It took quite an effort, but we finally captured Edward sitting still long enough for his traditional couch corner birthday shot today. As noted last month, it's very difficult to keep him in one place long enough for a photo, much less a photo where he has his eyes open and is looking at least sort of in the direction of the camera.

For your amusement, here are some of the bloopers of the last few days:
Now that he has his walking toy (see video below) he's really impatient with the sedentary lifestyle. At the same time that he's mastered this new skill, he's also figured out that he can pull himself to standing on objects other than his parents. He's been able to use our legs (or bodies if we're laying down at his level) to pull up for some time now, but this afternoon I watched him use the exersaucer to pull up for the first time and his teacher at daycare said he also pulled up on the table there for the first time this morning. It's amazing to see him coordinate all the necessary movements--things he's done separately before--and achieve something that in his world is monumental. Then he just does it over and over until he collapses into an exhausted, crying heap and I haul him off for a nap.

Here also are some shots of Ed's first Thanksgiving, which we were lucky enough to celebrate with a majority of my family at my parents' house in Evanston (only the Arizona contingent was missing.) If ever there was a year for them to risk a northward venture for the holiday (and there likely never will be!) this would have been it, as we had a balmy weekend with daytime temps in the 60s. What a treat. It was nice to be able to enjoy the daytime because our nights were a bit challenging.

Edward developed a low-grade fever on Wednesday and it continued through Thursday and early Friday. I noticed it first when I picked him up from daycare on Wednesday and decided I'd better call the doctor to see if he needed to come in. I couldn't remember what the threshold was for worrying about fever. His was only 100.5, which they said normally they wouldn't worry about. But given his history of ear infections and the fact that they would be closed through the long weekend, they said to come in just to be safe. His ears were fine and he had none of the other symptoms of the various bugs that are "going around" so they said just to watch it and let him ride it out. Fever, after all, is the body's natural defense against intruders. The doctor did say that we might want to reconsider travel plans, though she agreed that driving probably wouldn't be as bad as flying with a mildly sick child. We decided to go ahead; we'd been looking forward to this for too long to abandon the plan.

Well, no one was sorry we went, but Wednesday and Thursday nights were rough enough that we cut the visit short and came home Friday after dinner. Ed normally wakes up only once in the night, nurses and goes right back to sleep in his crib. The two nights away he woke up two or three times, screaming, refusing pacifier and food, and then even when we finally managed to rock him back to calm, refused to sleep in the crib. Both nights we brought him to our bed in the early morning hours, which is really not restful for anyone, but an act of desperation. Even if we're not really sleeping well, at least we're laying down and he's not screaming.

We had a great time during the days though with my mom's delicious traditional turkey and trimmings on Thursday and then a big pizza party with my aunts, uncles and cousins on Friday. Friday afternoon John and I even snuck out to see a movie (our first in the theater since March!) leaving Ed in PopPop's expert care. I had thought that our Thanksgiving meal would be smack in the middle of Ed's afternoon nap, but given his weird nighttime patterns, his day sleeping was a little different too, so he joined us in the highchair. He tried the turkey and some broccoli, but I think mostly ate his favorite puffs and pushed the rest around. A few bites might have made it from tray to mouth to tummy though. (The festive bib was a "too cute to resist" gift from Aunt Diana.)

Friday night when we got back, Ed was still in his non-sleeping mode so that was another rough night, but Saturday was so gorgeous we couldn't resist the opportunity for a long walk and some park visits. Then later, of course, naps! Saturday night was a little better and then last night he was back to normal. So he must be over whatever was bugging him and feeling nice and comfy back in his own bed. So are we, and glad to have it to ourselves!

We have been enjoying our time with Edward so much lately that we haven't done a very good job of sharing him here on the blog. He is much more mobile these days, walking with a lot of assistance from various people and things, and crawling (albeit without much help from his legs) to get where he wants to go.

Here are a couple of videos of him in motion. The first shows him walking, the second finds him playing ball with me and crawling. His destination on that particular crawl was to our kitchen, where he finds a doorstop to be a puzzlingly fascinating thing.

