We have survived the Ice Storm of 2007 with no lasting damage other than fewer branches on our trees. However, it did start to feel as though the walls were closing in around us as cabin fever set in. Edward has not left the house since we got home from work/daycare on Friday. I left once yesterday and John left once today. John also spent time outside clearing the walks--some shoveling and a lot of salt throwing. (Ed wanted to get a closer look, so we let him stand on the bookshelf with both of us standing with outstretched arms just out of view of this photo! He actually didn't try to move much except up and down rubbing his face--and tongue--against the window. Good thing I keep them so clean--yeah, right!)

It was quite a spectacular storm in terms of paralyzing our area. A section of Interstate 80 was closed as well as parts of a couple of state highways in our area. The ice-coated trees brushing against our roof sounded like some sort of monster trying to scratch his way into our attic. The wind blew the branches enough to cause chunks of ice to fall off onto the patio and in our yard. Lots of us lost power, but our tale of woe pales in comparison to our hardest hit friends and neighbors. We had a 15-minute outage around 3 p.m. and a 3.5-hour outage from about 4:45 to 8:15 p.m. Others were still without power this morning and may still be now. Hotels are full of stranded travelers as well as locals seeking warmth while waiting for their power to return. The only good thing was that this happened on a weekend so most of us could just stay where we were, keeping the roads relatively clear. For myself though, I must say I've never looked forward to a Monday more. I love John and Edward and we had lots of fun together this weekend, but it's really time to get out of the house and talk to other people!

Our power outage coincided with my departure to lector at 5:10 mass. It wasn't my turn, but one of my fellow lectors called around 1:30 to see if I could possibly sub for her, as she had no hope of safely traversing her mile-long (!) driveway. I have less distance than that between my house and the church and it looked like cars were OK on our streets so I said I'd go. Just as I was stepping out (wearing my YakTrax, purchased lovingly by my husband for my winter pregnancies because he knows my checkered history on ice) I heard a loud sound that we know to be the beginning of the end for power. Sure enough I turned around and looked back in the house where all had gone dark. Still, John said he and Ed would be fine so I kept going. Once in the garage, I realized I had no idea how to open the door without power. A quick call (oy!) back to the house and John instructed me to look for a rope to pull to disengage the motor. A ha! That proved the most difficult thing about the trip to church. The roads were really fine and even with no power for the stop lights, it wasn't bad, since, as I noted, hardly anyone was out. There were about 80-100 hearty souls at mass, amazingly enough. Power was out when I first got there and we were all set to have our seminarian intern hold a flashlight for the essential reading, but just before mass time the lights came back on.

Unfortunately, they did not come back on at home. When I got back there were candles flickering in the kitchen and I called from the front door back to John, "You guys OK?" "Well, we're just playing lids by candlelight." Ed took the whole thing in stride, sensing nothing abnormal about playing in the near-dark. He enjoyed the flashlight when we turned it on occasionally (not wanting to use up batteries since we didn't know how long it would last.) He also was fine with a dinner of yogurt, a clementine, bunny crackers and milk. The planned beef stew sat half-cooked in a pot on the stove. He played some more after eating and then we dressed him in three layers and put him under a down blanket for bed. If it got too cold, we figured we could bring him into our bed, but wasn't necessary. Just after John and I finished a cheese and crackers dinner and were contemplating putting some fridge essentials in a cooler outside before starting a game of candlelight Scrabble, the lights came back.

So all's well that ends well. One of Ed's ice-weekend discoveries was the fun of playing with the couch pillows as seen in this video.


One of the things that made the weekend particularly long was his fondness for crawling under the table to grab the phone cord and other power cords. After what seemed like the millionth "No, Edward!" of the weekend, I got online and ordered him a play tunnel, which I hope he will like so much he'll forget the table. But I may be delusional on that one. The first section of this video ends just as he's reaching for the phone cord, since I had to stop the camera and crawl under to drag him out.

