A is for Alastair and...

The six months that have passed since the last time we updated this blog have been a wild time for the Rushes. As I'm sure all of you already know, the implacable and handsome Harvey Ian Rush joined our merry crew on June 13th.


Harvey is a cool customer - pretty laid back and already his brother's biggest fan. At three months old he's holding his head up very well, has rolled over a few times, and has a deep love of gnawing on fingers and baby toys. Did I mention how much he loves Alastair?


Alastair is growing into his new role of big brother. He gets very excited when during a calm moment we put Harvey in his lap. He'll hug him, push him away, then want him back. They'll be partners in crime before we know it.


Though he has adjusted pretty well to the new guy in the house, not all is going well for Alastair, which brings us to the real reason for this post. Alastair has been diagnosed as autistic. The biggest red flag is that he is still not talking. He babbles a lot, but not at anyone in particular and with no discernible words. This was one of the concerns we discussed with his doctor at his two-year checkup. At that point the results of an autism-screening questionnaire recommended that we have him properly evaluated. The process took a few weeks, but ultimately he was diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum last Wednesday.

This is an intensely bad news/good news situation. The diagnosis is bad news, but it also opens up many opportunities for early intervention and therapy for Alastair and networking and support for us. With his diagnosis Alastair is eligible for up to 10 hours of in-home therapy through Connecticut's Birth to Three early intervention program. That will be starting very soon, something for which Emily and I are very anxious.


We are trying to keep moving forward without getting too trapped by our worries, fears, and myriad questions. Alastair is the same charming kid he was a month ago, still loves his books, wagon rides, and the playground. Now we know that he needs us to help him learn things his way, something we will tackle with all the gusto, good cheer, love, and baked goods we can muster. [It's been a very baked-goods-filled few weeks here.] We're a touch exhausted, but we're optimistic as well, and will try to keep everyone informed as we learn more and have progress to report. We appreciate your thoughts, well wishes, prayers, or whatever cosmic good vibes you can send Alastair's way.

New Hampshire Celebration and Expectoration

Last weekend the Rushes took a journey up to North Conway, New Hampshire, to reunite with some friends for a long weekend. This fine crew of Rushes, Weinbergs, Varneys, Joneses, and Parker/Thomases met while most of us were in grad school at Simmons. Starting, I believe, in 2003, we had a tradition of renting a house for a weekend in the winter and going camping for a weekend in the summer. That fell aside when Emily and I moved to New Haven and the baby rush got under way. Happily, a deal was found on an eight bedroom house, and four kids (ages 4 months to 3 years) and ten adults (including two pregnant ladies) resumed our biannual gathering.

Recapping the entire weekend is beyond me at this point, but suffice it to say that we had a great time reuniting with such good friends. The bed times might have shifted a little earlier, and the wake up times were definitely earlier, but the food was better and the time together was much more precious. Plus, Sylvia, Maya, and Alastair got on like gangbusters (no doubt baby Ian will be in the fray next winter). Even picking up a stomach bug from one of the kids (who shall remain nameless) didn't dampen our good time. (Thankfully it didn't hit Emily and me till after we got home. Alastair wasn't as lucky, but he weathered it with more grace than his parents.) Eating the BRAT diet for a few days was a small price to pay for the fun.

Here's Maya and Alastair on Friday morning, ready to play. Notice Alastair digging into his toy bag. He abandoned his toys as soon as he could get his hands on other people's toys, which are much more fun.



Here's a video of Alastair leading Maya on a promenade around the fireplace. Maya is such a cool cat - so patient and observant. She's the novelist of the bunch.


Here's Alastair and me going for a walk behind the house. He is very good about holding Daddy's hand on walks. It melts my heart, of course. He really liked the stream that is just to the left out of the shot.


Adorable about sums up this shot of Sylvia. She was definitely in charge of the kids, at least in her mind. Alastair didn't seem to have gotten the memo, however.


A rare moment when all three of the big kids were still.



Shannon holding baby Ian, who was very chill and well-behaved for such a young fella. It was nice to be reminded how small newborns are.

Flips & Flaps

Alastair is really into books with flaps these days. Just this morning I bought him a junky one about the 50 states from the $1 bin at Target for him to look at while we shopped. He pretty much demolished it by the time we we were leaving. But I think I can quiz him on the state capitals now.

Every morning he brings this book into the kitchen and sits on the floor with it while I clean up after breakfast. It's called "Go! Go! Go!" and is by Roxie Munro.
The flaps in this book aren't extremely sturdy, so they tend to rip over time (I like to say that Alastair is an enthusiastic reader.) But every few days Mike will go through it and tape up the tears. It's a fun book - we want it to last!

It starts in a fire station:
And moves to a balloon festival:
Here's a horse stable (look at how cute those hands & wrists are!):
I think my favorite pages are from the Deep-Sea Discovery Research Vessel:
Let's hope the book holds up so Baby #2 can enjoy it also.

Well, Hello There!

Look who we got to peek in on last week:


We were glad to find out that everything looks normal and on track with Rush Baby #2 - June 7th is still the expected due date. That's so soon! Fortunately, we really don't need too much, except maybe a few pink things if it's a girl.

For those who can't keep track, and because it's been quite a while since our last post, Alastair is already 17 months old - almost 18! He is non-stop motion and does an excellent job of tiring me out every day. I now really enjoy the 2 days a week that I work when I can pass him off to Mike in the afternoon and spend a few hours with the homeless population of New Haven. Ah, sweet relief.


These days, Alastair likes to knock things down, stack things up, hide things between the pages of his books, and balance pieces of food on top of his sippy cup. He really likes to put things one place, and then pick them up and move them to another place. It's fascinating to watch, really. He does this thing with his raisins, where he grabs a few, walks to the middle of the living room floor, puts them all down, then picks them up and eats them. Why is he doing this? I don't know, but it's hilarious.


