Amy are the proud parents of a darling little girl, born Feb. 7 (sorry I'm a little late on the announcement, but Derek has some great updates on The Rutledge Farm). Congratulations, Rutledges! We were sooo looking forward to hanging out with all of the little ones, but it seems their household wasn't any healthier. Maybe next time.

The Rutledge Clan

Amy, Derek, Tess, Owen, and Gus (and the baby jaguars)

The Newest Star of the Show

Tessa Lane Rutledge

Hang in there, baby T...hope you are over the congestion soon.

I got a phone call Tuesday evening from someone claiming to be a 'blast from my past',a fellow Glasgow graduate. So, I'm thinking, 'who in the world?!' It was Scott Welborn in from LA! How cool that he called and wanted to get together. He has been in visiting a friend who is from Charleston. We met up tonight at Folly Beach for some fun in the sun and a few cold drinks. Scott is doing great as a set designer. I felt as if it was the 80s again, and I'd just seen him at school yesterday. It was so good to see you, Scott. You look fabulous. Congratulations on your successes!

We're singing the alma mater. Haha, yeah right!

Corinne gets into the fun.

Check out my new molars! If you look closely, maybe you can see my tonsils, too.

I'm getting tired of waiting for that cheese quesadilla!

Corinne loves to ride her scooter. Occasionally she rides it the correct way, but this way she gets to sit on all of the buttons sothey all go off at once. Uh, kleenex, anyone?

Next week Corinne starts full time in the toddler room. She's been spending a lot of time over there getting acquainted these last few weeks. She'll start on a new routine, specifically one nap a day. I'm anxious to see if they'll be able to have our Corinne lay on a mat (not confined) and actually sleep for 2 hours. How could you not trust this face? Hmph.

I'm off to my librarian conference tomorrow. It will be the first time I've ever spent the night away from Corinne. Am I sad about this? Um, can you say jacuzzi? Bottle of wine? Ok, maybe not a jacuzzi, but I'll pretend. Have a great weekend, everyone!

Uh-Duh!

Uh-duh, Uh-duh! This is the universal language of Corinne. We're supposed to figure out exactly what uh-duh is after she points (usually up at something); however, she uses it for everything! We play the name game all of the time now, trying to get her to say different sounds. I, for one, would love to hear an 'mmmm' for 'mama', but 'duhduhduhduh' prevails. (sigh)

Corinne loves to play uh-duh (pointing out the front door), that means 'outside.' Once she's out, a rousing game of chase begins!

We are realizing that she really does understand instructions and questions, though. Recently, her gj knitted her a new hat to match her vest. When I told her it was time for school and showed her her hat, she tried to put it on her head and made a beeline for the front door! She loves to take her hat on and off. We're really trying to enforce 'no', but we're only met with laughter. Gone is the busy-ease of an infant, hello toddler. Now we really have to start 'parenting.'

"NO?! You want me to leave my hat ON? Okay."

Hat on.

As always, she's a joy to behold when she discovers new things. Right now the flowers in the yard are a fascination.

"THIS one is my favorite."

Roman was unfortunate enough to catch whatever bug has been going around lately. He's been out of commission for a good week. Happily, he's on the mend now, but it seems everyone we talk to is sick. Corinne keeps the usual runny nose and cough which hasn't kept her down, but the addition of her bottom molars leaves little room for a hearty appetite.

Here's wishing you a healthy hello!

Million Dollar Baby

Nothing overly exciting down our way. We just seem to cruise along work week to work week right now. And, of course, cruise right behind Corinne as she tootles around. I actually had to leave Wal-Mart the other day because she was quite upset that I wouldn't let her eat the new sleeve of barrettes we had yet to purchase. So upset that to let her blow off steam, I was going to allow her to walk around in the card asile while I tried to choose a birthday card for a friend's one year old. Bad idea. Giggling and squealing, she proceeded to pull the card markers out of the slots on the bottom rows. I was putting them back as fast as she was pulling! By then she refused to sit in the cart or be held, running away from me all over the store. So I (shame-faced) left my cart with all of my inteded purchases in the Valentine candy asile and marched her out of the store.

Corinne definitely knows what she wants. Lately when she's ready for a snack or dinner, she walks over to her high-chair and pulls it out into the middle of the floor where she grabs the tray and starts squealing.

This has been the weekend for bumps and bruises for her. While at a birthday party Saturday, Roman's thumbnail connected with Corinne's forehead in a fast action slide maneuver. She was asking for more of the slide, so she wasn't deterred long. Blood was just dripping down her forehead. No big deal.

That evening she toppled down the one step we have in the whole house. I think it was the puzzle piece she was holding that was the culprit, or the fact that she doesn't look where she's going when walking (wonder where she gets that?!) but she was sporting a busted lip all weekend. It did give us a scare, though. Then today as she was rearranging the mountain of baby wipes in the cabinet she slipped and bit her tongue. Luckily there was only a little bloodshed this time, but boy! have we had a weekend. Sadly, these were all supervised events. I'd hate to think of the damage she could do unobserved!

Million Dollar Baby

Today was a beautiful 70 which brought many Charlestonians out into their yards and on the beaches. Definitley a teaser for the coming spring. Don't think I'm quite ready for the intense heat yet, but 70 in Charleston is a welcome day anytime.

Have a good work week!