My Buddy

This is my cousin, Matthew.

Many people have asked me where the nickname Caps/Cappy/Cappydoodles came from.

It came from this guy. The story: when he was little, he couldn't say "Cathie" (which is what my family still calls me, despite my protests), so he called me Cousin Cappy. My friends Marcie and The J picked up on this, and shortened it to Caps. Which eventually led to a whole host of other nicknames, none of which we need to get into right now, but I'll just say that it ended with them calling me (to this day) The Chip.

Back to Matthew. He is 12 years old, which makes me feel ancient, because he was born durring the last few weeks of my senior year of high school. Ah, those were sweet, sweet times. I seriously remember them like they were yesterday. And they weren't. They were 12 years ago. Have I mentioned that?

Back to Matthew. He was such a cute little love snuggle muffin baby. If I had been a more prepared blogger, I would have scanned a picture of him as a baby and posted it right here for everyone to see. But I'm lazy and felt like knitting last night. I was tired after having made 2 lasagnas from scratch. Cut me some slack.

Back to Matthew. I used to call him My Buddy when he was little. Or just buddy. I think I still call him that. Or at least I do in my head. I haven't seen him in over a year, and I miss the crap out of him. I speak to him occasionally on the phone, which is always a hoot. But you know how kids can grow like weeds between the ages of 10 & 14, and I bet he's all sorts of tall.

The Cowboy and I are driving up to Michigan for Christmas this year, we recently decided. It's long overdue, and it's (sadly) way cheaper to drive than for both of us to fly. My car gets really good gas mileage, so we did the math, and we're hitting the road. I'm really looking forwad to it. One of the first things on my agenda is squeezing this kid. I don't care if he's at that age where it's not cool to get hugs any more. Especially from distant cousins who moved to Texas and you hardly ever see. This kid is getting a big fat hug.

Man alive I love this kid.