I've fallen behind again in my blogging, but lucky for me I have lots of encouragement to keep going. No excuses this week as our illnesses seem to have passed and we're none the worse for wear. Edward is back to normal eating and sleeping for the most part (though he did have a 3:30 a.m. wake-up call for John the other night and then refused to be put back in bed. Thankfully, these are relatively rare.) Here's an example of some "normal" eating. The other night he ate half a "squished ham & cheese sandwich," a whole clementine orange and eight grapes for dinner, with about three or four ounces of milk. For the uninitiated, "squished ham & cheese" is one slice of bread, one slice of ham and one slice of American cheese. You fold the bread in half over the ham and cheese and the press down to "squish" it all together so the component parts can not be picked apart by curious fingers. Then small pieces are broken off and left for said fingers to find on the tray and deposit in the mouth. This might not sound like a lot of food, but here's some perspective: without revealing too much, let's just say that I am roughly six times Edward's weight, and I am not accustomed to eating that meal times six--that is, three ham & cheese sandwiches (squished or not), six clementines and 42 grapes! He doesn't always eat like that, which makes meal preparation quite tricky. Some days he drains the bowl and demands more, and he doesn't take kindly to having to wait for the next portion. Other days he just kind of plays with what's offered and subsists primarily on Cheerios, which he now likes to serve himself by the fistful from the bowl.

Another new trick is crawling under things--anything will do, tables, chairs, even the walker, which is not terribly satisfying given that your head is all the way through before your butt even enters the tunnel. Needless to say, this is not a favorite parental activity as it means lots of chasing and redirecting, since there are generally cords or other dangerous items accessible from under the tables. Also, chairs have been, up to now, useful in blocking access to things like bookshelves, not all of which have been Ed-proofed. But sometimes he just likes to tunnel and doesn't get into trouble. Then it's kind of funny to see the effort it takes to crawl through the chair legs and maneuver from crawling to sitting position under the table, looking out with a satisfied mug.

Above you see him looking out the bedroom window. This is in the 1920s era section of our house, where the long double-hung windows are low enough to the ground that he can pull himself right up on the sill and check out what's happening in the yard. This provides minutes of enjoyment. Then he realizes he's in our bedroom where there are SO many things to explore and destroy. The door to this room is most often closed so whenever he can he likes to see what is behind it.

We may get out to the yard for real pretty soon. Temperatures in the 40s this week are quickly melting the snow. Of course that means lots of puddles so I'm not too sure how outdoor play will work. First we have to get Ed up from his afternoon nap and fed his afternoon snack with enough daylight time left to accomplish an outdoor adventure. He's been taking substantial naps these days, clearly exhausted from all the effort he's putting into walking. Yes, walking. He's not fully independent yet, but he's definitely advanced beyond the "step-step-flop" phase. He'll now arrive at his destination upright, turn around and walk back. He still has balance issues though so he needs a soft surface to land on. You'll notice that the video ends abruptly, which was due to my needing to catch him as he fell tooth first into my knee. This was unpleasant for both of us, but only drew blood on one (he cut his lip.) No worries though--a little TLC and a few minutes of pacifier sucking and he was on the go again.

Welcome to the infirmary. We spent the weekend at home resting and recovering from the week's ills. Ed seems to be doing a lot better, though he did take a few extra naps. He is not coughing as much and he's back to his usual eating/drinking habits. Unfortunately, as he was recuperating, I was stricken with an entirely different germ. His was respiratory. Mine was gastro-intestinal. Unpleasant. Enough said.

Ed and John did get out to storytime at the library on Saturday morning, allowing me an extra hour of quiet sleep. Thank goodness! I also slept through Ed's entire naptime Saturday afternoon--for those keeping score, he averages about three hours in the afternoon. Then after I got up with Ed's 6 a.m. wake up call today we ended up taking another nap from about 7:30 to 8:30 when I could think of no other method of getting him to stop crying after a quiet interlude for breakfast and kitchen play, so as to stay far from the bedroom where John was catching his well-earned "late" morning snooze. It worked. Guess he was a little over-tired too.

