Other big news is that she had her first bottle this past weekend!

Here are some pictures from Sarah’s last bath.

She is a very accommodating baby.  She is happy to go wherever Ted and I are going during the day or wherever we are all going during nights and weekends.  She does have a thing about red lights though.  She hates them and lets us all know about it.  She is also rather fussy in the mornings when I have to get ready for the day instead of holding her.  She also frequently is fussy in the evenings when Ted is getting ready for bed. In the evenings no amount of holding her stops the anxiety.  But (so far) she is not the type to scream without stopping.  There is generally some intense arm waving and loud heavy breathing punctuated with yells.  Then we calm her down for a few minutes with walking her around and singing and then repeat the whole process over and over.  Overall she is a pretty calm happy baby though.

Something else worth mentioning is Zoe’s overwhelming need to sit on this baby.  She is quite crazy about it.  Like a duck determined to hatch an egg.  I let Zoe sit with us but that is not enough.  She is constantly inching closer trying to get on top of Sarah.  I have to hold her away and if I move my hand she is instantly moving in.  It is quite comical when Ted joins in and I have Ted, Sarah, and Zoe all on my lap at once.

Yesterday I took Sarah to her one month well check.  She is now 10lbs 11.5oz!  She has been able to hold her head up for awhile now, but she has been doing it for longer stretches this week.  Also while we had seen fleeting smiles here and there before, this week she seems to be really smiling in response to things.

We were very impressed with his crayon skills.  He was also able to spell “mom” and “cat” and “dad”, but didn’t write those out.  We’re just happy he wrote his name.  Now to work on writing Edward.

Speaking of communication, here’s a picture of Ted using a payphone at the Marbles Kids museum in Raleigh.  There’s a very real chance that Ted could go his whole life without ever using one of these.

Ted will occasionally talk on a cell phone, but usually shies away from it.  I think we spoiled him by stating out life on Skype, so pushing audio-only on him seems kind of lame.

Here’s Ted at the museum again, playing his version of hockey (two hands, two sticks). We’re still thinking baseball is going to be his sport of choice.

We did a Christmas present opening at home during his 33rd month, just as a way to keep things low-key before we went on our Christmas road trip up north.  (And that trip up north was crazy, with sick everyone and crazy weather.)   Here’s Ted wearing his new bike helmet, one of his many Christmas prizes this year.  Lucky little boy.

And, another Ted accomplishment news, Ted slept in a real bed by himself for the first time this month!  He slept the whole night on his own, and didn’t fall out!  We’re very proud of him.

And as of the photo above, he’s 37″ inches tall!

Ted continues to be a party animal, wishing everyone a ‘happy birthday‘ on Valentine’s day.  Here’s a shot of him making some Valentine’s Day cards, Ted-style.

He’s still a big fan of the crafts, and a big fan of coloring.  This month he was able to draw with crayons two wheels and a line around them and call it a truck.  He’s on the right path to being able to doodle really well on his own, a skill that will serve him well in school and in meetings later in life.

Ted’s 23rd month also included a visit from Auntie Christine, who is a big fan of Ted from way back.  Ted is now able to say most of his relatives names on contact (including dealing with the more than one person is called ‘Auntie’ paradigm).  When using Skype though, he likes to wait until we hang up to say their name.  Like tonight we were talking to my folks and as soon as we ended the call, he said “Pops and Gram!”   Better than his old Skype habit, in which he would fill his diaper every time we started a call with someone.  Toward the end of this month he actually began potty training.

This month he began speaking in pretty complicated sentences.  “There are police cars everywhere!”  “Mommy, Mommy, what do you see?”  “Chickadee hopping on the ground.”  “Eating the hummus and the Triscuit.”   He knows a good chunk of the letters of the alphabet, and can almost sing the whole alphabet song.  He sings a lot of songs too, both songs he knows, like Twinkle Twinkle and some freestyle made up songs that we need to get on video stat.  He even made up a song about one of his best friends, Mackenzie.

