Ladies and Gentleman... We proudly present.... Frederic Russell Ales!

He's here! He's here!

Our son, who we have chosen to name Frederic 

Russell, has entered into our wild and crazy world! He was delivered at 12:23 pm this afternoon. He weighed in at 9 pounds even, and 21 1/4 inches. His lungs are working LOUD and clear! He shared his disgust for being removed from his warm bath for about 30 minutes after his arrival! We've learned that he doesn't have an in between point for crying - it's either a sweet little gurgle or a loud and clear cry. :) He is quite the charmer and many nurses have commented on how gorgeous he is (of course, I completely agree!)

Freddy has a load of hair. I think it's dark blonde and my mother thinks it's a dark dark brown. Steve is undecided - probably wise so that he doesn't lose any

 points. His fingers are long (piano lessons will definitely be part of his future!), and his feet are huge.  The nurses put him into this HUGE baby Christmas stocking and put a red hat on his head. It is so darn cute!

We chose Frederic after Steve's grandfather on his maternal side. Grandpa Fred has played a huge role in Steve's life and has been quite influential. Russell is the traditional (or so it seems) name in Steve's family too. It's Steve's middle name, his father's middle name, and his grandfather's middle name. And now, the tradition has been passed onto our son - and will be the 4th generation to carry the Russell middle name.

Steve has really taken to playing Dad! He's adorable with the baby - absolutely adorable! So far, he's taken all of the diaper changes, and is all over doing the bottle and diaper tracking. It's so sweet to see him interact with the baby, and I can tell he is completely and totally enamored by him.

I'm in the process of loading a bunch of photos to Flickr at the moment - but they haven't yet been edited. I think you'll agree that our son is quite a lovely little man!

Edited to Add: The hospital wifi goes down for patients at midnight, so the photos weren't uploaded until Thursday. You can find them by clicking here.

Edited again to Add: My mother just sent me the photo below. She's learning how to do digi-scrapping from my sister, Bekki. Thanks Mom!