9 bidgillion pictures

Hello, all~ I hope this finds you all doing well! We have been super busy with adjusting to life as a foursome, dealing with various and smallish frusterating scenarios that add up to be a big headache and a really good opportunity to trust God, look to Him for provision, and a reminder to count our blessings - as they are many. I won't go into details about the frusterations, but i will share about the blessings. Going through our photos since the last post brought a smile to my face today and i was so hard pressed to pick out some to put here that i ended up just including alot and if you get bored, you can just stop reading. how about that? ;) Some of these won't be in chronological order, but oh well. you'll figure it out.

Alexei and Daddy were out riding his bike yesterday. He is getting pretty good at going on his own. He has to stretch a little bit to reach the peddles, but he puts forth a valiant effort.

Here, Daddy is giving Anya a bath. Boy, does she love her bathtimes! It is one of the quickest ways to get her in a happy mood if she is irritated at the world ~ though those times are few and far between. She is such a happy and laid back kid! we are so blessed. every time you look at her she smiles at you.

our two precious goofballs. Alexei and Anya are already super tight. they smile every time the other one is around. Alexei is constantly wanting to kiss and touch her and she is usually up for it. She is already laughing at his antic.

We have discovered the wonders of playdough. Alexei usually doesn't sit still for 2 seconds together, but if playdough is on the agenda, he will sit for an hour and a half playing with it - usually this entails you sitting there and creating whatever he requests. the usual fair is a rocket, a car, airplane, semi truck, a dog, a bowl for the dog to drink from... and then there is the occasional demand, err, request for something totally abstract that really makes mommy stop and think for a minute, such as the island of madagascar. he literally wanted the shape of the island. hmm. sometimes it is an action verb and that really gets the creative juices flowing. I bet my skills at the game cranium have improved dramatically. oh the minds of two year olds, especially mine. ;)

Grandpa and alexei creating a race track. "Grandpa is fun" - alexei.

I love Nick so much. I don't know many dads that would initiate a water war where the kid gets the elephant trunk from the slipping slide (thanks aunt kristin) and the daddy gets a bucket for a helmet and a pool for a shield. daddy doesn't get a weapon. i don't know who had more fun - judge for yourself.

one of our weekly visits with great-grandma kathleen. every time alexei walks in the door he asks for "grandma cookies" - he knows she has some waiting for him everytime. i think her house is one of his favorite places. it was one of mine growing up too. and it's the same vanilla wafers. :)

alexei with two of his favorite buddies from playgroup and church: jonathan on the left and logan on the right. they are all within a few months of each other and boy, can they get each other going. when logan's mom picked him up from church nursery a couple of weeks ago, she said logan and alexei were side by side on two rocking horses rocking as hard as they could with one arm flailing in the air and both gleefully screaming "woohooo!! woohoo!!" i think they should be on a lacrosse or hockey team together when they get older.

aunt kristin loving on miss anya. i love anya's little sundress - it's one of the two outfits i have ever bought for her. the day that i found out she was a girl.

Dell had a "take your kid to work day" and alexei had a blast! i think he thinks daddy gets to go to a fascinating and fun place every day. they had computer games and icecream. can't be that.

hanging out at central market enjoying 30's music. alexei is a good dance partner. his little feelings get hurt when he gets refused by older women (5 year old girls). it makes me sad as his mommy.

we are trying to put the idea in alexei's head that pooping on the potty is alot of fun and worth stopping what you are doing to go. i don't think he is at the point of agreeing with us yet. maybe before he is 12. oh well.

she seriously does smile at you every time you talk to her. too cute.

yes, that is a smiley face sticker on anya's forehead. do all second born children just get used to that? i have a feeling she is going to have to. it doesn't seem to bother her too much.

the wonders of playing in the rain. it is funny to me that when nick and i first got married, he didn't get that i wanted to go out and play in the rain with him. now he is the one who is out splashing in puddles for hours on end.

for some reason, when i ask alexei to smile for the camera, he interprets that as, cock your head to one side and give a goofy grin.

we just got back from our annual family vacation to port aransas. we had such a blast together. we really needed that time away as a foursome and then really enjoyed grandma and grandpa and mr. phil and mrs. barb joining us for the second weekend. God was so sweet to give us that time together.

the weather was really nice for the most part. on the two rainy days we went to the USS Lexington and to the Texas State Aquarium - both of which fascinated alexei.

