Merry (belated) Christmas, and Happy New Year!

I know, I know -- it's been forever. But in my defense, we were mostly with Granny over the past couple weeks, so the pressure to blog was off, since she was seeing him in the flesh all day long. (When I called at 10:30 this morning, Mom was still in bed, reading the New York Times, which tells you something about how happy she must have been, deep down, to have an empty nest once again! : ) Also, we accidentally left our "BIG CAMERA!" in New Jersey, so I have very few pictures of the blessed events of Christmas. Let me just sum up some of the highlights:

* Cody can now say everything there is to say. In the car the other day he started singing his ABCs, out of nowhere, perfectly, having never attempted it before to our knowledge. He's also singing long verses to long songs, such as: "Oh the fire is slowly dying/And my dear we're still goodbyeing/And since there's no place to go/Bet it snow, bet it snow, bet it snow!" (L's are still a bit of a challenge.)


* Cody got a trim at the barbershop, but since I couldn't bear to part with his curls, he now has a bit of a mullet. I'm going to have to fix that this week, I suppose. Baby steps.



* Cody and his Godbrother Dylan, who has actual construction equipment in his own yard, rode a mini-bulldozer together.


* Cody now owns his very own, Cody-sized, upright vacuum, thanks to Aunt Mary Beth and Uncle Walter. He spent most of last week at Granny's saying, "Granny's vacuum! Wake it up! Vacuum with Cody! Cody has a red vacuum! Let's vacuum TOGETHER Granny!"



My mom's house has never been so clean. He has actually taken to dropping cheerios or goldfish on the floor and then running to me and saying, "Oh no, Mommy! Vacuum it up?" Yesterday, in the parking garage at IKEA, he pointed in chagrin to the leaves and mud all over the floor and said, "Uh-oh, mess! Cody get the vacuum?"

Oh, there's more. But 5:00 a.m. and work come early, so bear with us!