Winter still continues

Much to our dismay, this winter has been exceptionally cold.  For a few weeks now, we've had some freezing fog- something I never knew could happen.  This is what we woke up to one morning.

While it was really pretty, it was super cold.  Single digit highs for a few weeks... yeah, we're tired of winter.

So, we're trying to find ways to beat the cold- which is actually a lot tougher than it sounds.  One of the ways that we've found is to light up the BBQ.  As long as you're standing close to the flame, it isn't too bad.

We also found some corn on the cob too.  While it wasn't that good, Joseph really enjoyed having it again and couldn't get enough of it.

 Another thing that we've been doing is playing peek-a-boo; Joseph has really been getting into it and mixing it with hide and go seek.  Now, whenever we play with his puppy, he tries to sneak slowly around the doors and steal a peek at the puppy.  Then, he jumps out from behind the corner.  Here's a picture of him being "sneaky".

Sometimes he tries other ways to be sneaky too- all are very effective.

Now that we have some serious chompers, Joseph really enjoys apples.  He will gnaw on an apple for several hours, even carrying it with him while he plays with his toys.  The cutest thing is seeing his little teeth marks in the apple.

Joseph has also been working on drinking from a regular cup without totally drowning himself in the process.  We tried one night with one of Jodie's little measuring cups, but he was having some trouble.  I decided to try switching the water with chocolate milk- we didn't spill a single drop of it after that.

One of Joseph's favorite things is reading books, especially his "Elmo is red, Cookie is blue" book.  However, he only lets Uncle Chad read the book to him.  If you try to read it, he'll take the book away and go over to Chad and ask him to read it to him.

Because of how much Joseph enjoys music, I decided to bring out the guitar again and play a little with him.  He is completely fascinated with it and does a pretty good job of sitting and watching.

Joseph has discovered that he can push around Jodie's step stool and see inside of his favorite cupboards.  So, this picture has become a very regular occurrence around our home.

Joseph can also climb on top of the chairs himself now without any problems.  The first night we noticed it was because we were sitting in the living room and the lights went out suddenly.  We look over and find that Joseph was standing on the chair to reach the light switch and turned it off.  We are trying to leverage that skill with his desire to be part of Jodie cooking dinner.  He loves being able to see what is going on.

Recently, when the temperature warmed up to freezing, I helped Joseph make his first snowman.  Joseph didn't want to wear gloves, so it was a little tricky trying to build it.  We decided to build him near the back wall to maximize his exposure to the sun and encourage his melting- as kind of a way to show that things are warming up.  Well, we're almost two weeks out and he's still hanging around.  Frosty has definitely overstayed his welcome.