What we’ve been up to…

We haven’t been up to anything too exciting around here.  We’ve started the whole potty training thing again and Matthew was doing well, but has since started losing interest and we’ve had to tighten up on the routine again.  We stopped using a timer and just kept reminding him, he was doing well but now we’ve had to bring out the timer again and make him go in the bathroom every time it goes off.

Emily is just 2 days shy of 10 months.  Wow, where did the time go?  She’s not crawling yet but she gets up on all fours all the time.  She can move around and either get what she wants or doesn’t care enough to try hard for it.  She’s also learned how to go from laying on her tummy to sitting up, kind of funny to watch and something Matthew never did.  She’s been more vocal than Matthew was at this age, too.  She’s been saying mama and dada since around 9 months, although she strongly favors saying mama   Matthew didn’t say those until well over a year.  I think Emily is going to be the one who advances mentally earlier, the opposite of her brother who had all the physical stuff down and walking at this point.

A couple weekends ago we decided to split up our family vacation this year and took part of it early.  We just went to the Twin Cities, we’re sticking closer to home this year.  We stopped in Cottage Grove on the way up to visit friends we don’t see often (but should see more often!) then headed over to the Mall of America.  We took Matthew to Nickelodeon Universe and as we expected he wasn’t interested in riding any of the rides (bonus for us, saves money!)  He was thrilled just looking at the characters from his favorite cartoons that he can’t watch anymore.  He also got to meet Dora and Diego and get his picture taken.  The workers said he was the most excited kid they had all day!  Since he didn’t want to ride the rides, we went to Underwater Adventures and he really liked that.  He thought it was really cool that the fish could swim around and over us, and seeing Nemo and Doree was a hit too.  After the mall we headed to our hotel before going to bed for the night.  We hung out in the morning and Matthew got to watch a movie while Emily took a nap, he liked that since he only gets to use the portable DVD player while we’re driving.  After Emily woke up and we got everything packed up we headed north to see Brian’s godparents.  They were leaving for Arizona the next day and we’re glad it worked out for us to see them before they left.  On our way home we stopped at the Science Museum.  It was our first trip back since our wedding reception nearly 5 years ago.  We both commented on the different memories from that day and pointed out places we had pictures taken or rode past in the limo.  The purpose of that stop was to see the Titanic Exhibit before it left.  That was interesting to see but both kids were bored and didn’t want to be very quiet.  We walked around the Museum for a little bit so Matthew could have a look around and then we headed home.  A quick trip but we enjoyed it and I think it helped get over cabin fever from being inside all the time; a nice change of scenery.  And of course it’s always nice when we can visit friends and family we rarely see, too!

Dancing with Dora & Diego

At Underwater Adventures

Miss Emily

Matthew & Daddy

The day we were at the Mall was the day the Vikings played the Cowboys.  You may have noticed both  kids were proudly sporting their Purple Pride!

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