Here we are, with my 21 week belly:

F is for Football

I've never been a fall is for football kind of guy. I'm much more prone to spring baseball fever. That said, we've had a few crisp, early fall weekends in a row, so today I got in the seasonal mood and decided to introduce Alastair to the fine American tradition that is college football. Ivy League football, no less!

Emily was working today, so after morning nap the Rush boys ventured across town to the Yale Bowl. Free parking, free staff admission - it was a perfect afternoon adventure for us. No huge investment of time or money, so I knew we could leave whenever we wanted.

Here we are watching Yale v. Cornell. You can see how big the Yale Bowl is. When I was growing up the phone book included instructions in the event that the local nuclear power plant were to melt down. It said to go to the Yale Bowl. I'm not sure that would have been the best idea, but it's a lovely place to watch a game. The crowd looks sparse, but we're looking across to the Cornell side. There were more on the Yale side. Seemed like a nice mix of students, alums, local football fans, and young families. Alastair was by no means the only wee one.

I brought Alastair's lunch. That's a piece of chicken stuck to his lower lip. In the past few days he's started eating out of a bowl without dumping the contents all over the place. During lunch I managed to alternately hold him in my lap and stand him up with a bowl of food on the bleacher. Such a big boy. The game did not distract him from his chicken, kidney beans, green beans, and grapes. Especially not the grapes.

After lunch Alastair started to get a little restless, but there was no one in our row, so he could move around as much as he wanted. Stand up, sit down. Cruise down the row, cruise on back. One wildcard that I hadn't anticpated was the massive amounts of peeling paint on the bleachers. Had to be vigilant, lest he snack on some blue paint chips. Yo Yale, how about a fresh coat?


Alastair seemed to enjoy himself, even if he didn't quite notice that there was a game going on. Everyone sitting around us was very interesting, especially the little boy in front of us. From what I saw of the game neither team looked very impressive...it was a bit of a punting contest. Regardless, it was a win for Team Rush. We left while we were ahead (if not Yale), just before the half.

Running, Swimming, Camping

Wait, I said something about a July update, didn't I? Well, I can't remember that long ago. Let's look at some photos to stir my memories.
Oh yeah! Mike and Alastair ran the Chester Road Race on July 4th - remember Mike ran it last year when I was super pregnant? It's a nice little family tradition now.

We got to visit with a lot of friends in July. There was a Library Ladies reunion at Candice & Aaron's house in Franklin, MA. Here's the lovely bunch of us:
It's hard to tell from the photo, but Deanna is pregnant and is going to have a little boy in November! Sylvia had a good time playing with Alastair - she's going to be a great big sister.
Erich & Rebecca stopped by to get some cuddles from Alastair, and they gave him an awesome FBI tee shirt for his birthday, which you can sort of see in this photo:
Niv and his family were in town, so they came over for a playdate - fun times!
July was filled with a lot of swimming for Alastair. He and I took a Parent & Tot swim class, so every Thursday afternoon for 6 weeks we got to splash and kick in the pool. Alastair loved it! You'll have to take my word for it, though, because I have no photos from the class. But we also went swimming at Caitlin's grandparent's house and Grandmom Nancy's pool.
July will also be remembered for our first family camping trip. Two photos sum up that weekend quite nicely. First:
This is Alastair in our tent at 4:30 AM, wide awake (looking like a little angel.) This was when I made the executive decision that we were all getting back in the car and driving home, after trying for 2+ hours to get Alastair to fall back asleep. Even though he had managed, earlier in the night, to sleep through a massive thunder-and-lightning storm (that scared the poop out of mommy.)

The other photo is from the next day. We decided to invite some friends and family to our campsite on Saturday to help celebrate Mike & Alastair's birthdays. Here is Alastair during the party:
He slept for most of it.

Summer Days Drifting Away

For me, it's officially summer - I snapped at Mike the other day to get a fan going in the living room (the heat makes Mama cranky, he responded promptly) and I have to have the air conditioner on in our bedroom when I nurse Alastair and go to bed. Let's revisit the cool, rainy days of June that now seem so far away.

Mike and I went to his 15-year high school reunion, which marked the first time we went out at night and left it to someone else to put Alastair to bed. Alastair stayed at his friend Caitlin's house, and though he looks a bit unsure here, he had a great time.
And we had a great time at the reunion!
See, I'm even giving it a thumbs up. Also, this is a sort of silly photo to post from the reunion, since these are all people we see on a regular basis, but we didn't take too many photos that night.

We spent a fun day at Caitlin's great-grandparents's beach house in Westbrook, CT. Alastair and Caitlin are getting to be great friends.
Though it was cool and breezy, Alastair had fun dipping his toes in the water.

June saw a little bit of sadness, too, when the Friedman's moved to Brookline, MA. I met Niv's mom at the library, when I helped her find books about sleep strategies for babies. It turns out that Niv was born a day before Alastair, and we were in the hospital at the same time! Niv was Alastair's first guy-friend (don't let those gorgeous locks fool you) and I hope we'll stay in touch as the babes get older. Here they are (sort of playing together) at our last playdate:

Alastair and Felix and I spent about 4 days at Grandmom Sally's house in June while Mike went to VA for a work conference. It was hard to be without Daddy for so long, but we really had a great time. Definitely the highlight was taking Alastair to the Jersey shore for the first time (Manasquan, for those in the know).
Look at those clouds! Yes, it was nice and cool all day. I really miss June. This time, he wasn't as happy about getting his feet wet:

And June ended with Father's Day! Alastair and I picked out some musical instruments for Daddy, so we can get our family band going. At first, Alastair liked the harmonica.
A moment later, not so much.
Ah, good times. Stay tuned for a July update.