Kisses and Hand Holding

Bradley has been into kisses on the mouth lately. We don't have anything against people who like to kiss their kids on the mouth but we're more into cheek kisses with our little ones. Well apparently we make smooching on the mouth look like too much fun when Nathan comes home from work. Because now Bradley is WAY into mouth kisses.

 
He's also into hand holding during meals. His hands may be very messy when this happens but Daddy doesn't seem to mind.

I've been getting back into running lately! I'm supposed to run a 5K in about 6 weeks so I'm finally running again after about three years off. I don't know how to ease back into things so I generally feel like I'm going to die after each run.

Teaching Eleanor that a pre run beer is an excellent way to go about fitness. I also had post run ice cream. Honestly, I want my kids to learn to enjoy food and enjoy some kind of athletic outlet. Forget crazy diets. Eat well and run around and you'll be just fine.

Bradley's current favorite athletic endeavor is jumping in his crib. All this and he still hasn't climbed out on his own.

I could feed my children literally anything if I threw it on the floor in small pieces and maybe tossed a little dirt on it. Eleanor motors around the kitchen looking for crumbs or pieces of fuzz on the floor and jams everything she finds into her mouth indiscriminately. And watch out if you give her access to something forbidden, like the dishwasher. I've tried to load dishes when she's across the room and she motors over, pulls herself up, and starts grabbing at dirty spoons as quick as 1-2-3.

She also likes to push her way around while holding onto the walker that a friend lent to me. She's very proud of her walking skills!

She also likes to chase after Bradley, a somewhat dangerous proposition at times for a little girl who probably doesn't want to be tackled repeatedly.

Bradley requests shows by their bad guys these days. He was shouting "howc howc" the other morning and I finally figured out he was saying Hook from Jake and the Neverland Pirates. He also really likes the Disney Silly Symphony for The Three Little Pigs and requests that by saying "bad woof". I think we should be concerned.

Much cause for concern. Mommy leaves the room and we like to do adorably naughty things!

Bradley makes nursing with Eleanor entertaining. He will come over and lay his head on Eleanor and howl with delight when she grabs at his face. I read that by 9 months nursing is supposed to take about 5-10 minutes tops each time and that is NOT the case with us.

Sometimes you just need to contain the children. How is Eleanor SO cute?

 I just love how much they are little buds. Bradley loves copying Eleanor and vice versa.

We're having a blast on our park trips. Bradley is so hilarious these days. This was his reaction when I kept scooting next to him while he was trying to eat his snack at the playground.

And on the way back he kept asking for my hand as he was walking. I don't know if you can tell in this picture but I have a huge smile on my face. I love it when my little boy wants love and cuddles!

I'm not the only one who is a sucker for all things Bradley these days. 

Bradley had just woken up from a nap and come downstairs in the picture below and when I told him to cuddle up next to his daddy he immediately snuggled in. If there was one way to make sure Daddy had a perfect weekend, this was it.

We're looking forward to Bradley's upcoming second birthday this next weekend! Hard to believe it's already been two years. So thankful for our sweet little guy! And for his wonderful little sister. And our three incredibly needy cats. Such a nice little family we have!

Sunshine and Strollers (We Have So Many)

 No, we haven't been sending Bradley to work in the coal mine. He just likes playing with stamps now.

They're really the ideal Bradley craft. You're supposed to smash things (gently) and you get to get dirty. Great success. I do so much laundry.

We went to the zoo this past weekend and had a really good time. Eleanor and Bradley both liked the carousel.

Except Eleanor kind of skipped her morning nap so she was exhausted and had to take a nap on a blanket while Bradley played with his friend Eli.

One thing that came out of the zoo trip is that our sit and stand stroller wouldn't work for anything beyond going to our neighborhood park. So we tested out our wagon later that day.

Bradley had posed for a lot of photos that day. It's wagon ride time, Mommy!

And by popular request, here is a side by side comparison of almost two year old Bradley with two year old Anne. He may be a mini Nathan but some things he does are definitely from his mommy.

