G-Man

He thinks he's big enough to ride this
So, Garrett's three favorite places to play:

#1) The fireplace. Yes, he loves to bite on it. YUK! We have to keep it covered with a blanket so he can't get his teeth on it.

#2) The stairs. He LOVES the stairs. He plays out here giggling for long periods of time. His playing usually ends when he falls and bonks his head.

#3) (Not pictured) The cords connecting to the wall. Aren't these the 3 most dangerous places for babies? Of course he's found them all.

And, for the record, Garrett has now figured out how to scale the dining room chairs so he can get from the family room to the kitchen. Good job, Garrett. He is growing up way too fast!

SNOW!

The week we came home from Christmas at Mimi & Papa's (stay tuned for that post to follow) we had a decent couple of snowstorms. Garett enjoyed his first sled ride and Karsten and Morgan enjoyed some creative play. If you remember from years past, the Waisath's don't build your typcial snowman out of snow. This year we (I should say mainly Karsten and dad) built a snow fort (ok, sort of normal), then a Volcano, then a Snow Hotel which turned into a 2 story Hotel (seriously, it had 2 floors and a roof and stairs to get in it). The Hotel got knocked down to create a Rocket. And then the Rocket morphed back into an igloo. Anyhow, these are all Karsten's creations. He spent hours in the snow, creating and digging and sometimes standing around wondering what he wanted to do next. So, here are a few pictures of the fun.

Karsten & his 2 Story hotel (there are stairs up the back to get into the 2nd story)
On top of the Hotel

Building the Fort. The neighbors joined in too.

Garretts first time in the snow.

Morgan Having fun digging together

Here's a funny story to add. One day the kids went out to play as I went up to put Garrett to bed. Karsten asked for a chair. So he took it out and placed it next to his 2 story hotel. I went upstairs and watched from Garrett's window to see what he was going to do. He used the chair to get a boost and then climbed to the top of the hotel. He got up and I could tell what was going through his mind.."Now that I'm up here, there is no where to go, I can't move and I have no idea how I'm going to get down". He looked around for a few minutes, shimmied his legs a bit and realized if he went anywhere it was going to be a crash landing, on his head on the ground. I actually got worried for a minute that he was going to try to get down. Then, I heard him yelling at Morgan.."Morgan, get mom!" Repeatedly. She was in her own world and then realized he was yelling at her. So I then heard her yell, "MOM, Karsten needs you!" She came to the back door and yelled again. I was laughing as I watched out the window. So, I finally got their attention so they could see I was upstairs in the window. I went out and helped Karsten down. It made me laugh. My telling the story doesn't do it justice. It was funny to witness.

He's growing up

Little Garrett Man is growing up! He popped his four top teeth all in a couple of days...can you see them?

He's figured out crawling, although he can't figure out how to get from the family room to the kitchen. The table is in the way. He whimpers about 10 times a day and I find him here. Often, Karsten and Morgan with make him a path to get through, but he doesn't dare attempt yet. We call him our little ankle biter (although he actually bites toes, not ankles, if he catches you and you don't pick him up).