alexei was a little ticked off that they wouldn't let him fly a plane off the deck. he finally settled for a flight simulator.

alexei should know all about this equivalent of time out. we need a brig at our house.

there is a picture at my parent's house of me on this same anchor in front of the USS Lexington with my family and some friends when i was just a couple of years older than alexei is now. time sure does fly.

life for a two year old is so easy.

flying a kite together. alexei is tired after a long day of playing at the beach. those moments are so rare and so sweet when he actually cuddles up against you and wants to be held. gosh, i love that kid.

alexei was fascinated by the dolphins.

and the stingrays. one little one kept swimming to him to be touched. don't worry it was at the aquarium and there weren't any stingers - we are not that nuts. well, actually... ;)

this is the first time anya ever reached for and held a toy. this is right before she turned 4 months. and she also rolled over for the first time on the trip. super exciting!

enjoying lunch and conversation on our porch overlooking the beach. alexei was napping.

alexei got so tan from playing in the sun, it was really funny when we took off his diaper at one point - his little white butt almost blinds you. ;)

grandma and anya hanging out at the beach.

it cracks me up that alexei always holds the bat backwards. unique, but then again, that is just alexei for you.

Far-Mor (Bobby) came to visit a couple of weeks ago. we really enjoyed hanging out with her for a couple of days.

the first expedition in our double jogging stroller. it was so sweet when alexei voluntarily put his arm around anya, i had to take a picture. i hope he is always a little protective of her.

a couple of days ago mommy was about to go nuts. i think God put this idea of making vegetable soup in my mind, b/c it went from a very frusterating afternoon to one of my favorite pretend memories with him. we got his play food out and talked about the difference btwn vegetables and fruits and then we fixed a vegetable soup and fruit salad for grandma to enjoy when she came to visit. after we made the pretend food, alexei helped me cook his first dish - cornbread. he took his role of holding the bowl while i dumped ingredients in and then stirring it up very seriously.

who needs expensive toys? card board boxes are all you need to make wobots (robots), tanks and tunnels. what more could a kid need?

you get a gold star for making it through this mega post! until next time....

filling in the gaps of the last 10 months or so ;)

well, we are 6 weeks into being a family of four and we have survived - so far. :) i think we are staring to find a rhythm and are really enjoying watching both alexei and anya grow and learn new things daily. sleep is getting better, though we are still wrestling with anya's gastric reflux and just started our third med. hopefully it will work the magic i've heard others say it did for them. thankfully she is gaining weight really well - she was 10lbs 10 oz. a couple of weeks ago. i have fallen in love with my crockpot. i hadn't ever really put in the effort to find vegetarian crockpot recipes before, but man, have i been trying them out lately! it is so nice to fix a meal in the evening after alexei is in bed, let it cook overnight and have it ready to go for lunch or dinner the next day. there are all sorts of little tricks to figure out to make having 2 kiddos in diapers as smooth as possible. i would love hearing ya'lls ideas if you don't mind sharing. i am definantly in the try it out and see what works stage.

Since there was such huge gaps between my last few posts, i wanted to throw in a few pictures of the highlights between September until now as well as some (more than a few) pics of anya during the past six weeks. Six weeks! Can you believe it? Time sure does fly. please do not feel obligated to read or look at all of them- i just wanted to post so some enquiring family would have a chance to see some pics.

when i was typing my post in february i hadn't transfered pics from our time in WV so i am going to throw in some here. for Christmas, Nick, Alexei and I flew to WV to spend time with Nick's american family. We thoroughly enjoyed catching up with all of them. Alexei and Anya have 3 cousins through that family - Benjamin, Elsa and a brand new little girl, Lily, born to Ryan and Dawn just last week. Here is a pic of all of us at the dinner table enjoying our Christmas feast. sorry it is such a small scale.

Here is a picture of Alexei playing with Far-Mor (swedish for father's mother). How many kids get the blessing of having a Far-Mor, a Babushka, and a grandma? :)

Bobby and Sam gave Alexei, Benjamin and Elsa similar hats that were super cute. you will see a better pic of it further down. I don't think Alexei knew quite what to do with the cold. He was not a fan of bundling up before going out- a true texan, though he is half russian.

Nick's coworker and friend, Richard was sweet enough to take us all up in his airplane a few months back. Alexei has been fascinated with planes even more so since then.

my boys- aren't they handsome?

