New House

We’ve moved into our new house in Denver and we’re almost entirely unpacked. Louis is enjoying his bedroom, which is larger than before, giving him plenty of space to play with his cars and trucks. Louis is also enjoying having a backyard. The two videos below were taken two days apart during a visit from Grandma “GaGa” Laurie. In the first video Louis is riding his bike around the yard without a coat and the next day he is playing in the snow with Matt.

Halloween

Halloween fell during the middle of our move to Denver. Ashley and the boys went trick or treating at Grandma and Grandpa Brooks’s house while Matt was still in D.C. Louis dressed up like a monkey and Andrew was a banana. Louis had a lot of fun walking around the cul-de-sac asking for candy and looking at the other kids.

Birthday Party

Louis had three birthday celebrations this year. On his actual birthday we bought him a balloon,went out to dinner, and got ice cream. The next week Grandma and Grandpa Russell came to town for Louis’s party and also to bring some furniture before our move. We had another birthday celebration with cupcakes and lots of presents.

The most anticipated present of the night was a new guitar. Louis had been playing air guitar for weeks on all sorts of toys (especially toy golf clubs) and household objects, and even his arm. His favorite song is “Lola” by the Kinks, which he calls “Cola” because of a line about Coca-Cola at the beginning.

 

The next day we hosting a birthday/going away party at a nearby park. We had a cake for Louis and he got even more presents from our friends and co-workers who attended. Grandma Lorraine was also able to attend.

Brothers: One Month and Two Years

Louis is two years old and absolutely adorable. I would have to blog on a daily basis to keep up with the amazing strides he is making in his speech and cognitive development.
He is an active boy and loves to run (even in circles), jump, and wrestle (especially with his dad). He is taking a greater interest in kids his age and will copy them (or they’ll copy him) as they play with each other. He is surprisingly good at sharing and taking turns (most of the time). He is becoming more independent in his play and will play with toys by himself for a half hour or so. In the morning, one of the first thing he says is “play toys” as either a request or just to inform us that is what he will do next.
Louis loves a party, partially a party with live music and the opportunity for dancing (which we have documented on this blog previously). He has a great memory for these events and if we pass by a location where he has danced (for example, a church that hosted a Greek Festival, or our downtown plaza), he will remind us of the party we attended and the music we heard and how he danced. We have been fortunate living in Silver Spring because of the number of events happening. Several times we have been on a walk downtown and stumbled on a festival or public performance. Louis takes full advantage of these opportunities
Louis is rather extroverted with strangers but will also get shy and hide in our legs. He is observant of people around him and will ask about their activities by saying, “Man doing?,” “People doing?” or just, “Doing?”  He says “thank you,” “your welcome,” and “I’m sorry” all the time, and even says these things when it’s what the other person should say – that’s just how polite he is! One of his favorite phrases is, “I love you” as in “Mommy, I love you,” and “Daddy, I love you so much.” In a given car ride he might say this more than a dozen times. How lucky are we?
Louis loves his little brother and is very gentle with Andrew. Sometimes he treats Andrew as if Andrew could respond, which is heart-meltingly cute. For example, after coming inside from a walk with his Dad, Louis will run to Andrew and excitedly tell him about what he just saw or experienced. Every time Louis sees a newborn, like in a book, or even in another stroller, he says “Andrew.”  If Andrew is having tummy time Louis will lay on the carpet and talk to him, encouraging him to “crawl.” Louis is also helpful in pointing out if Andrew has spit-up. When Andrew cries in the car, Louis and I both ask him nicely to please stop crying. Louis asks to hold his brother and tries to offer him a pacifier from time to time.
Below are some pictures from when Andrew was almost 6 weeks old and Louis was a week short of his 2 year birthday.

For his part, Andrew is a wonderful baby. He is becoming much more alert and has started smiling at us. Of course, he could sleep a little much at night, and he makes noises like a farm animal (baby pig) but we expect he will soon grow out of that. At his one month check-up he was 90th percentile for height and weight. We’ll see how long he manages to stay on that growth curve.

Bike Ride

Several months ago we got Louis a balance bike. He was interested but too apprehensive to try riding it. After a few weeks we persuaded him to sit on it while we pushed. Then after a couple more weeks passed and he tried walking with it between his legs. One day he woke up and magically cracked the code of how it works. Now he rides so fast we decided he needs to be wearing his helmet.

In the first video he is riding around in front of our apartment building. One reason why I especially like this video is because he says “this one” near the end. Louis says “this one” all the time and almost always follows it up with some funny movement or funny face. “This one” basically translates to, “look at me Mom/Dad, I’m about to do some random funny movement with my body to get a reaction.”

NYC and NJ, again

During the two week-long government shutdown, we took a long weekend and visited our friends in NJ and Katie and Jamie in NYC. Louis and Andrew keep our hands full so we rarely had a free hand to take photos, but here are a couple cute shots of Louis and Moira on their way to visit a farm.

Visitors

After Andrew's birth we were fortunate to have many family members and friends visit. Grandma Brooks was in town for about two weeks and was a huge help. 
Grandma and Grandpa Russell visited and so did Katie, Jamie, and James.
Later on Grandpa Brooks came for a visit.
Louis got lots of attention and affection during these visits. He visited the zoo (multiple times), two different farms (including picking apples), playgrounds all over town, and much more. He also got new toys from parents, grandparents, and family friends. Here are a couple more photos of good times.

This last picture is our friend Isaac playing with Louis and our California friends Nick and Molly’s son Robison.

Andrew Earnest Russell

Andrew was born on his due date, August 30th, 2013 at 11:15 am. He weighed 9 lb 9 oz and was 20.5 inches long.

I had gone into labor the evening before but there was little progression through the night. Around 5 am on Friday morning, the contractions became stronger and closer and we decided to go to Sibley Hospital around 7 am. The ob/gyn practice has about five doctors and a couple more who are not members of the practice who rotate through the on-call schedule. As chances would have it, the same doctor who delivered Louis was on-call to deliver Andrew (Dr. Stany). We were also in the exact same delivery room as we were for Louis. There was a tense moment at the end of the delivery where Andrew’s should got stuck (shoulder dystocia) but Dr. Stany delivered him without any harm to Andrew or me.

Because we arrived at the beginning of a shift we had the same fantastic delivery nurse for the whole process.

The hospital offered baby portraits which I gladly purchased (and wish had been available for Louis).

Grandma Brooks had arrived in town the previous Tuesday so she watched Louis while Matt and I were in the hospital.

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Louis visited both evenings of our stay and was very excited to meet Andrew. From the start he has been very gentle with Andrew, softly patting his head or tickling his feet.

Sugar Plums

At the end of August, with Andrew’s birth, Louis said farewell to attending Sugar Plums on a daily basis. Louis enrolled at Sugar Plums when he was three months old. For most of his time there Ms. Olga was one of his teachers and she moved with him as he graduated from classroom to classroom (as a “Gumdrop”).

A few months ago he graduated to a classroom with new teachers that took pictures of the kids’ activities on a weekly, if not daily basis. Pictured below are two of his new teachers in the “Lemondrops” classroom and some classmates that have been with him since almost his first day (from left to right: Ms. Fatou, Ethan, Eliana, Nina, Ms. Yolanda).

Below are pictures of of the activities and classmates in the Lemondrops classroom. 

 

In recent weeks, Louis’s favorite toy was a large garbage truck, shown below: