Dad's Home

Guess what tomorrow is? End of Daylight Savings Time - yea! Why is that a big deal? - because Charlie gets off of work at 6PM (as opposed to 7PM) - this helps with the after-work juggle quite a bit. And the fact is I love coming home in the winter to lights on, dinner on (usually), and family in!

But so far we have enjoyed making a big fuss over when Dad comes home, it has become a part of the nightly routine. The rest of the routine is typically a nap on the way home (car seat + warm car = nap within two stop lights), cranky wake up time, play, Dad's home, dinner, Backyardigans song and Elmo on You Tube, quiet play, books and then...sleep. Though on occasion CR has an extra hard play day with one short early morning nap - which extends the ride home nap to an all nighter.

Cranky...Cranky...Hey, is that Dad's car?

Dad's Home!!!!

The two Charlie Russos

Pre-Bed Playtime...

Happy Halloween 2008

"Luke, I am your father... "

I got ready with Mom, Aunt Gigi and David. It got kind of hot here in Houston after a cool week, so my costume was a little less comfortable than Mom anticipated, but I was a good sport about it. I took a few pictures...

then started to get a little grumpy...

we waited for Dad to get home from work to give candy to the Trick or Treaters...

but it was too late...I surrendered to sleepy time....

Next year - watch out !

...so we are spending Halloween in, cousin David is helping us give out candy to all the cute goblins and ghosts (and ballerinas, and fairies, and Indiana Jones, and Spidermans...).

We hope you all had a wonderful Halloween!

PS: If you come visit us please leave comments, we love to hear from our family and friends!

Walking (A Video in Four Parts)

Other Than Ike...

So other than the Ike news September has been a pretty big month. It actually started out with another hurricane, Gustav, which brought Charlie's parents and Pete, Kissy and Katie here to Houston from New Orleans. Sadly Katie had to postpone her third birthday party because of Gustav - but I hope the substitute party was OK - and that she had a great 'make up' party this weekend! Although the circumstances for their visit were not so good, it turned out to be a fantastic Labor Day weekend and we really enjoyed their visit, and Gustav did bring some amazing and unseasonably nice weather to Houston on Labor Day, to make it even better.

Don't have too much time to write tonight so I will just post pictures instead.

Happy Birthday Katie!

We love that Birthday Girl!

The shirt (a gift) says 'Chicks Dig Me' with a picture of a baby chick - I thought it was totally cute, but I should not have been surprised that it attracted LOTS of attention when out in public. Whoever is selling these shirts is probably making a killing.

Dinner with the Diluzio's (CR is verrry close to bedtime)

Before I get any comments : ) - I moved the fan (which does not work at all) - and all other bookcase objects - permanently after this picture, I just had to show the look on his face here - 'when you say 'no' are you talking to me specifically momma?'. (He pushed the gate pictured to arrive at this location.)

Finally, on Thursday I picked up CR from daycare and was met at the door with him walking to me. I was stunned, I still am - I would like to upload some good video of it but when he does it I am still just trying to look out and make sure he does not fall over on his noggin. He is walking on his own at home today, but when he feels like it - as crawling is still a much faster way to get around.

Status Report

Hello everyone, we made it through Ike, the house is a-ok, we lost power at about 2AM and just got it back a few hours ago. It was not the most comfortable day, but we were grateful that that was the extent of our Ike experience.

When we could not take the heat any longer we went to Charlie's model house to power up our rechargables, catch some news and some AC - the Orgerons and the Diluzios joined us - as they lost power too - and we were happy for their company, the past couple days had us a little rattled.

CR kept us busy, entertaining us with his tentative and mostly inadvertent attempts to walk (!), and alternately with his teething which is in full gear, his poor little gums are a mess - and he is not shy to let you know all about it. One item of note, if music plays on the TV, radio, or his toys, CR is DANCING TO IT, his dancing is a combination of bouncing up and down and hand waving, and laughing - and it is just my most favorite thing right now.

Daycare is closed till the schools are back in, but that kind of works out as my building - the one on TV in downtown Houston with the glass all blown out - is closed till at least Wednesday. (It turns out the damage is on the opposite side from our offices.)

We have our fingers crossed that our friends and associates in other parts of Houston fared well through the storm.

Yikes - it's IKE!

