retirement ceremony

Last Friday the 28th my dad had his retirement ceremony in the Hall of Heroes at the Pentagon, and it was lovely.  (He won't actually stop working for the Army until next May, but that's a different story...)  We were worried about Jed disrupting the ceremony, and considered asking Scott's parents (who were visiting) to watch him, but he was pretty well-behaved and only made a few noises (all happy ones).  Friday morning a large group of friends and family gathered at the Pentagon, and my dad took us on a tour.  Scott's parents and brother's family were in town, and they joined us for the tour but left to visit other friends, who live in Bethesda, afterward.  Porter (9) thought the best part was learning that there are 17.5 miles of corridors and 284 bathrooms...and Penelope (6) enjoyed being in the lead by staying at the front of the group as much as possible (even though she wanted to stop at every water fountain she saw).  Jed took a short nap in the stroller.

At 1:30 my dad and his family gathered in his bosses office, 3-star General Lawrence.  She chatted with us, thanked us for supporting my father throughout his career, and gave us little tokens of appreciation.  She even gave one to Jed, who immediately began to chew on it.  That's how he shows that he likes something - so I hope she wasn't offended.  At 2pm the ceremony started, beginning with General Lawrence giving my father lots of awards for his service.  Debbie got 2 medals of appreciation as well - both for her support of my dad, and her own service in the army and as a civilian contractor.

When my father got up to speak, he began by giving Debbie and I flowers to thank us for always being there for him.  He then spoke about his career, and how he ended up where he was - with an inspirational tribute to his father - and pondered what he might do next.  He mentioned that his foremost duty was being a good grandfather to Jed, and told everyone that he planned on teaching Jed how to ride a horse before Jed learned to walk.

Immediately following the ceremony, a group of about 8 people gathered around Jed to ooh and ahh over him, because he was the only baby in the room.  I stood him up and let go - he remained standing, to my slight surprise - I walked around him, knelt down a few feet away, and beckoned for him to walk to me.  And he walked!  He had taken "falling" steps before, but we consider these his first official solo steps because he started from standing still.  My dad refuses to believe that it happened... :)

Some of the group gathered at my dad's house for dinner, and Jed kept everyone pretty entertained by crawling around, taking faltering steps, and shrieking with exhausted, loopy delight.  My Uncle Charles carried him around like this, for some unknown reason:

By the end of the night, poor Jed was the tiredest baby I'd ever seen.  As soon as his pajamas were on, he grabbed his Pooh bear, stuck his thumb in his mouth, and laid down on the floor.

But it was a fun day and totally worth it.  Congratulations, Daddy! I love you.