Can't fight genetics

The wagon was cute but Eleanor kept trying to escape so I got a Craigslist double stroller. The kids like it fine and it will be great for future zoo trips and similar outings. Nathan and I were excited that it was a jogging stroller and decided to take it out for a run tonight. It would have worked great if Bradley had not made it abundantly clear that it was necessary for him to get in on the running. He got in a great workout but he was the only one.

Eleanor has been a tough little cookie lately. I left her unsupervised with Bradley the other day for two minutes while I moved the laundry and had to come back down when I heard her hollering. It seems that young Bradley had taken it upon himself to help Eleanor finish her meal and had tried to feed her some applesauce that I had left out on the table. There was applesauce in Bradley's hair, on his clothes, on the table, floor, Eleanor's face and tray, but I'm not sure whether or not any actually went into Eleanor. Bradley had certainly put a lot of effort into taking care of his sister though, one must appreciate his diligence in this matter.

Eleanor said no thanks.

Bradley has been taking care of everyone lately. We have a little baby doll that I got for Eleanor that Bradley decided to play with the other night. Do you know that babies love to jump?

Bradley also put the baby doll down for a nap and wiped her with tissues out of a baby wipe box and was in general incredibly sweet. Lots of hugs and kisses for the baby doll. He's such a sweetheart.

We finally got out the old train tracks and cars that my parents brought this past summer and to put it mildly Bradley has been obsessed. He wakes up every morning saying "choo choo" and is desperate to go downstairs to play.

Trains even win out over shows these days. The only thing that wins over trains is ... outside! It's finally changed from this:

To this!

Basking in the sun with one of our neighbor friends

 We love the park behind our house so much.

 And it's great now that Eleanor can get in on the playtime too sometimes!

Eleanor's new favorite perch while we're out is ... Daddy! Did you know that he has very conveniently placed ears? I'm still trying to get a photo where she has a firm grasp on both of them. It happens not infrequently.

 And here is a photo of Bradley running way off ahead of me on the path to catch up with Daddy.

Everyone loves Daddy. This is not an uncommon scene on the weekends at our house. Note that there is even a cat in on the Daddy loves.

All this out and about business has been leaving Eleanor a bit tired in the evenings. She fell asleep at dinner the other night, poor thing.

Bradley was very excited that the baby was asleep

So so very tired

Bradley, in contrast, has been a hyper goofball through meals as of late.

I gave him a piece of chocolate for dessert the other day and when I told him the wrapper was icky he repeatedly pretended to eat it. Thought he was hilarious. Love this kid.

We went swimming at the local pool the other day.

Turns out the pool was a little chilly and Eleanor howled as soon as she touched the water and didn't stop crying until I had her out with a towel wrapped around her.

On the other hand, Bradley swam until his lips turned blue.
Eleanor prefers dress up opportunities that are warmer and cozier and involve cute accessories. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

She also prefers kitty loves. It's so wonderful to watch her go nuts over the cats. Doesn't matter what the cats want. This is why I trained them to put up with anything. I think they're kind of becoming resigned to me tossing a baby girl over them a couple times per day.

Hi Sookie!

Bradley likes Eleanor's new sunglasses. Only because he knows they aren't supposed to be for him. I need to pretend his baseball hat is forbidden so he'll wear that too.

And I dare anyone to have a more stressful seven minutes than I did the other day unloading the dishwasher with the assistance of two children under two. So much assistance, so much trying to grab anything breakable before a child got their grubby little hands on it.

These kids. So sweet and so hilarious. Eleanor is constantly on the go now so I have a little free time and get to bake and cook again. Bradley is talking up a storm although most of our conversations are currently about trains, food, and why it's important to not sit on your sister.

And lastly, Bradley seems to desperately be trying to re-enact Charlie Bit My Finger with Eleanor. It doesn't happen in this video but only because Eleanor is incredibly nice.

Bradley the Artist and Eleanor the Imp

I finally let Bradley paint the other day. It was a HIT.

I get to get dirty??

Discovering tools of the trade

We are learning colors! "Boo" seems to be our favorite so far.

Art!

 The artist at work

I like to analyze Bradley's art.

Exploring the pathos of clean up time

He calls this one "Snack Time Joy"

 He's less and less into the painting and more and more into playing with the little sponges and getting paint on his hands.

