Evan Christopher Rutledge

Alex is now two months old, and he has three band aids on his legs to prove it!  We had our two month doctors visit, complete with four vaccines (three shots, one oral)!  Here are his stats:

Height: 24.2″  - 91%

Weight: 13lb 5oz  - 86%

Head Circumference: 16.5″-  91%

He’s our big guy!  Here is what he’s up to these days:

-He is rolling over onto his right side as of last weekend- it was actually his fathers day present to Steve

-Wears size 6 months clothing

-Sleeps like a champ!  Only wakes up once to eat during the night (didn’t wake up to eat at all last night!)

-Will sleep half the night in his crib, the other half with mommy

-His hair grew back (yeah!), and looks like it’s going to be dark

-Has started grabbing things (toys, mommy’s shirt, blankets)

-Is proving to be the sweetest, happiest, most patient little guy I know!

Evan has been a “guy on the go” since the day he was born.  I remember spending hours upon hours of my day just walking with him when he was a baby.  Taking walks in the front pack, in the stroller, just around the house.  To this day he’s the same way, he never stops until he eventually just collapses from exhaustion (usually in the form of a wild little two year old running around laughing like the mad hatter).  So this is what Sunday looked like for Evan:

Climbing on the bookshelf and then jumping off it- this picture is of him in mid jump.

Helping daddy plant cherry seeds that Steve’s mom sent us from the cherry tree that Steve planted for his dad for fathers day 15 years ago.  Pretty cool.

“Fixing” the roof on his house…in his underwear…and one sandal and one boot.  Gotta love it!

“Building it” with the supports for our greenhouse.  Not sure what it is he was building, but it’s interesting.

Happy fathers day to the two best dads I’ve ever known!  My dad- I love you and thank you for everything you’ve done for me.  Steve- thank you for being such an amazing father to our two beautiful boys.  I couldn’t have dreamed of having a better father for my kids.  Thank you for working so hard for us, and playing so hard with us.

This is one of the most exciting things for me since Alex’s birth!   Well, maybe not that exciting, but pretty darn close!  Our new double jogging stroller finally arrived!  Thank you Grandpa Biermann for the beautiful gift!  It gives me a new sense of freedom.  Evan helped me put it together and then promptly demanded we go for a walk.  I didn’t protest!  StrollerFit here we come!!

Yes, that is a bucket Evan has in the bathtub.  What can I say?  He likes to make things!  We aren’t really sure what it is he made with the bucket and the hose that was in it, but it was very interesting to say the least!

The boys all took a bath together for the first time the other night.  Mommy was very, very nervous about this, but overall it went very well.  Evan was very gentle, and even gave Alex kisses.  But this is how Alex felt about it:

The little guy looks  just a little worried about the situation!

Evan’s “lovey” is a little stuffed blue (or at least it used to be blue…) doggy.  His name is Baby.  I think Evan is teething again (the back teeth this time) because all he’s been doing lately is chewing on poor Baby’s nose.  It’s a little gross, but Baby is taking the hit for us.  Evan is often found to have fallen asleep while chewing on Baby.  Kinda gross, kinda cute.

…because you never know what might happen while taking a bath, it’s best to always be prepared with your safety goggles.

Daddy got this shot of Alex relaxing on the bed.  Doesn’t it look like he’s posing?

This is a combo coo/smile.

I told you I’d make a concentrated effort to get a picture of Alex’s beautiful smile.  Now this is especially difficult because when you whip out the camera the little guy stops all activity and just stares at the facinating device you are holding in front of him.  So, I tried to get a little creative with my angles in order to have him looking at me instead of the camera, as a result some of the pics are a bit blurry.  I think I got a couple of good ones.  Enjoy!

This one is less smile and more coo, but simply just too cute to not include here!

That is hail floating on top of water that has completely flooded the field.  And this made the horses very, very unhappy.

This is what our weather is looking like lately….It is June, isn’t it?  We have had very wet weather lately, which is great since we had a very dry winter, but very unlike Colorado this time of year.  But I can say that my lawn is looking better than it has in a very long time!

Yes, that is hail bouncing off our lawn.

