A Visit to Great Great Grandpa & Grandma's

We went to Great Great Grandpa and Grandma Dougherty's apartment to celebrate Grandpa's Birthday. We were the first ones there, and Elijah and Seth quickly warmed up to Grandma-Elijah was talking her ear off within the first three minutes, and a couple minutes later Seth joined in. I saw Grandpa Jeff and Grandma Nina drive by, and Grandma Dougherty asked the boys if they wanted to walk with her to meet them at the door, and surprisingly they both went with her! (For those that don't know my boys, they are huge momma's boys-especially Seth. Seth doesn't venture far from Mommy very often.) Here are some pics from the day:
Elijah with Uncle Ben. Seth sat with him too, but everytime Seth saw the camera he'd slide off Ben's lap as fast as he could. The boys love their Uncle Ben!

Seth and Libbie. She's trying to keep him on the couch-he was trying to run away from the camera.

Seth and Great Great Grandma. They colored together for quite a while! He didn't shy away from the camera this time-yay! I love this picture!

Spring Break At Nickelodean Universe

On Wednesday after lunch we left for Bloomington for a Spring Break mini vacation. This was the sight less than 10 minutes in to the drive...


On Thursday we swam for a bit at the hotel, and then went to the Mall of America to play at Nickelodean Universe. We went on the rides from 10:30am to 9:30pm-what a long day! Believe it or not, Chris and I were ready to go before the boys were! They loved the rides-the only breaks they took were for lunch and supper, and Seth and Chris headed back to the hotel for a short nap. Other than that we were on the rides! It was great-there weren't many people there so we got on most of the rides right away.
Elijah on the bumper cars. It was pretty funny to watch-he didn't quite understand the steering part of it, but then again neither did most of the kids on the ride with him. They all would go forward until they ran into someone, or they would just go in circles. This was his first ride-and the only time he went on it. Seth couldn't go on it because he was too short...

Elijah on the Fly Boat ride (there's a video of him on this ride back in July/Aug '09) He was the only one on it-Seth was too small for this one too.

Elijah on the truck ride

Seth on the trucks. This was Seth's favorite ride-he asked to go on it again, and again, and AGAIN!
Waiting for the carousel

Seth on the carousel-he is so small that he kept sliding off the seat.

Elijah enjoying his ride.

Ready for the balloon race ride to start

The train...they loved this one too. I didn't-it was a pretty tight fit to sit on this one!

Blue Skidoo-Elijah was tall enough to go on this one by himself!

Seth and Mommy on the Blue Skidoo

Elijah and Mommy on the car ride-both boys loved this one too! I had a lot of bruises on my back from this one... Elijah's favorite ride was the Diego Bus that went up and around-but no pictures of that one :(

Waiting for Spring!

Seth
Riding bike-can you tell we're tired of winter?
Playing baseball-thankfully the snow was melting so when the ball hit the snowbanks it would stick instead of rolling down the driveway.
Sitting on a snowbank taller than he is!
Seth in the snow
Elijah's turn on the bike
Elijah trekking through the snow
Seth wasn't as successful as Elijah at walking in the snow...

Elijah's Gymnastics Performance

Elijah did gymnastics in Grafton this year-they started back in October and were every Thursday from 6:00-6:45. He loves gymnastics, and is really good at it! There was a cartwheel-a-thon back in December, and Elijah was supposed to do forward roll. Once he said the crowd, he decided he wanted nothing to do with it. He did do a forward roll, but then the high school kids cheered for him and it embarrassed him so he was done after that. Tonight the Tiny Tots got to perform at half time of the 5th place Boys Basketball District Tournament. Elijah is super obsessed with basketball so I was a little worried that he wouldn't want to perform, but with the promise of being able to watch 2 1/2 games when he was done he did perform, and did a GREAT job-Mommy was so proud of him!!
Jumping on the trampoline.

Getting ready to do a forward roll.

Getting ready to do another forward roll

Waiting for his turn to do a cartwheel. This picture was taken just a second or two before the one that was in the paper!

Elijah was one of 4 boys in Tiny Tots. Surrounded by all these cute little girls and what does he do? Checks out the basketball hoop of course!

Forward roll on the trampoline
Waving to the crowd after the performance
All done-he was SO proud of himself!!

Seth's 2 Year Check Up

Seth had his 2 year appointment today-finally. He was supposed to go in on his Birthday, but there was a home basketball game that night that the pep band was playing at, so we rescheduled to January 25. There was a blizzard that day and school was cancelled as well as interstate being closed, so I had to reschedule again. The soonest they could get him in was today, so...
We switched doctors this month. We really liked our other doctor, but she only worked mornings and with the drive there and back it just got too hard to make appointments with her. The doctor we switched to is the one that was on-call when Seth was born, and I really liked her so I figured we'd give her a try. I really liked having the boys and I all see the same provider, so I definitely wanted another family physician.
When we got to the exam room, Seth had to get undressed to get his height and weight measured. He screamed at me while I took off his clothes-he kept yelling "leave clothes on!" and "put back on". He wouldn't stand on the scale (crazy because at home I can't get him off the scale), so I had to stand on it with him, and then set him down screaming on the floor while we got my weight without him. For height I had to hold him down while the nurse tried to straighten out his leg and get the measurement. When the doctor came in to do his exam, he was upset with her everytime she got near him. He fought when she checked his ears and mouth, and when I laid him down on the exam table he freaked out. When he was done and I started getting him dressed, Elijah started talking about basketball with the doctor. Seth jumped right in the conversation and starting chatting away with her-it was crazy how fast he warmed up to her after that! She stayed and talked to him while I finished dressing him, and then took both boys back to her office area and gave them stickers and suckers. It was nice to see how much time she took with both of them so they could get to know her.
Seth is doing really well. She asked if he could say at least 20 words, and then stopped herself because he said well over 20 different words just in the time that she was examining him. The only concern is his weight. He is 33" long (25th percentile) and weighs 21lbs 8oz, which is off the charts. He had been consistently in the bottom 5%, so him falling completely off has the doctor a little concerned, but nothing to worry about. Seth has to go in and get his height and weight checked in 6 months, which will be around the time that Elijah is due for his 4 year well check so it'll be easy to remember and get him in for that. For now, he needs to go back on whole milk and eat some fatty foods. At 2 Elijah was the same height, but 2 1/2 lbs heavier. Seth has always been a little smaller in both height and weight that Elijah was, so it's surprising to see them at the same height. Seth has gotten quite a bit taller in the past couple months though-maybe his weight will catch up with him soon.

Seth's Birthday Party

Seth in Mickey Mouse ears. He kept calling them Toodles
Mommy & Elijah in Mickey ears
Seth and his Mickey cake
Elijah joining in
Family pic!

Blowing out the candle!
Gordon! Seth's favorite train!
Elijah helping out. It was okay for the first couple presents, but then Seth wanted to do it by himself. Elijah cleaned up the wrapping paper instead-good deal for Mom!!
Checking out the shirt from Todd, Tracy, & Karly
Opening a present from Megan-it was Mr. Potato Head!

Seth's 2 Year Pictures

So Seth was a little uncooperative for his pictures...okay...a lot uncooperative. He spent most of the time sitting on my lap-thank goodness I was wearing a brown vest that matched the background. :) Elijah even jumped in for a few "brothers" shots, and got one alone. Hooray for patient photographers!!