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.

It was a big weekend here in the Kenyon household because Edward discovered his feet. He's always had them, of course, but they didn't do him much good. This weekend, however, he started playing with them, raising his legs into the air while on his back to get better access to them, and using the positions afforded by his new high chair to get at them.

As you can see from the photo, he's also quite happy about this development. He's been very smiley for quite a while, but it has been hard to catch the moment with our digital camera. I read a story in the Wall Street Journal on Friday about this, and we're not alone. To keep camera prices low, they sacrifice processing speed, which means a lag of as much as 2 seconds between the time you press the shutter and the time the photo is taken. So, We've missed quite a few of Ed's smiles because he notices the camera and replaces his smile with a stoic stare by the time the picture takes.

Today, however, was so smiley that it didn't matter. I was so excited to capture this one that I cheered loud enough to startle him; a moment later, the smiles started again. I was so eager to catch more of this, that I rattled off several shots (after the built-in time lag, of course). I then switched to video mode to catch some of his foot-playing. Enjoy.

Every baby's birth is a miracle as we all know. Apparently though, something about the Geraghty family brings out more than just your average garden-variety miracles.

Edward's cousin Katherine Claire was born at a healthy 7 lbs. in Milwaukee last night by emergency C-section. My sister, in her 39th week of a healthy pregnancy, had extremely high blood pressure at her check-up yesterday afternoon and so was admitted to be evaluated to determine whether they would induce labor or do a C-section. Without making public too much of Ann's personal information, suffice it to say that after several hours of monitoring her doctors decided a C-section was urgently needed so she was rushed to surgery under general anesthetic. Both Ann and Katherine came through like champions, and the doctors' urgency turned out to be justified. Katherine had a knot in her umbilical cord and was laying in such a way that contractions were causing her head to press on the cord.

We count our blessings every day, and today Katherine is at the top of the list! In fact, she might take up the first five spots or so.

Today Edward is five months old. He has lots of new tricks, but his favorite is jamming his hands in his mouth as far as they can go, sometimes to the point of gagging himself. He loves the taste/texture of his own hands and will happily suck and slurp away for, well, not hours given his attention span, but many minutes. He also is grabbing things like toys and parental hands/fingers or whatever happens to come within arm's reach. If he can manage, he will work to get these things in his mouth as well. A couple of times he's gotten so slobbery that I've actually checked for teeth, but nothing yet.

He still stops smiling the second he sees the camera so those who want to witness this heart-melting phenomenon will have to visit in person. He also giggles sometimes.

Now he's eating one new food each week by spoon. This week was green beans. Who knows what culinary treat awaits next week. We've gotten into a pretty good pattern where he'll eat either right before or right after John and I have dinner. He stays in his high chair while we eat so he can see what we're doing and join in the conversation. He doesn't really know about waiting for his turn to speak though. He just has so much to say and it's all so exciting he just can't wait. It's fun to think up responses that make it seem like he actually said something we understood.

He sleeps well--usually making it from about 8 p.m. to about 6 a.m. These are not iron-clad though, as he sometimes decides around 2 a.m. that a little snack will be just the thing to get him through the rest of the night. It doesn't take long and then we're both back to bed within 20-30 minutes. He also has a tendency to fall asleep in the car, no matter how short the trip--even just the 10 minutes it takes to get home from daycare. When this happens I usually just leave him in his seat to sleep, rather than waking him up to transfer to the crib.

These OshKosh overalls got rave reviews at school today. Yesterday's shorts romper was also a hit until it did not provide enough of a barrier when he decided to poop for the first time since Sunday. His poor teacher picked him up to snuggle without realizing what he'd been up to. Luckily she had a spare pair of jeans in her car. Ed, of course, always has spare clothes there for just such an event as this one.

Poop and all, it's been a great five months, and we can't wait for what lies ahead.