Afternoons were better, as you can see here. Ed and John worked on some walking, with Ed starting out leaning against the chair and then propelling himself forward. I managed to capture the most exciting forward motion, but the battery was running low, so these images are not very high quality--probably won't print well, for those who might be inclined.

And here's another from earlier this week. I named it "multi-tasking" as you can see there are quite a few entertainment items being employed here. He doesn't stay focused on any one of them for terribly long, but if there are enough spread out around him, he's happy moving from one to the next.

One funny thing from this weekend--Ed figured out when we were imitating him and it made him laugh. We think he might have a few more teeth on the way because his fingers are in his mouth constantly and there's lots of drainage from both mouth and nose. So at one point, John was holding Ed and Ed was chewing on his finger. John put his own finger in his mouth and pretended to do the same. Ed thought that was hilarious and then we of course thought his hilarity was hilarious. As I noted earlier, we didn't get out much this weekend. And finally, Ed discovered a new taste treat--pretzels. I was eating them in an effort to add something innocuous to my ailing stomach, and he reached up for the bowl and grabbed one. I was too wiped out to object and waited to see what he'd do with it. He ate it...eventually...after stopping at various points to spit it into his hand to observe the mastication process firsthand. Food and a toddler, what an appetizing mix!

Edward is doing better today, though still not up to full speed. He gets crabby a lot more easily and he's nowhere near the eating machine we know and love. I think he's getting enough liquids through my attempts to force feed him. His diapers have been wet and he still has plenty of tears and drool! We tried a few other foods that are "liquid like," including Jell-O, pudding and sherbet, but all were roundly rejected. John was happy to eat the left-over Jell-O and sherbet, but he passed on the pudding after I told him that Ed plunged his hand into the cup. It was quite messy. These two green shirt photos were taken only moments apart, demonstrating today's mood swings. Strangely, one of the only things to hold his attention today was playing with my slippers, taking them off my feet and then attempting to put them back on. Also trying to grab my wiggling toes. Weird kid.

The snowman sweatshirt photos were taken the other day. Edward frequently finds his own shoes and offers them to whoever is nearby to hold for a moment before he grabs them back and replaces them on the shelf above his books. He also loves the box of books Gram got him for his birthday. The books are all songs (Itsy-Bitsy Spider, Old MacDonald, etc.) and he like to "chair dance" while I sing them to him. But more than anything he likes to take them out and put them back in the box. He doesn't quite get the concept of putting them in vertically and will smash the book flat against the box frustrated that it won't go in. Spatial relations are apparently a later skill.

I'm not sure how I managed to post my earlier entry twice, but things should be back to normal now. Thanks to my brother P.J. for the heads-up. While he was at it, he sent along this photo--the phone photo alluded to below. We'll try to get one in higher resolution, but here you can see the tips of Edward's new red Converse All-Star low tops. Sweet!Edward is back asleep now, after waking from his morning nap with a full diaper, getting changed and dressed, snacking on Kix and clementine orange slices, enduring my force-feeding of a bottle of milk (or at least 3 oz. worth of the bottle), playing happily for about an hour, slowly devolving to tears and moaning, refusing any more liquid or food (except three or four Cheerios) and then finding solace with his pacifier and blankie. Two steps forward, one step back.

We had a busy weekend with a trip to Evanston to see Gram and PopPop for the first time since Christmas. Now, it used to be fairly routine for six weeks or more to pass between in-person visits, but somehow that's all changed in the last year. Kidding aside, it was great to see them and my brothers, who were also home for the coldest weekend of the winter. Temperatures struggled to stay above zero and lost the battle once the sun went down. But it was well worth it to see the look on my uncle's face when we, along with 100 of his closest friends and family members, shouted "Surprise" at his retirement/60th birthday party on Saturday night. No one is more deserving of celebration!

