First Christmas

Well, the G-man has successfully made it through his first Christmas. How good did he make out, you ask? Let's just say we went to Ikea to buy more bins and shelving and hanging holders. By the third Christmas (ours, Marshall's, Smith's) he was getting the gist of ripping paper off packages. He enjoyed the paper more than the box inside of it. And we're thinking he really enjoyed all of his gifts because he developed a "holy moly this is awesome" look over the holidays - tight lips, O-shaped mouth with wide eyes and eyebrows raised. He even went further to actually whistle while making the "holy moly" look. Quite impresive for a 10 month old. (No, we don't think he did it on purpose. But he is a genius.) So, here are some shots from the last couple weeks.


Our first walk out in the snow.


Christmas morning (the 23rd) at our house.


With cousin Delaina at the Marshall Cristmas.


At the Marshall Christmas.


Cousin Ethan showing some love at the Smith Christmas.


Garrison working the sly grin.


Playing inside the expandable tube Pop and Nona got for him. (It stays at their house.)


G-man posing with his great grandfather on the Smith side.


The very frequent "holy moly" look


Winston didn't appreciate Rachael trying to lay on his floor without including him.

Bathtime carnage

Things got a little out of hand. Don't watch if you have a weak stomach.

The joy of Fall

A few weeks ago, we all went out to enjoy the nice fall day.
He didn't seem so excited at first.



But he did enjoy himself










Back home in the warm apartment




I'm not sure what he was cracking up at, but it sure was funny!



For Halloween Nana and Papa sent Garrison a box of candy (he was told to share with us if he wanted), so Garrison had his first taste of the wonderful goodness of sugar.



And then, like all of us, he wanted more.



Now I know, he shouldn't have candy like this until he's 12 or something, but we couldn't resist. And he didn't have any teeth at this time. (he has two teeth now)

The Crawler

Garrison has definitely mastered the skill of crawling. That didn't take long....














So Garrison is very attached to his pacifier. We only use it during naps and at bedtime, but he likes it very much. He also enjoys throwing things on the floor. This is not a good combination. So lately he's been throwing his pacifier on the floor and then crying because he can't go back to sleep without it. Yesterday I had enough. I decided, well if he's going to keep throwing it out, then he's not going to get it anymore. The age of the pacifier is over. So I put him down for a nap...and he cried...and cried...and screamed...and shrilled...and cried...and screamed....You get the point. This went on for 15-20 minutes, which is my cut off point. So I went in and gave it to him. He was asleep within 30 seconds. The age of the pacifier is continuing strong. But last night after we put him to bed, he threw it out again. UGH!!! So this was my solution, we'll see if it works.

Fun with bubbles

Here are some photos of bath time. The fun just never stops!













Here's the fun hat that Nana bought him in Wisconsin. Just like his dad, wearing interesting hats.





He has a thing for our shoes. He love shoes strings! Now he has his own pair of sneakers, so he can play with his own shoe strings.



This has nothing to do with Garrison, but it's a beautiful shot of our view

He just won't stop growing

Well Garrison has mastered the sitting thing, and was getting bored, so he wanted to try standing. I know, he's not even crawling yet, but he did really well standing for awhile. Granted, he is leaning against the couch, but non-the-less it looks impressive. Actually it looks really funny. Seeing this little itty-bitty boy acting so big.



He was so proud of himself. He knew he was doing something big.





The other day I was reading about how at this age a babies cerebral cortex, which is responsible for regulating emotion, is not fully developed. Garrison is no exception to this apparently, since right before this picture he was smiling and laughing. Poor guy, I think he's still cute when he cries, so I'm laughing at him while he's crying. Oh well.



A couple weeks ago he started doing his "scrunchie" face. We're not sure exactly what it means, because he does it when he's happy and when he's on the verge of fussy. This picture somewhat catches it. He scrunches up his nose and pushes out his lips and I think it's great.

Recent Happenings

Well, Garrison keeps growing. They said he would. It's crazy that he's already 6 months old. He started sitting up on his own last week. Another first is eating pears. He's still not completely sold on them - maybe it's the texture. Going from silky smooth to gritty mash can't be easy.





We also took a little trip down to Louisville this past weekend. We got to stop by and see GG a couple times.



And Garrison went for his first horse ride. He was pretty happy about that.





The rest are just shots of the G-man being his cool self.







With cousin Delaina.


Go cubs.