Eleanor Pigtails and Bradley Soccer Class

Eleanor's hair is finally long enough for pigtails ... barely. Mostly her hair does this naturally, I just put some rubber bands on it on a recent trip to the park.

And here's Bradley, being his normal shy self at the park. Surrounded by a large group of martial arts kids on a field trip. It was mayhem, it was big kids, and Bradley was all over it.

Being with Bradley at the park is a lot of fun and not ever boring. Look at him showing off his knee bandaid ...

He ran around for a while like this. Because he had to be able to see his knee. Such a funny kid.

Going to the library is not boring either. We went a couple days ago and soon after we arrived, Bradley started to run away from me through the stacks. I walked over to hunt him down and get him to come back over to the little kiddie play area and he immediately started saying in his loud Bradley voice "working on POOP, Mommy, working on POOP!" So I said "okay, okay, you go ahead and do that" and he repeated "working on POOP!" so I said "yes, yes, let me just leave you to do that" (trying to back away so he'd stop hollering). He repeated his poop announcement a couple more times for good measure so I'd be well and properly embarrassed. It worked. The fun part was when we were supposed to leave, I got to literally run down and catch my child. He's pretty good about coming when I call him now but this does not extend to when he has a poopy diaper. He was in the back corner of the stacks and had some highly advanced evasive maneuvers. To make things more fun, Eleanor got in on the fun of running away from Mommy and I had to bribe her with playing with usually forbidden car keys so she'd stay still while I ran after and half tackled her older brother. Nathan just laughed at me when I told him this story. I officially blame his genes for our very active children.

These cute kids. All Nathan's fault.

Bradley is such a sweetheart but we are solidly into our 2's now and I've finally started instituting time outs for some of the accompanying behavioral things we're working on. It's been pretty effective, no one is too upset but it gets the point across that a particular action (like pushing) is not okay. What's great is that Eleanor has been trying to join Bradley in time out lately. He'll be on a chair and I'll be mid count and she'll be clambering to get up to sit next to him, even though he's usually in timeout because he just pushed her. She adores her big brother.

Teeth brushing buddies.

Eleanor now has her own stool to stand on but prefers to stand as close to Bradley as possible.

At the zoo. Bradley got on a hippo statue ... 

So Eleanor had to get on the hippo statue too. Of course. 

Last weekend was eventful because we went out and got Bradley a bunk bed. It's been a bit hit!

Bradley quickly mastered the ladder and can go up and down with little to no problems. We switched around both of the kids' rooms for this new setup and they both got moved completely into new rooms. As Nathan was relocating a few things from Eleanor's old room to her new room he left her in the hallway and when he walked back into Bradley's new room she had managed to get in the top bunk by herself ... 13 months old. Oh dear.

She hasn't exactly mastered the ladder yet, I'd say she's at about 50% success rate going up and can't get down on her own. But that hasn't stopped her from trying. This video is taken immediately after she fell down the ladder from halfway up. But my children have little sense of self preservation and she decided to go for it again. She's supposed to be my cautious child.

Eleanor's personality has been coming through loud and clear. She's outgoing, adventurous, and a little imp. And she knows how to get her way! Good luck saying no to this cute face. 

Bravely riding on the back of the sit and stand stroller

This face. Oh this face. Nathan and I agree that this is the photo that most perfectly captures Eleanor at this age.

And the video below is pretty precious. Eleanor is sobbing because I won't eat food out of her hand ... like I said, she gets what she wants.

And I would like to thank whichever family member (we're guessing Uncle Thomas) taught Bradley to say "bang bang" and point something like a gun. He won't stop. I'm trying to make not a big deal out of it so it goes away but Daddy is too fun and I'm betting this is just the beginning.

But we can't blame others for everything. I showed Bradley how to carry kitties the other day ... seriously, these cats are amazing. Bradley is mostly pretty gentle, just loud. But still, how many cats would tolerate this? also, please note how Bradley insists on calling Layla "Meg". Poor cat. Not even getting credit for being the one who is putting up with the kiddie loves.

And we had a big day yesterday. Bradley had his first soccer class at the local rec center! He was the youngest person in the class and what he lacked in listening skills he made up for in sheer enthusiasm. I was very proud of him, he was a good boy and had a blast. I'm not sure how much we learned about soccer but really, who cares about this with a two year old?

This video is SO Bradley. Apparently he even kissed a ball once, I know this because a little girl announced it to the class. They gave the ball a name (Bob) and told him to hug it, of course it's going to be kissed!

 End of class team cheer. We love soccer!

After our grueling physical start to the day we had a mellow rest of the morning. Bradley was a great help when I made brownies. You can't pay for such dedicated help!

Such a cool boy. I'm so happy he's ours! He's our 1-2-3-4-5 (we count to 5 constantly these days) big boy Bradley!