Believe it or not, we were more than an hour into the eastward drive on Friday night, with Edward sound asleep in the carseat when I thought, "Hey, we didn't pack the camera!" That's right...a whole weekend with no Ed photos. Well, one or two might have been snapped with PopPop's camera and the various cell phones. In fact, I know P.J. took a phone photo and sent it to Bridget so she could see Ed sporting the cool birthday present she got him, which prompted her to send me a text message, which provided me the opportunity to send my FIRST text message. I believe I acquitted myself quite well, though I didn't know how to backspace/delete, so there may have been a typo or two.

In any event, I realized during playtime yesterday afternoon that I'd better capture a few blog-worthy shots. And now I have the opportunity to post them, since we are home from work/daycare on Edward's first sick day of the winter. He had a few last summer with ear infections and such, but he's been amazingly healthy through the cold and germy months. He was coughing over the weekend and a little less active than usual (which didn't bother Gram since it meant he took TWO naps while she cuddled him.) But he was OK Monday and Tuesday mornings so we went about our usual routine. This morning however, he didn't want to eat or drink much and when I sat him to play while I ate breakfast and John showered, he just kind of whined and moaned until I picked him up. When he laid his head on my shoulder I knew we were in for the day. He doesn't have a fever though so I think he'll be able to rally soon. As recently as yesterday afternoon he was playful enough for one of his favorite games--peekaboo with the living room curtains. It's pretty cute to watch and I don't think he can pull hard enough to do any damage other than wrinkling the curtains. If that's the worst decorating blunder in my living room, I'm doing pretty well.
He's napping now. We'll see what else the day might bring.

Despite my wife taking a cheap shot at my lack of rhythm (which is really just an excuse to not have to dance in public... ever), I decided to share Edward's dance moves with the world. He already looks better than me.

We had a busy weekend indoors as the temperatures hovered in the single digits. John and Ed did get out Saturday morning to the library where they have an all-ages story time on Saturdays. (There are age-specific story times during the week, including a "book babies" session for kids Ed's age and younger, but they're all in the morning when I'm at work.) Turned out that this week's story time was in Spanish. Might be fun when he's older, but since he hardly pays attention in English it wasn't in the cards. Still, they have a couple of low-table toy areas for the kids so they had some fun, and, more importantly, stayed out for an hour so I could finish my homework! I've started taking courses toward an MBA. It's an evening program designed for working professionals, so theoretically we should be able to make it work with an Ed hand off when John gets home as I go out. Classes are only one night per week and you can go at your own pace, which for me is ONE class per semester!

Anyway, on to what you really want to read about. What's new with Ed? Well, I thought maybe since it has been a month since Christmas and his birthday that he might be ready for a few new toys to change things up a bit. Many of his gifts went behind closed doors to wait for winter boredom. So we got out a couple of trucks and a set of blocks that have vehicles inside them, some of which rattle when shaken--always a bonus. These were of some interest, but in the end, he spent the most time playing with our discarded milk jugs awaiting recycling and a shoebox full of the lids from baby food jars. What a simple child. Thank the wisdom of Mom for the jar lids idea. I'd saved a bunch of the jars with lids thinking that there must be some use for them. There may be, but I never discovered it and I really don't think there's an inner Martha Stewart waiting to inspire me, so I was preparing to recycle them and mentioned this to my mom who said, "Ditch the jars, but save the lids!" Who knew? (Well, Mom, obviously.) He LOVES them. They make lots of noise when rattled in the box or banged together and they provide endless minutes of taking out and putting back in the box.

We also watched as he "learned to dance"--pushing the button on one of his toys that turns on the music and then bouncing in place, decidedly NOT with the rhythm. Like father like son. There may be video of this soon, but it's kind of hard to capture. Stay tuned.

