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The Pepsi grant a while back didn’t work out, but that’s OK! Now there’s a new chance to help CJSTUF get nutritious meals to families stuck in the hospital with sick children.

Kindermusik is offering grants to nonprofits who rack up lots of votes from supporters. You can vote up to 10 times a day, and you don’t have to register at all. Quick and easy!

Just go to this page and scroll down until you see this:

Click that big green “VOTE” button 10 times. And then tell everyone you can think of to do the same.

And then do it again, every day, until Feb. 9.

GO!

Joe’s teacher sent another couple of photos today so we can see what he’s up to there.

After wanting nothing to do with the water table all year, he suddenly enjoys it very much! He gets to splash around, pick up sponges and toys, and generally make a big mess.

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.

2009 (Look at that chubbalub face!)

2010

2011

Patrick was off of work today, and it was Joe’s last school day off for the holidays. The three of us went to The Playroom to try out some fun toys. Yay, family time!

Joe is cruising from one item of furniture to another with ease:

And he can now use his push toy to cross the room. He parks it next to his “office,” then cruises over to get some work done. So cute!

We had a nice, relaxing Christmas in North Carolina. It wasn’t a white Christmas, but on the morning of the 26th there was snow everywhere!

We ate way too much, laughed a lot, and watched Joe get reacquainted with his cousins. Here they are attacking poor Papa:

So now New Year’s is just a few days away. We will probably spend it as we have spent the past two: sipping champagne, making predictions for the coming year, and checking in on our sweet boy!

Joe is getting some new skills for Christmas!

First, this morning I caught him cruising from the coffee table to the couch. That means he can now cover half the living room on foot.

Then, after parking him in his crib while I got some things done, I came back to find this:

He still isn’t sure how to get down from there, but he’s so proud to have gotten up!

Go, Joe!

Our friends Matthew and Alecia are stationed in Alabama with their 1-year-old (!!!) son, Aidan. The three of them (along with Noah the Wonder-Dog) are headed up north for Christmas and stopped here for dinner on their way through.

This is why we like living right off of I-95!

For dinner, I made a recipe from my friend Vittoria’s food blog, which is chock-full of delicious things to make. The spaghetti pie was a big hit. (Thanks, Vittoria!)

Matthew, Alecia, Aidan and Noah are all back on the road now. Here’s hoping we’ll see more of them in 2011!