it's your birthday!

Jed celebrated his first birthday with a Happy Birthday serenade from Eric and me at 11:08 a.m. this morning, followed by a family cookout and, of course, cake, which was followed by a 3-hour nap! We took tons of pictures that I'll post tomorrow, but in the meantime, check out the excellent birthday shout-outs he got from his blogged friends: Lucy and parents marked his hair cut, Eli sent his wishes, and little Ellie got in on the action, too! Thanks so much to Caroline, Sherry, and Delana for helping us celebrate!

And for a stroll down memory lane, here's our blog's first look at the little guy!

The day the music died . . .

The day began like so many others, with our child looking a bit like Phil Spector after a bender.

Where are we going? This is going to be fun.



What the?!



Why God?? Why???!!!!



You're cutting my SOUL lady!



The curls are still there, but the passion, the joi de vivre, the "it" factor is gone.



The kid's first haircut. He looks younger and less like the town drunk, which is good. But we miss the old look.



Streamlined crawling.

hair: the retrospective

Tomorrow, Jed gets his first hair cut. I am sad about it, but it's time: it's constantly in his face and eyes, and now that it's warm and he's pretty mobile, it's also sweaty.

That said, his hair has developed a life of its own. I'm surprised his hair doesn't have its own My Space page... or maybe it does and I don't even know about it. I can say I've never, not one single time, taken him out in public and not had someone comment on his hair. So here's a little look back at the locks. Enjoy!

behold: the child is hairy

favorite hair quote from this time period: "The hair. My lord. The hair." -- comment by Gary G. on an early blog posting

When Jed was born, I only saw him for a split second before the pediatric team whisked him away. I saw wet matted hair and scrawny red arms and legs, but I had no idea of the hair situation. The next time I saw him, he was well-swaddled and wearing a cap. It was at least an hour, maybe longer, before we dared unwrap him even a little bit, so I was pretty shocked when we finally pulled off his little hat and saw this:

favorite quote from the early days at home: "LOOK AT THAT BABY'S HAIR!" --shouted, and I do mean shouted, by a lady in the waiting room at his pediatrician's office; her husband took a serious elbow jab during this exclamation

a few months later: longer but no where near capacity
mullet watch

it's getting crazy

and crazier

wow is all I can say
at full lengthfavorite recent hair-quote: "Rad. Totally rad." --teenager working at the deli counter at Fresh Market

one last long hair-ed bath

Don't worry. I will save a few curls and I'm pretty sure it will grow back.

**Saturday morning update**

fittingly, Jed's hair was extra-zany this morning

Look for a post-cut update later today!

number 4

all photos by Doug Rice

seriously?

Jed has learned to make a new expression. Apparently, it's most fun to test out on new people at the grocery store who probably walk away wondering about my demon child, but today I got him to try it out for the camera.

serious

serious-er

serious-est

and back to the smile

truckin

Or, I guess, "peckin" might be more accurate.

The woodpeckers have become a pretty efficient mode of transport for Jed. He can go from point A (somewhere you want him to be or somewhere it's ok for him to be) to point B (somewhere he wants to be) in short order. (Please note that points A and B are totally different locations.)

Today, we took the woodpeckers for a spin outside, and before the rains came, we walked down to the corner on the outside-the-fence sidewalk. I alone, however, could not document that portion of our outing because the smooth(er) concrete really let the woodpeckers take flight, forcing all my hands to stay on deck.

The highlight of the outing for Jed was the passing of a school bus. The highlight for me was watching Jed spin his head around, Exorcist-fashion, to watch the bus.

Jed at point A but looking at point B
note the storm clouds between the trees

point B is nearly within reach

success! a petal in hand

approaching point B2

and reaching point B2, where the lily bud goes into the mouth

fear not: I got it out before chewing ensued

is that point B3 ahead of me?

and onto the porch during the rain

mobility

Welcome to our life now that Jed is fully mobile (either by crawling or by using his woodpecker walker). We'd also like to thank profusely the genius who designed our kitchen with all open shelves.

better!

Eric thought having a good hair brushing last night would help Jed feel better, and he was right! The kid slept soundly last night and ate a good breakfast this morning!

sick babe

Yesterday, Jed complained throughout lunch with my former co-workers. I accused him of being a grumpy attention hog, but I finally clued in to his excessively warm skin and discovered that his temperature was approaching 105 degrees. Yikes!

I put him down for a nap after a bottle and dose of Tylenol, certain that he'd awake refreshed and ready to take on the world, or at least the woodpecker push toy, but two-and-a-half-hours later his temperature remained alarmingly high. So we paid the doctor a late afternoon visit where she diagnosed a plain old virus. Motrin and Tylenol finally cooled him off, but he had a very hard time sleeping last night and spent almost the entire time between 10:30pm and 3:30am standing in his crib, jumping up and down in his crib, or being rocked.

And this is on top of possible new teething pain (I've seen an uptick in gnawing on fingers and drooling in the last few days) and a pretty good case of diaper rash brought on by an upset tummy that last week's antibiotics (for an ear infection) caused! Poor little guy!

Today, his appetite hasn't been great, and he's still having trouble settling down to nap, but his temperature has been normal all morning, so I hope we're on the mend!

first, a shot from several days ago

yesterday morning, pre-fever

look! the remote control

must have remote control

crawling on the new rug (thanks Marmie!)

yesterday, shortly before lunch . . . probably already working on a fever at this point, but not feeling too bad to push the woodpeckers and break in the new Stride-Rites!

and not feeling too bad to flirt with one's self

and finally, a shot taken just a few minutes ago