After a weekend of travel and a busy week, we finally had time to get some "official" six-month photos of Edward tonight. He was pretty smiley and very patient with us, so we got some good shots. Unfortunately, the excitment of seeing him smile for the camera obviously made me shake, because the best shot was a little blurry. If you don't blow it up too big, however, it looks pretty good.

This is a better shot in terms of focus, though I like his expression better on the first one. Either way, it's amazing to see how big he's getting and how much better he is at sitting up. He's obviously propped against the couch here, but he doesn't slide around as much as he did a couple of months ago, or even just last month.

We have been told that there is no such thing as too much Edward, so here are a couple more from our marathon photo session this evening. Ed was quite a trouper, and put up with that annoying flash for much longer than I expected. He's not a fan of that, often trading his smile for a stern look by the time the shutter clicks. Tonight, however, he seemed willing to cooperate, and we caught some good grins.

As you can see from this photo, he is getting good at standing up, with a little help, of course. (OK, you can't really see that here, but trust me). His legs are getting strong, though, so it sure doesn't seem like it will be very long before he's sitting up, standing and walking. There is a lot of baby-proofing to be done at the Kenyon household before he gets too mobile, however, so while we'll love it when he's able to run around and play, we'll enjoy his lack of mobility while it lasts.

We had a busy weekend with the whole Geraghty Gang in Evanston--19 of us now! Gram had ice cream cones for celebrating Edward's six-month birthday. Of course, he could not partake directly (in fact he was asleep when we busted out the ice cream Sunday afternoon) but he did seem to enjoy his next nursing session immensely! Here's a six-month picture. I'm hoping to get one sometime this week in a similar position to his previous "month" pictures so it will be easy to compare how much he's grown. His cousin Colleen spent the whole weekend reminding him that he was a "chubber"--a term of endearment in our family. She had lots of love to share with him. He will miss her and all his cousins!

Oh, the weekend also included Edward's first hotel stay (too many Geraghtys for one house!) John and I are VERY glad he has his own room to sleep in at home. He is quite a noisy sleeper. We've known that he twists himself around at night because he's never in the same position we put him down in by the time we get him up in the morning. But we were unaware of his tendency to lift both his legs and thump them down on the bed simultaneously. He stays asleep through these aerobics. We did not. We did apparently sleep through a monster of a thunderstorm Sunday night into Monday morning though.

In the excitement of the ear infection news, I forgot to mention that Edward weighed in at 17 pounds this morning. Needless to say, he is a hearty eater! All that good food plus milk plus medicine should add up to a quick recovery. He's asleep now--I hope he'll last through the night. We all need it!

Poor Edward has his first ear infection. He's had a cough and congestion for the last two weeks, but seemed to be weathering it fine until last night. He woke up coughing at 2:30 (after going to bed around 7:45) ate a little and seemed to fall asleep, but when I put him back to bed he just cried and cried. We tried this pattern a couple of times--holding, falling asleep, back to bed, crying, holding--until it was clear he would not sleep in his bed. This is highly unusual for Edward in the wee hours. He usually sleeps through the night, and, if not, just has a little snack and goes right back to sleep.

So I held him upright sitting in our big soft chair for a little while, but that didn't last long. We tried him in his carseat on the floor in our bedroom, but that only worked for about 15 minutes. Finally, he fell asleep on my shoulder as I walked around patting him and stayed asleep as I stopped patting, stopped walking, then carefully and smoothly transitioned to lying down on the couch with him resting on top of me. That's how we passed the time from about 4:30 to 6 this morning. In that short time I had two bad dreams about having a sick child including one with an intensive care setting and lots of respiratory equipment.

I called the doctor as soon as they opened at 8 and got to take him in a little after 9. After removing what seemed like a pound of ear wax (!) the resident and then the doctor agreed that the left ear was infected and should be treated with antibiotics. They said that pressure in the infected ear could cause pain when lying down so that explains why Edward couldn't go back to sleep. The pressure also can trigger the coughing reflex, making the existing viral cough a little worse. So I guess it all fits together. Edward did not like the ear exam, by the way. He was happily playing with his toes and blowing raspberries until they stuck that probe in there. No wonder.

