Eight Was Fine...But Now He's Nine

Merrick, our little Buddy Boy, turned nine today. He was having a friend over to his house to spend the night, and then he's having a party tomorrow.

He spent the night with us last night, so we tip-toed into his room at 12:05 a.m. to take a picture of him sleeping. As you can see, he still sleeps with the afghan that Shelley (Naturelover) knitted for him.

So...who is that hanging from the cookies on the bottom? In a surprise birthday visit, Fred (his Christmas elf-on-the-shelf) showed up. Please don't tell anybody about Fred. He's not supposed to show up until December (he's not supposed to leave the North Pole until then) but he wanted to wish Merrick a happy birthday.

Fred does get quite impish, but I still can't believe that he opened my new bag of alphabet cookies (THOSE ARE FOR MY SQUIRRELS!) and spelled out the message to Merrick.

Merrick is a nice young man, and me and Mar-mar are proud to be his grandparents. Next year...double figures. Hard to believe.