Well, while we wait for me to have time to update my site like a good little blogger, here's another gratuitous photo of Andrew. This one was taken on the occasion of his turning eight months old (a little over a week ago):

Andrew is crawling now... but, mostly backwards. Yesterday saw him finally begin to make "forward progress" in the crawling department. Lately, he's been much more interactive with his environment; playing with toys, grabbing whatever there is to grab, and so on.

Just as Alex did with Nolan when they were at that age, Nolan (at three and a half years old) has suddenly started showing Andrew all sorts of affection. Rather aggressively.

One of Nolan's favorite things to do is give Andrew a nice big hug and kiss... while Andrew is sleeping. Until he is no longer sleeping. When Andrew is awake, Nolan likes to give him a biiig hug, and then pull him down onto the floor. Then, he gets up and moves on to something else. Lately, one of the most common phrases you'll hear at Casa Rousselle is "Gently, Nolan! Gently!"

While it *is* inconvenient to have Nolan waking Andrew up from naps, I have to say I'm happy that he has started to interact with Andrew with such joy and enthusiasm. For a little while there, Nolan didn't seem to know what to make of Andrew.

Alex, at six and a half years old (in fact, he hit "six and half years" exactly just a couple days ago), is very much stepping into the role of Big Brother. He's helpful when it comes to the little things -- running to get wipes or toys for Andrew when we ask -- and enjoys taking time out to play with his baby brother. Alex looks out for his brothers, and that makes me more pleased than I know how to express.

As you can tell from the photos, Andrew's hair is coming in a bit thicker than his brothers', and also a little bit darker. While many people comment that Andrew's face looks even more like mine than his brothers did when they were babies, I suspect he's getting his hair genes from his mother -- which is all to the good, given how thick and healthy her hair remains, and how fine and thinning my hair has been.

We've also belatedly started Andrew on solid foods. Like his brothers before him, Andrew shows little interest in eating, but seems quite content to grab food and smear it anywhere he can reach... most often, his face and aforementioned hair. Is this common with kids, or just *our* kids?

That said, with "short" blog entries like this, is it any wonder I'm finding it hard to get the time to post items that are more in depth?

Holy Cow! He's already *seven* months old! Here's another shot I took of him on the day he turned six months (because I haven't processed the more recent photos yet):

Love him! Love him!

Yesterday morning, Andrew turned six months old, and I had the presence of mind to take a few photos to capture the event.

Happy half-birthday, little guy.

I've been so busy these past few weeks that I haven't had time (until this past Friday) to format any of the photos I've taken this summer to be posted to my site.

And we've already reached the point when I need to take more photos to show you what they look like now! It's amazing how quickly these guys are growing up, both physically as well as emotionally and intellectually.

Here's a shot of the boys taken early in July (back when our futon couch covers were still nominally white, as decorated by Alex and Nolan).

In the two months since then, Nolan (he's the three-year-old -- our middle child, for those of you who are as bad at keeping names straight as I generally am) has found his voice. It turns out he can talk up a storm when Alex isn't around to do the talking for him. He has also started showing more affection for his baby brother, and is asserting himself on a regular basis. Nolan's big accomplishment was entering the realm of the potty-trained just *days* before he started pre-school.

Alexander, our six-year-old and the "big brother" of the three, has been practicing pulling out all of the toys with Nolan and then not putting any of them away. Okay, that's not really new. But, he learned to play chess this summer, and attended chess camp taught by a former Russian and American champion at a local Boys and Girls club. He's also begun training for "team gymnastics". He's surprisingly good at both the chess and the gymnastics, and he has announced that he plans to become a world champion at both. The recent Beijing Olympics certainly captured his attention.

He also attended one week of day camp at the local Museum of Flight, along with one of his best buddies in the neighborhood. Alex and Nolan both enjoy a love of airplanes and flying, and I'm so glad that they'll be able to share this love with their paternal grandfather, who is an avid pilot. (I will also note that their grandmother earned her pilot's license this summer, as well -- congratulations, mom!)

As for Andrew, who is currently a scant three-and-a-half months old, well... he's a champion eater, sleeper, and pooper. He smiles all the time, and it's always a beautiful revelation when he does. He came up with a proof for Fermat's Last Theorem a few days ago, and I didn't have the heart to tell him that Andrew Wiles beat him to the punch thirteen years ago.