He fell asleep in the car on the way to pick up the prescription and has been sleeping in the carseat ever since (obviously, I brought the seat into the house when we got home!) As soon as he wakes up we'll start the medicine and then it's twice a day for the next 10 days. Hope he likes it--or at least tolerates it!

In other Edward news, he rolled over on Wednesday evening. Demonstrating what may be a lifelong independent streak (if he's anything like his father) he waited until I stepped out of the room for a moment to perform this latest trick. He was about 3/4 of the way over, which is as far as he'd gotten before, always getting hung up on the shoulder. I stepped into the kitchen to grab a plate of food from the microwave and when I came back he was all the way on his belly. He does not particularly enjoy tummy time (I mean, really, what's the point if you can't reach your feet?) and has not repeated this maneuver. Once he figures out how to go front to back look out--no more setting him down in one place and finding him there after a quick trip to the kitchen or bathroom!

Edward had a big weekend with another new discovery: He learned how to blow spit bubbles. Though he claims he played no role in this, Edward did suddenly figure this out while playing with his Grandpa. We'll let you be the judge.

First, there was some playtime...










And then this:
























It was part of a good weekend during which Edward got the chance to visit with his great-grandparents in Chariton, and spend the night with Grandpa and Grandma Kenyon in Des Moines. He also got the chance to visit his friends Julia and Lydia (while we visited our friends Blair and Mary).

For those wanting to see Ed's bubble-blowing skills in action, here is some video (warning, this is not for the squeamish):

Edward is sleeping off his dinner of peas and cereal so I have time for a blog update. It's really amazing how fast the days fly by. I was talking to a coworker about how I spend my afternoons and saying that I'm SO SO lucky to have been allowed to move to part-time hours because afternoons are when I accomplish basic necessities of life like laundry, dishes, cleaning, groceries, etc. She said, "Well, you got all that stuff done before when you were working until 5 every day, why couldn't you do it after 5 now?" It's totally different. Practically every minute Edward is awake there is some task related to him that needs tending to. I guess if I had to work until 5, I'd just be getting less sleep--staying up later to get done all the things necessary to keep the household functioning.

Lucky for all of us, this is not an issue. We even had time for a few days to play with Gram and PopPop in Evanston over the weekend. John was attending a conference in Little Rock, and I was a little nervous about being a single parent for three days. So we decided to head for Evanston and, while we were at it, squeeze in a morning in Milwaukee to meet our new niece/cousin Katherine and, of course, to play with her sister Maggie and check up on the bleary-eyed parents. They are all doing well. Here's my dad with three of his eight grandchildren.

Maggie doesn't seem too bothered by the new little person who has invaded her territory. In fact she mostly ignored Katherine and focused on Edward. She was fascinated by him, and he returned the favor. He watched her constantly and when she stopped moving (only momentarily) to kneel down next to him, he reached out to touch her (no doubt disappointed that he couldn't figure a way to involve his mouth in the exploration.) Maggie squealed with glee, "He touched my knees!!" Very cute.

Gram and PopPop also have a swing set in the yard, complete with a baby swing that was all cleaned up after the long hard winter. Of course Edward had to check it out. He didn't seem to care one way or the other about it, but the five adults standing around watching him got a big kick out of it. (In addition to my parents and me, my sisters Nora and Bridget were also in Evanston for the weekend.)

Edward does seem to like being outside though. He stares up at the trees and watches bunnies and squirrels in the yard. Today I had him out on his blanket and he was very happy rolling around (not over, just around!) He even inched his was to the edge of the blanket and started pulling at the grass. He liked rubbing his feet back and forth in it too, and I preferred that to grabbing with his hands since it was harder (though still not impossible) to get grass to his mouth that way. I don't think he actually ate any! Here's an outside picture from Sunday.