Ted is finally over all the colds, teething, rashes, etc. (knock on wood) and has been back to his usual goofy self for the past few days.  I am still working on getting him back onto a reasonable schedule.  He is close to only waking up once at night, but seems to think that it is a good idea to wake up for the day before 5am.

His mode of transportation these days is the army crawl.  He goes from sitting to his hands and knees like he is going to crawl, but then drops his belly to the floor and scooches along instead.  He loves to jump so much I think he might just jump everywhere before he learns to walk.  Oh! and he waves now!

He loves yogurt.  The first time we gave it to him he apparently came down with a new virus on the same day, so we had held off for awhile, but now he handles it fine and eats more of it than anything else except cheerios.  He has also had cherry applesauce, some white rice, and chunks of chicken.

Early this past week he got to play in the snow for the first time.  He seemed to really like it and didn’t even mind being in his snow suit.  We got 5 or six inches.  I guess it was the first time in five years that we have had more than an inch of snow!

This weekend Auntie Christine came to visit.  We had fun shopping and eating out.  Even trying out Ted’s Montana Grill.  Ted was very happy to get to play with her and ride on her shoulders all weekend.  Pat and I even went out to a movie on Saturday night.  We saw Slumdog Millionaire.  It was a great weekend!  Now we are looking forward to next weekend when we will be in RI again!

On Saturday we went downtown and walked around a bit and then went to the Handmade Market which they held at the Marbles Kids Museum this year.  I love the vendors at this sale, but the crowd is always a little hard to take.  There are always so many people there that it is hard to see what people are selling.  Which is great for the vendors, to have such an enthusiastic crowd.  I did end up getting a cute little ceramic dish with a bird perched on the edge.  Ted didn’t mind the crowd.  He made friends and even waved back at someone for the first time.

After we left the sale we went to the park that has the carousel and train.  Ted seemed to have a good time.

On Sunday we went to a park and let Ted play in the grass.  I know some kids don’t like the feel of grass.  Ted is not one of those kids.  He loves the grass.  We took off his shoes and socks and he rubbed his feet in it as much as he could.  He picked clovers and examined them.

As the day got warmer we took off his hat and then his jacket.  It turned out to be a beautiful warm day.

He is eating more solids these days.  I decided to replace two of his meals with solids, so he has breakfast and dinner of real food.  He still nurses about four times a day and sometimes once at night, but he is eating a lot more fruits, veggies, and oatmeal than he was before.  His latest foods are oatmeal and peas.  He likes them about as much as he likes everything else that we feed him.

The high today is supposed to be 102 degrees, so Ted decided it was about time he got out his board shorts.  I found these in a big bag of awesome hand-me-downs from Jake and Matthew, his step-cousins.  We went for a walk this morning, when it was still supposed to be in the 70′s, but with the humidity it felt more like 90.

Later I got him into an outfit from Auntie Kristen.

He seems to like it.

We went to the pediatrician on Friday.  Ted has jumped up in the percentiles (and also in the diaper sizes.)  I think he is looking to compete with Jack, size-wise.  He did not like it when she checked his ears.  You would have thought she was checking them with a carving knife, the way he started shrieking and continued shrieking… Really after that, getting his Dtap shot was nothing.

He got teased by a bully for the first time.  There was a boy about 10 in the waiting room, making fun of all the little kids who were fighting over the trains.  He kept mocking them for caring about the trains and then couldn’t resist them himself and continued to play with the trains while saying how stupid and babyish they were.  Then they called Ted, only he goes by Edward at the doctor.  And the boy said, “Squidward,” which is a grumpy character from Sponge Bob Squarepants.  Ted and I just chose to ignore him.

He is continuing on with his cute babbling.  One of the things it sounds like he’s saying is “I’m going.”  I think he must be talking about our trip this month.  He has also been reaching toward his toys, but still isn’t grasping them on his own.  I am sure once that starts everything will be going in his mouth.  Last night he slept in his crib for nine sweet, sweet hours.  He had a very happy weekend and made us very happy parents.

Most of our pre-baby to-do list has been accomplished.  Pat is going to bring my car to get the child safety seat inspected today.  It seemed like everyone told us that was the thing to do.  Then when we tried to find a place to do the inspection, no one would.  So strange.  There are only two places in the Triangle that do them.  The Morrisville Fire Station and Rex hospital.  So Pat is going to head up to Morrisville after work.  Morrisville is actually the town the airport is in, which is in between Raleigh and  Durham.

