Kitten Throne and Gymnastics

Halloween night was a blast.

About to go trick or treating!

We went to about ten houses with Bradley and Eleanor and everyone was very impressed with how cute the kiddos were. Bradley feels that he should be granted saint status for putting up with having to wait until we got home to eat any candy. He has the patience of his mother ... which means there was quite a bit of whining at the last few houses. He would desperately try to hand candy to someone to open for him and was very frustrated when he did not get results.

I've been very good about regulating how much candy my one and a half year old has been getting to consume but I did give in and let him have a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup for breakfast the day after Halloween. I could tell it was an urgent matter, he got into his candy bucket and mangled the poor piece of candy trying to get it out of the wrapper. A mother can't let her son get so close to candy goodness and cruelly deny him of it just because it's breakfast.

Candy mangling in progress

Bradley also yells at his toys when they don't do what he wants. And makes hilarious faces.

Love this face!

He may look like mini Nathan but he acts like mini Anne in a lot of ways. I'm teaching him so much. He now knows a two syllable word! It's "stupid". Oops. I was trying to put a movie on for him the other day and the dvd player insisted on updating itself before playing the movie which caused a bit of a delay. It's possible that I was complaining out loud about the situation and I'm fairly certain that Bradley repeated "stoop" back to me after I said stupid a few times. Oops indeed. Mommy is going to have to watch herself more closely from now on.

Look at this imp. He wants to learn all the naughty things.

One way in which he is not like me at all is the way in which he is such a daredevil. Earlier this week we went to an open gym at the rec center by our new house and I was surprised to find that by open gym they meant open gymnastics studio. Bradley was a maniac, I didn't get to take any video or pictures of him on the giant trampoline or trying to tackle and wrestle with five year olds because I was busy trying to keep him from causing himself serious bodily harm. I did get this video:

The boy who loves to jump could not believe how fun it was to jump on all the bouncy things. The boys that jump over him at the end of the video are the ones that were rough housing and were overjoyed to have my 19 month old son run in to the middle of them full speed to join in on the fun. Bradley took an amazing nap on open gym day and we will definitely be going back.

We went to the zoo the other day and Bradley enjoyed getting to share a wagon with his friend Eli.

But apparently THIS is what he truly prefers. Bradley likes the stroller set up with the infant car seat so a guy can put his feet up. This happened during a shopping outing to Kohls. Where's the baby if Bradley is in her spot, you ask?

She's snuggled up with her daddy, the best spot anywhere as far as she's concerned. We got some "awwws" as we walked around the store.

And the snuggles continued at home. I'm so happy that these two are getting quality cuddles these days.

We've been taking the kids to the park a lot lately because fall in the Midwest is glorious. We rarely take the stroller when we all go together because Bradley likes to run with his ball and Eleanor prefers to be carried if given the choice. 

I call this one: Great Despair! (Bradley would prefer to be in possession of his ball at all times)

And once again, Eleanor and Daddy get quality time. Eleanor adores her daddy!

Bedtime has been a lot of fun lately, Bradley enjoyed Eleanor joining in on bedtime story time the other night.

Eleanor had a case of the munchies. Yum yum Bradley hand!

And Nathan and I think we could teach other parents about how to properly prepare their children for a night of good rest. The first step is to have gentle, quiet play leading up to bedtime.

So gentle. So peaceful.

Probably no parenting advice coming from us just yet. Also, yes, Bradley is already in Christmas pajamas. We got them in preparation for the holidays but he needed more jammies now so there you go.

Holiday pajamas boy and little Eleanor are so happy to play together

Eleanor is becoming a little person and I love it. She is so bright eyed and good-natured. I get to read her books now and she seems to enjoy it and she's grabbing at every toy in sight. I love this stage of baby development, it's the beginning of being able to really play and interact with my baby!

Bradley wants to crawl all over me to show his love and affection? Hurray!

And this is a new favorite game for all involved.

 Our little sweet pea.

The cats are relieved that we have more free time these days and can sit on the couch and relax here and there.

I enjoy kitty couch time as well

These kitties are so special to us and while child cuddles are of course our favorite, kitty cuddles do not include the risk of getting kicked in the face (Bradley in the morning when he first wakes up and we bring him into our bed for "cuddles". It's very sweet but it doesn't stay calm for long).

I wish for our children to know the joy we do from being around the kitties. So happily for all involved, I try to facilitate opportunities for cuddles and bonding. Lucky kitties! For the record, only the cat who was not being sat on left after this picture. The other two didn't care enough to leave. We have the nicest kitties. 

Kitten throne!

And here is a rare video of Eleanor talking. Sort of. She gets so funny around a camera and it cracks us up.

Nathan has a few work trips coming up in the next few weeks and my parenting strategy while he's gone is basically to do my best to keep the kids as busy as possible during the day so they are properly tired out in the evening and welcome the sight of their bed. Hopefully that means a lot of fun pictures and videos!