This is what painting time typically looks like these days

Eleanor now hangs out in her high chair while Bradley is painting or playing with playdough. This seemed like a good idea until she started hollering to get at whatever he currently is working with.

Eleanor is on the move these days! Look at this face and tell me that the impish look doesn't strike fear into the core of your being!

This video is from a couple weeks ago but I love it because she's playing on her own and then sees me and is SO HAPPY. And then does her little scootch thing to get over to me. Adorable adorable.

I told a friend the other day that I know I'm biased since she's my child, but I'm a little obsessed with Eleanor these days. She is such a smiley little doll. I love dressing her in cute clothes, I love dancing with her and listening to her giggle when I dip her or when I give her a big hug, and I ADORE how she waves her hands about when she wants something desperately. We call it the princess wave. It generally works. She's just too darn cute.

Eleanor is such a different kid than Bradley. We are just nuts about both of them but they are so different. For instance, Eleanor allows her hands to be guided to the interesting parts of the touchy feely books we have while Bradley would jerk his hands away if I deigned to try such a thing. And while Bradley was constantly falling down and shaking us off when we tried to help him when he was pulling himself up, Eleanor barely ever falls down and is constantly looking for a person to hold onto while she's standing and playing. They're both particular, but in completely different ways.

Demonstrating her impressive ability to grab items off the floor without having to give up her standing position

Proud of the mess she is making

Eleanor also has a thing for drinking out of cups. She's been doing this for a month or two now. Looks like I'm going to be two for two for kids that never use a sippy cup.

She prefers my cup too. Little cups are for babies.

Eleanor's obsession with the cats is growing. This morning she was a little sad when she woke up and then she saw Sookie and was all smiles. Instantly. It warms my cat crazy heart that my daughter has inherited this part of myself. Bradley likes the cats okay but was never like this.

Our cats all deserve medals for the loves they tolerate on a regular basis.

Bradley is sometimes neglected because I'm paying too much attention to Eleanor, but that's generally a good thing as far as he's concerned because he can get into mischief while my attention is on the adorable baby girl. The other day it was finally warm and the snow was melting so I decided to take the kids out to the park.

Poor Eleanor. It was sunny and Bradley's old truck hat is the only sunhat that fits her right now.

Someone was thrilled to get to stand up on her own outside!

Can't ... get ... enough. She was so happy to be playing outside.

I was having a great time taking pictures of Eleanor while Bradley played nearby us until I realized that perhaps he was playing a little too quietly. Sure enough, he had found a big pile of mud and was having a blast grabbing chunks and throwing them and then wiping off his dirty hands on his shirt. The kid was SO dirty. And SO happy. I had a lot of trouble getting him inside even for snack.

Mud

So much mud. So much happy.

We cleaned up when we went inside for snack and came out briefly for a second round which lasted about 10 minutes because Bradley quickly got covered in mud once again. I see my future, and it involves a lot of mud and laundry.

Playing outside together. Eleanor is happiest when she's out of the dumb baby stroller and playing like big Bradley!

Proper incentives for doing new things is growing increasingly important with Bradley. There are only a few incentives that work for him right now: food, tv shows, his pacifier, or a bath. I guess going outside counts too. I can get him to do many things if one of these items is an immediate reward. I've been reading a parenting book where they talk about how for some children words of praise from the parent serve as an incentive for the child. Um, not for sweet Bradley. At least not yet. But my system is working really well so far!

Gazing back at the outdoors. I felt so bad for Bradley this winter when he would yell "out out!" and we couldn't go out because it was ten degrees. We're very happy that it's warming up.

Some behaviors I still don't really know what to do about. For instance - Bradley has started sticking objects in his ears. Great.

He thinks it's hilarious and I don't want to make it too forbidden or the stinker will do it every time my back is turned. So I try to downplay it.

However, we had a parents as teachers educator here this past week who did a hearing test on little Bradley that involved sticking little ear buds in his ears for the test. Bradley was SO into this. So much for keeping things out of his ears.

This is the expression of fascinated focus. He loves being a patient. This is the expression on his face whenever we go to the doctor's office and they examine him. Such a cutie.