After Alex and Nolan managed to thoroughly destroy the futon covers (we don't dare replace those couches with real furniture until the kids are a little older), we replaced them with black, which makes for some striking photographs. This second photo was taken one month after the snapshot above. Notice how much they've all grown. Especially their hair. Eeek!

Paulette has told me this story, and I only partially believed it until it happened to me recently, that people have asked her (and now, me) if Alex and Nolan are twins. Usually, but not always, they are sitting down when the question is posed. In case you can't tell from looking at the photos, Nolan is the one in the blue airplane shirt, while Alex is wearing red. (In the top photo, Nolan is wearing the alligator pajama top.)

It's been another month since then, and another round of haircuts (except for Andrew). I should make a point of taking another photo soon. Yee-ha.

August 2008 marks the first time I've gone an entire calendar month without posting to my blog.

For both of my readers out there, please accept my humble apologies. Much has been going on at Casa Rousselle (and at Business Rousselle, Magic Cafe Rousselle, etc., etc.).

Allow me to get the ball rolling again with a little photo I snapped about a month ago. I call this thousand word essay, "Andrew at rest, August 2008." In this one, he was still shy of reaching three months old. He's already grown considerably since then.

More soon,

--Allan

I'm so behind. I still haven't responded to the many e-mails y'all have sent since the birth of baby Andrew. Please forgive me! I'm working on getting caught up! In the meantime, here are some photos that were taken during the first week or two since Andrew's arrival.

Here's Nolan, Alex, and Andrew. Alex loves to hold his baby brother. We've been encouraging him to provide more support for Andrew's neck, but when the camera is rolling, he sometimes forgets.

... in fact, Alex will often spend very long stretches of time holding Andrew, which not only give them bonding time, and makes Alex feel like he's being a good big brother, but also gives their mom a chance to do things other than attending to the baby non-stop.

Here's a shot of Andrew's maternal grandfather holding him at less than one-week-old.

In this one, Andrew looks almost exactly like Alex did in a similar shot almost six years ago. (I may eventually pull up some of those older photos and format them for the web to provide compare-and-contrast opportunities on this page....)

Mostly, the little guy sleeps. But hey, he does it beautifully!

The first I knew of Andrew being born was the sound of his voice; a brief cry that said, "What's going on?"

With that one sound, everything changed. The bond I felt was instantaneous. As had happened before with Alexander and with Nolan, that very first sound put all kinds of puzzle pieces into place: the fact of his being alive; the fact of his being mine; the fact of his being a part of me and my life; the fact of my love for him. I know it all can sound so mushy, but it wasn't, entirely. On the one hand, it was simply "these are the facts": Andrew was here. But, yes, on the other hand, the emotions were here, too.

One of the medical staff asked, "Does he look like your other boys?" I wasn't sure how to answer. The best I could come up with at the time was, "He looks like... him. He looks like Andrew."

But after a little while -- after my brain could process what was going on -- I realized that, in fact, he bears an uncanny resemblance to the way his brothers looked on they day they were born. I mean, besides being all purple and squishy. Their body types are similar, and their faces are *remarkably* similar.

Take a scroll through the pictures of Alex when he was three and younger, and then scroll through the photos of Nolan, and you'll notice how remarkably similar they look(ed). Look at the baby photos and compare them to Andrew's. Yeah, I guess they do look alike.

There are some notable differences: Andrew was born with a lot more hair on his head than Nolan (and, perhaps a wee bit more than Alex, as well), and his feet are not as big as Alex's. Andrew's birth weight is almost exactly halfway between Alex's and Nolan's, but there's also a sense that this guy is likely to give Nolan a run for his money in the size department when all is said and done.

He's a big kid, but not tubby. He's well proportioned, and his apgars were excellent. This kid is as healthy as newborns come.

So, while phoning everyone to tell them the news, everything could be pretty much summed up by the lines, "He's healthy, and Paulette's doing well, and the event was as about as by-the-numbers as they come." But I wanted to say so much more than that. It seems like the fact that Andrew was as healthy as he was and that Paulette came through as well as she did demands more, and says more. It certainly fills up my heart more than that sentiment implies. But, alas, it only takes up one sentence when converted into words.

Speaking of words... let's talk about names.