The above photo is from the North Carolina International Auto Show.  This is the second year we’ve gone.  Ted is a big fan of cars and trucks, and loves to sit in the driver’s seat and pretend to drive.  He also likes to wait until Daddy is looking away for 1/10th of a second and then beep the horn inside the building where the show is behind held. He had a great time there, sitting in every vehicle that was unlocked.

After twenty-two months  Ted can now name some of the planets of our solar system.  He exclaims “JUPIDER!” as soon as he see’s the red spot in his book of planets.  And to think, he’ll never know life thinking that Pluto is a planet.

Speaking of books, he’s back into books big time this month.  He’ll plop down in a lap with a stack to read through.  He continues to fill in words and sometimes whole sentences when we conveniently leave them out.

And he sometimes speaks in sentences, too!  His first two full sentences were “This is the bunny” and later “The cow says moo.”  No adverbs or Iambic pentameter just yet, but he seems like he’s on the cusp of communicating a lot more with us.   He’s also learned several letters and can tell you what they are while pointing to them.  ”H for helicopter!”

That communication also includes the word “no” of which he knows the precise meaning.  He’s gently easing himself into occasional toddler defiance.

But he’s still super fun to hang out with.  Here’s a photo of him on his first walking hike with Aunt Deirdre a few weeks ago.  He’s always up for adventure and daring stunts.  Make no mistake, he wants to go down the big slide. Today he went seat-of-your-pants sledding in our backyard (our backyard hill is finally good for something!) and loved it.

Speaking of running around, he likes running around.  We shout “ready set go!” and he runs across the house as quick as he can.  This kid is fast.  He still likes to dance, too.  He’s a few weeks into another Kindermusik class, which only increases his dance fever.

Ted likes snacks and asks for them by saying “snack” and sometimes “snack please” .  He still loves fruits and veggies, and recently tried and embraced hummus as his dip of choice.   He scarfed down a whole container in a few days.  Graham crackers with peanut butter and sprinkles are delicious, too.

Check out that first haircut of his.  He almost needs another one now.

Here’s Ted watching Sesame Street on Hulu.   Can you get any closer to that screen?

He’s not all stay-at-home-and-read-and-watch-internet-tv.  Ted is a social guy.  At playgroup he shares toys, or at least tries to.  He also will say “trade” when he’d like to swap what you have with what he has.  And he is a hugger.  He hugs us frequently throughout the day, as well as his stuffed animals, his toys, and his friends.  He loves watching the birds in our backyard and at our friends Lisa and Mackenzie’s house.  He is starting to learn a lot of different kinds and can be heard shouting, “WOODPECKER, WOODPECKER, CHICKADEE, BLUEBIRD!”

Before…

…. After

Month seventeen marks the change in the way he’s communicating.  Where once all new words came through sign language, now words are coming out of his mouth.  He says Zoe, kitty, baby, bubble, cous-cous, apple, happy, moon, and auntie.  He tries to say lots of other words too and just gets the beginning, like pea for peach and har for heart.  Every time he sees a dog its “arf-arf-arf.”   Don’t forget “car.”  ”Car car car, beep beep beep.”

His new signs this month are help, flower, where, apple, and turtle.

His walking continues to get better, and his desire to run straight into the street is spot-on.  He got his first skinned knee the other night while we were out for a stroll in the neighborhood.  He took the pain like a trooper and carried right on.

His absolute favorite activity is coloring with crayons.  He gets a little crazy about it, opens the drawer and tries to pull out the crayons and notepad.  He colors with both hands, with big sweeping curvy lines and all colors.

Family visits continue to be a favorite activity of Ted.  Pops stopped by on way down the coast to Florida, and they played a little ball.

Speaking of family, we drove out to visit Aunt Deirdre and Aunt Jackie out in the mountains.  We had a great time, visiting Asheville, dancing a bit, and hiking on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Since Pat’s monthly post last week, Ted has added “Zoe” and “kitty” to the six words he was saying last month.  He says Zoe clear as day.  He seems to be starting with the harder words first… He could say teeth before he could say mama.  And he says, “ticka ticka ticka,” while tickling his own belly.

