Winston, I'm begging you

PLEASE LOOK AT ME!

Christmas whirlwind

We had a great Christmas, in spite of the warm, anti-Christmas weather. Our house overflowed with gifts, food, and people! Jed's Marmie, Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Brian, and Aunt Dara came to town, and Jed even had a quick visit with the Woodards.

He got some fantastic presents from his friends, neighbors, and family including a toy we're calling the Sphere of Wonder, a toy hammer that makes a sound like crashing glass, ornaments from Teddie, Aunt Phyllis, Aunt Theresa, us, and his grandparents that I know he'll hang on his own tree one day, books, toys, and even a webcam so he can video-chat with Marmie and Uncle Brian. (I think grandma and grandpa will be getting a webcam for grandma's upcoming birthday!) Basically, the kid got everything from a woolly pig to diaper ointment! But most importantly, he got lots of love from lots and lots of people! We're lucky to have him and he's pretty lucky to have all of us!

already hitting the bottle

You can't see it in this picture, but Jed is rubbing Winston. Too bad Winston is maintaining his vow to pretend Jed does not exist.

Aunt Phyllis (Camille's grandma, Sarah's aunt, Jed's great aunt) holds Camille and Jed

Jed is enchanted with his cousin Camille; Camille's dad, Tim, is holding them.

you know Christmas dinner was good when Joseph falls over

hanging with Grandpa

Eric, Dara, and Brian

Grandpa and Grandma

showing off my silver bell ornament from Marmie

the Sphere of Wonder

eating Dorothy's gift

concentrating on opening

Someone (who will remain anonymous because I don't want to embarrass him) gave Jed a "little Republican" t-shirt. Please note Jed's reaction.

opening gifts in mama's lap

hanging out with Marmie

Merry Christmas

from the mullet!

some recent pictures

holy static, batman!

oh Christmas tree

Jed finally got around to picking out our tree this morning.

I'd planned to dress him up with the Santa cap his Aunt Phyllis gave him but alas, Big Head Jed has already outgrown it, much to Winston's embarrassment.

rollin in my 5.0

...or I guess it's more accurate to say rollin in my wooden crib, with the sides dropped down so my hair can blow.

Anyway, at 5:30 this morning, our little Vanilla Ice was wailing, so I headed into the kitchen to make a bottle in the hopes he'd eat and go back to sleep for a little while, but as I was putting that together, he went totally silent. So I peeked in on him to find him sleeping soundly on his belly. For a couple of weeks he's been getting about 3/4ths of the way over from his back to his belly, ending up with an arm still pinned underneath him, but this morning, he made the full rotation and got his arm out. And, yes, he did sleep a little bit longer.

In other news, Jed enjoyed visiting DOT yesterday, although he was quickly overwhelmed and resorted to staring at a shelf of books until he fell asleep. I had the camera with me, but he melted down before I could get a snap of him with the gang. We'll be sure to catch Jed steering a big yellow truck the next time we go.

morning report ii

Jed seems to be back to his regular self this morning with a normal temperature!

morning report

Jed seems to be pretty close to normal this morning. He only got up once last night (!!!), hasn't run a fever since 7 pm yesterday, ate a normal breakfast, and happily bounced in his doorway bouncer before heading off to his after-breakfast nap. His left eye is still puffy and Eric reported that he had quite a bit of gunk in it this morning, so we're watching that. Otherwise, while my sinuses are not in great shape, they feel a lot better today, so hopefully we're all on the mend.

nap = smiles

After a three-hour nap (I got an hour nap myself), Jed awoke cheerful and happy. We just checked his temperature, and it's still at 101, but he hasn't had Tylenol since this morning, so after his bath, he'll get a dose and then hopefully sleep for a few hours.

finding energy to concentrate on the ferris wheel of wonder

and even some energy to channel Grandpa Joe

update from the pediatrician

Jed has a respiratory bug of some sort and his doctor recommends that we simply keep doing what we're doing. That means monitoring his temperature (it was normal at 1:15), giving Tylenol if his temperature goes back up, expecting him to eat smaller meals more frequently, and calling the office if he gets worse. He's not keen on liquids at the moment, but I just manged to get a fair bit of formula in him via rice cereal and hopefully he'll go down for a long afternoon nap in a few minutes, which means I can have a long nap, too!

update

Jed still has a low grade fever (99.7 at 10:30) and puffy left eye, but he is currently laughing, smiling, and playing, none of which he did yesterday and all of which make my sinuses hurt less!

poor Jed

On Saturday afternoon, Jed woke up unexpectedly early from his nap and was not very happy about the situation. He ended up throwing up all the solid food he'd had for supper and going to bed almost an hour early, but our normally easy-to-bed baby was not happy and fussed for about half-an-hour before finally dropping off.

