9 months later...

ok, so you know that blogging was not as high on my priority list as naps were when i was pregnant :) so here is a super quick update. i will try to post pictures of highlights of our family's time together throughout the pregnancy if i have a chance.

the pregnancy:

went smoothly, although i did get to experience the joys of major acid reflux, sciatica and more back pain - none of which i had as badly with alexei's pregnancy. i was spoiled the first time around. the only concern was that at anya's 36 week ultrasound they noticed that her left ventricle in her brain is dilated and they had us go to a perinatologist a couple of times to keep an eye on that. we just had another ultrasound on her brain done this morning and found out that they are not concerned about her ventricle being enlarged - they are calling it normal. praise God! thank you to those of you who were praying wtih us!

the birth:

went very smoothly, was 6 hrs long (vs. alexei's 12 hr labor) but felt twice as intense as my labor with alexei. my water broke around 8pm on sunday 5/24/09, more intense contractions started around 10pm, and we got to the hospital at 2am. i was bummed to find out i was only 4cm and 80% effaced (i had been 3cm and 50% effaced since thursday) after 4 hrs of intense contractions, but we progressed quickly and within 2 hours we were starting to push. i guess the nurses didn't quite understand when i was telling them that i went fast when we got the end of labor with alexei - they were rushing to find any random OBGYN who could catch anya. thankfully they made it just in time - 12 minutes, 3 contractions and some intense pushing later, anya nikolaevna vyssotskaya arrived weighing in at 7lbs. 11oz. and 20 inches long.

big brother alexei, grandma, grandpa, aunt kristin and uncle john all came to meet miss anya and welcome her into the family. this is their first viewing right after anya's first bath.

mommy getting some snuggles from her little buddy.

first face to face meeting for the siblings. alexei is cautiously optimistic. :) he immediately showered her with about 10 kisses and pointed out her ears, eyes, nose and mouth. the true test comes when we take her home this afternoon. i appreciate any prayers for a smooth transition to a foursome at home. :)

this was taken right after my water broke and we realized anya was on her way to join us!

sharing the good news!

is that a smile?

thank you for caring and being a part of our lives! i'll do my best to keep the updates coming.

mommy vyssotski signing off to try to add to my 3 hrs of sleep within the last 48hrs or so. :)

update on the past 4 + months

so, it's been a while since we have updated :) sorry about that! we have had quite a bit going on. on the beach trip with the family i last blogged about in september, nick and i found out we are expecting our second little munchkin. we have since learned that it is a very active little girl! we are pretty sure we are naming her anya nikolaevna (middle name is the traditional russian daughter of nikolai) and we are super excited as we anticipate her arrival around may 27th.

i've posted alot of pics in an attempt to fill you in on some highlights - i'll try to keep it brief. first are some pics from the family trip to portaransas - i had bought the big brother shirt a month or two before we got pregnant in a large size hoping we would be getting pregnant soon and wanting to let nick know by seeing how long it took him to notice alexei's shirt. it took a couple of hours - but he was excited when he did realize the significance. :)

alexei and daddy had a ball together - though here they both look pretty intense as they are focusing on molding perfect crab, shell and sea horse sand art. :)

digging to china- alexei was pretty amazed by this.

nick, alexei and i had a few days together before my parents and sister, kristin and brother-in-law, john joined us for the rest of the week. we really enjoyed our time together.

i am pretty sure the point of this tent is to keep alexei out of the sun. that didn't really happen as much. he had too much to do in the sand and water to stay put for long.

grandma and alexei hanging out.

all of the guys are in on digging to china now. :) alexei was so focused and a little intimidated by the hole. he was fine as long as he could keep a comfortable distance.

alexei was a monkey for halloween. it was his cousin daniel's outfit last year. he loved his costume. for weeks afterward, if he saw it laying in my room or if he found it in my closet, he would beg to put it on and wouldn't let me take it off until bedtime. even then he wasn't too happy about it. :) it was especially cute when he would bend over and look between his legs at his tail.

alexei still loves bubbles. he gives the best belly laughs ever if you catch him in the right mood when you are playing with him. the simple pleasures in life.

my "knights of spoonafoonia" - you'll have to ask nick about that one. :) another cheap form of entertainment - aluminum foil helmets.

such a guy - skateboarding in diapers - this is as we were about to head home from thanksgiving dinner at uncle jim and aunt judy's. he had a bit of an explosion earlier - thankfully it was warm enough outside:)

this is his first experience with getting to play aunt kristin's harp. he is totally fascinated by music - the harp, guitar, and piano especially.

as is the longstanding family tradition, we went out with my mom's side of the family to elgin tx the weekend after thanksgiving, to pick out a christmas tree at the elgin tree farm. the event includes petting random animals they have there, taking a hay ride to a section of trees where they drop you off to go find the perfect tree (or in our case a 9 ft. crooked tree that took 2 hours to put up in our living room, much modification to a tree stand, and a massive test of nick's patince - they sure look alot smaller out in the middle of a field when you are cold and are trying to hurry) and cut it down, drag it back and load it up on another trailer so you can tie it to the roof of your car. then comes the most important part of the tradition - eating at a BBQ place in elgin on the way home. you know, the kind of place where plates are frowned upon and only butcher paper is the acceptable eating surface ;) mmm so good. nick was a trooper as he ate his veggie burger that was packed for him and his fair share of beans, potato salad and coleslaw. ;)

alexei loves playing at the park. these particular shots are at the central market playground - it was so fun to remember bringing him here for one of his first outings in austin about a year and half ago! time sure does fly.

for christmas, nick built (actually is still building) an airplane for alexei. it started out as a rocker type of toy and then for those of you who know nick you won't be surprised that it had to become mechanized and now it can drive, has a parental control unit, a gas pedal, steering wheel, propeller that turns and trunk that opens. alexei loves driving it especially if other kids are around to admire. such a show off ;)

ooohhh power tools!!! complete dude.

alexei is completely into planes, rockets, balloons, space shuttles, anything that flies pretty much. where do you think he got that from? can we say nick's mini-me? ;)

oh yeh, and choochoos are next up in the coolness ranking.

i couldn't ask for two more fun guys to hang out with every day. i am truly blessed. i have no idea what it will be like adding another little one to the mix, but as interesting as our house stays, i am sure anya will be plenty entertained just watching her daddy and big brother explore, experiment and discover new and exciting things. as active as she is already, i have a feeling she is going to give alexei a run for his money. :)

ok, i am ready for bed. thanks for hanging in there and being patient with me. between morning sicknesstthe first trimester and ongoing occasional punyness (is that a word?) since then and alexei's continual string of sicknesses (we have had croup 2xs and strep once this month so far), i haven't been making blogging much of a priority. always feel free to call or e-mail if you want more regular updates on our lives. :)

blessings.

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!