This blog is due for a long update which, most likely, will be done piecemeal as I have time. As we've just arrived back from a long Christmas break where we celebrated Christmas with the Eves family and New Years with the Collings family (with Andrew's first birthday sandwiched in between), we have lots to report.

Our first report (which an attentive reader would naturally infer following our last post) is that Andrew is finally walking. And not just a few tottering steps, but walking across large rooms, around corners, up stairs (well, those he still really just crawls up) . . . He's becoming quite proficient. This both delights and alarms us, as it promises to allow him even more destructive capacities. He's even figured out how to stand up on his own, independent of any prop.

His route to walking was sped up by his father and grandfather's (Poppy's) assiduous attention in the wee mornings while they mercifully let Andrew's mother sleep in for an hour or two in the mornings. As many of you know, Andrew has an irresistable fascination for block towers--thus, by dint of building block towers and putting a little man on the top, they provided Andrew with sufficient motivation to get up off his hands and knees and walk. Here, you see Andrew mid-tackle.