I've been wanting a picture of Edward in this purple chair at daycare for a couple of weeks now. Not wanting to be too disruptive to the classroom, I've refrained from hosting my own personal photo session, but I've had the camera in my bag just in case the right opportunity arose. This morning, there it was. There was an extra teacher in the room and all the babies were calm. So when I took him out of his carseat I grabbed the chair and my camera and took a few quick shots before I left for work. The teachers agreed that this image is definitely a keeper. They love him in the chair as much as I do. I don't know why I find it so hilarious, but it just cracks me up whenever I come in to pick him up and he's just sitting there observing the world. We often say Edward looks like an old man with his serious expression and his pants hiked up to his chest, so maybe this is the "old man baby version" of the La-Z-Boy.

Over the weekend we had Edward out at a street festival. We brought along the all-important sun hat in case he decided he wanted out of the stroller with its protective canopy. He stayed put so he didn't need it, but we tried it on at home anyway to see how he'd react. Definitely something we need to know since he will basically need to wear a hat from now until October. Poor little bald head! He seemed to like it--or at least he didn't thrash about trying to get it off his head. Perhaps the early training with his ever-present penguin hat and the "parade of hats" that kept him warm is paying dividends.

We tried spoon feeding with Edward for the first time last night, and the results were surprisingly good. While he surely ended with more on his face and bib than in his mouth, it wasn't nearly as messy as I had feared. We started with a mix of rice cereal and breast milk (much more of the latter than the former). At first, he wasn't overjoyed with the whole thing, refusing to swallow much of what we gave him.


As it went on, and we all started to get the hang of things, he began reaching his hand out as if to help guide the spoon, and actually opened his mouth to eagerly welcome this new food source. Given Edward's track record with eating (in short, he likes it quite a bit), we knew he would be willing to work at it. He actually took to it more readily than he did the bottle.


These days, the bottle is no trouble for him. As you can see here, he's confident (perhaps overly so) in his abilities to take things into his own hands. We're not quite there yet, but compared to the screaming fits that accompanied our first attempts with the bottle, this is significant progress.


For those wanting to see more of the action, here is some video of this momentous occasion.

Edward weighed in at 14 lbs. 12 oz. at his four-month check-up yesterday. That's the 50th percentile for weight. Pretty good for a little guy who started out in about the 3rd percentile because of being born early. His length is up to 24 1/4 inches, which is the 25th percentile. All in all an excellent report. The doctor said she had "nothing but compliments" for John and me, that we're doing well and helping Edward to thrive.

The next big step will be introducing some rice cereal. We haven't been to the store yet to buy any, but will give it a try sometime soon. The instructions are to try it when he's hungry and when we have plenty of time. I think we also will need to plan a post-meal bath! Edward is already a messy eater, slurping and drooling his milk. Cereal will be a new horizon--possibly video-worthy, though I'm not sure we'll have enough hands for the feeding and the camera work. We'll see.

We asked about sunscreen, now that it's staying warm and we expect to spend more time outside. Usually they don't recommend sunscreen for babies under six months old, but she looked at John and me, looked back at Edward and said, "Oh yeah, he'll need protection so go ahead and use sunscreen." Also hats and light cotton layers. Unfortunately for Edward, pigment is not among our genetic gifts to him.

He screamed through his shots again but this time I was better prepared. I had him wearing a little shorts romper so I didn't have to get him dressed after the shots and I had asked if I could stay in the examining room long enough to feed him afterward. Nursing calmed him down and he ended up sleeping most of the rest of the afternoon. He slept a lot at daycare today and this afternoon at home. This was good for me because I've picked up a cold and wasn't feeling terribly energetic today. We both had good naps this afternoon.

He was very alert when John got home from work and they had a nice "chat" with Edward making lots of babbling sounds and John answering back with what he guessed were the appropriate responses to what Edward might be saying.

Not much time or energy for photo sessions lately, but we'll try to get some new ones posted by this weekend.

Thanks to everyone who supported Team Kenyon in this year's March of Dimes WalkAmerica, remembering Will and celebrating Edward. Our Iowa City walk was this morning and we had 14 loyal walkers on our team, despite a persistent drizzle. Edward decided to stay at the park in his cozy stroller with Gram and PopPop who report that he slept through the whole thing while they pushed him around and around the picnic shelter. The rest of us navigated the puddles and completed the six mile route in a little more than two hours. (We're not convinced it is a full six miles, but we'll take credit for it anyway!)