This is just a post to keep everyone updated on what's going on here with the IKE situation. Houston is getting into hunker down mode today and I will be home tomorrow through the rest of the weekend. We are out in Katy which per the SciGuy at the Houston Chronicle (who is the local authority on the hurricanes) 'a well built house in Katy is one of the safest places you can be in Houston' in the event of a hurricane. So there's that. My only real fear right now is losing electricity for an extended period of time which will be miserable.

Got gas this morning (one station was out of gas already, and the station I did go to was out of unleaded, ugh), and we will be bringing in everything from the yard tonight. Saffron broke out in her seasonal allergies and we are hoping she can make the vet to get the 'anti-itching' shot before everything closes down.

Will send updates via the blog and I set up a Twitter account too (called 'TheRussos') if you have Twitter and want to follow us that way. If we lose electricity I will send updates to Twitter from the phone. [As a disclaimer I am not a huge fan of the Twitter but I see it could be useful in a case like this.]

End of Summer

It is coming to the end of the summer and we have had a good (if incredibly hectic) month. My big work project is nearly done, for which I am beyond happy, and am looking forward to some semblance of normalcy.

Earlier in the month CR's Maw-Maw and Paw-Paw and their friends Ms. Charlene and Mr. Frank came to visit. It was a fun weekend of shopping, dinners, and swimming. We shopped all day at the Katy Mills on Saturday and CR was as good as gold, EXCEPT for one point when we were in the Stride Rite. I thought I might start looking for a pair of shoes for him. After wrestling for some time to fit his feet in the shoes, he promptly looked at me, looked at the shoe on his foot and gave out an enormous and unhappy howl. Shoes came off, and we immediately left the store. He did get a bit bored at the end of the day, resulting in the picture below.

Really?

That night we went out to dinner and CR sat in his booster chair and enjoyed dinner with the grownups. We went swimming the next day at Gina and Dan's.

CR and his Aunt Gigi

Kicking and Splashing in the Pool

First Time Sitting in the Grass

Last week we tried some big people food, first at Gina's (zucchini and chicken ground up), and then at home (sweet potato and peaches and beans). CR seems to enjoys stuffing whatever morsels that are on his tray into his mouth, he does this with great relish, and I think he really likes the sweet potatos.

Yum! (Obviously Mom is not a big fan of a little invention called 'the bib')

In other news the past few weeks, CR moved into the next room in daycare. This was almost enough to send me over the edge (too soon Momma!), but luckily I still drop him off at Ms. Karen's room in the mornings which makes things seem more like normal. With regard to daycare, he enjoys seeing all of his pals - 5 boys and just 2 girls -and 'daycare toys', actually laughs on his way in the door nearly every morning, and the afternoon girls still 'fight' over who get to hold him and carry him around. So really, what more can I ask for? It made me laugh this week when Ms. Karen told me - smiling with affection the whole time - they were going to mark him with a 'T' for trouble, Charlie and I are seeing that mischevious look in his eye at home too!

That's all for now, hope all is well with everyone!

(PS: CR has since successfully worn his sandals without complaint the past two weekends since the 'shoe store incident'.) : )

Hello Again

Hello everyone, sorry for the long delay in posting.

As most of you know it has been a big month with work, and this post is a special thank you to CR's Grandparents and Aunt Gigi! I am so glad while things were busy that you could spend some quality time with Charlie Ross, and Big Charlie and I are very (very) thankful for all of your help. Words cannot express what it meant some nights to come home to a happy baby, clean laundy - and bottles made for the next day...heaven.

Maw-Maw and Paw-Paw

Laughing with Paw-Paw

Making time for the Farmer's Market

Nap Time with Grandpa

This month Charlie Ross was cruising all around and making his Mom and Dad nervous with his bravery. His favorite activity: standing. Preferably with just one hand on on a sturdy (and sometimes not-so-sturdy) object. He is fast with the crawling too, and he loves following us all around the house, particularly to the rooms he is barred from otherwise.

Our sleepy boy at the end of a fun day!

I hope all of you have had a wonderful July! From here out I should be much better with the posts. (I hope.) : )

HAPPY 30th BIRTHDAY DAD!

Happy 30th Birthday to my Dad!
I love you so much, hope you have a wonderful day!
xoxoxo, Charlie Ross

Hey Grandmas, Pack your Running Shoes

It has been a wonderful long weekend, CR has been practicing pulling up on everything, which has kept us busy - but it is fun watching him explore. Just wanted to post some pics of his most recent activity. Hope everyone had a great weekend!