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 :)

alexei 13 months - installment #1

[sorry the order didn't work out at all. i tried to post it backwards so the first would be first, but apparently it posts by time you created it. i don't know. sorry for the goof up. hopefully it will be better next time. :) ]
hello, everyone! we just got picassa so i am trying to figure out how to post photos from there, and it won't let me do more than 4 at a time. i don't know what i am doing. so you'll get a couple of posts today. don't complain, it's better than nothing. i was about to do one photo per post so 4 is an improvement. ;)
so alexei had his birthday, y'all saw those pics already. we really enjoyed hanging out with my dad's side of the family that weekend. you see them here (lft to right top row) uncle mark, grandpa matt, aunt candy (bottom row) great grandma, grandma katy, aunt zo and the three of us. we hung out at the marina and at the oasis with them the afternoon of alexei's and really enjoyed the beautiful weather.

alexei loves the swimming pool! he and daddy have so much fun together! i'd imagine in just a few years alexei will be doing his own laps in this swim lane. :)

alexei's little play group friends threw him a surprise party (really the moms did;) since they couldn't come to his party since he was sick with hand foot and mouth disease. this is the same playgroup that came out of the square one new moms group that jan henegar started at our church last fall. alexei is the oldest out of the bunch by about a month. left to right is logan, kaitlan(our neighbor friend), molly, alexei, abram, and bailey. it is so fun seeing them grow up together! this first year really flew by! alexei doesn't like hats. :)

alexei loves when daddy puts him in boxes or bags and "drives" him around. he is still a little sleepy here. :)

ok. i'll post another 4 photos. :) sorry. eventually i'll get this figured out.

alexei just turned one!

hello everyone! we've had a crazy past couple of months. we've been sick the majority of six weeks with strange and wonderful things which i won't bore you with the details. alexei is at the tail end of his second cold in that time span so hopefully this will be the end of it for a while.

we had a birthday party for alexei on 6/7/08 though he was actually born on 6/8, but it was really sad b/c since he had the hand, foot and mouth disease, we had to uninvite all of his little buddies 2 and under from our playgroup at the pediatricians recommendation, although adults were supposed to have been exposed to it alot, so they were ok to come. we still had fun with my extended family there. however, i must not have been exposed to it when i was younger or didn't have enough antibodies or something, b/c i got it the morning of his party. we were staying at my parents house that week b/c our AC was out for a little over a week. they were super helpful with alexei and getting everything going for the party. i think alexei still had a good time and he got some neat little toys and new books which i am especially thankful for as i have memorized all of his old ones after reading them multiple times every day. i am sure you know how that goes. :)

alexei still has no teeth, though his two bottom ones look like they could erupt at any moment - though they have looked like that for a while now. oh well.

he is standing really well on his own and occassionally takes a step as he is reaching for something, though he hasn't let loose to walk yet.

he is in the 80% for his height but has dropped down to the 5% for weight. the dr. said it is probably no big deal - that it is just how he is built, but wants to do some blood work just to make sure everything is ok.

here are some pics of the last couple of months. my friend caryn took these pics of alexei when he was 11 months.

we went camping with my dad over memorial day weekend. alexei loves the lake!

this is alexei's little playgroup that came out of our square one new moms group. these little guys have been together since the beginning. it has been such a blessing to us.our munchkin:)cousin tiffany made the birthday cake and nick and i decorated it - tiffany taught us how. :)alexei's birthday party with our family.big number one!"i am not so sure about all of this hooplah""this is a lot bigger chunk of food than they usually give me to eat"alexei ended up handing the cake to daddy so he could feed him. this is his first taste of sugar. he ate the whole piece!

cousin key will gave alexei an elmo electric guitar. we have alot of fun with it.this is alexei's actual birthday. my dad's side of the family were visiting my aunt in san antonio and came up for the day. we celebrated with steaks, potatoes, salad and drove out to the marina and enjoyed sunset at the oasis. lots of good family time! here he is cooling off in the pool in the front yard with grandma and great grandma.it's official! i am one year old! we are so blessed to have him! thanks for being a part of our lives!

sorry it's been a while...

...since i last had a chance to write we have had 2 birthday parties (nick and mine) and all the planning that entails, a great trip to colorado so i could be in my dear friend's wedding, alexei and i have both been down with some kind of virus deal, we took our first camping trip as a family of three, i got to help host baby showers for two sweet friends (one of them had her baby last week - oh so cute. definantly makes me think about wanting another one before too too long. ;), and we have had so many fun times with our wonderful sunday school class, the new parent's class - it has become a huge chunk of my life. alexei is still working on his teething (still no teeth.). i wouldn't mind so much that he doesn't have teeth, but that he seems to be really uncomfortable so much of the time. his little teeth have been right under the surface of his gum for a couple of months now and he has been holding his ears and fussing. i took him to his pediatrician yesterday to make sure it wasn't another ear infection, but she said he looks totally fine, that it is probably just the teething. i am so thankful for baby motrin. and for antibiotics. i have mastitis again. stink. what did they do before they had antibiotics?

