The Scotts: Coeur d'Alene Trip

We took this guy to Coeur d'Alene over Labor Day weekend to visit some of Nathan's relatives.

Woohoo, a roadtrip sounds like fun!

We had a pretty good time in Idaho, a huge thanks to Nathan's Aunt Jeannie and Uncle Larry for letting us stay at their place!

That said, it was interesting sharing a room with Bradley again. He would wake up if we talked, or even tried to whisper to each other. So we had a great visit but I was very very happy to get him off to his own room again. I can't imagine co-sleeping with this kid. It's hard enough to sleep in a bed with a husband and cuddly cats. I leave to feed Bradley in the middle of the night and when I return I have to try to find a way to wedge my way back into the bed. We have a king sized bed, you would think this wouldn't be an issue. Silly me.

That said, I am VERY pro co-napping with the child after trying it out with Bradley the other day after coming home from a swimming excursion with another mom. That may have been the most snuggly hour of my life. Bradley doesn't cuddle yet (he's typically far too busy for such things) so this was particularly amazing.

Snuggles!!!!!!

My wonderful wonderful view

Anyway, Coeur d'Alene was a lot of fun. We saw friends in Spokane on the way over and spent time trying out the swings at the park which was a lot of fun. And we found a nice park with swings in Coeur d'Alene as well, in between visits to see Grandma Jerry.

Grandma Jerry is Nathan's dad's mom and she is Bradley's great grandma. She has some medical issues the week before we came out but she still felt well enough to spend some time with her newest great grandchild.

Bradley LOVED his great grandma. We visited a total of three times over the weekend.

Bradley enjoyed getting to crawl all over Grandma Jerry

Grandma Jerry may have enjoyed it as well

We also got to see Bradley's Aunt Abby, Jenna and Ryan (second cousins), and Robin and Randy (first cousins once removed). I can thank the Meister family reunions I went to as a child for teaching me the correct terms for extended family. That and all the fun grammar games we got to play. There are far too many English teachers on that side of the family (says the girl who majored in literature in college).

With Aunt Abby

Ryan was actually really good with Bradley, Bradley just happened to be very sleepy and fussy when he got to hold him

Me saving Ryan from having to hold the fussy child.

We gave Bradley a fun ball and he started howling. Being the good parent I am, I laughed at him. And then quickly put him to bed, poor tired boy!

The gang. We got a lot of good family time in, it was a great trip!

Bradley impressed everyone with his great love for nature. He was stripping so many leaves off the tree in front of the house that I had to spend a bit of time across the street with the trees at the community garden. He had started dragging them off by the fistful, 5 or 6 leaves would fall at a time. He's was a bit of a menace.

Here are some family photos we got in. So pleased whenever we get photos of the three of us.

Bradley looks adorable here

Aaaaand he's chewing on his foot. His favorite foot, he only ever chews on the right one.

We had a wonderful time and were patting ourselves on the back for beingso awesome at traveling with an infant when we got in the car for the ride home. And then we hit Labor Day traffic and things got bad. Bradley woke up and nothing would calm him ... except for the sound of his parents singing to him. We sang to him for an HOUR. Do you know how short most children's songs are? Row row row your boat lasts about 15 seconds. We had a song sheet from our parenting group that we went through a few times and I was on my fourth round of You Are My Sunshine when Nathan turned on a mix cd that I had made for the trip and we started to sing along to gems such as Call Me Maybe, a number of Katy Perry songs, and a bit of hip-hop. Bradley was very impressed by our rendition of California Love. I don't know if we win a parenting reward for our ability to comfort our child in a clutch situation or if we should be punished for singing Justin Bieber to our child.

Since We've Been Home

Bradley has many books, but only likes three. Brown Bear Brown Bear, Barnyard Dance, and Doggies. It's lucky I like them because I end up reading them all 2-3 times per day. Although Bradley is working on learning to read them on his own

Ah yes, this is an excellent book!

Bradley went to an Iowa State football game watch and then cheered his daddy on at his softball games the next day. It was a sports weekend for the little guy and his poor mother. Actually, sports outings have gotten a lot better for his mommy ever since he came along. I no longer have to play on the softball team! I am legitimately afraid of the ball and they still wanted to have me play. Now I have a bayybeee and I have to watch him and barely pay attention to the game except for when Nathan is up to bat. At which point there is a lot of cheering and whistling. He's studly and I want to make sure everyone knows it, especially Nathan!

Bradley is a little blurry here, but I know Heather will be happy to see this photo of her with the cute boy!

How cute is Bradley's Iowa State Jersey?

Mommy showed up after shopping and cuddled up on her boy

Yep, Bradley had about had it with football by the time I got to the game. I feel ya kid, I feel ya.

Going out is much more complicated now that solid food is involved

And we are currently in the stage where we enjoy how grabby he is. I'm sure we'll grow tired of it but right now it is super adorable to have little arms stretching out for anything within his grasp.

We also went up to stay with Grandma and Grandpa Redfern while Nathan was away on a work training trip in St. Louis for a couple days. Grandpa and Grandma were quite pleased to have this smiley boy around, he was not lacking for attention. We also got to see Great Grandma and Grandpa King (my mom's parents) and Bradley still doesn't make it far into Patty Cake without shoving his fist in his mouth.

With Great Grandma. I need to take a video of patty cake next time.

And there are SO many smiles these days. Nathan and I are just loving life with this little guy. I don't know if it's that he's sleeping better at night or how much he's developed in the last month or so but we are loving everything to do with Bradley. He smiles pretty much all the time now. And when he smiles, it's with his whole face. Cannot get enough of this, we're excited for all the things we'll get to do with him in the future but I also kind of want to freeze time and keep him like this forever. He's just so wonderful.