Lesson 188: You take the high road, and I'll take the low road, and I'll get to Scotland afore ye

Tyler's family took us to the Highland Games. It was different from how I usually approach festivals. I would normally check out all the animal barns, watch the shows, check out presentations and just skim the booths. 

With Tyler's family we looked at the booths and watched the big bagpipe opening ceremony... and then left. 

Actually THEY watched the bagpipe opening ceremony. After waiting on the bleachers in the hot sun for 2 hours, Ted woke up hungry 20 min before the presentation started. I left to find a spot to feed him. I have never noticed how crowded a festival is until the day I had to find a secluded spot to avoid exposing myself to the world while feeding Ted. 

I paced the fairgrounds, and in a panic I started crying and called Tyler to come sit with me. Yes, I cry when I get frustrated. This experience has given me a greater respect for women who feed their babies in public. Before I was uncomfortable when I saw women breastfeeding, but now that I am one of those women I realize just how tough it can be sometimes. You gotta do what you gotta do. Baby is hungry. 

Anyway, it was an interesting festival. There was this group of people pretending to fight each other. For some reason the girls always beat the guys in battle. I doubt very much that was historically accurate. 

Tyler has ancestors who were in clan McDonald (or MacDonald, I have no idea) so we stopped at the booth to check out their clan colors. 

I took a bunch of pictures of Tyler in hats...  

I wanted to buy Ted a hat like this one with the pom pom on top but no one sold them for babies. I did see babies wearing them though. I should have stopped the moms and asked where they got them.  

No Highland Games would be complete without completely unnecessary things to purchase like this lovely battleaxe.  

Or this mace. (I am pretending to swing the mace)

Like I said, I prefer to watch the shows. At one point while the boys were looking at fancy swords, Ted and I checked out the cute little step dancing girls. I told Ted I want him to get into step dancing but I only saw one boy among all the dancers so I will have to find something else for him to excel at. 

Here are some bagpipers that were parading around the fair.

P.S. There was CONSTANT bagpipe music going on the entire time we were there.  

Tyler and Me. Ted was there too but like I mentioned earlier, he was asleep in the stroller almost the entire time. This was fine with me since I did not want him out in the direct sun all day anyway. 

Lesson 187: It's a big world baby and you're little for a little while

I am officially one of THOSE moms. The moms who post a bunch of pictures of their baby. He is just so cute though :) Plus he won't be my little snugly baby forever. It is so cute when he smiles. 

Ted loves his friend's Max and Ruby. I tried taking pictures of Ted with the dogs but he kept flopping over.  

As you can see here... but he kept on smiling.  

I love this picture. Ted looks like he is thinking, What are you lookin' at?  

CAUGHT IN THE ACT! 

Ruby let her jealousy pug rule this past weekend. She was super clingy, tried to push Ted out of the way so she could sit on my lap, and then I saw her have a seat in Ted's chair. 

Poor Ruby Kinkaroo, we still love you! 

Lesson 186: The blessing outfit

 Here are the past pics I posted from when I was working on Ted's blessing outfit....

 

And here are some pics from the day he was blessed. Unfortunately it is not easy taking a picture of a baby who can't even hold him head up. He looked super cute in his blessing outfit and he did not poo while wearing it was it was a good day. :) 

Tyler's mom, Ted and Me, My mom

All the ladies in the family

Tyler's dad, Ted and Ty, My dad 

Lesson 185:

Tyler and sleep Teddy 

Ted is officially a thumb sucker. We have some pacifiers, but Ted rarely will take them. He is just a very considerate baby. He knows I think binkies are pretty gross so he is letting me off the hook by having no interest in them.  

Teddy bear and Aunt Elspeth.  

Lesson 184: A parade, a party, and a roll

Tyler, Ted and I went to a parade. It was great because we live close enough to walk. Ted stayed awake for the entire parade which was awesome. I don't know how much he got out of it because I think he still doesn't really have long distance eyesight. It was still cute :) 

 He is actually awake in this picture I think he was squinting from the bright overcast day in Washington. 

 Every group that walked in the parade gave out TONS of candy. I felt like it was Halloween. We came home with a huge bowl. This is another reason (one of the many) that it is awesome to have a stroller on hand. 

 We also celebrated my dad's birthday. Elspeth made the cute little banner on the cake. 

 I have no idea how old kids are when they learn to roll over but Ted was giving his best shot at it. My mom said he rolled over twice for her one day so we were trying to recreate it for the camera. 

 We got a half-roll out of him which was still pretty impressive. 

ANNNND Introducing my favorite picture of Ted (so far). Looking at this picture makes me happy/laugh :)

Lesson 183: MORE pictures of Ted AND his first documented smile :)

Here is Ted at 2 weeks old and Ted at 7 weeks old. He has gained 4 pounds and 2 inches :) 

Ruby is holding a sting ray in her mouth. Jenae sent the sting ray for Ted, but I am sorry to say that Ruby has kind of claimed it for her own. As you can see she is using it to make Ted smile so it works. :) 

Obviously Ruby is a lot better at getting smiles out of Ted than I am. 

Lesson 182: Comparing baby pictures

 

These are both baby pictures of me and below is a picture of Ted. I think we can safely say he is my son ;) I wish I had a better comparison picture of Ted because in reality he looks a lot more like me as a baby than these pictures show. 

Lesson 181: The radio knows just what songs to play

Back in 1996 our family took a trip to Idaho to drop off my oldest sister at college. As my dad pulled the car onto the road heading back home a song came on the radio with the lyrics, "why do you and me have to be world's apart?" My mom began to cry stating, "Why does she have to be so far away?" I thought it was a pretty funny coincidence... until today. I am back to work now. As I pulled my car onto the road, leaving Ted, a song came on the radio with lyrics, "You're gonna miss me when I'm gone." All I could think was, "seriously?" hahaha. I am not worried that he will be well taken care of, I am more worried about missing out on any moment with my baby.

Ted has his cousins visiting this week. Cooper is so happy to have another boy to be his buddy. I hope they can be friends when Ted is actually old enough to interact with Coop.

Lesson 180: More pictures of Ted