Bradley has also picked up on the power of trading for what he wants and tries to make it work to his advantage on a regular basis. He knows he gets in trouble if he steals one of Eleanor's toys so he'll bring over a clearly inferior toy, thrust it at her, and then grab the toy she had happily been playing with prior to that. It generally works okay with Eleanor but it doesn't go over as well with his friends at playgroup and at church.

Here is an example of excellent sharing on Bradley's part. Note how nice he is even when Eleanor bashes the toy he just gave her into his hand.

And here is less exemplary sharing.

Bradley is entering into a rebellious phase. I know this because we were driving in the car a few days ago and he had his finger in his nose, digging for gold. He had managed to give himself a nose bleed in this manner the previous week (sigh) so I've been on a finger out of nose campaign and I firmly told him to get that finger out of his nose. He did, and then gave me a funny look, and slowly took his finger and gently placed it back in his nose. He left it there for the next ten minutes (I know because I timed it) and stared at me as I kept looking back and failing in my efforts to keep from laughing.

He's also still going strong on post bath nudie time. This little bum gets pinched a LOT.

We also need to do some work training Bradley in his big brother responsibilities. For instance, we met our friend Olivia at the library the other day and Bradley had to block - that - out! when she tried to come say hi to Eleanor in her stroller when we were leaving. However, when we were at an indoor play place the previous week he did not supervise Eleanor at all and another little boy we were there with kissed her full on the mouth. Come on, big brother. Can't let toys distract you from sister duty.

"Watching over" Eleanor at the library. He knows he's not allowed in the baby area. But serious leaning is okay, right?

Sweet boy checking in on Eleanor while she stands up so big

Sometimes Eleanor does not need Bradley to watch over her as closely as he does. Sometimes he may be considered a pest.

Eleanor is going to be SO tough. Watch how long it takes her to get upset with Bradley in this video.

Lately we've moved the kids so they can sit by each other while eating. Bradley had been insisting this was necessary for some time. Both love it.

The kids are doing great, we had a bout of the flu while Nathan was on his last trip but we're all better now. Bradley, you threw up ON me and I still love you. Actually, I was really worried about you and didn't mind the throw up at all except it meant I had to clean myself up as well as you before we could snuggle and make you feel better. Remember this when you have teenage angst.

I also made you play dough and took pictures of you being hilarious. Not knowing that I would be up the whole next night with the throw up flu myself. We need to stop being sick whenever Nathan leaves for a work trip.

Home made play dough!

Stinker. FYI, Wooden spoons provide great entertainment.

Markers color the paper, markers also color the boy.

We are much happier when Daddy is home. He is such a good daddy, Eleanor lights up whenever he's around and Bradley tells me to "go way" at bedtime because it's Daddy time! Play time with Daddy is also a different beast. The toddler is pushing around the infant on a toy car with minimal interference ...

And for our final video of the day, here are Bradley and Eleanor cracking each other up. I just hope these two stay such great buds as they grow older. It's amazing to watch.

Oh, and one last Bradley story! He has been picking up words like crazy lately. I was driving the other day and heard Bradley repeating something over and over in the backseat and realized he was saying "green light go! green light go!" over and over. I've been explaining to him why we have to stop while driving, stopping is offensive to young Bradley. Red light stop, green light go. We really like green light go.

I was also getting things together to leave the house the other day and said "keys, check!" and heard a number of "keys check keys check" from my little mimic. I really need to stop calling the cats morons in front of him.

And we've discovered that our "shy" little boy (much sarcasm) is okay with play places at fast food restaurants. We went for a rare dinner out at Chick fil a the other week and I decided to let Bradley try out the play place after he was done eating since Daddy and Eleanor were still eating. He was the youngest child in there by far and I ended up having to climb up into the structure to drag him out. I love the Midwest, he was playing with a bunch of four through six year olds and they were all saying "watch out for the baby!" as they raced through the play structure. One appointed herself his guardian. He loved it and when I would check on him he would tell me to "go way" much to the older children's delight. We're generally very nice to Mommy and don't tell her to go away but I can't really blame the kid when he's in the best - place - ever! and Mommy is looking like she's planning on ending the fun.

The kids are so much fun, all we need to do is stop being sick and we'll be all set!