Kind of EAR-y

I took Zack to the doctor today. Turns out he has a double ear infection. On the way there he was REALLY upset about having to go to the doctor. I told him that we had to go so that she could look in his ear to see if it was infected. He begged me for over 30 minutes to take him home. Then,the whole time we were in the room waiting he kept trying to talk me into making a break for it.

As we were driving home we had the following conversation:

Z: "Mom, why did they just not cut my ear off?"
E: "What, Zacky?" .
Z: "Why did the doctor not cut my ear off to look inside to fix it?"
E: "Oh, baby, they don't cut people's ears off to look inside!"
Z: "The doctor just must have not had a knife."

Cue the parental guilt for not explaining things a little more clearly!

Guess I'd be upset too if I thought I was about to lose my ears!

For Grandma..

Alex at one month (a month ago)

Be Careful What You’re Grateful For…

because you might not get it anymore.

For family night this week we made a “gratitude garland” in preparation for the Thanksgiving holidays. We wrote down the things that we were grateful for on these leaves. My personal favorites came from Zack, each with their own illustration: “ear, triangle, this leaf, the letter ‘v’, and my friends going super fast.”

It had been about 10 months since I tore the disc in my lower back. I was feeling healthier and better than I had in the last 2 years so I put in a leaf expressing my gratitude for a healthy spine.

The next morning I picked up Abby, and injured my disc again. Over the next few days Zack, Abby, and Lila have all come down with a nasty flu virus. This is how we spent most of the day today. Me in a narcotic haze and the kids in fever induced, TV watching comas.

After every cartoon or movie Zack would give a couple of hearty coughs and say, “I am still sick, can we watch another show?” Despite all of the trouble and stress my back injury is heaping on our family, I am grateful that I could spend the day cuddled up with my kids.

p.s. so many people have copied this idea that I (Emily) thought I better add a post script and give credit where it's due. I wish I had been the thinker upper of this idea but it was all Family Fun, folks! I did however learn that it wasn't worth the effort to wrinkle the paper (who has time for that) and that staples were much more efficient than tape!

A Blessing

We decided to bless Alex while my mom was here. He was a day shy of 3 weeks old in these pictures. Johnny gave a great blessing.

Alex has been such a sweet little guy. He is my easiest baby so far and I'm just madly in love with him (and his soft kissable cheeks). Though I can't remember a lot of Abby & Zack's first year and the craziness of those days, this time around having one more little person hasn't been as much of a challenge as I thought it might be. (Which may not be saying much because I was REALLY nervous about adding a 4th child to our clan).

I was rocking him a few days ago staring at him and he just stared back at me. I thought, this is what I always wanted to do when I grew up. This was my "little girl dream".

Things are still crazy around here with 4 kids 4 and under (for a few more weeks at least). Johnny is finishing his masters thesis and looking for a job so things are even crazier than normal. There are lots of moments where I just sit amidst screaming children and think, WHAT HAVE I DONE?? But for the most part I'm so glad that someone else is in charge of my life and decided to send us this sweet little miracle. He really is a blessing in our lives.

Plus, now he's learned how to smile. Stay tuned for that!!

Black & White

Alexander James Russ, 6 days old

and yes… we took the pictures ourselves

Where everybody knows your name?

Things at the Russ House are going well. We’ve had lots of requests for pictures but as every stranger I see will tell you my “hands are really full!”

Grandma “Jannie” was here for 3 awesome weeks. The kids had a great time with her and I really loved having someone to take care of all of us. There’s just nothing like having your mom around!

The kids have adjusted well to having a new little guy around the house. I’m still not always sure they know his name yet. Zack was talking to Grandpa Otis on the phone a few days after Alex was born and he said “We gave our Chubby a name but… I just can’t remember it!”

They still call him Chubby a lot and he’s living up to his nickname (he weighed in at 12 pounds, 11 ounces today... 5 1/2 weeks old!) When they do use his name they either call him “Alex the Lion” (from Madagascar) or “Alex-the-Zander”.

Alex, sleeping during his entire first bath

They’re all quite fond of him. Lila loves to hold and kiss him and is looking forward to the day when she can hold him standing up. Abby is quite the little mother and wants to take care of him CONSTANTLY.

Zack likes being the big brother but can’t wait for the baby to get big enough to wrestle. (Though at the rate Alex’s thighs are growing it might have to be sumo wrestling!)

For the most part though, it’s just business as usual around here… (note those awesome pink cowboy boots Abby’s sportin’!!)

Alexander James Russ

Alexander James Russ

born September 21, 2009 9:15pm

8 lbs 6 oz

20.75 inches long

37 cm head

Alex was slow off the start (4 days late) but quick once he got going. Emily checked in at about 7:30pm and he was born 1 hour and 45 minutes later. He shares his birthday with his great great grandfather James Widdison. Upon hearing about his middle name, Emily’s grandmother said, “You couldn’t have named him after a better man.”

When I told Lila that we had chosen the name Alexander she fell on the ground in despair and told me that she didn’t want that name. It wasn’t the one she had picked. I asked her what name she had chosen, and she told me she wanted us to name him Danny. Sorry, Danny, if we had only known that Lila was pulling for you. I told her how upset I was when my younger brother was named Blake, but now once I got used to it, it is now one of my favorite names. In the car on the way to meet her brother, Lila told me, “Dad, guess what? Now I love Alexander. I just had to say it a few times and now I love it.”

Meanwhile, Abby still calls him Alex-the-zander, and laughs at herself for not being able to say it correctly. Zack on the other hand can’t say it at all and so he can’t even remember it. On the phone to grandpa, he said, “We got a new name for our Chubby, but um, I just can’t remember it. What was that name that we got for our Chubby?” For those of you who don’t know, Chubby was his prenatal nickname that Lila bestowed upon him.

Little RussSchool

After agonizing about it for a LONG time I finally decided not to send Lila to preschool this year. For lots of reasons, I decided to do a little preschool called "Russ School" at home for my 3 little rascals. Because of the baby coming it's been a little hit and miss, but the kids seem to really like it and I think once things settle down around here I'll really enjoy spending time with them, doing projects, and watching them learn.

We took the classic first day of school pictures (and I have to confess that one of the best parts of doing this preschool at home is that I don't have to fight anyone to get dressed or care about what they wear!)
Our first project was to make little people for us to use when we sing our "Hello" song.


The next day (which was actually like a week later, but who's keeping track) we had an introduction to "Shapes". We had different shaped pancakes for breakfast and they thought that was really impressive.


Then we practice drawing shapes on our awesome whiteboards (thanks Aunt Tami).

I didn't get good pictures, but we also played the Hokey Pokey with some shapes on popscicle sticks. The highlight of the day was our "Shapes Spotlight" where we went into the bedroom and used flashlights to find different paper cut out shapes around the room. Something about a dark room and a flashlight is really thrilling!! :)

Tomorrow we're going to learn about circles. Oh, the excitement!!

And yes, for those of you religiously checking our blog for an update... tomorrow (the 17th) IS my due date but I'm still plenty pregnant. We'll keep you posted!

p.p.s. Happy Birthday GG