Here are some pics from the trip. It was great to see lots of people.  Ted got to go to the beach (twice!), the zoo, a parade, the chiropractor, and visit lots of friends and family.

Ted rolls around with his Mom and Grammie Cass.

Ted explains the “Got your nose” trick to Auntie Christine:

We went to a wedding reception in Boston for a college buddy and his new bride.  I should have worn a suit.

We also went to a birthday party for Grammie Cass.

Ted was a good boy at the restaurant.

Ted and I accidentally wore the same outfit.  I should have called him first.

Easter Egg Hunt 1 from After Victory on Vimeo.

I brought Ted out into the field filled with eggs.  He sat down and played with that purple one a little while.  I convinced him to stand up and put the purple egg into his basket.  I put a couple of green ones into his basket to show him how it was done.  Instead he took the basket and we went for a walk around the field.  No interest in the egg hunt this year, but I am sure next year he will be a master.

Easter Egg Hunt 2 from After Victory on Vimeo.

Ted and I have been very busy these days.  Which is a very good thing.  Ted loves getting together with his friends.  In his 48th week we went to a playgroup, went shopping with friends, and went to another Movement and Music class.  While at the music class I realized that another one of Ted’s teeth is coming in.  It is on the bottom to the left of the two he already has down there.  So we finally started brushing his teeth.  We got him a toddler toothbrush and toothpaste and he really seems to like it, especially when Dad helps.

In his 49th week we hosted playgroups on Tuesday and Thursday for two of the moms groups we are in.  Then Friday we went for a walk with friends and then had the kids play at one of the mom’s house.  Ted is a little social butterfly following the other kids around and making sure he is in the center of things at all times.

Ted’s latest thing is attacking Zoe.  She is a very social cat and likes to be near us.  Ted likes to get right up in her face and flail his arms at her.  She definitely does not like that, as you could imagine.  She still sticks around though, she holds her ground.  One of these days she is going to let him have it.

Ted also signed for the first time.  He was really good at signing “more” for a day.  Now he tends to clap instead.  But at least he has inspired me to be better about signing for him.  He is also really good at giving high-fives.  He has been pointing a lot too.  And when we read his That’s Not My Kitten book, if I don’t reach out and touch the textures, he will take my hand and make me feel them.  He can stack his wooden blocks four high.  He also walks while pushing his Mickey Mouse Plane.

He finds my laptop irresistible.  One time I forgot it on my chair while I was making breakfast.  When I peeked into the living room he was standing up to the chair gently hitting the keys over and over.  So funny.  It was making nearly the same noise as when I type.

His latest foods are beef, tomato, and pasta.  He is loving fruit salad.  Whenever I am eating it he hangs around my seat like a little puppy dog to get bites.

Ted has been doing a new trick every day these days.  One day he is stacking his rings, the next day he is hugging his stuffed animals, then handing me his toys, the day after that getting into a sitting position on his own, after that stacking blocks, then crawling with his belly off the floor, then insisting that he walk everywhere with us holding his hands.  Everyday he is a new little kid just trying out his skills.  One time he even managed to stack a ball on a block.  He is pretty talented.

He went a week of constantly saying ma ma ma.  That was nice.  This week it is na na na.  I think this may be less of a coincidence and more due to the fact that now that he is mobile we have to say “no” to him.  No going after the laptop cord… No picking up and dropping the bathroom scale… no eating the cat food.  I believe this weekend we will finally be buying some gates and installing cabinet locks.

His newest foods are strawberry applesauce, chunks of cantaloupe, graham crackers, and goldfish crackers.  This week I also gave him formula for the first time.  I tried mixing it with his oatmeal to fill him up instead of the usual water.  He didn’t like the taste of it and I didn’t like the resulting diapers, so I don’t think we will try it again.  Somehow I forgot to mention that I have given him wheat bread.  Not sure when the first time I gave it to him was.  He doesn’t really like it.  He eats maybe two bites max before tossing the rest.

Last weekend we flew up to RI to celebrate Pat’s birthday.  Ted handled the flights wonderfully, mostly happy or sleeping.  At one point he was insisting on throwing all his toys on the floor, but at least he wasn’t throwing them at other passengers or crying.  And he didn’t end up getting a cold from all those germs on the plane floor… more than we could have hoped for.

We arrived at my Mom’s late Friday night and then Saturday morning went straight to Kim’s to decorate and get the food ready.  The party was lots of fun.  So happy that we got to see so many of our friends and family.  Ted was a little party animal.  Laughing up a storm and generally showing off.  Then Sunday we had a quick visit with Pat’s parents and then headed up to my Dad’s in the afternoon with Chris, Kim, Anne, and Jack.  It is so much fun to watch Ted and Jack play together.  Then Monday morning I got to spend some time talking with Great Grammie before we headed back to the airport.  It was another great trip!