ok, so that was probably more info than you wanted. on to more interesting things...

alexei is 10 1/2 months old now - wow, does time fly by or what? he is such a sweet heart. he is really getting into reading books, he loves turning the pages and on the one lift the flap book that we have (my dear friend, becky, gave it to him for christmas) - "dear zoo" he is really good about opening the flaps and knows which direction each one opens. he gets really excited every time a flap is lifted and does his suck in- squeal-whole body stiffens up move that only alexei can do when he is excited. :) his other favorite book of the month is "the very quiet cricket". every time we get to the last page where the quiet cricket finally is able to make his beautiful sound when he sees a cute girl cricket, alexei dies laughing every stinkin' time. it is hilarious. on a long day we'll just sit there and read that book a couple of times and then we'll resort to just rereading the last two pages so we get the effect when you come to the last page. it is just as much for my entertainment as it is for his.

nick hung my birthday present in the trees in our backyard. my parents got me this really cool canopy covered swing that is supposed to just swing peacefully on your porch. you all know what those look like. well, mine apparently wasn't exciting enough and needed to be improved. (as do most things in our house. ;) nick had already climbed two of our 40 ft. trees in our backyard with his rockclimbing gear and strapped an anchor to branches way up there to pass an old climbing rope he had through a clip so two ropes now hang down between the trees just waiting for fun to be had. we have clipped alexei's johnny jumper to it which he loves, because it becomes a swing/bouncer and with a pull on the rope that is in nick's hands, alexei can soar up 6 ft or so. he seems to really love it and gets super excited every time he gets in it. i must say he did get kind of quiet at the end of last night's jumping session, was looking around and when nick thought it would be good to get him out so we could get him ready for bed, he threw up. that's right. what kind of parents are we? ;) he still had a smile on his face when they came in from the back yard while i was getting dinner on the table, and he still was really excited, so he doesn't seem any worse for the wear, but i think we will have to tame down our jumping sessions a little bit. :) so back to what i started to say earlier with the ropes hanging from the trees and my birthday present... in case you haven't already guessed it. nick hung my swing up between the trees. at first, i lacked the vision that is second nature to nick. i wondered why a perfectly good porch swing needed to be improved upon. but i must say it is pretty cool. you can swing back and forth under the trees very smoothly and it is really relaxing. nick has mentioned attaching it to bungie cords of some sort, but i don't know about that.

current alexei tricks include: being able to pull up and squat down quite proficiently, he tries to stand on his own and can stay up for a few seconds before grabbing for something to help steady himself, he is crawling like a speed racer, can make every sound known to man and then some (truly a guy), has attempted climbing stairs (thankfully we were there), absolutely loves balloons and is really good at grabbing them by their "belly buttons" so he can drag it around the house with him at all times, loves to dance to the music (really just bouncing up and down) with his little fisher price kitchen/living room toy thing i got on sale a few weeks ago, loves carrying around little stuffed animals - especially a little yellow chick i got in a baby basket along with a Dell onesie (they sure like to take over every area of your lives, huh? they even want to put their logo on your cute baby's chest;) . he loves to be tickled and thinks that dad is the coolest thing on earth. he was wearing his red t-shirt that says "my dad is my hero" yesterday that melinda cassidy gave to us when he was born. definantly suits him.

ok, so let me put some pics up here and explain them before alexei wakes up from his nap.

these are a few pics from our trip to portaransas in february. i know i already told you about that trip last time, but since then i finally got the pics off of our camcorder and can post them as well. so here you go. alexei is enjoying his second beach experience. his first was when he was four months old and we went with my family down to the coast, but he was much more active and could enjoy it more this time around.
we got to go up to colorado springs for my sweet friend, danita's wedding. i was one of her bridesmaids and nick was a champ for being willing to do super daddy duty during the rehearsal and wedding. we were hoping to go up to breckenridge so nick could ski, but a bad snow storm was on the radar so we decided to stay in denver for a couple of nights. we ended up having a great time with nick's american brother ryan and his girlfriend, dawn. we went to the denver zoo. i really like it. we went last year during spring break when we went up with my parents and kristin and john. i was pregnant with alexei, but this was his first time to the zoo outside of my tummy. :) you can tell he is pretty excited to be there.that's uncle ryan to the left with the beard. we love uncle ryan. :)here is aunt kristin with alexei in the swing before it got hung in the trees.trying out some fun tongue twisting moves. on his first camping trip, hanging out with his buddy, katherine. she is just a few weeks older than alexei. he did really well and slept all the way through the night. in fact, he slept better than nick and i did. :) i would love to do it again soon. we went with three other families from our sunday school class and loved getting to spend some good time hanging out and getting to know each other better.the boys wrestling on the floor after a long workday.the bouncy seat in the trees - you can see how it is rigged now. this is before he threw up. "what are these wierd things they insist on putting on my feet?" this was right before nick took him outside last night. alexei definantly prefers to be barefoot. ok, folks. that is all for now. thanks for caring!