November 3, 2002 - Sunday
It was one year ago today that Jeremy arrived, overweight ("this one won't be that big," said the OB after we told her of Harry's birth weight and the incorrect prediction by that doctor of "about 7 lbs), misshapen, and seemingly unhappy. He cried for some 45 minutes waiting for his mother to feed him while I held him, clinging to the believe that it meant nothing about his future disposition. And for that night anyway, I mostly succeeded. Then, over the next couple of weeks I started to worry. He woke up at night, woke Harry up at night, and woke us up at night and it didn't seem as novel, as exciting, or as wholesome as it did the first time around.

So much for first impressions. Jeremy has blossomed into a charmingly sweet boy, completely the opposite of his first day. He's happy, he's calm, and he's more self-reliant than Harry, although how much of that is him and how much is less attentive parents is hard to know. Unlike Harry, Jeremy continues to be delightfully plump and his love of eating remains a major character trait, suggesting that I had it right that early morning one year ago: he just wanted to eat. Sure, he's been through teething, but we're quicker with the Baby Tylenol this time around, and he's had moments of frustration. But overall, Jeremy is wonderfully laid back, even compared to Harry, who by our understanding then was a delightfully easy baby. Of course, Jeremy does not quite share Harry's focus, seriousness, even intensity, but that begets less of Harry's accompanying paternal moodiness.

At one, Jeremy is starting to walk, it seems with less hesitation or deliberation than Harry. He can now walk around our closet loop and back into our bedroom and has gone down the hall to Harry's room several times without falling or taking a break. He's starting to talk and this age is when Harry did as well, although I'd say Jeremy is progressing a little more slowly than Harry did. Of course, that's also likely to be the result of a degree less of attention and less immersion in and/or fondness for books. Jeremy aggressively sucks his thumb still and gropes for his "nunny," which with his eating suggests a more oral-fixated baby than Harry was, although Jeremy also quite effectively uses the thumb and nunny to calm himself, rest, and even go to sleep on his own. We were far more overbearing-attentive with then-only-child Harry and there are a lot of advantages to the way Jeremy does it, save the absence of lying on the chest bonding moments.

At one, Jeremy also seems on the verge of flexing is independence, with more vocal assertiveness and maturing desires, and it's clear that over the next several months his personality will become closer to Harry's whimsical "2." He will cry and pout, whine and scream and we'll struggle to shape is manners and self-discipline just as we are now with Harry. Yet, even knowing that will come, there is a little person who has unmistably exceeded our most wishful post-baby-Harry expectations and I can't wait to watch him grow.

Jeremy's 1st birthday party was bigger than Harry's, mainly because we know people with very young children (Chloe and Nicole). And, of course, there was Harry. He "assisted" (above right) Jeremy with unwrapping presents and "showed" (right) Jeremy how to use many of his new toys, but that's a subject for another day, and perhaps many other days. This picture (lower right) is also a brief moment when Harry and Nicole weren't running amok together upstairs. Jeremy likes playing upstairs, too, but tonight played more with his new toys (lower left).


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