Alexei is so into bugs right now, a true boy. any time he sees or hears a bug he holds up his hand like he is ready to catch it given the chance. it is super cute. you'll have to get him to demonstrate his bug catching stance to you next time you see him. :) here they are chasing a stray roach that chose to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Alexei turned 2 yrs old on June 8th, but since anya was due in late may, we celebrated his birthday in early may so we could be sure and have his party with his buddies from playgroup and with family that was in town. we had a great time hanging out in the backyard (hard to believe since we have been enduring 100 + temperatures after 10:00 am here lately), eating sub sandwhiches together, watching him open gifts - mostly hotwheels which he is enthralled with, and eating lots of chocolate cake. what more could a two year old ask for? :) i can't believe he is already 2. it really has flown by. here is a pic of cousins patrick, daniel and friend abe from playgroup with nick on the porch swing that was converted to hang from our tall oak trees in the backyard. the swing now goes almost from the back fence to the house spanning the entire depth of the yard - another of nick's fun enhancements.

yey for chocolate cake!

ok, thanks for bearing with me on the catch up of our lives. now we are up to the more recent history. here we are leaving the hospital with anya 6 weeks ago.

here is alexei welcoming her to our home. He continues to be such a sweet big brother. every time he goes to rub her head - his favorite thing to do - he says "gentle, gentle" and is just about as gentle as a 2 yr old boy full of energy can be. we are working on not touching her as much when she is asleep and on figuring out where to put the toys he wants to share with her (on her tummy is better than on her head). it is so sweet to see them together. anya has started to light up when he is around and seems not to mind it too much when alexei yells his excited greetings to her about three inches from her nose - "Hi! Hi!"

the first couple of days... boy does she love to be swaddled TIGHTLY. it is amazing how she will work so hard to get out of it and then scream b/c she got loose. so much of a child's behavior reminds me of my behavior with God. He is so patient with us.

meeting great - grandma kathleen for the first time.

after her first sponge bath... she really loves baths - she hasn't cried during any of them. i am thankful for the baby tub now that her umbilical cord stump fell off. it is so much easier to emerse her and do it all quickly before she gets cold.

we have definantly gotten our use out of our pool passes this summer at the neighborhood pool. alexei loves the water and it is so fun to watch him play in the baby pool. he likes the big pool somewhat, but loves running around where he can reach. he has started to go underwater and is doing good about holding his breath. maybe next summer we can do swim classes with him.

this was a couple of days after we got home. anya hung out with a fan blowing in the garage while nick, alexei and i had fun washing our cars and spraying each other. again, this was before it got too hot. i sure miss those days.

alexei liked washing the top of the car especially. never has my CRV been so clean on the roof. we should have just tied a sponge to his diaper.

the airplane has continued to evolve. it is now painted to match the buran russian space shuttle, a propeller that turns, an extended life battery so they can go further in their explorations of the neighborhood and has an MP3 player that plays Abba songs and alexei's all time favorite song, "life is a highway" sung by rascal flatts as heard in the movie "cars" (another alexei favorite). below they are eating peanut butter and jelly while cruising around the brushy creek water park. anytime we are in a public place with the buran, kids come out of the woodwork and alexei is getting really good about sharing his toy most of the time. it's like a really cool and original carnival ride. :)

alexei loves to bring toys for anya. he puts them on her stomach and gets really upset if i try to move them. he was feeling especially generous on this day.

another afternoon at the pool.

how sweet is that?

on alexei's actual birthday, we decided to go check out the austin zoo. we had never been before. it was pretty warm, but we enjoyed seeing everything. he especially liked the choo choo train.

alexei @ 2 years and anya @ 2 weeks. i am so blessed.

after we returned from the zoo, we pulled out the fingerpaints for the first time and alexei had a blast.

he and daddy had fun customizing the boran - as if it wasn't original enough ;)

alexei LOVES hanging out with grandma. she has been so helpful coming over almost every day for a little while after work. it is so nice right before dinner time to have an extra pair of hands to entertain, hold and give me a little break.

we love it when grandpa stops by on his days off to swing, color, go to the pool or play basketball. we are so blessed to have them so closeby.

little smiles.

alexei is starting to try out riding a bicycle. we try it for a few minutes and then he'll get frusterated so we'll put it away for a few days and try again. he is getting pretty good at it. it has been so much fun seeing him learn so many new things lately.

