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!