Some sad news though. The University of Iowa student who leads the UI Collegiate Council March of Dimes group (the group that dedicated last year's walk to Will) lost a nephew this month due to complications of his premature birth in November, twelve weeks too soon. He was five months old. His twin sister is home and doing well. Our hearts go out to her whole family. We are so familiar with that emotional roller coaster and the joy and sorrow of loving a new baby while still longing for the lost one.

This is why we walk. This is why we are so grateful for those who walked with us, those who sponsored our walk, and those who support us each day.

Edward has really started to enjoy playing with the toys hanging from his playmat, so we thought we would add to what has become a series of playmat-related videos. Mary shot the first part earlier this week, and I shot the second part tonight. Enjoy.

Edward is four months old today. We couldn't manage a 4-month shot with a smile. Our camera takes a second or two between when you push the button and when the picture actually snaps, and that's long enough to go from smiling to vacant stare. We'll have to practice longer smiles!

He's able to hold his head pretty steady on his own these days and is learning to sit up. Obviously it will be a while yet before he can do that on his own, but all we've got is time. He also is going to town batting at the toys that hang down from his playmat. Sometimes it seems to me that he's swinging his arm hard enough to roll himself over, but not quite. He doesn't have much incentive for that since he hates being on his tummy. His usual reaction is to spit up within minutes of being placed face down. That is, unless he's sleeping. Then he's very comfy laying tummy-to-tummy with John--a new favorite weekend activity. I'm guessing this will be employed to on Saturday afternoon after the March of Dimes WalkAmerica. Thanks again to everyone who is planning to walk with us and/or has sponsored our walk. John and I have raised more than $600--fantastic!!

Thanks to everyone who inquired about our well-being after Thursday's storm. It wasn't until Friday evening when we went downtown to get something to eat and to see some of the damage that we realized just how close the storm came to us. Mature trees had been ripped from the ground just four or five blocks away. That's a little close for comfort. We had no damage, not even any more branches off our trees than usual. As further evidence of how well that night went vs. what could have been, here was Ed's reaction after we came out of the basement:

We went to Des Moines for Easter and had the chance to see Ed's grandparents, great-grandparents and several other family members. He also had the chance to meet his new second cousin, Bailey, who shared some quality time with Ed on his blanket:

Ed got into the spirit of the holiday as well:

Happy Easter

Iowa City is in the news this morning after tornadoes ripped through last night. The Kenyons were unscathed, but others around here were not so lucky. The church with no roof that they're showing on national news is just a block from Edward's daycare. Though the daycare building was not damaged it is closed today in cooperation with the call to keep people away from downtown. The University of Iowa canceled classes for the first time in all the years I've been connected to it--almost 15 now!

Even though university classes were canceled, staff were supposed to report to work. However, with Edward's daycare closed and my office in the heart of the downtown destruction, I opted to stay home today, with the endorsement of my boss. It sounds like the best thing will be to stay out of the way and let the clean up crews do their work.

We were huddled in our basement for about an hour starting around 8:30 last night as the sirens blared and radio reports alerted us to possible funnel cloud sightings. The power went out before 9 p.m. and stayed out until about 4:30 this morning. Twice I thought I heard the "freight train" sound associated with tornadoes, but as if it were a few miles away. Turns out, it was only blocks from us. A sorority house was destroyed about eight blocks from here, trees were uprooted and roofs blown off. However, our neighborhood appears to have escaped damage. There's some insulation in our alley, and small branches down from trees. I imaging we'd see leaves down if it were a few weeks from now, but the trees are only just starting to bud.

Edward slept through the whole ordeal. We strapped him into his carseat when we went to the basement, figuring that would be a cozy and secure place for him. Once the lights went out I just rocked the seat a bit and soon enough he was snoring. I sort of wished I'd changed him before that happened, but as it turned out he mostly slept through a diaper change once the danger had passed and went right back to a sound sleep in his crib. That meant he missed his final meal of the evening though, so he was up around 5:30 this morning complaining of an empty stomach.