More bouncing hail.  This is about the time Steve and I were wondering if our garden was ever going to make it through this storm…

…And this is what we found.  Our rhubarb was very droopy and looked like someone took a shotgun to it.  All the baby plants were totally obliterated.  Gone.  The bigger plants seem to be alright.  We could see our breath while walking around assessing the damage after this storm.  Once again, it is June isn’t it?

Evan is ready to go outside and check out the hail.  Notice the mismatched gloves.  I love it!

The whole family took a little trip to Regionals in Denver last night.  We went to watch night classes and visit with mommy’s friend Zane who she used to work with at the Equine Orthopaedic Center at CSU.  Zane now works on the Sports Medicine trailer which travels to different shows all over the country.  Evan was interested in the first class, and then he was done and spent the rest of the time walking around with Daddy (and sometimes mommy) and drawing pictures.  Alex was facinated with the gold stars that were hanging from the ceiling of the arena, I think he had a pretty good time.  Mommy was excited to see show horses again, but a little disappointed in the quality of horses, number of horses (only a few horses in each class), and the lack of spectators.  There were maybe twenty people in the stands, if that.  Zane said the show was down by 250 horses this year.   Despite all that, it was still fun to see show horses and old friends!

Checking out the gold stars on the ceiling

Evan did watch a class…here’s the proof!

Mommy and Alex talking to Zane and watching the western class while Evan was drawing at the table

Alex and daddy hanging out

Running up and down the ramp to get that two year old energy out!  We never would have done this if there was more people around…but it was almost totally empty in the stands (and we were really far away from the horses)

I am very happy to announce that Alex has slept through the night for the first time on Wednesday night.  Yeah!!  He slept from 10pm-6am, then ate and went back to sleep until 8am.  How happy am I?  Super excited!!

Alex has just a little bit of hair left on the top/back portion of his head.  When it’s lying down it looks a bit like a comb over.  I like this spiked look as an alternative to the comb over (I know it’s a dark picture, but look closely and you can see the spike!)  Plus the chubby cheeks are just too darn cute!

We went for a little impromptu hike on Sunday on some trails overlooking Horsetooth reservoir.  Evan had a great time, and I think Alex enjoyed it as well.  The above picture was a really big really cool rock that some people were practicing climbing on.  I couldn’t really get a great picture of it because we forgot the camera and we were using Steve’s phone to take the pictures.

Alex is now one month old.  What this guy is up to now:

-taken his first bath (and loved it!)

-loves his older brother

-has been smiling since he was one week old (especially if his brother is near him)

-is cooing

-is  starting to lose his hair.

-sleeps like a champ! (for his age at least)

-is wearing size 3 month clothing and size 2 diapers

We can’t imagine our life without this little guy.  Our little family feels more complete with him around!

Logging some time in the front pack with daddy while doing some family gardening.

Evan helping Mommy re-plant the seedlings.  Once again, such a good garden helper!

We were doing a little work in the garden the other day, the first time mommy has really had a chance to do any this spring, been a little busy doing the baby thing!  Evan was helping (as always, such a good garden helper!) and Alex was supervising from his blanket spread out on the grass.  We love spring!

This is how Evan looked when he woke up this morning….guess it’s time for a haircut!  It’s kinda a cute look

Long gone is the time when I was able to keep tabs on Evan every moment of the day.  When I am feeding or changing Alex he is able to get away with a lot more than he used to.  He is a little bit like a flea, all over the place faster than you can keep track of!  So far he hasn’t really figured out that he can get away with whatever he wants while I’m busy with Alex.  This is what I found yesterday when I was checking on him after feeding Alex.  Now how can I really complain about this?!  He had managed to open the packaging on a new disposable toilet cleaner head, put it onto the handle and was cleaning his potty.  He is such a helper!

Alex’s umbilical cord fell off long ago, but it was kinda oozing for a couple of weeks after that (eewww, I know!) so we held off on the bath until it cleared up.  So a couple of days ago we went in for the first bath after Evan went to bed.  He loved it!  Another water baby :)  He only became unhappy after I took him out of the water and wrapped him in his monkey towel.   Gotta love the monkey towel pictures!