2 Year Well Visit

Earlier this week I took Cole and Grady for their two year well-visit/check-up. Both are healthy, and the doctor said "most adorable". Since the doctor said it, it must be scientifically true. I've suspected it for a while now, but its nice to hear that a medical professional verify their cuteness.

Last I told you about the doctor, it was after their 18 month well visit. Remember?   Since then we've changed pediatricians and I no longer have to do the dreaded child development checklist. I can't deny it, after I got the boys home and recorded the vital stats, I got curious about the old pediatricians checklist and went online to have a look-see. As after the 18 month visit, my comments and thoughts are in blue. Here we go.

Does your child:

1. Walk/Run. Yes! Excellent, starting this list of on a positive note. It might have taken them forever to start walking, but we're on the move for sure.

2.  Walk up and down steps. Yes! Score.

3. Throw overhand. Why, yes they do! Cole really prefers a two-handed chest pass, and Grady has thrown a few underhand softball pitches, but we're going to pretend that we sit around all day throwing like we're trying to tag someone out at home plate from center field. Sure. 

4. Use a cup. Awww, hell no. Unless this doctor is coming to my house to mop my floors, we are not going to be drinking from open cups for a while. If you mean sippy cups, then yes. Tightly closed sippy cups.

5. Use a fork/spoon. Yes. Sort of. Grady still prefers his hand, and has even picked up the bowl to get the applesauce to drip directly into his mouth. I feel certain he learned this from Keith. And no, I didn't share that with the doctor.

6. Try to dress himself. It's our new favorite naptime passtime. Why sleep when you have clothes to take on and off? 

7. Scribble with a crayon. Yep, we love to color. On ourselves, the wall, momma's purse. Let's all give a big thank you to the people that make the Magic Eraser.

8. Stack 4-6 blocks. C'mon, what's this list for? Babies. Of course we stack blocks. 

Hmmm. Not doing too bad with this list.

9. Know his name. Most definitely.

10. Say 30-50 words. I'd say so. Per this pediatrician we're doing very well in the language department. She deemed them "articulate and chatty". Then she very quickly walked out of the room. Perhaps they were too chatty? Better than crying, I'd say. 

11. Use 2-3 word sentences. Uh-huh. We spent most of the doctors appointment saying "up the nose!" [I told them about the FluMist vaccine, they seemed most entertained with 'up the nose'].

12. Name any body parts. Again, yes. Our new favorites are elbow and belly button.

13. Follow a simple command. At times I'm not sure their 31 year old father can follow a simple command, but I guess they're doing ok for 2 year olds. They take stuff to the trash, sweep, wipe the floor clean...what? Your 2 year old doesn't help clean? Sounds like you need to work on simple commands.

14. Play make believe. Sort of. Cole really likes pretending that he is a cat or a dog, and after he spent one afternoon doing nothing but meowing at me and bringing me items in his mouth, I now am not sure if he's playing make believe, or if he really does think he is a dog. 

So there you have it. Even by the crazy old pediatricians list, our kids are normal. It's nice to be normal sometimes. If you're a details  person, here are those stats. Cole is 34 inches tall, and weighs is 28.3lbs. Grady is 35.5 inches and weighs in at 36.5lbs. Grady's head circumference is still off the charts, way to rock the Bothma noggin', G-baby!

Contos Academy: March 5

I love my boys, but if anyone were to ask me if I wanted to watch them AND someone else's kids for one day every two weeks, I'd probably have to think long and hard. And I'm still not sure I'd say yes.

Lucky for us our good friend Stacy is more confident in her boy wrangling abilities, and the boys now attend The Contos Academy every other Friday. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned the Contos before, but a refresher for you, Stacy and Craig are parents to these two characters: Gavin, and Matthew.

Today I report on their fun from last Friday. I'm a little behing, blah, blah, you know the usual excuses. Let's get on with it. 

We've always known Stacy as an energetic and organized [nice way of saying Type A] personality, and I really am not surprised to see that she was so organized with a gameplan for the Boy Quartet's day. I am able to comment on these pictures that Stacy took and shared with us because she gave me a printed [no kidding, printed! log of the day's activities. No, you can't hire her. She's our Ms. Stacy now]. So, I'll do my best to recap what happened at The Academy.

Craft time. Today's color was green, and the shape was hearts. Is seems only appropriate, given that St. Patrick's day is coming up, and Ms. Stacy helped the Quartet craft hearts into a clover that was stapled to a strip of paper and made into a crown.

Man, did we love these crowns. Genius idea, Ms. Stacy. We wore these crowns all last weekend. Then we danced around while wearing the crowns.

I love, LOVE Grady's expression in the background. If you've been around him at all, you probably know that he is squealing in delight right now. It also looks like Gavin and Matthew are busting some serious dancemoves.

Next, it was time for Music and Movement. We stretch up!

And then down. This might have been Grady's favorite part of the day, and I know this because when I got them home he kept walking up to me saying "momma UP!" and he's show me how to raise my arms and he'd wait until I did it, then he'd giggle and say "momma DOWN!".