I've lived in the Midwest all my life and this is really the closest I've ever come to the path of a tornado. I'll be happy to wait another 32 years for my next encounter!

It was face painting day at school today. And note the short sleeves--another 70-plus degree day in Iowa!

This is what Edward was supposed to wear for his first "school picture day" today. (Feel free to laugh...this seems to be the universal reaction to the notion of a school picture for a three-and-a-half month old!) Note that I say "supposed to wear." I considered not having him wear it when I learned the forecast called for 70 degrees and sunny today. A turtleneck and flannel overalls seemed a bit excessive. But it's such a cute outfit I couldn't resist and figured he could change when we got home at noon. He didn't even make it to 7:15 in this. John was holding him while I went to finish getting dressed for work. I never put my work clothes on until right before we're leaving, knowing Edward's propensity for liquid gifts, including this morning when he peed on me while I was changing him. But no problem...I was still wearing my t-shirt.

Anyway, while I was getting dressed, I heard "Bleh" followed immediately by "Woah!" The former, as you might guess, was Edward, and the latter, of course, was John. Edward had spit up on his own shoulder. No problem...he has two red shirts so we changed to the second one. Then I said, "Hey, we should probably take his picture at home in case he doesn't make it all the way to picture time in this outfit." Then we took this picture. Then I sat down to try to feed him one more time before leaving, since he'd decided 5 a.m. was a good time to wake up today. While we were getting settled, another "Bleh" spewed forth, this time landing on the sleeve of his shirt, the front of his overalls, my shirt sleeve and my pants leg.

So then we both had to change. So much for the 5 a.m. wake up call giving us plenty of time for a leisurely morning. Luckily, I had ironed four shirts yesterday having "rediscovered" them in my closet. Two were shirts I honestly had forgotten that I owned because they were new last year and I only got to wear them a few times before they were no longer size appropriate.

I think the spit up is because he's been falling asleep while eating and then I can't get him to burp afterward. I hesitate to wake him just to burp, but it may come to that. He's napping now after eating (and burping!) when we got home from school. When he wakes up, we're headed out with the stroller to enjoy that 70-degree sunshine. Welcome spring!!

On Friday afternoon Edward was acting fussy, wiggling around, stretching his legs and arching his back. After trying all the usual calming methods, it finally occurred to me to change his clothes. Perhaps the outfit was just too tight. Eureka! The end of the 0-3 month era was upon us. He graduated to the 3-6 month size and was much more comfortable. Lucky for him, he has almost as many choices in this size as he did in the last, none of which were purchased by his parents. Truly, there was never a baby more lavished with gifts than Edward Kenyon!

I got a storage container for the outgrown clothes and ran across his penguin hat as I was putting things away. We thought we'd take one last picture of this piece of his early life just to show how far he's come.

Many people have been asking about how he's sleeping. I've hesitated to post anything about his overnight sleep patterns on the blog, because in the past this has been the surest way to ensure that he abandoned whatever pattern of behavior I was describing. He never seems to do it twice the same way, but for the most part I think it's safe to say that Edward is sleeping through the night. He can go six to eight hours at a stretch, so depending on what time he falls asleep for the night, I sometimes get away without a middle of the night feeding. For instance, if he gets changed and fed around 9 p.m. he will then sleep until sometime between 5 and 6 a.m. On a work day, this is a good time for me to get up and start the day. On a weekend, not so much, but we can adapt. However, if he falls asleep earlier than 9 p.m. then he sometimes wakes up hungry around 4 a.m. or so. When this happens I usually try to grab one last hour of sleep after feeding him and before the dreaded alarm clock. Sometimes I think it's not worth it, as it's so hard to get back up after that hour. But I know that every hour counts so I should take them where I can get them. And really, I'm in no position to complain given that I get seven- to eight-hour blocks of sleep somewhat regularly.