He is also starting with the harder, more obscure animal noises, llama, monkey, donkey, and of course sheep, but he finally says, “moo!”  I mean to me, moo seems way easier than hee haw.  For the rooster he says, “cock-a.”  He doesn’t quite have the -doodle-doo yet.   And occasionally he will tell me that the dog says, “arf, arf, arf.”

He will tell you that a car says, “beep beep” and the train says, “toot toot.”  He loves pointing out cars.  I took him to Marbles Kids Museum, which is in downtown Raleigh and let me tell you- there are a lot of “cars” in the city.

He also loves playing the drums and loves drumming all over the house with anything that resembles a drumstick.  Or his bare hands if a drumstick isn’t handy.  I don’t know if it is just an intense phase or if he is going to be a musician.  Every time he hears a bit of music or someone says the word “dance,” he starts dancing.

Also new this week, he knows where his knees are, as well as my knees.  And when I pointed to my arm tonight and told him the word he repeated it like three times, trying to get the sound right.  I didn’t add it to the list of words he knows because that was the first time he said it and sometimes he will just say a random word once and never repeat it.

His newest sign this week is “help.”  Unfortunately he mostly only does the sign when I say “help” instead of just making the sign to actually get help.  Hopefully he will figure it out quickly that signing help is going to get me to help him much faster and happier than his previous method of whining in frustration.

Another thing Ted loves is feeding Zoe cat treats.  We had to put a child lock on the drawer where we keep them.  He will give her a whole bunch and we will tell him she is all done, but he keeps signing, “more, more.”  Zoe is definitely enjoying this new skill.  Also Ted seems to know that they are just for the cats and never tries to eat them himself or feed them to Pat or me.

Lately I have been looking at our cookbooks, Deceptively Delicious and The Sneaky Chef, just to get ideas for healthy things I could cook for our family.  Really Ted loves vegetables and fruit, so right now I don’t have to worry about hiding them in other foods… its the other foods he is more suspicious of.  One of the key ideas in both books is that toddlers don’t like trying new foods.  I decided I had better start upping Ted’s variety now, while he is still accepting of them, so that there will be less “new” foods for him when (and if) he hits that phase.  So this week he had olives, summer squash, quinoa, salsa, zucchini, and whole wheat crackers with cheddar cheese.

Our northerner friends Jay and Erin stopped by our place for a visit.  They were traveling down the east coast and stopped by. We were glad to be part of their road trip!

We ate pancakes and visited the J-R store for some southern culture.  For those not around here, imagine a store not unlike Spags, but with way more Nascar and armed security guards at the entrance.

Then we drove on up to New England for a 4th of July week visit.  Ted got to see lots of family, and had a great time.

And then!  Auntie Christine surprised us with a quick visit here at the AfterVictory ranch!  Ted was very excited about this.

Ted’s key accomplishments this month:

• Looks at Kate, says “Mama.”  About freakin’ time.   His speaking vocabularly is now car, teeth, shoes, da-da, and sometimes fish.
• Can point to his own nose, your nose, his ears, your ears, his teeth, your teeth  and finally your chin and then his chin.  And he can also point to his toes and his belly.  And your belly.  But where are Ted’s knees?  He’s not really sure just yet.
• Can toss up some mean knucks (aka the fist-bump).  He also can raise a toast and clink glasses with you, although he says “Dah!” instead of “cheers.”
• Signs more than a dozen words now.  Eat, yes, more, drink, bird, book, dog, sleep, cat, butterfly, baby, ball, bear, “all done”, bath, cereal, fish, milk, mom, and sometimes dad.  Thank goodness he knows how to say “bear.”  I mean, you know, it might come up.  He could warn us.  Save us all from a bear.
• He can draw with crayons now.
• He runs.  Fast. He’s also very much into the water now.  Loves the beach, runs right into the water and loves the sand, too.
• He now eats at the dinner table with us (in a booster seat) and usually will have what we’re having (with some baby food, too).