One small step for Teddy!

Thanksgiving 2009

Teddy's 15-Month Check Up

Teddy has gotten wise to visiting the doctor's office...he knows that they are going to stick him with a needle. He got three shots this month but came through will flying colors!

Here are Teddy's stats:

Height: 32.75 inches (93%, thank you very much)
Weight: 25 pounds (61%)
Head Circumference: 48 cm (77%)

First Haircut

Here is Teddy with his stylist George after his first real haircut!

October is gone in a flash!

Another month has passed us by...but what a fun month is was!

We traveled to Sherborn, MA (the town Shana grew up in) for lunch and pumpkin picking at Dowse Orchards. Here is Teddy picking his pumpkin!



Teddy still isn't walking but we are getting dangerously close.



Halloween was too much fun with daddy and baby dressing up as sea life - Michael is an octopus and Teddy is a lobster. Unfortunately, this costume didn't make it very far as he pulled off one of his claws and kept tugging at the hat. Oh well!

A look back at September

Boy, September just got away from me...here are a few highlights from the end of the month.

Now Teddy and Monty have something in common. They both love to play with the toilet paper in the bathroom. I'm totally going to show this one at his wedding!



Teddy took his girlfriend, Audrey, to the Big E. They shared a baked potato and fried dough...oh, Audrey's Mom, Devon, came too. Devon and I were total third wheels but the kids had a great time.



Surprisingly, Johnny Appleseed is from Longmeadow so Teddy and I went to the Johnny Appleseed festival at the library. Teddy is playing with poof balls which I'm sure is something that Mr. Appleseed never did but he had fun anyway.

October 2009

Shana's travel season is upon us which means far less time to update the Baby Blog. Here are some highlights from October (can you believe it's October 12th already!).

We traveled up to Manchester, Vermont to visit with Michael's Grandfather, Edward Bates, and his wife, Betty. We stopped at a kitchy little farm stand to take a few pictures.



Here is Betty, Ed, and Teddy hanging out at the club after lunch.



On Satruday, we drove up Mount Holyoke (it's not just a college) to the old inn at the top. It was very windy but we had a great view of the changing fall leaves.



Then we went to McCray's Farm to look at the animals. Teddy loved everything and did his best "quack" for all of the animals...even the goats!



Daddy and baby got to ride the tractor, although it was a little rusty!

Family Photo Time

Captain Bob and First Mate Teddy

Teddy's first boat ride at the lake was so much fun. Bob and Gloria were kind enough to take us out on their beautiful boat. Bob had a great time teaching Teddy how to drive the boat. We had fun watching!

Shana Turns 30...

I had a wonderful day with family and friends. Everyone treated me like a princess (please note the princess crown) and my Mom even threw me a Princess themed birthday party. It was my best birthday yet!

Happy Birthday

On August 27th, Teddy turned one.

It was a day filled with a lot of emotion. We called each other periodically to remind the other one what we were doing at that exact moment one year ago - going into labor, beginning to push, seeing our baby for the first time.

I cried a few times during the day out of happiness because I feel so blessed to have Michael and Teddy in my life.

We all laughed during the birthday party as wonderful friends and family gathered to celebrate with us...and as Teddy tried cake for the very first time. Here are a few pictures, although we didn't take many because we just loved the feeling of being in the moment.



He also had pizza for the first time and it was all over him. So much fun!



Eating cake for the first time. He wasn't sure what to make of it at first but he is addicted now, just like Mommy!



Opening presents with his cousins.

My new best friend...woof, woof!

Usually Sebastian runs in the other direction when Teddy comes around, but they have both found a way to love one another. Teddy doesn't always like every bite of food so he quietly slips bites to Sebastian, who will eat anything put in front of him.



Teddy thinks it's pretty funny!

August: Gone In A Flash

The month just zipped by...which might be why our blog hasn't been updated in a while. I promise to summarize the month over the next week and I will begin with our funfilled trip to Providence, Rhode Island.

Michael plays tennis with a USTA team, the Bangers, who made it all the way to the sectionals, held in beautiful Providence. The Bangers did a spectacular job and made it to the regionals, more information to follow on that. Here is the team!



While in Providence, we got to see WaterFire on the river.



Not only that, but Teddy got to meet his Godfather, Ryan Jones, and Ryan's wife, Adriane. We all hung out together by the pool at Adriane's Mom's house in Rhode Island.



Not the best picture. But I think it's pretty cute!

More to come soon!

Cruising At The Lake

What a weekend!

We went to New York on Thursday afternoon so Michael could go to the new Yankee Stadium with some friends. Shana hung out at Table Local Market with Cynthia and Patrick. Teddy hung with Grammy and Pop! On Friday, we went to Grand Prix New York for some kart racing. Here is the crew in uniform.



If you can't figure out who is who, that's Elizabeth, Peter, Shana and Michael from left to right.

We then went to the lake for the "anything that floats" raft race in which Cora, May and Patrick took 2nd place and then to the 50-Mile Meal at the club. It was such a fun weekend and we can't wait to do it again soon!

Pennsylvania 6-5000

Teddy made his first offical telephone call last week...without any supervision! He loves to play with the phone because it lights up and makes noise. Somehow he managed to scroll through the phone's telephone book and hit "send." He called my Aunt Mary Ann in Butler, PA. It was quite a surprise for all of us to hear her voice on the line but we were all thrilled that she was his very first phone call!

