more pics...

during the month where alexei wasn't wanting to eat, we were attempting all sorts of methods to see if we could get him interested without force feeding. alexei wanted to suck on nick's apple, but didn't want us to put a spoonful of applesauce in his mouth. i think it's because we were sticking syringes with antibiotic, antidiarrheal meds, and occasionally motrin into his little mouth he didn't want anything being inserted any more. thankfully he got over that phase and is chowing down and i think putting on some weight.
this is at the beach when we had a windy, cool day and nick enjoyed his valentines/anniversary gift of a joystick to fly helicopters in battlefield 1942 computer game. you can tell they are both into it. ;)
alexei loves pulling up and in order to keep him from bonking quite as frequently, we took the lid off of the ottomon and put him in it along with some fuzzy friends. alexei loves his stuffed animals and is rarely seen without a stuffed animal or small plastic person clenched in his little fist.
he loves watching kids and cars go by through our low front window. perfect kid spot.

this was alexei's first movie theatre outing. :) at alamo drafthouse they have baby day on tuesdays so moms can take their little guys and people don't freak out if they make noises. alexei was fascinated for the first 10 minutes or so, then we were trying every trick to keep him occupied besides pulling on a friend's sweater on one side of us or yanking off the socks of his little friend on our other side. the last half hour or so i stood up with him in the back. i think we'll wait a few years before we attempt that again. but these are his buddies from church. they were all born within a few months of each other. alexei is the oldest by 4 weeks. it will be so fun watching them grow up together. ok, that's all for now! have a good night!

and it's march...

ok - i have obviously let go of my original intent to post weekly, but hey, nothing is wrong with monthly, right?;)

we are doing well, but it has been a whirlwind month. alexei had his first cold which turned into an ear infection. so that was three weeks worth of ickiness - three pediatricians visits, an ER visit due to a reaction to the first antibiotic, and 2 antibiotics later, he is a healthy little guy again. :) it seemed like a really long month with not a lot of sleep, but i am reminded again of how blessed we are that a cold and ear infection is all we were dealing with. God has been so gracious to us.

almost 9 months and still no teeth. dang it. poor little guy is really having a tough time with those chompers. we appreciate teeth prayers - i am sure God hears them;)

nick took me and alexei down to portaransas for our 2nd anniversary a couple of weeks ago. we had a great time together although alexei was in the midst of antibiotic, diarrhea, and major diaper rash, so none of us got a lot of sleep, though he did finally start getting interested in solids again after deciding not to eat any for a month or so. now he wants to eat like 3 times a day. gotta love those carrots, bannanas and oatmeal;)
with the weather being as nice as it has, we spend as much of our days outside as we can. we love our new house being so close to the hike and bike trail, park and grandma and grandpa's house. alexei officially started crawling on all fours a couple of weeks ago after army crawling since christmas day. now he has developed a pseudo bear crawl type of deal which is really funny to watch. i think he is just trying to figure out the fastest way to get around. oh boy!
nick bought him his first remote control car last night:) alexei has so much fun chasing it around the house, but i think nick has even more fun driving;) nick also made him his first cardboard box tunnel which wind around our living room and has made residence for a few weeks now. we have so much fun crawling through there with alexei chasing us and laughing his cute little head off. i love his laugh! i think it is the best sound in the whole world. he is so ticklish and loves to give and receive raspberries. he is exploring all sorts of noises with his mouth and has discovered his tongue. he loves it if you mimick his noises or facial expressions - very easily entertained when it comes to bodily noises;) i need to figure out how to help him not to squeal so loud when he is so excited to see other babies his age. he has a group of buddies (i am friends with their mommies) and we hang out every week or two, but when he greets them with a shriek, he has made several of them cry because it startles them so much. he is such a social butterfly in a very masculine sort of way. he is pulling up (and occasionally falling off of) every thing he can possibly get his little hands on. it is so sad seeing those first ouchies show up. but he takes it like a man. i am so thankful there have not been any serious accidents yet with as active and curious as he is.
i am tired, so i am going to post some pics and hit the pillow. nick and i are trying to get him to sleep through the night/put himself to sleep again after his sleep scheduale was totally messed up while he wasn't feeling good and we were going up to comfort him and give him meds and put him back to sleep. last night was successful, we are hoping for the same tonight. so in review, ladies and gentlemen, your homework assignment is sleep and teeth prayers. ;) much appreciated.
hanging out on our back porch. alexei loves to be outside and pays attention to every little detail, a butterfly across the yard, the wind blowing leaves across the porch... he wants to know how everything works and focuses very intently on anything he is studying.

can we say "messy"? this is the first time he wanted to eat after a few weeks where he was n't interested in eating solids. it was so nice outside i took him in the backyard to attempt to feed him and he obviously took to it ok - he is wearing sweet potatoes, banannas, pears, rice cereal and i believe carrots. and he is working on a teething biscuit and obviously thinks he has conquered it. ;)do you notice the light shining down on the leaf? at least that is how alexei sees it. he will ignore all of his cute toys if there is a good leaf to hold and crunch and eventually attempt to eat if mom isn't quick enough.daddy and alexei in their tunnel. the first of many i would imagine.there are a few more pics i want to post but for some reason it won't let me. i'll just add them in a seperate entry. thanks for reading!