Father's day - those are 2 amazing dads. i am so thankful for the role models my kids have. not many are so blessed as they are.

here is the christmas hat again :) alexei had woken up from his nap and started to explore his drawers. when i went into his room to bring him downstairs, he had pulled out his christmas hat and a swimsuit and wanted to put them on. he wore them a good bit of the afternoon and i couldn't resist getting a picture.

it is suprising to me how expressive anya is already. i had heard that girls have alot more facial expressions than boys and i am already seeing it. though, alexei can be pretty darn expressive himself.

this is one of my favorites. ;)

congratulations! you just survived a recap of the last 10 1/2 months of our lives! thanks for caring enough to get through all of that. hopefully i can post again before another year flies by. ;) we'll just have to wait and see about that. :) signing off.

9 months later...

ok, so you know that blogging was not as high on my priority list as naps were when i was pregnant :) so here is a super quick update. i will try to post pictures of highlights of our family's time together throughout the pregnancy if i have a chance.

the pregnancy:

went smoothly, although i did get to experience the joys of major acid reflux, sciatica and more back pain - none of which i had as badly with alexei's pregnancy. i was spoiled the first time around. the only concern was that at anya's 36 week ultrasound they noticed that her left ventricle in her brain is dilated and they had us go to a perinatologist a couple of times to keep an eye on that. we just had another ultrasound on her brain done this morning and found out that they are not concerned about her ventricle being enlarged - they are calling it normal. praise God! thank you to those of you who were praying wtih us!

the birth:

went very smoothly, was 6 hrs long (vs. alexei's 12 hr labor) but felt twice as intense as my labor with alexei. my water broke around 8pm on sunday 5/24/09, more intense contractions started around 10pm, and we got to the hospital at 2am. i was bummed to find out i was only 4cm and 80% effaced (i had been 3cm and 50% effaced since thursday) after 4 hrs of intense contractions, but we progressed quickly and within 2 hours we were starting to push. i guess the nurses didn't quite understand when i was telling them that i went fast when we got the end of labor with alexei - they were rushing to find any random OBGYN who could catch anya. thankfully they made it just in time - 12 minutes, 3 contractions and some intense pushing later, anya nikolaevna vyssotskaya arrived weighing in at 7lbs. 11oz. and 20 inches long.

big brother alexei, grandma, grandpa, aunt kristin and uncle john all came to meet miss anya and welcome her into the family. this is their first viewing right after anya's first bath.

mommy getting some snuggles from her little buddy.

first face to face meeting for the siblings. alexei is cautiously optimistic. :) he immediately showered her with about 10 kisses and pointed out her ears, eyes, nose and mouth. the true test comes when we take her home this afternoon. i appreciate any prayers for a smooth transition to a foursome at home. :)

this was taken right after my water broke and we realized anya was on her way to join us!

sharing the good news!

is that a smile?

thank you for caring and being a part of our lives! i'll do my best to keep the updates coming.

mommy vyssotski signing off to try to add to my 3 hrs of sleep within the last 48hrs or so. :)

update on the past 4 + months

so, it's been a while since we have updated :) sorry about that! we have had quite a bit going on. on the beach trip with the family i last blogged about in september, nick and i found out we are expecting our second little munchkin. we have since learned that it is a very active little girl! we are pretty sure we are naming her anya nikolaevna (middle name is the traditional russian daughter of nikolai) and we are super excited as we anticipate her arrival around may 27th.

i've posted alot of pics in an attempt to fill you in on some highlights - i'll try to keep it brief. first are some pics from the family trip to portaransas - i had bought the big brother shirt a month or two before we got pregnant in a large size hoping we would be getting pregnant soon and wanting to let nick know by seeing how long it took him to notice alexei's shirt. it took a couple of hours - but he was excited when he did realize the significance. :)

alexei and daddy had a ball together - though here they both look pretty intense as they are focusing on molding perfect crab, shell and sea horse sand art. :)

digging to china- alexei was pretty amazed by this.

nick, alexei and i had a few days together before my parents and sister, kristin and brother-in-law, john joined us for the rest of the week. we really enjoyed our time together.

i am pretty sure the point of this tent is to keep alexei out of the sun. that didn't really happen as much. he had too much to do in the sand and water to stay put for long.

grandma and alexei hanging out.

all of the guys are in on digging to china now. :) alexei was so focused and a little intimidated by the hole. he was fine as long as he could keep a comfortable distance.