Also, I think we forgot to mention in the last post that Ed's top two front teeth have come through. They'd been on the verge for several weeks, but John declared that he felt the sharp edge a week ago Wednesday (Jan. 17--note to self in case I ever managed to update the baby book!) We thought that would maybe put a stopper in the drool source for a bit, but as you can see from the bib, things are as soggy as ever. This photo was taken before 8 a.m. on Sunday!

Oh my goodness. I can't believe the blog police let us slip a whole week by with no new material! Here are a few to make up for lost time. More snow this weekend and again, Edward was flummoxed by this contraption we call a snowsuit. He refused to do anything but sit, though he didn't seem to mind being out and looking around at the white, white world. We held up snow for him to touch and even gave him a snowball, but no interaction. Maybe once he can walk on his own he'll be more inclined to explore the many wonders of winter.

This is one of Edward's "play stations" in the living room. It's the end table between our couch and chair and it's the perfect height for standing with a puzzle. It also happens to have a box underneath it with just enough room between the underside of the table and the top of the box to make a perfect shelf for hiding the puzzle pieces. There is endless entertainment in moving the pieces between the table top and the box top and with the occasional stop in between to retrieve pieces that have fallen to the floor. We're working on "Cow says, 'Mooo!'" but so far it's just Mom and Dad moo'ing like idiots for his amusement.

For more indoor entertainment, Edward is loving his wagon full of blocks and is even starting to manipulate the pieces into towers. It's still way more fun to destroy towers than to create them so he doesn't get very high before they come tumbling down. Still, he concentrates on fitting the pieces together and making them stand on the wagon handle, which doubles as a building base.

Mealtime is still a challenge. Whatever we offer at first he examines and then throws on the floor--even foods we know he likes and that he eventually will eat, like tonight's pasta, which he clearly enjoyed. He likes to go for the full sensory experience of eating--why stop at taste and smell?

Overnight and this morning we had the first measurable snow of the year in Iowa City. We didn't get much--maybe two inches or so, enough to cover the grass. It wasn't snowing when we left for daycare, but it was when I picked Edward up. He was amused by this new phenomenon, looking up and then looking at me and laughing. Perhaps he was laughing at my hooded jacket though. He thinks it's funny to cover one's head and then remove the cover. Anyway, after the afternoon nap I got him all suited up for his first snowy adventure. He was interested but not excited. He did not want to walk at all, even with me holding his arms. I wonder if he thought that having snow on his shoes would prevent movement. Or maybe it was just the classic "I can't put my arms down" bundle job in his snowsuit. Anyway, he kept sitting down but he did lean over and brush the snow around with his mitten--until it fell off. Once I figured out I wasn't going to be able to keep his hands covered we came back in. Total outdoor time: maybe six minutes! It's much cozier to sit inside with dad watching football (as seen here on Sunday afternoon--a very brief check-in on the day's games.) We just loved Edward's arm draped over John.

Another winter day activity: check out what's for dinner. DO NOT BE ALARMED. This is a brand new oven and very well insulated. It is hardly even warm to the touch when it's on. We checked and re-checked the whole time Edward was watching this turkey breast cook. Unfortunately, he was more interested in the cooking than the eating tonight. He has been offered a number of new foods recently, some with greater success than others. For example, in the dairy family, yogurt has been a hit--several different flavors, though he doesn't like the big fruit pieces, spits them out actually. But cottage cheese was roundly rejected. My sister says it's cruel to even have such a vile substance in the house and that as a person who chooses food based on texture, I should be more sympathetic. In an attempt to sneak in some veggies I made a chicken/zucchini casserole last week that John and I agreed was delicious, but Edward did not concur. We got a few bites in by putting a Gerber puff on the end of the spoon but he figured that out quickly and started picking up the puff and pushing away the spoon. We attempted to serve spaghetti-o's for lunch on Saturday and he turned his face away before the spoon even crossed the tray. This is the same kid who Sunday at lunch devoured a bowl of penne with marinara (Geraghty family favorite recipe--prepared in quantities that lead John to refer to the freezer as a "blood bank.") Is it possible to be a food snob at the tender age of 1? He did enjoy cornbread the other night, but wouldn't touch the red beans and rice I served with it. We used the same "cake ball" method with the crumbly cornbread as with his birthday cake last month. I wonder what else he'd eat if it were squished up into a bite sized lump? Peanut butter also seems to be acceptable to the Edward palate--a thin layer of creamy Skippy spread on a slice of bread and then broken into bite sized pieces. However, this is one of his messiest new foods since he likes to play with the pieces of bread before consuming them. Definitely not sorry for the bald head when it comes time for the wipe down after that meal!

