At 10:17 PM on January 2, 2001, Emerson was born at a hospital 40 minutes outside of Memphis. The drive was long, but what posh digs! Friendly nurses and lots of popsicles helped ease the difficult path to delivery. The weather that week was uncharacteristically winterish for Tennessee. With Grandmother Cook and Uncle James following behind, Emerson was driven in utero on sheets of ice and packed snow past cars that had gone into the gutters the night before.    Here's how they looked just before they  went:

But never mind Jennifer and Jonathan, mere vessels for the greatness (and mighty darn loudness) that is Emerson. The pictures below were taken just about 30 minutes after he was born

Jennifer worked hard to get her son, but there's no question that he was worth it in the end