Other than that I still have some general house organizing and cleaning left to do, but nothing major.  I have been hoping for that infamous nesting spurt of energy, but no sign of it yet.  So I am taking things slow, while the time flies by.

Oh and just to make New Englanders jealous- our weather is supposed to be in the mid to high seventies this week.

We have been having very cold weather lately. Two nights in the twenties and yesterday I had to scrape a thick sheet of ice off my windshield for the first time this season. Oddly enough it is supposed to be 75 degrees on Monday and Tuesday. I am still not used to the weather down here.

I have started feeling Ted kick. Very surreal. Even after months of morning sickness, ultrasound photos, and a rapidly expanding waistline, it doesn’t feel real that we will have an actual baby around here in April. The kicking and punching going on inside is definitely making it feel more and more like there really is an actual infant in there.

Zoe has been climbing all over me like a mountain goat lately. She insists upon sitting directly on my belly. Maybe it is less mountain goat, more mother hen trying to hatch an egg. I wonder if it is the warmest spot around or if she somehow knows there is somebody in there.

Now I am not afraid of lizards, like I am of snakes, but I was certainly not too happy to find out I had one on me!  I made the cats come in the house with me and I still feel all creepy-crawly like I might still have a lizard on me that I just haven’t discovered yet.

One thing is for sure… Moe is getting extra treats tonight!

Moe’s Southwestern Grill

Kate suggested I pick up some supper from Moe’s the other night. It was tasty food, and plenty of it. It was like a Mexican-food Subway (although nicer/more expensive then Subway), where they sort of custom make your food in front of you. I had something called a Joey Bag of Donuts (which had, for the record, zero donuts) and Kate had a burrito known as the Homewrecker. They also throw in a bunch of tortilla chips, which was a nice touch. Good eats.

Tools for Homeowners

For agreeing to act as Kristen and Josh’s Best Man Maid of Honor well-dressed witness in their recent hitching, they were kind enough to get me a prize. It was a box full of tools! A power drill and saws and a sander and a way way bright flashlight and an industrial dustbuster.

Kristen suggested I build a crib with the tools. Based on our prior building history, Kate suggested I perhaps start with building some shelves. Shelves seem like a good start.

Southern Living

It was 84 out today. In October! I’m thinking on Halloween night, NC parents don’t have to work their kid’s costumes around their winter coats. We’re both very curious about what our first Halloween as homeowners will be like.

Hot
104 degrees again? I guess it is southern living. Central air is sweet. We went for a dip in the community pool last week and that was refreshing.

Lawn
Why does some of our yard have grass that grows almost two feet high in a week, and some not accept grass at all (just dirt patches)? The whole yard thing requires lots of learning. It’ll be a fine day for western civ when robot gardeners come on the market. Then it will be a sad day for the same civilization when the robot gardeners join together and form a super-robot that enslaves the lazy suburbanites like myself. But it’ll be good times before the great robot revolt.

Workin
My new job continues to be both rewarding (web design every day? yes please) and kind of intense. Lots of long days and learning. It’s still a little weid to use Photoshop every day and not use Excel all day long. Allegedly they’re replacing my 7-year-old G4 at work with a shiney new iMac, which is exciting.

Speaking of Webbish
Tonight I’m going to my first Raleigh/Durham Adobe User Group meeting, which I believe will be cool. Hopefully it will fill my noodle with knowledge and let me talk shop with some other designers in the field. When I try to talk about Typography with the cats, they generally just walk away. Moses will actually bite me on the leg when I talk about kerning.

Congrats
Congrats to my sister Kristen who just graduated with a master’s degree in something so fancy and smart, I can’t even begin to describe it with words.

500
Our five-hundredth Rockland-Ave.com post is coming up soon! Insanity!

So instead of planting, I am baking. We are bringing cupcakes and pumpkin bread to Kate and Peter’s today. Pat impressed me by finding Easter-themed cupcake papers. The pumpkin bread is baking right now and it smells so good! Is pumpkin bread just a fall/winter thing? Well it feels like winter, so we are going to have it.

Zoe has reached new heights of spoiledness. Not only does she beg me to put her harness on, now she begs to drink out of a regular glass. And I am not about to share with someone who sticks their tongue in my water, so she gets her own… Have I crossed a line? She’s just so cute about it. I am a sucker.

But anyway, Happy Easter, eat some candy.