I got so very excited about talking about Christmas in that last post that I totally neglected to do any bragging--er, updating--on the baby developments front. In the last few weeks, Ro has developed from a crawler to a communicating walker (okay, kinda). A few weeks ago, he took a few first halting steps, all of which Mercer missed and thus doubted ever happened. Every day, though, Ro adds more steps to the repertoire. Yesterday it was four. Today it was seven, and I'm the one who missed it! Yikes, our little boy is gonna be running so soon. He's also chattin it up. He's expanding his palate of sounds and also says several words to refer to actual items--dada, mama, cheese, and duck. We got some artisianl cheese in Georgia that was just that good--it inspired a first word. He actually says it very clearly--we didn't tell his daycare provider about this new development, and when Merc picked him up Monday afternoon she reported that he had busted out with "cheese!" I think he's excited about being able to communicate, too. The other day he was sitting in his highchair playing with some yogurt when I opened the fridge and started talking to myself about the whereabouts of the cheese. Ro jumped up, stamped his little feet, and said "cheese! cheese! cheese!"

Okay, enough about those shenanigans--on to New Year's! In an awesome turn of events, four of our not-so-nearest but ever-so-dearest descended up GSO to ring in '09. Abs, Alyssa, Andi, and Carrie rule! Despite the fact that both Ro and I had contracted some flulike junk that kept me out of work for the week, I had the best time. Merc cooked a lot of amazing food, like the ribs Alyssa's digging into below. Abs dazzled us with her wine-opening abilities and photographic memory of every book ever written, Andi sneezed at the cats and got blissed out on Benadryl, Carrie tried to lock Abs in a headlock, Alyssa and Abs made amazing brownies and cleaned the kitchen, etc, etc, and fun was had by all, even the catbrains lurking in the background. We rung in the New Year with party blowers and varying amounts of libations and blankets. We cooked and watched movies and wrote a screenplay plot and everyone helped out around the house and . . . well, yeah, it felt great to be around such wonderful friends. Sadly, everyone has now departed. Andi's safely back in Rwanda. Hope those anti-giardia meds are doing their thang!