alexei was a monkey for halloween. it was his cousin daniel's outfit last year. he loved his costume. for weeks afterward, if he saw it laying in my room or if he found it in my closet, he would beg to put it on and wouldn't let me take it off until bedtime. even then he wasn't too happy about it. :) it was especially cute when he would bend over and look between his legs at his tail.

alexei still loves bubbles. he gives the best belly laughs ever if you catch him in the right mood when you are playing with him. the simple pleasures in life.

my "knights of spoonafoonia" - you'll have to ask nick about that one. :) another cheap form of entertainment - aluminum foil helmets.

such a guy - skateboarding in diapers - this is as we were about to head home from thanksgiving dinner at uncle jim and aunt judy's. he had a bit of an explosion earlier - thankfully it was warm enough outside:)

this is his first experience with getting to play aunt kristin's harp. he is totally fascinated by music - the harp, guitar, and piano especially.

as is the longstanding family tradition, we went out with my mom's side of the family to elgin tx the weekend after thanksgiving, to pick out a christmas tree at the elgin tree farm. the event includes petting random animals they have there, taking a hay ride to a section of trees where they drop you off to go find the perfect tree (or in our case a 9 ft. crooked tree that took 2 hours to put up in our living room, much modification to a tree stand, and a massive test of nick's patince - they sure look alot smaller out in the middle of a field when you are cold and are trying to hurry) and cut it down, drag it back and load it up on another trailer so you can tie it to the roof of your car. then comes the most important part of the tradition - eating at a BBQ place in elgin on the way home. you know, the kind of place where plates are frowned upon and only butcher paper is the acceptable eating surface ;) mmm so good. nick was a trooper as he ate his veggie burger that was packed for him and his fair share of beans, potato salad and coleslaw. ;)

alexei loves playing at the park. these particular shots are at the central market playground - it was so fun to remember bringing him here for one of his first outings in austin about a year and half ago! time sure does fly.

for christmas, nick built (actually is still building) an airplane for alexei. it started out as a rocker type of toy and then for those of you who know nick you won't be surprised that it had to become mechanized and now it can drive, has a parental control unit, a gas pedal, steering wheel, propeller that turns and trunk that opens. alexei loves driving it especially if other kids are around to admire. such a show off ;)

ooohhh power tools!!! complete dude.

alexei is completely into planes, rockets, balloons, space shuttles, anything that flies pretty much. where do you think he got that from? can we say nick's mini-me? ;)

oh yeh, and choochoos are next up in the coolness ranking.

i couldn't ask for two more fun guys to hang out with every day. i am truly blessed. i have no idea what it will be like adding another little one to the mix, but as interesting as our house stays, i am sure anya will be plenty entertained just watching her daddy and big brother explore, experiment and discover new and exciting things. as active as she is already, i have a feeling she is going to give alexei a run for his money. :)

ok, i am ready for bed. thanks for hanging in there and being patient with me. between morning sicknesstthe first trimester and ongoing occasional punyness (is that a word?) since then and alexei's continual string of sicknesses (we have had croup 2xs and strep once this month so far), i haven't been making blogging much of a priority. always feel free to call or e-mail if you want more regular updates on our lives. :)

blessings.

15 months old!

hey, guys! sorry it has been a couple of months since i posted last. we are doing well. alexei is 15 months old and is starting to say some words: "apple", "rock", & "yogurt" are some of his new ones. funny story about "apple" which was the first word he said really clearly besides "dad", "mo"m" uh-oh", and "wow": we have a couple living with us for a while, the walkers, (they are super sweet) anyways, meagan has a mac computer and alexei went over to it, pointed and said "apple" plain as day with no prompting. it was hilarious, especially given that nick works for dell. :) alexei loves being super active and keeps nick and i laughing with his outgoing and joyful little personality. we are entering the realm of learning how to disipline as needed - he definately has a mind of his own. but he is doing really well overall.
here alexei is with great-grandma and cousin tiffany drawing together.
nick's american parents, bobby and sam came to visit last weekend. we had a really good time together. unfortunately we didn't get a picture of all of us together. we'll make sure and get one at christmas time.
alexei loves shoes and especially his yellow crocks because he can put them on himself...
but sometimes he gets them on the wrong feet. :)

we've been out sailing a couple of times recently and though hesitant at first he really enjoys the experience and being able to get in the lake.