A few photos that have been languishing in the Ed folder on the computer, waiting to be shared with Ed's fans. He's just so busy these days there's hardly enough time to take pictures, let alone post them with updates. Aunt Nora says, "Skip the text, just make with the pictures already." Yikes! Once she gets her hands on him this weekend, I may not see him except when he wants the one thing only I can provide.

Part of his activity is exploring further and further from the center of the room where we usually plop him down. If he is pointed in the direction of the kitchen, he eagerly drags himself toward the smoother surface where his army-style crawl is not hindered by the increased friction of the carpet. He still does not crawl in the traditional sense, but pulls himself with his arms, dragging his legs behind him, which occasionally results in the removal of his pants.

We tried overalls the other day, but he's out of one size and not quite into the next. These are still a little big, but SO cute! Another gift from when he was born that it seemed impossible he'd fit into in so little time! (Side note: Grandma Kenyon was in this picture; the cropping tool is the key to preservation of our harmonious mother-in-law/daughter-in-law relationship!)

When he's not dragging himself to the kitchen, Ed's opposite line of attack takes him to one of many bookshelves that may have to be rearranged in the weeks/months ahead. For now, it's enough to jam the books in tight and he can't pull them out. But we're not kidding ourselves that this will work forever. Some of these surely will end up in a box one of these days, replaced by toys or Ed's chewable board books.

I just realized another week has gone by since the last post. It's been a busy one. Gram and Pop Pop came to visit on Sunday, attempting to synchronize their arrival with the end of Ed's morning nap. It didn't quite work as planned since Ed picked this day of all days to catch a few extra a.m. winks, but they still got some quality time, including a trip to the park where Pop Pop captured this shot. It was a little colder than it was on our last trip so the hat and jacket were required. Mittens probably would have been good too, but then he wouldn't have been able to hold on to the equipment for cruising--no thumb holes in baby mittens!

Last night we attended a candlelight vigil in honor of Prematurity Awareness Day. It was a nice event organized by our local March of Dimes chapter. They had a few speakers and then we lit the candles and had a moment of silence in memory of all the babies who have lost their fight against prematurity. We remembered Will, of course, and also Harry William, a little Irish boy who died last week after a two-month fight. His parents found Will's blog and emailed over the weekend to let us know they were comforted by our sharing our experience. How tragic to "meet" this way across international borders, but Will lives on, continuing to shape our lives and to touch more people than anyone could expect of such a little guy.

Yikes, where did the last week go? I received a gentle reminder from Ed's fan club that new pictures were needed. Luckily Mother Nature cooperated with a gorgeous 70-degree afternoon (quite a treat in an Iowa November) and Ed cooperated by taking an early nap leaving some daylight time when he woke up. So we headed over to our little neighborhood park. It was our first trip there since Ed started standing and cruising. I wasn't sure how he'd do on uneven surface (woodchips). It took him a little while to get comfortable but then he was on the move. He used up so much energy that I just put him to bed at 6:45--at least 30 minutes earlier than usual. (Hoping this doesn't bring an early wake-up call tomorrow, but we'll be heading to bed early ourselves tonight since we were up late watching election returns last night!)

These next two pictures illustrate Ed's ability to move from one object to the next. This is a very slow and careful process as he is still working out exactly how long his own reach is. He'll see an object to move to, reach for it, realize he's not close enough, bring both hands back to the original object and move a couple of steps before trying the whole process again. Once he reaches the new object with the lead hand, he stands for a bit considering the situation before deciding it's OK to let go of the original and trust the new object as his sole support.
After his dinner he was cruising around the living room and I finally decided I'd untangled his feet from his pants for the last time and just stripped him down to his t-shirt. It was warm enough, plus that provided exposure for a thigh photo shoot. This was the best look I got even though the top of his head is cut off. He would not sit still to display them in all their glory!

And finally, here's one from a few days ago that I held off on posting after I realized it showed him sitting pretty close to the sidewalk. I didn't want Ed's protectors to worry that he was in danger of hurting himself if he happened to tip over. Never fear...after I captured this shot, it occurred to me to move him further into the grass. He was only leaning forward in search of leaves, so no real danger of a back dive. I will never deny Edward's rotund figure, but this jacket really exaggerates the effect!