Kansas Here We Come + 1st Birthday + Easter

We moved! We made it!

One of our last pictures at the Bellevue house

First of all, THANK YOU to the family that helped make our move out here way less of a pain in the neck. Nathan loved getting to see all his Boise family on the way out and I don't know how we would have managed without his dad Dan coming along with him for the drive and to help us unpack/watch Bradley on our first few days here. Grandparent duty was rough on Dan, but he persevered. What a champ.

In all seriousness, Dan was a huge help both with managing Bradley time and helping Nathan with anything requiring muscle or mechanical know how. And Nathan and I are both incredibly jealous of his ability to make Bradley fall asleep on him.

 

We only managed to take sleeping pictures of Bradley with Grandpa Dan ... I only realized this after he left. Sigh. The sleeping ones are generally my favorite anyway I guess, so it's not too bad.

And thanks again to my parents for letting me and Bradley stay with them for while Nathan and his dad drove out to Kansas City. We had such a good time although it didn't make anything easier on anyone when we moved. Bradley cried the first time they Skyped with us and he could see them but not touch them. So cute but rough on everyone.

Cool boy Bradley with his Grandpa Redfern on my parents' deck.

Bradley and my flight to Kansas City started out as a horror show and ended up not being too bad. My dad was able to go through security with us at the airport, which was very helpful, and Bradley and I boarded the plane with a bundle of cheapo toys from Target's one dollar section so I was pretty confident that we would be properly entertained on the flight. WRONG. Bradley had no problem with his ears on the ascent or descent but he had a major problem with sitting still on my lap, even as I desperately took out toy after toy for him to play with. I don't know what we would have done without an empty middle seat by us as I used it as a play area for Bradley for half the flight. As soon as we could we walked up and down the aisle while holding a shoe (Bradley has this thing about taking one shoe off and walking while carrying it) and we made lots of friends. And then an hour and a half into the flight Bradley fell asleep on my lap ... for the entire remainder of the flight (about an hour). Incidentally, this was my favorite part of the flight.

Bradley next to my protruding belly. We technically had three of us flying and paying for just one seat - what a bargain!

We were both very happy to see Daddy at the gate when we landed. Bradley clung to him and was very upset when he was with me instead of Daddy.

It took a little while to get situated but Nathan and his dad were champions and I got to rest a lot and unpack boxes only when I really felt like it. I look forward to a non-pregnant move at some point in our future.

Bradley overly bundled up to go for a walk around our block. He'll only leave hats on if they're strapped on otherwise they are ripped over and thrown to the ground where they belong!

Nathan got to have a lot of Bradley time right after the move too, which was really nice. He got to have some good playtime and cuddles with our sweet boy ... and kitties.

Beginning of epic nap

End of epic nap. Hilarious.

We are loving the house and neighborhood and pretty much everything about Kansas City besides being so far away from family and friends. Nathan has had a full week of his new job at this point and he's really enjoying it, which one would hope would be the case after the first week. The eight minute commute isn't hurting anything. I'm settling in with activities for Bradley and myself during the week although Bradley would happily stay at home all day because he has so much space here to play. And I've relented and let him watch a bit more tv. He loves to watch MacGyver with his daddy.

We had some crazy weather last weekend and Bradley got to experience snow for the first time.

We don't think he is a fan ... especially after BAD DADDY insisted on letting him try to walk through the deep snow on his own so he could play. It did not go well.

The best thing so far has definitely been our new neighbors though. I decided that since we were moving just a few weeks before Bradley's 1st birthday that we were still going to figure out a way for him to have a party so we'd invite a few neighbors to come by and celebrate by eating a birthday cupcake with us. It ended up going really well, we got quite the turnout and all the kids are kind of crazy about Bradley. At one point, I wandered through the kitchen asking if anyone had seen a one year old and he came careening around the corner being pushed on his new little toy car by a crowd of excited 8 year olds. Super adorable.

We were a little distracted by all our new friends and had trouble eating much of the cake.

And I don't know why this video uploaded sideways, so annoying! But it's a cute video regardless.

Bradley got to try to eat the cake again later that night and really liked it. This is his "why did you take the cake away" face.

And this is what Bradley does when people Skype with Daddy on his phone. He plops down on his lap and looks at who is saying hello! He was happy to say hi to Grandma Colleen and Kerry.

Easter was the next day and we had a lovely day going to church, having a nice homemade Easter dinner (I was very proud of this accomplishment, there isn't a lot of home cooking going on these days), and had our first Easter egg hunt. We tried to take pictures before the egg hunt but Bradley could see one of the Easter eggs and was very distracted. And THEN he discovered that we had put goldfish crackers inside of the Easter eggs so we had about the slowest Easter egg hunt ever as we opened each egg, ate the goldfish crackers, then had trouble letting go of our treasured Easter egg in order to look for the next one. This was repeated with each egg. And then we discovered leaves and needed to explore our favorite corner of the yard and the Easter egg hunt was over.

We're going to be spending a lot of time in the backyard this summer. The neighborhood kids all play outside a lot and Bradley is already beginning to figure out that the backyard is where the social happens. He gets really excited and grabs onto my hand and makes a beeline for neighborhood kids when he sees them. It helps that they shout hello and are very excited to see him too.

I cannot believe this ball is on the WRONG side of the fence!

And here's Bradley getting his first haircut. I love his little mohawk, but we're doing one year pictures next weekend and I'd rather not have it be crazy for that. Daddy did a great job cutting his hair!