It's Retro Rocket Time!

Teddy has learned how to push himself around on his little retro rocket. Turning and getting on and off are considerably more difficult, but he still has a great time scooting around!

Housework is...baby's work!

He wasn't very helpful with the housework and he doesn't look happy about his new chores, but Teddy was rather entertaining playing with the dust mop.

Formal Dinner

On The Dock

Look what landed on my parent's dock one morning...a beautiful heron.

Strawberry

Teddy loves fruit and just wanted to dive into this strawberry. We usually don't give him whole fruit but we just couldn't resist this little adventure!

To The Park With Nanny and Papa

My camera was hijacked one afternoon when Nanny and Papa took Teddy to the park. There are their super cute photos from the day.

Lost Power Cord = No Blogging!

Where have the Russells been? We lost our camera power cord at a wedding and haven't been able to download our photos. Finally the power cord was recovered and we are ready to blog!

June 19, 2009 was our 5th wedding anniversary. Michael planed a surprise trip to Boston and we had a WONDERFUL time! We stayed at the swanky Intercontinental Hotel and had dinner at Cafe Romero off Newbury Street.


Here is Michael enjoying a drink on the outside patio at Cafe Romero.

Then we went to a Red Sox game at Fenway...something we have been talking about since we started dating. The Sox were playing the Atlanta Braves which, coincidentally, was the same team the Yankees played when we went on our very first date to Yankee stadium.



The next morning we had breakfast with our good friends, Emrick and John, and drove to Hartford for the wedding of Dana Betterton and Taylor Wolfe, good friends from Trinity College.

They had a fun lobster bake and we all go into the act by wearing our lobster bibs!


It was somewhere between that picture and the following picture that we lost our camera's power cord!



We actually think it was Aunt Hilary's fault that we both had a little too much to drink!

You may be wondering where Teddy was while we were taking in a baseball game and dancing the night away with Trinity friends...he was at the lake with all of the Grandparents!



It was a fabulous weekend all around!

Big Apple Weekend

We had a great time at the Summer Stage concert in Central Park on Friday night without baby. The show was Josh Ritter with the New York Pops. If you haven't heard Josh Ritter, you have to check him out!

This is a picture of the line we stood in. Apparently we weren't the only people in New York interested in a free concert with Josh Ritter.



This is the stage just as the band came on.



After a fun Friday night, we went to Andrew and Caroline's soccer game, celebrated May's 9th birthday, went to an Italian movie, hung out with Lynn and Pete, and attended the Big Apple BBQ Festival with some friends. Sorry I don't have any pictures of the rest of the festivities. I was giving my camera a rest for the weekend!

Panty Raid

Michael was folding laundry when Teddy stole a pair of his boxer shorts and went zooming around his exercauser holding them. I don't know what he was thinking, but he had a great time.

9 Month Doctor Visit

NO SHOTS TODAY!

We had a great appointment with Dr. Yunis. Here are Teddy's stats:

Height = 30' (90th%-95th%) - he grew 2 inches over the past three months

Weight = 20 pounds 14 ounces (50th%)

Head Circumference = 45.2 centimeters - the nurse said "man, he has a little head." As the woman who gave birth to him, I'm just fine with that!

All of the nurses thought he was a total cutie. We are looking forward to our next appointment when we can begin to discuss getting Teddy back onto milk/soy. So exciting!

And Away We Go!

As of Sunday night, Teddy is officially using crawling as his main mode of transportation. It has been so exciting to watch him go from pulling himself around to gaining the arm strength and coordination to crawl.



He is already into EVERYTHING...especially the things that he really shouldn't be into like electrical cords and dog bowls. I can already tell that we have a little mischief maker on our hands.

On The Move

Teddy is on the move. He isn't exactly crawling but I'm sure that's not too far behind!

To Pennsylvania We Go!

What a great weekend we had in Pennsylvania visiting family, celebrating my Grandmother's 90th Birthday, and site-seeing.

After an 8 hour car ride from New York to Pittsburgh, we took a few hours to see the city. Here we are at Fort Pitt, where the three rivers coverge. The fort is long gone but the site is marked by a huge fountain. It's hard to take pictures of the three of us, so we used the old "hold the camera at arms length" technique. You can see a little bit of the fountain in the background.



Next we went to the Strip District where we did some shopping and ate at Big Mama's House of Soul. We met some great guys inside who told us that Big Mama's is the most popular restaurant in Pittsburgh and all of the professional sports teams always stop there on their way through town. We had the pulled pork and it was great!

Then we rode the incline to the top of Mount Washington and got this great view of the city.



That evening, Daddy went to a Pirates game and Shana and Teddy drove to Butler to see our family. The next day, we celebrated Grandma Dorothy's 90th birthday (which was actually March 31st) with the whole family. She looked beautiful and we had so much fun at the party.

Here is Grandma and Teddy hanging out together! Teddy was pretty tired but he sat still long enough to snap a few pictures.



Grandma has many great-grandchildren. She is pictured here with 5 of them. The oldest is 20 years old and the youngest is just one month old.


Rachel, Spencer, Grandma Dorothy holding baby Marin, and Morgan holding Teddy.