happy new year!

hello, everyone! i pray this finds you doing well and refreshed after the holiday season! we had a wonderful christmas here in austin with my family. it was so nice having nick home from work for a week (thanks, Dell!) and being able to just hang out, watch some movies, get lots of projects done around the house and enjoy lots of quality family time.
new years eve was quiet with just the three of us. we enjoyed dinner with our friends the sanchez' and alexei crashing at 7pm.not having a TV, we just watched a movie and enjoyed a quiet evening together. first time i have not watched the ball drop in NY in i don't know how many years. i trust it did though ;)
new years day has been good, except for the part where i got rear ended coming home from running some errands. i was so thankful that nick had alexei at home - that would have scared me to have him in the car with me. i am ok, just sore. one of those deals where on a right turn the person behind you assumes you are going while you are waiting for the other cars to clear. but it could have been a whole lot worse. his car was totaled, but thankfully, i think mine is just going to need the bumper replaced. we'll find out.
alexei has been so much fun these last few weeks. he started scooting around much more on christmas day which was fun. he can get across the room pretty quick now! definitely a new phase of baby proofing. he gets his butt up in the air some of the time, but other times it is still more of an army crawl. but he is getting a whole lot more proficient at it. if there is something across the room (particularly if he sees a wire - oh no!) he will crawl across anything in his way to get to it, including you if you happen to be lying in his path.
he is eating solids now - so far his menu includes: rice cereal (he likes it alot better if it's mixed with another pretried food), sweet potatoes, carrots, bananas and we tried avocado but that was a definite no judging by his facial expressions and gagging reflex. :) we'll try it again in another month or so. man, do poopies change! stinky!
he got some really fun toys for christmas. grandma katy struck gold when she got him a little cell phone that lights up and plays different tunes with each key you press - he even holds it up to his ear - how did he figure that out! kids are crazy observant.
ok - i need to head to bed. sadly nick goes back to work tomorrow and "normal life" kicks back in.
may God bless your families richly in the new year!
here are some pics to get you started off with a smile.

nick came into the kitchen where i was preparing for an outreach/get to know your neighbors type of christmas brunch that we co hosted with some friends and had put alexei in this christmas bowl. thankfully the camera was nearby. :)

he loves his bath time! watch out, b/c everyone gets soaked with this little splasher!
who needs a spoon?
nick is quite creative about entertainment apparatuses when he needs to accomplish something while on baby duty. we have had a wooden duck hung by it's pull string, a stuffed bear tied under the armpits, a giraffe hung by it's neck and an aquarium fish music thingy tied up all by various strings in nick's office (and at one point suspended from an empty wrapping paper roll hanging above his bouncy seat) just within arms reach of alexei, so he gets the added entertainment of not only jumping in his bouncy seat, but having moving targets to try to grasp as they fly past him. will he have issues when he grows up? is it considered baby torture to always make it nearly impossible to play with the toys that are arms reach away? he sure gets excited when he does get a hold of one of his toys.
he is doing really well with sitting, although...
we still have occasional accidents - notice he is still smiling and in essentially the same position. :)but a smooth recovery was in order ;)christmas eve at great-great uncle bob and great-great aunt muriel's with grandpa matt.helping grandma open her gifts! aunt kristin is so much fun!enjoying our new back yard! it has been fantastic weather here the past few days. he loves being outside!grandpa went sailing with us a few days ago - alexei liked it a whole lot better than he did on his last trip when he was 2 weeks old. ;) he had fun steering the rudder with grandpa. a born sailor. ;)happy new year!