all boy. :) not the last time i will have to clean that window i am sure. ;)
we went rock climbing together for the first time since he was a few months old. it was great to be out and enjoying the company of some dear friends.
his first hair cut was much needed around 14 months - he had a serious mullet going on. he wasn't so much a fan of the whole salon experience. the lady cutting his hair is vangi. she cut my dad's hair for the first time the day i was born and gave me my first hair cut when i was a couple of years old. i was a baldy for a while. so it was fun to take him back to her to get his first haircut.

alexei decided to try running down hill towards a meter cover (like a manhole cover in our front yard) a couple of days after he learned to walk really well. that didn't go so well for him but he was a trooper.
his first knee booboo. he was actually being really tough until i put the bandaid on. he really didn't like the bandaid. what is with that? i though all kids love bandaids? maybe i need the cartoon ones. does that make it better?

our little wild man ;) sprinklers, mud, sticks, puddles... what more could a little boy ask for?
my little buddy.
he has such a funny little sense of humor. i love his expressions! he keeps us laughing all the time.
he loves to wait on the other side of the door for you to open it and say peek-a-boo. he hasn't learned to turn the doorknob yet - that will be a whole new world to look forward to. :)

we are about to head down to corpus christi for a week's vacation. it'll be just the three of us until thursday and then my parents and aunt kristin and uncle john will be joining us through sunday. i am really excited to get some good family time together.

i will post more after that.

thanks for your patience with me and for caring about our family!

- morgan

alexei at 13 months - installment #3

our third set of photos from alexei's 13th month ;)
here he is learning to slide with grandpa. grandma and grandpa got him this cool little slide that can be indoor or outdoor for his birthday. right now it's gracing their formal living room - the mark of a true grandparent house. :)

here is alexei taking some of his first steps! he just started walking since july 4th. first with a push walker that dad's side of the family gave him for his birthday ( a pooh bear train) which he absolutely loves, and then the next day he decided to try to walk on his own. two days ago he started walking around alot - like rather than crawling. he had been taking maybe 8-10 steps to me or nick, but now he is cruising, actually more like running all over the place. i think he decided to skip the walking part. i wonder who his daddy is? ;)
this morning he heard nick talking in the kitchen and said "da da" for the first time and walked in and found him. he kept saying da da when he was with him, it was really cute. he has been saying mama for a few months but besides that, "uh-oh" was his only other word and he just started saying that when he dropped things a couple of weeks ago.

here is daddy pulling alexei around the backyard. we have a little "hill" in our backyard he loves to roll down. he has only flipped over once. ask nick about that. ;) he was fine.

if you look closely, you can see his first tooth on the bottom left. he got that on 6/20/08 - i think he is working hard on his second one.

he is starting to gain weight again. he lost a lot while he was on the first two rounds of antibiotics for a nasty ear infection we have been fighting for a month. he didn't want to eat any solids, just nurse. thankfully during this third round we are almost finished with, he still has an appetite and his stomach isn't as upset. since he had the hand foot and mouth disease over his birthday weekend, he has had another cold, was healthy for a week or so and then got this ear infection that has been crazy persistent. please pray that he will totally heal b/c if it isn't totally cleared up when we go back to the pediatrician next week we either need to go see an allergist to see if he is truly allergic to penacillin drugs (he had a reaction to amoxacillin when he was 8 months old) so we can have more options to treat him with in the future if he isn't allergic, or to an ENT to see if we need to do anything more serious. this is only his second ear infection - it's just lasted a month. poor little guy. it's hard to tell what is teething and what is ear infection at this point b/c he holds his ear when he is teething as well. thus the check up next week.
ok, i need to publish this series of installments and go get him. he's playing around in his crib. short nap today. bummer. :) thanks again for keeping up with our little lives.

alexei at 13 months - installment #2

ok. so our second set of 4 photos from picassa:
we had so much fun at our new parent's sunday school class picnic at brushy creek water park! the sprinklers pop up out of the ground and the kids can run/crawl around and the parents can stay cool too! and it's free - even better! :)

our water baby. :)

this is alexei in his little car that his play group friends pitched in and got him together at his surprise birthday party i mentioned earlier. he loves riding in it. his feet can't quite reach long enough to propel himself, so nick put a bungee cord in the bottom and alexei has learned to prop his feet on top of it so they don't get caught underneath. smart kid. i am not at all biased. ;)

i have some more pics of him with daddy pulling him in the car i'll try and post in the next set of 4. thanks for your patience and bearing with me :)