And speaking of meals and their lingering effects, notice the chins in this picture of Ed with "Monkey." This is a favorite toy at the moment, and yes, we are aware that it's not technically a monkey (chimp maybe?), but he doesn't know the difference and we don't care. He just knows that Monkey is very absorbent and doesn't mind a friend who shows affection by chewing on its face. He also can give Monkey a hug if prompted, but that's not usually his first instinct.

Each day Edward seems to encroach a little further into previously inaccessible territory. Over the weekend he learned how to raise himself up to tippy-toes to reach the whole top of our living room bookcase, which had previously served as a depository for keys, change, mail, books and other assorted daily detritus. No more. It's is now empty and of course, no longer of interest to exploring hands. Also, as he gains confidence in his own mobility, Edward is starting to walk along walls and other places where he only has the ability to balance, rather than grab hold. This includes kitchen cabinets, so the safety latches had to be installed. He was pretty disappointed to wake up from his nap the other day to discover he no longer had access.

And now I swallow any sense of pride I ever hoped to cling to by posting this video. Let me just say in my own defense that it's a cold, rainy, miserable day and I opted not to change out of my sweats after an afternoon treadmill walk. At first I swore this would not be blog worthy--way too embarrassing--but in service of Edward's fan base, I sacrifice my own vanity to bring you the following.



The last segment was just before his pre-bed meltdown, which somewhat accounts for the hysteria. But here's what was happening: Ed and John frequently play "hide and seek" from opposite sides of our living room chair. John pretends he's still looking for Ed behind the chair even after Ed has come around to the front. He giggles or grabs John's leg to get his attention. Tonight, John faked him out by pulling down the cushion, exposing a previous hiding spot. Edward was highly entertained by this turn of events.

Edward got some new shoes last week and has been getting used to wearing them. We had him wear them quite a bit over the weekend--even though we were just home where socks (or, to be perfectly honest, bare feet) usually rule the day. We thought that would help him be ready to wear them all morning at daycare. He needed something sturdier to wear there, especially since they will be playing outside, though my earlier suspicions were confirmed as it seems they have a fairly liberal interpretation of what constitutes "too cold" for outdoor play. He hasn't been on their playground yet, but given this wacky warm winter, it won't be long. The first two weeks in the toddler room he was still taking a morning nap each day and that usually coincided with their outside time so he missed the opportunity. This week he's starting to skip that nap and just crash as soon as we get home. So once the weather gods cooperate, he should get some good outdoor activity each morning.

It's hard to think of him as a "big kid" in the toddler room when he still wears a bib most of the time these days. The drool has been out of control. He easily soaks through one of these before noon. When will those teeth pop through already!?

Also over the weekend, Ed enjoyed sharing the Sunday paper with us. His reading habits are fairly violent and rather soggy though, so he got the parts we were done with. John was especially excited to share this Best Buy circular with him, but Ed proved to be a rather undiscerning shopper. The CDs and iPods garnered the same level of interest as the washers and driers--rip, scrunch and chew.

And the biggest weekend news, which does not have a photographic element for reasons that will become clear:

Edward took his first step on Saturday night (Jan. 6)!