Eric and I settled in for some tv watching and I started nursing the beginnings of a sinus inflammation. Around 11 pm, Jed was up again, fussing but refusing food. That, as it turned out, was the beginning of a very long night. Jed would not sleep unless he was being held, so Eric and I worked in shifts to stay up with him, but I don't think either of us slept much during our off-shifts.

Eventually, we took his temperature which turned out to be a balmy 101.8. After a phone call to his doctor's office, Eric fetched some infant Tylenol around 9 in the morning. Since then, Jed has rested easier. My sinuses are still pretty angry, so Eric was in charge of child and wife care yesterday, and we were hoping for a better night last night.

Last night was, indeed, better, but it wasn't ideal. Jed slept in his crib, but was up at 9:30, 11, 2, and 4. His appetite is still not normal and his left eye is puffy. Over night, his temperature got down to normal, but at 8 this morning, it was back to 100.5. We're off to the doctor's office this afternoon, so look for an update sometime later today.

december rains

bring December curls. I'm not sure how well Jed's humidity-infused locks show up in these pictures, but the rainy weather has brought out the ringlets!

In other news, Jed got his first piece of junk mail today. Congratulations, J! Curiously, it was a catalog from a jeweler in New York. And yesterday, he got a Christmas card from Santa. Although Santa's assistant remains anonymous, we hope the elf knows we all enjoyed the card!

And a final weather note: the difference in temperature between Jed's hometown and his Marmie's hometown is 60 degrees. Right now, it's 70 here in Chapel Hill and 10 in Duluth.

rattles and reindeer

Jed says

I love Teddie!
A good neighbor and a good friend are just what a kid needs.*

*and in today's news, I see that having a happy next door neighbor increases your own happiness by 34%!

buurrrrr

a cold morning for a walk

some new pictures

Some shots from today . . . not the best I've ever made, but smiles are smiles!

and for those of you on mullet-watch:

still short and fat

Jed just had his six-month check-up and received a clean bill of health. At 26 inches long and 19 1/2 pounds, he's in the 25th percentile for length and 75th for weight! As usual, he charmed the nurses and doctor, turned purple-red and screamed his head off during shots, and then fell asleep.

time's up!

Thanks for participating in our poll about how Santa should leave Jed's gifts. Here's how you voted:

wrapped: 6
unwrapped: 8
procrastinate another year: 4
and no one thought we should eliminate gifts or Santa due to environmental or religious concerns

Now, what will we actually do? Who knows! We had a lot of fun with this poll and we've collected a lot of great ideas; Santa's creativity seems to know no bounds! Personally, because the votes tended in my unwrapped direction, I hope we'll follow the poll's results, but Eric seems to think it's still up for debate.

My aunt suggested that Santa could leave Jed's gifts in a felt bag, like a smaller version of the big bag Santa carries all over the world. That seems like a nice half-way point to me because the gifts are covered but not wrapped. And Sherry suggested her Santa's method in which Santa hides gifts all over the house. That seems like a lot of fun and it prolongs the surprises without paper and tape, but it might create conflicts down the road if Jed has a little brother or sister. . . . hhuuummm . . . lots to think about!

The good thing is that if we don't like what we end up doing this year, we can tweak the tradition next year!

Thanks for voting and we'll keep you posted on what system we choose.

Thanksgiving continued

Yesterday, Jed visited Great Grandma Be. She held him without being afraid of dropping him, introduced him to as many nurses as she could find, and showed him off to her table-mates at lunch.

One year ago, I wasn't sure Be would be around to meet Jed and if she was, I didn't think she'd remember him or understand who he is, but over the course of the year, her doctors have radically decreased the amount of medication she takes. As a result, she has become steadily more alert and engaged, giving us another reason (among many) to be very thankful!

Wait'll they get a load of me

Jed "improves" his "eating" "skills." (note ironic use of quotation marks)

happy Thanksgiving!

Jed enjoyed his first Thanksgiving with his Grandma, Grandpa, his great-uncle Jim and his great-aunt Phyllis. And between Aunt Phyllis and Grandma, he's all ready for Christmas with a beautiful new Christmas ornament, a Christmas bib and Santa hat, and reindeer pajamas.

Jed's family is very thankful for him this year, and for the fact that he arrived at the end of May rather than the middle of April. And we were all very thankful to be able to spend the day together in a warm house with tons and tons of good food!

I love Uncle Jim!

Grown-up dinner conversation = BORING.

Grandma, Aunt Phyllis, Uncle Jim

This spoon would taste so much better with mashed potatoes on it.

This spoon still has no food on it.
For what, exactly, am I supposed to be thankful?

sitting up up and away