With a blue moon hanging heavy in the sky as a holiday decoration for us all, the annual competition heated up between local hospitals on New Year's Eve. Which one would be the winner in delivering the Washington, DC region's first New Year's baby?
Little Joseph Elliott Taylor screamed his way into the New Year at exactly three minutes after midnight, handing the prize to Inova Alexandria Hospital and making his parents very proud.
"He was due on January 19th, " said his mother Erin Taylor, "so he was a bit of a surprise."
Papa James Taylor (no relation to the singer, we think) said, "We're not going to have to calculate how old he is. It's going to be easy to remember."
Now the vital statistics. Baby Joe came in at seven pounds twelve ounces and nineteen inches tall.
This is how the deal went down: Mom Erin went to the hospital for what she thought was a routine appointment Thursday. Then a mad call to James. The baby was coming!
James Taylor ran around the house scooping up everything he thought Erin would need. He called Erin's mother who drove over the river and through the snow from Pennsylvania to watch the Taylor's two-year-old son who was dropped off at a neighbors.
Mom and dad had planned a quiet getaway from the hospital with their newborn. But not with the area's first New Year's baby of 2010. The cameras showed up. The spotlight. That's what baby Joe was born into.
Erin and James Taylor politely answered questions in front of wall-to-wall media.
Joe was quiet. No doubt playing the starring role of the Good Blue Moon Baby. And on top of it all, the pictures showed him smiling a little -- no doubt because of the big haul of presents heaped on the Taylors for honor of having Joe arrive first in his class.
