happy birthday, Macon!

one year ago

365 days and 19 pounds later . . .

shameless!

If you're a facebook-er, I hope you'll cast votes for Jed and Macon in a cutest kid and cutest baby contest sponsored by Tiny Prints. Click here to vote for Jed and here to vote for Macon. Thanks!

never say never

Last year, when Macon arrived just a couple of days beyond the cut-off for occasionally having a Thanksgiving birthday, I said to myself (and probably to others) that I wouldn't celebrate his birthday as part of a Thanksgiving celebration, but what did we do yesterday? We did the only thing we could do given that all the grandparents were in town: we celebrated Macon's first birthday a week early.

We separated it from the actual Thanksgiving meal by cutting the cake a few hours earlier than dinner, and I promised him a modest recognition of the day on the actual day, but essentially, we had his party yesterday.

the cake: cutting and eating  

Macon has just learned to clap and that's what he's doing here,
in addition to eating his cake like a lion attacking a gazelle.

praise the Lord for this sweet, sweet cake

Daddy, Jim, Marmie, Grandma, Grandpa, Mama

present time

Initially, the tissue paper was fun enough for everyone . . .

but then Macon discovered what the paper hid: a pounding toy!

This left Jed to search the box vainly for his.

They tried to play with the hammer together and jointly beat the next gift . . .

but Jed cut to the chase and stole the hammer.

Macon at least captured the pegs . . .

 and soon began delighting in a new gift.

Later in the day, after dinner, crashing occurred.

But everyone was wide awake for family picture time this morning.

happy thanksgiving

marmie's visit so far

Marmie arrived on Saturday and we've been on the porch ever since.

On Monday, we left the porch long enough to visit Logan's, our local garden store, where Jed loves checking out the pond display.

And yesterday, at Jed's school feast, we won a scooter in the silent auction.

He put it down for bed last night, but that's the only time he's been separated from it, so we're off to acquire a helmet later today.

giving thanks

Today was "feast day" at Jed's school, complete with a short program. The video quality is not great; I forgot my camera so I recorded this with my phone. Jed is wearing brown, standing on the end.

camel time!

A few years ago, our friend Stephanie visited Jordan and brought this wonderful camel back for Jed.

A while back, our neighbor and friend McLeod (maker of the Fireman Sam costume), decided that Macon needed his own camel and she got to work. The resulting felted wool dromedary just settled into his new home, and he sports a blanket with an oak leaf on one side (for our neighborhood, Oakwood, and for Raleigh, the City of Oaks) and a Cedar of Lebanon on the other.

Thanks, McLeod!

And if you've never checked out McLeod's work at her Etsy shop, Milepost 13, there's no time like the present. She can make just about any critter you can imagine, so make a special request!

In other exciting news, Daddy is home!

After a long week in a courtroom, Eric came home yesterday and was immediately hopped upon.

Special thanks to Grandma and Grandpa who spent most of the week with us. I'm pretty sure I would have gone insane with the boys on my own!

And a few shots from our Saturday . . .

occupy germanton

We've just returned from Grandma and Grandpa's . . .

. . . where Macon discovered the joy of the storm door . . .

. . . and Jed and I tried to fly his plane in the wind.

happy fall

Who doesn't love fall, Jed?

I love fall, too, Macon!

 I'm not a fan of crape myrtles,

even in the summer when they look like pink and purple fireworks frozen in mid-explosion.

But fall brings redemption. 

And finally, this gem:

At school this week, Jed made a cornucopia . . .

. . . displaying that for which he is thankful.

Enjoy.

whatee?

Macon gave his new sippy cup a run yesterday. I think we've seen this behavior before.

And to follow up on my mother of the year post, it wasn't me. It was him. Or the antibiotics. Or something. Yes, Macon's fitful night on Monday might have been hunger, and certainly Tuesday's was attributable to the diaper rash cream in his pajamas, but we suffered through increasingly bad nights all week.

So far, Saturday night was the worst, and it was followed by precious little nap time on Sunday. Last night, we had to spend about 20 minutes on three separate occasions between 7 and 10 rocking him to sleep, but finally, he stayed asleep until 5. At that point, he wasn't screaming like he has been and that's often when he wakes up to play for a few minutes anyway, so I just put a stuffed animal in bed with him and he played until he fell back to sleep.

I'm hoping it was just the antibiotics. His last dose was yesterday, so I have my fingers crossed for better sleep tonight, and if I'm extra-lucky, better napping today. If not, we'll be back to the doctor to find out why our happy baby is so exceptionally unhappy in his crib these days.