And I do mean "step," singular. He was standing at a living room chair, turned toward me (sitting on the floor), let go of the chair, took one step and then flopped into me. We were quite excited about this development but could not produce a repeat performance. He decided that flopping was MUCH more fun and spent the next 15 minutes or throwing himself back and forth between our outstretched arms as each of us tried to coax him to take steps toward the other. All hands on Ed meant none free to operate the camera. Stay tuned though...

Here's Edward surveying the scene this weekend at Grandma and Grandpa's in Des Moines. John's extended family gathered New Year's Eve during the day for holiday festivities. We had a good time through the afternoon, but were cursing the weather forecasters who had inaccurately predicted the timing, track and temperature of a weather system for the day. It made for a treacherous trip home for John's aunt, uncle and cousins, but they all eventually got home safely so we're thankful for that.

Edward likes the toys at Grandma and Grandpa's house and thought John might also enjoy the full sensory experience, including taste. Ed now enjoys offering toys, books and other objects for someone to take and hold until he asks for it back. It's a never-ending cycle. He also started a new vocal experiment that sounds kind of like a siren, but is not used in conjunction with any toy emergency vehicle. I think he just likes hearing the different tones up and down the vocal register.

Today was Ed's 12-month check-up where he weighed in at just under 22 pounds and measured 29 1/4 inches long with 18 3/4 inches in head circumference. The height and weight are proportional in about the 30th percentile, but the head is a bulbous 77th percentile! Lots of room for that expanding brain. Actually, John notes that maybe he's not really as bald as people think, it's just that he has so much surface area to cover it looks sparse. Hmmm...let's think about that for a bit.

The print-out they give us to take home (so we can remember all these vital stats) includes all his official measurements since birth so we can see that we also spent time last Jan. 3 in the doctor's office, when he was a tiny 5 1/2 pounds at nine days old. My sister points out that he has quadrupled his weight this year! He's also grown 10 inches in length. Just for the record, his nine-day-old head was only in the 6th percentile.

One amusing thing about the doctor visit--Ed picked that moment to demonstrate his crawling skills. That's actual hands-and-knees crawling, not the commando/army-style he's mastered at home. We actually have never seen him go more than two or three "steps" (?) on his hands and knees, but he got down on the floor while we were talking to the doctor and was motoring around. It was almost like he had an internal monologue going, "OK, time for that 'crawling' think they've been pestering me about. I don't know what's so great about it, but for some reason it's important for these big people to see it. Whatever..." Then he did it again while we were waiting for the nurse to come back with his shots (yes, three more today.) The room was getting stuffy so I opened the door and let him go out into the hall where he proceeded directly toward the receptionist/schedulers' desks. They were quite amused with his antics. What a flirt he is!

A final observation--with the doctor's light shining in his mouth, we could see how close the two upper front teeth are to emerging. The gums are puffy and he's practically drowning in drool. Any day now...

Edward got to celebrate his first birthday over several days, so it's fitting that we note it with several blog posts, too. We wanted to share Edward's official birthday cake experience.

This is before:

This is during

And this is after

Is there any doubt that he enjoyed himself?

If you look up the word "sucker" in the dictionary, you'll see a photo of John and me. While you've got that dictionary out, look up "highway robbery" and see if the Sears logo appears. Those portrait studio folks saw us coming a mile away. Didn't help that I forgot the coupon on the fridge, but looking at it now, I see that it was for a package that would have allowed us only one pose and no "discount" on the photo CD. As John says, "He's only one once," so we've got photos up the wazoo if anyone wants one plus a CD with all eight images and copyright so those posted here are totally legal. We've got dressy and casual, full body and close up, sizes a plenty from wallets up to 8x10.

We also managed to finish our own series of monthly couch shots yesterday. Those shoes look huge, don't they? He doesn't particularly care for them, but we're trying to get him used to the idea that he can't go around in soft-soles forever--especially not when it snows. It's tough to be a December baby--you finally figure out how to move yourself around and then you're confined to the house or to bulky winter gear that inhibits that new range of motion. He'll definitely be on the run as soon as the tulips pop up in the spring!

