The Scotts: Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Steve Visit and Eleanor Turns One

Well we had quite a time while Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Steve were visiting. We did our regular morning park walks which were certainly more exciting with Grandma and Grandpa coming along.

Bradley's face here is great

Bradley got carried a lot more, which he enjoyed quite a bit

Grandpa is the best at swings!

Eleanor is the best at making Grandma nervous as she climbs up the play structure

Trying out new playground equipment

My parents quickly had to get used to a more verbal Bradley. My dad was joking about how Eleanor walking around was like "baby zilla" and then Bradley repeated "baby zilla" and Grandpa was asked never to describe Eleanor like that again around Bradley. Later in the trip Bradley wanted me while I was upstairs in the shower so my mom told him that I was in the shower and asked if you got clean or dirty in the shower. He said "dirty" and then said "dirty mommy". Later when I was taking him up for his nap I said something about my shower to him and he said "dirty mommy" again. BAD grandparents!

However, they quickly redeemed themselves when they babysat while Nathan and I went out to a baseball game for my 30th birthday (yay!)

Nathan and me having a great time at the Royals vs Mariners game. The Mariners won, hurray! And there were fireworks. And Paul Rudd made a celebratory appearance! A most excellent birthday all in all.

Meanwhile, back at the house Bradley and Eleanor got to experience the joy of baking cookies.

Grandma let them get a lot more hands on than Mommy does.

Apparently cruel hearts tried to exclude Eleanor from the fun but she howled and kicked up a fuss until she got to get in on the action. They were cracking up about it, they just didn't think that the not quite one year old would care about mashing down the cookie crust!

Finally touching the exciting thing!

We were nervous about having the grandparents handle bedtime because Bradley has gotten a bit trickier lately but apparently if you jam pack the evening full of exciting activities the kids collapse into bed and go right to sleep. Good job, grandparents!

And they got to be here for Eleanor's 1st birthday party, which was a blast.

Eleanor wearing the birthday dress Grandma made for her. SO CUTE!

Here we are outside with the balloons that Bradley wasn't supposed to discover until after the party. Oh well. Bradley quickly discovered that if he said "peeees gwampa" he could get away with pretty much anything.

We had a few neighbors come over to join in on the party fun and Bradley about lost his mind when the big kids showed up.

He had to go tackle the birthday girl, he was so excited.

Luckily she was saved by sweet Easton. We love Easton.

This is the birthday crew besides Bradley who was off to the side pillaging, I'm sure.

Eleanor's first experience with cake seemed to be a successful one. She had a few sweets before her first birthday but never chocolate frosting, which appears to be the best sweet of them all!

Yes, we are fairly confident she enjoyed the experience.

My mommy instincts tell me that chocolate is officially a go for Eleanor!

Eleanor was incredibly fortunate to have plenty of assistance when it came time to open presents and Bradley even tested out her toys for her to make sure they were up to par before he let her touch any of them. What a thoughtful big brother. She literally didn't get to touch the doll in that box until the next day.

And since we didn't get a family photo at the party, here we are the next day enjoying a few of the many leftover cupcakes! (We might have overestimated the number of cupcakes reasonable human beings eat at a party).

Good news, both children still like chocolate!

The birthday balloons got a lot of good use, Bradley insisted that we take them with us to the park the day after the party which made for a lot of cute photos.

Joy

Loves

Smooches

We did family pictures the day before the party and I think our amazing photographer managed to get at least a few good photos despite fussy and whiny child behavior. Next year we are bringing balloons along, balloons fix everything.

We also took my parents to Deanna Rose Farmstead which was a blast.

Bradley got to see a cow poop. We heard a bit about this from him.

Practicing milking

When you're first to feed the baby goats you are popular. Eleanor was cackling the whole time we were in there with the goats, apparently most one year olds are a little more hesitant. Our little animal lover!

At one point we split up so Grandma and Grandpa could help Eleanor fall asleep for her nap. It's a good thing Bradley and his friend Eli are close and don't mind sharing a stroller (this lasted for about 5 seconds)

Fortunately it was all worth it because Eleanor got the coziest nap on the happiest grandma.

Also on this trip my mom worked on her latest "nerd books" with Bradley and Eleanor, which was hilarious to watch. The kids were game!

Switches and buttons and fun!

Here are my children in their matching "nerd" shirts. Grandma is pretty awesome.

Eleanor is ALL up in Bradley's business these days. Her favorite moments to strike are when he's watching a show or on the floor in his room having his diaper changed. She'll crawl over to him and start whacking at his face. He is not a fan. My parents said she toddled over to his chair while he was watching a show and gave him a kiss and tried to hug him. Alas, hugs and cuddles distract from the show and are not to be tolerated. But he loves it when she follows him around while he's playing!

Mornings got more interesting while my parents were here because Bradley figured out how to open doors (I had been trying to hold him back from that particular achievement for weeks) and one morning I found him on the main floor at 6 am holding a couple my little ponies in his hand and he happily shouted "ponies!" at me and then demanded to be taken downstairs to Grandma and Grandpa. Another morning he decided to go wake up Eleanor at 6:10 and I woke up to them happily chattering at each other on the baby monitor. This morning I woke up when he shut the door to the master bedroom for us. Not sure what we're going to do to contain the social boy's morning rounds.

Eleanor said "hi gam" at my dad at one point while we were in the playroom and I'm pretty sure that melted Grandpa's heart. Eleanor is going to be talking as well as Bradley before we know it.

One of the grandparent's favorite moments was when I went to put the kids in the bath and discovered that Bradley had a poopy diaper as I was taking it off of him. I drug him back out of the bathrom and into his room all while he was yelling "Ellnor poop! Ellnor poop!" It's harder to claim your sister is the one with the poopy diaper when she's already naked in the bathtub and I have seen the poop in your diaper. Ridiculous (and hilarious) child.

We've been putting our deck to good use lately and bubbles and the little wading pool on the deck have been a hit with all.

Please note how Grandma is hogging all the tubes of bubbles (Bradley would steal as many bubble wands as he could get his hands on)

Here is Grandpa showing that age doesn't equal maturity

Eleanor LOVED the baby pool and would cackle whenever she splashed herself in the face.

And Bradley ended up with a frisbee on his head. We know how to have a deck wading pool party!

We were sad to see Grandma and Grandpa go but at least I got a few group photos before they went, despite Bradley yelling with glee through half of my attempts.