wow, it's already february!

time is flying by at the vyssotski house. is it in yours, or is it just us? ;) it is so hard to believe that alexei is going to be 8 months old in a few more days and it's been over a month since i last posted! sorry about that!

we are doing well, nothing hugely new and exciting. alexei is getting much more adept at moving around, army crawling, pulling up on furniture or whoever is close by, getting up on his hands and knees - but still drops to army crawl position when he wants to take off after something across the way. we are having to start saying "no" alot more frequently. it's amazing the things that they reach for! why can't they reach for a toy or something safe rather than the wires, pulling off the bottom of the fridge, eating paper and all sorts of other wonderful things?

we are STILL working on getting our first tooth. man, i am so ready for that thing to come through. it really bothers him, sometimes he gets a low fever, he has fluid behind his eardrums from the runny nose from the teething. i took him into the pediatrician to see if it was an ear infection b/c alexei started holding his ears and fussing, and she said that it's not infected but that there is fluid there which causes uncomfortable pressure. stink. poor little guy. we've already gone through two bottles of baby motrin over the last month or so. so all that to say, please pray for his little chompers to come through, we would all really appreciate it.

he still manages to maintain his happy disposition and loves to talk to strangers. :) we'll have to cross that bridge later on, but for now it's lots of fun with mommy right next to him. he especially likes the nice cashier lady at HEB.

i started going to women's bible study on wednesday mornings at the church and so he had his first long morning in nursery. he did great! we started putting him in nursery when he was six months old for one hour at church on sunday morning while we go to the sermon and then take him with us in the ergo carrier (back pack thingy) to sunday school and usually he'll take a nap for about 45 minutes which is better than the no nap he would get being the social little bug that he is when he is playing with other kiddos.

ok, i am getting tired and i need to get some more stuff done before i hit the sack tonight, so here are some pics from this past month:

our good friends, patrick, kim and moyer stayed with us for a week in early january. we had so much fun together and it was so fun watching the boys (2 + months apart) playing together. moyer definantly had a big impact on alexei's interest in becoming more mobile. this is the only picture i could find of them looking the same direction. they were always on the move- strap them into their car seats and they don't have a choice! ;)

notice the cell phone in many of these pictures - it was his favorite christmas present from grandma and grandpa. he loves cell phones and remotes - such a guy!
this is over at kris and eryn's house when we got to have dinner with some friends of ours. daddy knows all of the tickle spots. :)hanging out with our sweet friend, kaitlanthis is the sunday morning a couple of weeks ago when we had alexei dedicated in church. the point of the baby dedications is to recognize and hand back to God the huge blessing He has given to us in giving us Alexei. he doesn't belong to us, we are just stewards for the time being and we want to raise him while keeping that in mind. we were so excited to have kristin and john join us from dallas and my mom and dad, who dedicated me on that same stage 22 years ago and kristin 24 years ago. God is indeed faithful! of course the one morning you really want to get to church early with alexei looking his finest, he had two poop explosions and threw up carrots all over his cute outfit as soon as daddy dressed him. so this outfit was plan b as we were running out the door. that's the kind of morning you are just having to laugh on your way to church when seemingly everything goes wrong. but we got there in time and he didn't flip out on stage or anything:)

daddy reading lermontov's poems at bedtime. alexei loves listening to nick's voice reading russian. i have got to start learning more!alexei started to get interested in his swing again. he likes to pull up on it and try to climb into it. once i put him in there, he was staring at all of the stuffed animals i had displaced from the swing so he could get in. he wasn't happy until they were all in his lap. he then started smiling at each animal and giving them kisses, especially the big bear that far far and far mor gave him for christmas. :)can we say, "teething"? ;) so excited to be able to pull up and reach everything on the table - oh no! the centerpiece is now on a top shelf - gotta start raising the level of baby proofing!

i took alexei out to our friend eryn's barn so we could meet her horse fancy and her new colt prince caspian. such a sweetie pie! it was a gorgeous day to relax out there with the horses and a jillion dogs. alexei loved it! alexei with "aunt" eryn meeting the other horses at the stables. ok guys, thanks for hanging in there! hope ya'll are doing well!
take care!