We had a wonderful Christmas and birthday. Ed made out like a bandit thanks to his doting grandparents, aunts, uncles, and of course Santa! He was actually satisfied with just one present--didn't matter which one. As soon as he opened it, that's all he needed and he totally ignored the rest of the stack. Gift bags were his favorite--much easier to dig into that tissue and pull out the present than to rip a tightly wrapped box. And speaking of boxes...no surprise, those were as fun as the toys! Some of the loot went in the closet to be reintroduced when we hit rock bottom of winter boredom.

He's clearly exhausted by it all. He took an hour and forty-five minute nap this morning and is close to the three hour mark on his afternoon snooze right now. I guess when you're in constant motion every waking moment, you need more sleeping moments. He'll probably be glad to go back to daycare tomorrow and be rid of his pestering parents for a little while!

One other milestone--now that he's a year old, he can ride in the carseat facing forward. He's long since reached the weight requirement (20 lbs.) so we've been waiting for the birthday. He was looking all around on the drive to Sears, but it was old hat by the trip home and he fell asleep. That's actually a good sign--our road trips depend on his ability to sleep in the car!

Edward got an early start on his birthday and Christmas today with a pretty standard wake-up time of about 6:15. That gave us plenty of time to have breakfast and open some presents before heading to church.

Santa brought him some magnetic letters to stick on the refrigerator, a good idea because he's able to reach up high enough that the things stuck there had better be Edward-proof.

He also brought him a plastic wagon filled with over-sized Lego-like toys. This doubles, like anything else that is the right height, as a mode of travel. Edward quickly pulled himself up on it and began pushing it around the room.

He also opened presents on Christmas Eve -- which is, of course, also his Birthday Eve -- adding to his already full toy chest.

He also helped his Dad open presents. The Geraghty clan does a sibling gift exchange, each sibling and spouse receiving the name of another with the idea of exchanging presents for Christmas. Mary's brother P.J. drew my name. Lucky me. Edward didn't quite know what to make of my present -- an animatronic reindeer singing "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer" -- and to be honest, neither did I. Watch out next year, P.J.

That's just the beginning. He'll celebrate with Grandma and Grandpa Kenyon this afternoon, and with many more family members later in the week. It's a great way to cap a great year and usher in another.

Merry Christmas! It's hard to believe that this time last year we were still waiting for Edward, not even knowing he would be Edward. In fact, a year ago today, John and I went on our last spontaneous date, no babysitter required. We went out to lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurant and to a movie. All the while, our friend Dan, a painter, was painting Ed's room. Little did we know how soon he would inhabit it.

It's been a wonderful year. Watching Edward grow has been thrilling and we can't wait to see what the next year brings.

We started our Christmas and birthday celebrations a little early, when Gram and PopPop, along with Aunt Nora and Aunt Bridget, visited on Friday. So far the Tupperware shape ball seems to be the favorite present, but there's still more to come. We also jumped the gun a bit on birthday cake. This first cake was pumpkin with cream cheese frosting, and at first Ed wasn't too sure what to make of it. He squished it and then tried to shake it off his hand, but when John took some of the crumbs and formed a little cake ball for him, Edward realized the error of his ways and began to devour what was left on his tray. Since that sugar introduction he also has eaten a few pieces of sugar cookie (the ones that broke before making it to the frosting assembly line.) He's pretty fond of those too. Watch out for the sugar high!

Tonight we'll open a few more of the Christmas present that have been magically appearing at our doorstep from such exotic locales as South Milwaukee, WI; Chandler, AZ, and Bristol, TN. Then tomorrow we'll see what Santa brings in the morning and celebrate both Christmas and birthday with Grandma and Grandpa Kenyon in the afternoon. We may all need naps by the time we're done!