We had what is becoming our traditional celebration around here: putting Joe to bed, sitting at the table with our champagne, and discussing the old and new years.

Before declaring our resolutions (and our celebrity death predictions), we reviewed a list of things Joe was doing this time last year. He was just starting to crawl then; now he’s going up stairs and cruising around the furniture. He’s made zero progress in the eating department, but I guess that’s because he’s got so much exploring to do.

He is so funny with the cruising! He pulls up to his “office,” then goes over to the coffee table, and immediately pulls everything off of it. Remote? Get outta here. Coasters? Goodbye. Tissue box? Not on my watch.

He’s also doing a lot of “talking” lately. Still nothing anyone understands — mostly a lot of “budgie budgie budgie” and “bootuh bootuh.” Depending on his facial expressions, those same syllables can seem to mean “Gosh, I love my toys” or “Get out of my way, dog!”

Many moons ago, I clipped a jingle bell toy to his crib. I forgot it was even there, until a few weeks ago when he suddenly noticed it and began swatting at it. He thinks the noise is hilarious. So now that’s the sound we hear first thing every morning: *jingle jingle jingle* “Hee hee hee” *jingle jingle jingle* “Hee hee hee.”

Funny boy.