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!

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!

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!