This week Ted had two visitors from New England!  A friend from college spent Thursday afternoon with us and my sister, Christine, stayed with us from Saturday till Tuesday morning.

Auntie Christine gave Ted his first taste of prunes.  So far I think prunes may be his favorite food, but that isn’t saying much, since he isn’t very excited about the whole eating process.  So far he has had rice cereal, bananas, sweet potato, pears, and now prunes.

Christine also gave Ted his first drink of water from a cup.  She gave him some from her own glass of ice water and he loved it.  He did let a lot of it fall out of his open mouth, but he swallowed some of it and asked for more.  I have been giving him some of mine now and decided I should get out some small plastic cups from Pat’s childhood to try out on Ted.  That was a no-go.  Ted has no interest in drinking from a small green cup.

While Christine was here we ate at the Cheesecake Factory, went to the NC State Fair, carved pumpkins, and went to the park.  She made us a roasted chicken for dinner one night and then the next made the leftovers into a pot pie the next night.  So good!  She also let Ted into the container cabinet for the first time.  He loved that!  Sat right down and got to work exploring all our containers and lids.

What a thing to do…. pack up and head off into the country with nothing more than a Craigslist handshake and a couple of disgruntled cats.

It’s been great, though. And sad sometimes. And awesome other times. However hard or silly or non-Yankee its been (and sometimes it was all three at once), it’s all been worth it.

Gram and Pops arrived via Harley on Wednesday and snuggled Ted straight through Thursday and then continued on down the coast.

While they were here on Thursday Ted, Gram, Pops, and I stopped by Pat’s work to take him to lunch.  We took the Celica, not the Harley, although that does give you an interesting Dr. Seuss-ish sort of picture in your head.  We all walked over to the Carolina Cafe.  Very tasty.

When we got home from lunch WSKate came over for a little visit.

Here is Ted playing his new piano.

And here are a couple more pictures of Ted, just because he is so adorable.

And who doesn’t like puppy pajamas?

We also got to visit Erin and Jay who we hadn’t seen a while. They fed us, hooked Ted up with some cute welcome-to-existence prizes and then watched Ted for us while we go to drive their sweet new ride, a 2008 Honda FIt Sport.

So nice of them to let us take it for a quick spin. We each drove it around the neighborhood a bit.

The thing that stood out to me the most was the redunkulously tight turning radius. I was pretty sure that the back wheels were turning too. But this was no 1987 Honda Prelude with four-wheel steering. It was, in fact, the little hatchback that begged to do donuts. Around a single donut. (Note to Erin and Jay: We did not perform donuts in your nice new car. Just turned around in a cul-de-sac. Then we took it off a sweet jump. Twice.).

Besides driving in circles, I also used the paddle shifters located just behind the steering wheel. It’s an automatic, but the gears can be shifted manually and without a clutch. I thought it worked well (and better then the Mazda 3 paddle shifter I tried before), but its still a little confusing for me because I’m shifting gears and there is no clutch pedal on the floor. I think if I had a Fit, I would use the paddles.

The rest of the dash layout was clean and intuative. The speedometer and tach had a cool blue light around it which I thought was cool in a blue-lights-are-cool kind of way.

Acceleration was right about where I thought it would be – fairly quick but not quite neck-snapping. It’s 109 horsepower engine isn’t quite what you’d want in a top-fuel drag race, but the car is light and the driver will probably be rewarded with respectable fuel economy.

As far as exterior looks go, I like the Fit from most angles. Every once in a while it looks like a 2002 Civic SI. The tall windows make it look a little van-esque sometimes, but for the most part it feels very much like a hatchback.

The inside is giant and it’s seats fold in useful ways, just like every hatchback should. Jay gave us a full dealer salesman like-demo of all the seat modes.

Kate and I both agreed that we would buy a car from Jay. In fact, if he still had his giant Chevy Caprice battle cruiser, we would totally buy that from him.

His new thing is to be happy and cooing at us or happy and kicking his legs while watching his mobile and then from out of nowhere -baby angst.  Its hard to be a baby.

And since I didn’t take any photos this week and have a zillion from last week,  here are some more from our trip.

Great Grammie spending some quality time with Ted.

Ted with Auntie Kim

Ted hanging out with Jenny.

What parties with babies are like:

The new dads

Great Nana getting to know Ted.

Great Grampa passing on some wisdom.