May 2nd was Sarah’s gastroenterologist appointment.  The doctor recommended that I add back everything except dairy and soy back to my diet.  She also had me collect some specimens to have tested and if they come back clear than she recommends an x-ray.

Last weekend we went to the strawberry farm and Ted and I filled a bucket while Pat and Sarah supervised.

Sarah had her first solid food on May 7th.  Ted fed her her first bite of rice cereal.

Sarah is very mobile now.  I remember Ted went through a phase where I could sit him down and he would stay right there and happily play with his toys because he was not yet crawling.  We seem to have skipped that phase with Sarah.  Any time I put her down on her back she flips right over and starts scootching away, backward.  She can do a plank and is already pushing up on her knees.

Also, she got her second bottom tooth this week.

This past weekend I got Sarah all dressed up in her baptism outfit and took a million photos.  Here are some of my favorites.

Also have to mention she sat up on her own for the first time.  Each time is less than a minute, but she is on her way!

During this time Sarah used the Exersaucer for the first time.  I also set up the Jumperoo, but she is not really into jumping yet.  We also have been sitting her in her high chair at the dinner table when we eat.  I am pretty sure she is totally ready to start actually eating with us, but we are going to wait until six months to introduce food.

She has been practicing up with a probiotic though.   I put the powder on a spoon and she eats it right up.  Her digestive woes continue.  After a very promising looking week, I tried adding wheat back in to my diet.  It didn’t go well, so I cut it back out again.  Of course I still don’t even really know if these diaper issues are allergy related or just coincidence.  May 2nd I will be taking her to a pediatric gastroenterologist.  Hopefully I will get some answers or at least some direction.

Also during this time we headed up to New England for Easter, Sarah’s 6am Baptism, and a birthday party for Ted.  Sarah got to meet tons of her family for the first time.

She has changed around her schedule and instead of being cranky during the evening, she has been cranky in the morning.  This is rather inconvenient since we are usually in the car or out with friends in the mornings.  I get the impression that she is sleepy, but doesn’t want to sleep through the action.

She has been taking super long naps in the afternoon, which probably leads to her waking up more at night.  On the days that she is up more in the afternoon she sleeps better at night.

She has been talking more this week.  She especially likes to talk to her toys but has started talking more to us too.  One day I had her in the bouncy seat in the kitchen and she was looking at a toy dragonfly making a sound exactly like a mourning dove.

She holds her head up on her own all the time and definitely reaches for toys and bats at them.  When she does tummy time she is good at holding herself up when she feels like it.

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!”