Whatever...

You can definitely tell that my kids have been hangin' with some older friends. Avery's latest saying is, "Whatever..," although in her little voice, it's more like "wha effa." She uses it appropriately too, thanks to her big brother!

A Good Night's Sleep

Garrett has been "sneaking" into our room many nights now. It has pretty much become a pattern. I have to admit - it's cute. When we tuck him in at night, he ask what time we're going to bed and then he thinks about it and says, "oh, okay." It's almost like he's making a plan. Around 4 or 5 am he sneaks in with all of his animals and blankets and crawls onto the back of our bed. We often don't know he's there until he wants under the covers and comes crawling to the top of the bed. He's very snuggly but we just don't sleep well when we're all crammed together in a queen-size bed. The solution: start moving him back. We warned him that we would do this. Apparently our message sunk in because the first night, the light in his bathroom flipped on and stayed on. Greg got up to check on him and he was just lying in the hallway wide awake. "I'm just waitin' for everyone to get up," he said. It was 4 am. The next morning at about 4 am, his bathroom light flipped on again and then off. A bit later I heard a little noise in our room and flipped on the lamp to find him snuggled up with Casey on the floor. So we moved him back again. Now he's happily sleeping all night long in his own bed. And so are we.

When you were a baby...

Garrett loves to tell elaborate stories. He often mimics my stories. Last week we drove past the hospital where he was born. He asked what that big tall building was. I explained that it was the hospital where he was born, when he came out of Mommy's tummy. A bit later we passed a school and he told this story: "That's the hospital where I had you, Mommy. You came out of my tummy. You were pretty little."

Cookie Monster

Avery LOVES Garrett's stuffed Cookie Monster. He sleeps with it every night. Avery can't resist him either. We even bought her a red Elmo (who looks almost like Cookie Monster, but is red) in hopes that she would be happy with that, but it just won't do. At our house you have to share your toys, but favorite blankets and stuffed animal are OFF LIMITS. Yesterday Avery kept picking up Cookie Monster and carrying him around with her pink blankie. Of course, Garrett noticed right away and would start to yell at her. We're teaching him to tell her nicely, "Go put it back, it's mine," and she usually complies. When Garrett wasn't watching, she sat down on the couch with Cookie Monster, wrapped him up in her blankie and rocked him like a baby. She kept saying, "wrap him up, wrap him up." When Garrett drove by with a toy dump truck, she just sat there shaking her head at him. Greg and I couldn't help but smile.

Like Father, Like Son

Today I laid out a nice green button-up shirt for Garrett to wear. He's not picky about clothes and tends to not have a big preference for what he wears, so I often pick out his clothes for the sake of time on busy mornings. But today he had his own opinion. As soon as he saw that shirt he said, "I don't want to wear church clothes today. I don't like that shirt. Get me another one!" Greg was laughing, because he also associates button-up shirts with church.

And More Sledding...

Just a few cute pics of my snow bunnies...

Sledding!

If we can't have warm weather, we might as well have some snow to enjoy. We sure did enjoy it today!

This is like being a kid all over again!

Here are Avery's thoughts on sledding. Her trip down the slope with Daddy wasn't recorded - which is a good thing - she's not a big fan! Don't worry, they went slow!

Coloring

This cutie pie loves to color. She has a special way of storing her extra markers in her chubby double chin. This comes in pretty handy. She can store up to 3 at a time, but we only caught her on film with 1. I had to post a picture and a video to capture the "cuteness." Her favorite color is "pink." You'll hear her say it when she pops off the cap on the video. However, "pink" can mean a lot of different things when you are one year old - some days it's purple, some days it's red, and sometimes it really is pink! That's Grandpa Reimer talking in the video. We sure did enjoy his two recent visits!

I have a question!

Avery is getting louder and louder. Maybe she thinks she needs to yell everything in order to get our attention in our busy household. Last night we were driving in the van and she was yelling repeatedly from the backseat, "Mommy, I have a question!" I told her to wait her turn since I was talking to Greg. When it was her turn to talk and I asked what her question was, she responded, "I 'o know." (aka I don't know).