"Andrew" was the leading contender to be Baby 2.0's name until near the very end, when we switched to "Nolan" for various reasons. This time around, we kinda threw out the rule book. The only two rules that really stayed with us were: 1) the name be relatively easy to spell, and 2) the name not be particularly career limiting. While I must admit that Barak Obama is proving that names may not be as career limiting as I'd once suspected, I still think it unlikely that we will ever elect a President "Moon-Unit" or "Lemonjello".

That said, "Andrew" instantly became our de facto choice for first name, but the middle name remained something of a challenge. With Alex and Nolan, we chose middle names that commemorated Americans we particularly admire. Several others we admire (such as Abraham Lincoln) have names that don't quite scan well between "Andrew" and "Rousselle", or sound a bit more pretentious than we would prefer. The trick is to pick a name that evokes someone admirable and thereby augments Andrew's name, but without hijacking his name.

In the end, we selected "James" because we like the name, it scans well as part of Andrew's full name, and it serves as a tip of the hat to James Madison, principal author of the Constitution of the United States -- one of the most amazing documents ever written -- and the Bill of Rights, which is far too overlooked by today's political parties. He was a champion of checks and balances in our government, which may well be the saving grace of our nation.

But, enough about James Madison. Here's to Andrew James Rousselle... an American original!

(Incidentally, this picture shows Andrew in the arms of his grandmother, while being surrounded by his older brothers.)

Paulette and Allan Rousselle (and their sons, Alexander and Nolan) are proud to announce the birth of their son (and Alexander's and Nolan's brother):

Mother and child are doing well and will be coming home from the hospital in a few days.

Pictures will be posted here in a day or two. Or three. Definitely by Friday.

Thank you all for your support, kindness, and well wishes.

We found out on Monday that Baby 3.0 is going to be a boy.

(I am also happy to report that the baby-in-progress is doing fine, and the doctors have no cause for concern. Always a good thing to hear.)

Having this news now gives us plenty of time to come up with a name. If events play out this time the way they did last time, we'll probably need all the time we can get.

We haven't set out our list of rules yet for choosing a name this time, although one criteria from last time is likely to be modified. Rather than saying we're ruling out the top X most common names (as tallied by the Social Security Administration), we'll probably simply want to avoid the most common names given in our particular region. How we'll determine that, I'm not sure yet.

And even though we are aware that "ESPN" has been used as a baby name, we are not likely to be naming our third child "Sienen" or "Foxnews" or "Emesenbeesee". "Spike" and "Oxygen" are also right out. (Truth be told, we still don't have cable or satellite feeds, anyway, and "Peabee S." would just get the kid beat up in school.)

We're also not likely to name Baby 3.0 after contemporary icons of brains and business. The fact that such figures are controversial is one problem, but even worse is that their names are, well, nouny. "Jobs Rousselle" or "Gates Rousselle"? Bleh.

Spelling remains an important consideration: we'll want to make sure that there aren't a lot of common variations on spelling, and that it's easy for most people to spell the name correctly upon first hearing. "Cujo," anyone?

Oh, and the name has to be unequivocally a boy's name. Not Pat, Sam, Terry, or Chris. No boys-names-turned-girls-names, like Taylor or Dakota.

But other than that, the field is wiiide open. Let the Names begin!

My business finds itself in the unfortunate situation of having to move. Our landlord is selling the building, and so we need new facilities. Now. We need to be out by early January.

I've been coordinating the move, and it's quite a bit of work. Finding a new space took a great deal of time and effort, and now getting movers, getting the phones switched, etc., isn't letting me relax. Now add to that the Christmas rush. And add to that the fact that I'm doing more of the heavy lifting at home these days, as well, and you've got one busy bee at Casa Rousselle.

Paulette and I have typically shared the chores at home (still do, actually), but she's somewhat more tired than usual, and I'm the guy to pick up the slack. Why is she tired? Well, that's the other busy-making thing going on: she's busy making Baby 3.0. Good news, to be sure, but exhausting, and so there's no end of stuff that needs to be done at the Big Red House.

So that's why I'm not posting much on my blog. Well, that, and my proverbial dog ate my blog posts. And I'm bummed about the news regarding Anita, a friend of ours here in town. And I need to go Christmas shopping.

But other than that, not much going on here. How's by you?