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!

nick's american family at thanksgiving

the boys playing battlefield at thanksgiving :)

alexei's hat

6 months old!

hey everyone! hope this finds ya'll doing well! we made it back from west virginia and have been enjoying getting more settled in to our new home, preparing for Christmas and enjoying life with a six month old! alexei's current stats: 16 1/2 lbs. (40 %), 28 1/2" long (95%) and an average head ;) (although i think there is nothing average about his little head - proud mommy ;) two days after he turned six months old he started to sit on his own for 10 + minutes without falling over, and he got his cute little bootie up in the air when he was scootching around - another step closer to crawling ;) he has been enjoing playing with his first truck which i gave him on his 6 month birthday. he loves his little pyramid of rings - you know the fischer price toy that has been around for a few generations :) he absolutely loves to play peek-a-boo especially when daddy is holding him standing on the one of bottom stairs and mommy hides behind the wall and we both jump up at the same time and yell peek-a -boo!! and alexei laughs so hard that his little face turns all red and daddy and i can't stop laughing either! ah, the simple joys of children - our lives have lightened up so much since we have had alexei. i think i have smiled and laughed more in the last six months than i have in my entire life combined. God is so good to us. :)

we'll be home this christmas so i am excited about that.

here are some pics of the last couple of weeks.

this is alexei getting his first big teddy bear from far- far(sam) and far- mor (bobby) (grandpa and grandma in swedish) at our early christmas gift exchange while we were up there for thanksgiving.

the three grandkids - alexei, benjamin, and the newest one on the scene elsa with alexei's aunt monica.oooh it is so cooold here! sam's sister elizabeth made matching hats for the three grandkids - they were a big hit. the other pics that were posted individually on here were from our time in west virginia also, i got them off of bobby's website.all bundled up! alexei konked out at the airport after waking (us) up every hour on the hour and then needing to be up at 2:30 am austin time to make it to the airport. don't know if it was from teething or what b/c he had done great all week up there. but man were we pooped with a grand total of about 2.5 hrs of sleep in nap size bits throughout the night.
these are all of alexei's little tummy mates - the kids whose parents were in the same bradley (natural childbirth) class. we had a reunion last week. and guess what came in the next few seconds...he turned immediately to whitney and started to give her multiple wet alexei kisses on her little cheek! all of us parents died laughing, but i think whitney's daddy got a little worried. :)in continuation of our annual tradition (19 years running) we went with my mom's side of the family to a nearby little town called elgin which has a christmas tree farm. we always meet up, ride out there together, take a picture on a pile of hay in front of a bunch of farm animals, go on a hay ride, hunt for the best christmas tree, cut it down, bag it, load it on the car and go to elgin for some excellent BBQ. gotta love tradition! :) it's the kick off of christmas every year. so here we are introducing alexei to it.most of the gang. cousins, an aunt, great uncles and aunts, grandma (alexei's great grandma), my parents and some friends, all pile in for the traditional family picture.alexei's first hay ride. he sure loves anything that goes. all boy! the first vyssotski family christmas tree - we didn't have one last year since we were in WV."what was that?"on the way home from elgin we stopped by our old place (which we rented out finally, praise God!) to get a family picture together in front of it. good baby book picture. :) hopefully we'll get one together in front of the new house before long.and the grand finale - ya'll are awesome for hanging in there this long! lots to catch you up on. we gave alexei his first "solid food" this morning! this is the sequence of faces in reaction to the rice cereal. :)

"should i trust you?"

"i don't know about this...""hey, that's not so bad""what's next?!" he only took about three spoonfuls then started making more icky faces and turning away, so we figured we'll build up gradually as he gets used to it. :) thanks for caring and sharing in our lives! have a merry christmas and may God bless you and yours richly with a happy new year!