All this activity will make little boys hungry, so Ms. Stacy whipped up a feast of green eggs (the color of the day was green, after all) & toast & bananas.

After lunch Ms. Stacey bundled the Quartet & Buckley the Dog up and headed out into the backyard for some serious playing. And grass mowing.

Then it was naptime, and Ms. Stacy hopefully got a little bit of rest. When I arrived late afternoon, I was met by two very happy little boys. Actually four happy boys, but I really only wanted to take two home. All were wearing their crowns, of course.

More from The Academy in another week! Thanks Stacy for taking such good care of our boys.

Coloring Is Fun

Does not need words.

 

        

 

In the Garden

Monday was a very pretty day weather-wise, so the boys and I went outside to tend to my rose garden. Most of the tending consisted of me staring at the roses wondering how I let them get in such rough shape and wondering out loud what I should do next. Trim? Leave them alone? No clue. Eventually I decided to trim the roses back, and I gave each little helper a galvanized silver bucket to collect fallen leaves. Either my instructions were not clear enough, or I was overly ambitious in my expectations of them following me and picking up debris, because things did not go according to plan. Turns out the silver buckets make a cool scraping noise if you drag them behind you. So they'd walk from the garden into the porch area, and back.

They'd briefly stop for a meeting of the minds and to check out how the pile of rose limbs were growing.

Then off in the other direction. All the while dragging the silver buckets.

I stayed on task, and cut the roses back. My thinking is that if the roses rebound from this cutting, they will be fine, but if they don't grow back....well, then likely I would have killed them mid-summer anyway. Survival of the fittest here.

Eventually the meeting of the minds started happening way back in the yard, near the compost pile. I fear that rats and snakes live back there, so I always call them away from this area.

Cole usually listens, but Grady prefers to give this look.

Elvis is also comes right away.

Grady finally gave in and came towards the house, where he made the wheelbarrow into a toy. Wheels!

And Cole walked the line.

Other than getting to spend some fun outside time with the boys, this was a good morning for two reasons. One, the roses are now under control and no longer look like they might overgrow the house, and two, boy does being outside wear the kids out. They napped very well. Score!

V is for Valentine

NOTE: This post was started 2 weeks ago. Yes, I'm a little slow lately.

Don't ever tell us Ellermans that there is cake to be had, 'cause we'll show up at your house. Honestly, promise to feed us and we will come. And this is how we ended up at Val's birthday party. Val is MG's husband, if you've forgotten, MG stands for Momma Gwen, good friend and mentor. Val was born on February 14, hence the name Val. And no, his name is not Valentine, just Val.

So, Val, known to me as Poppa Val, since he is married to Momma Gwen, turned 70. Happy birthday Poppa Val! The pictures here are certainly not in order of party events, but rather in order of importance. We begin with cake.

PV required the help of some of his grandkids to blow out the candles, so a few gathered to do the task bestowed upon them. They waited patiently.

It took three Ingrahams to light the candles.

 And then they made a wish and blew!

And we feasted. Cole and Grady joined their buddy Jonah for a little cake eatin' at the table. As a responsible parent I felt it was my duty to taste some of the cake before the boys ate, and I tell you, it was delicious.

Jonah got wise and decided to ditch the utensils in lieu of nature's most-useful utensil. Atta boy, shovel it in.

Here somebody was checking out the crumbs that did not make it into Jonah's mouth but instead hit the floor, while us moms chatted. Why do I look up so much when I talk? Am I thinking that hard? I must be saying something incredibly profound, Holly is hanging onto every word. I ooze wisdom.

As a funny sidenote: I do have at least a few dozen pictures of my mom  and Karen making the same hand gesture when we talk.

 Brothers Andy and Chris caught up. At some point during the party I walked past these two, and they were reminiscing about their room-sharing memories. I couldn't help but wonder if our two would be good friends as adults, and if they'd remember sharing a room. And sharing everything else.

 And Andy caught a few quiet moments outside with his eldest.

And I cornered Bobbie for a picture with her girl.

Elsewhere people wore funny hats and explored new toy closets. Momma Gwen thought of everything for this party, and had the cutest Valentine favor bags for each of the kids. The bags were filled with goodies, and for the older kids those goodies included these fun balloons that you can turn into animals, hats. etc. Jamie is stylin'!

If you're concerned about Grady's cheek above, don't be. No one slapped him [though I'd be looking at his twin brother as a first suspect], he just randomly gets a red cheek. Or red ear. Another Bothma thing. We're an odd people.

It was really nice to sit back and watch people chat. Friends and family from far and near came to celebrate PV's life. I've not mentioned it yet, but PV had quite a health scare over the Christmas holidays that landed him in very bad shape in the ICU. It's been a long recovery, but he is now doing well,  and this birthday truly felt like a celebration of life. I am sure everyone felt especially thankful to have him here so all could spend time with him. That pretty lady in gray in picture 2 below is his Mrs.

Oh. There was this incredibly handsome guy there. I really hope to be at his 70th birthday party someday.