The Scotts: Hip Hip Hooray Bradley and Raspberry Eleanor

Bradley has started to stay "ta daaaa!" when he does things now (like undoing the straps of his shoes in the car) and "hip hip hooray" when he's excited about something. It is to die for cute. I thank television because I certainly didn't teach him either of these tricks.

He also jumps out of doorways and says "peekboo" now. So great.

However, I did teach him about smooching. Bradley smooches SO MUCH these days - but in an impish way. He kisses me and Daddy in order to be hilarious, not out of sweet sweet love and devotion. The other day he was cracking himself up moving back and forth inbetween Nathan's shoulders kissing each in turn. And then he grabbed the top of Nathan's head and started kissing that too, all while laughing hysterically. He also remains quite insistent about the importance of grabbing our heads and kissing us forcibly on the lips. Yesterday I had to tell him to stop kissing my arm so I could change his diaper. Who tells their child to stop kissing them?

We are absolutely loving summer and are spending every day at either the pool or park or both. We're planning on getting rid of our little wagon because we cannot get Eleanor to stay seated in it and we have a double jogging stroller so there isn't much purpose to the wagon anyway. We took it out for one last hurrah and now both kids really want to keep it (although Eleanor will still not sit down it to save her life).

But she's cool with pulling Bradley around

And this is exactly what it looks like

Finally. The kids earn their keep.

Perhaps the best thing about our park trips lately has been Bradley pushing Eleanor on the swings. They both love it so much.

Eleanor can also walk the whole way from our house to the playground on her own. Like a champ.

And this is while being loaded down with as many nuts she can find as we walk along and carrying a bat and/or club.

We continue to be fascinated by all the neat snails we find at the park although I have sad news about the lifespan of the one Bradley made friends with a few days ago.

I was a little judgy about how he smacked it with a ball to encourage it to come out of its shell until I turned the stroller around to show him another snail on the way home and heard a loud crunch of yet another snail shell as I did so. Whoops. Guess we're a snail killer family.

We've been enjoying our little community pool although I have distressing news about how messy one can get while innocently playing in the sand.

Eleanor is concerned about the state of her hands

The best way to clean off some mucky sand!

The other day it was overcast and drizzly and the pool was deserted - except for us. I'm from Washington, people. If it's over 70 degrees that's pool weather. I'm also not in the business of raising little wusses! Unless we have icky sand on us. That's not being a wuss, that's being careful about one's personal hygiene.

Oh these kids.

Nathan had a business trip to go on this past week and I was a little nervous about maintaining sanity with a teething one year old (molars!) and a toddler who is learning how to deal with emotions but it went really well overall. Although if I never again have to deal with a two year old having a meltdown because we've stopped watching My Little Ponies that will be okay by me.

I stole Nathan's favorite weekend activity and snuggled up on the couch with the kids for a movie and popcorn.

And we checked out a park that we had never been to before which also had a farmer's market complete with a little stand for free face painting. I can't get over things like this - Kansas City is so awesome.

The lady was a pro and painted a couple spiders on Bradley's arm so he could see them. Unfortunately, she still needed a bit of guidance but she was fortunate enough to have Bradley's assistance.

Telling her which paints he wanted (in a cute way).

He was SO into this

Showing off his legitimately cool spiders to his friend Eli.

The spiders were adorable and Bradley showed them off to everyone for the couple of days they lasted. The next day at Sunday school they sang The Itsy Bitsy Spider (not your standard church song) because of Bradley's cool spider on his arm. We're going back this next weekend with Daddy and Bradley says he wants a dragon this time. I hope his Sunday school teacher knows the words to Puff the Magic Dragon.

It went well while Nathan was gone but it's so good to have him home. I blame him for Bradley's newfound mustache obsession.

The kids are such little buds. The other day I was texting Nathan during their lunch and was not paying enough attention to Eleanor's wants and needs. She was hollering a bit and Bradley leaned over and casually tapped her water cup to alert me to what she wanted. It was very sweet.

Playing with deck furniture together. Best game ever!

Feeding each other breakfast

However, it is not always a two way street. Eleanor now bides her time and snatches toys from Bradley and then runs for cover to Mommy while Bradley howls in despair. The best is when he's crying and she goes back to wave the toy in his face ... but still doesn't give it back to him. She's just showing him the cool toy. There was an incident over a baby hair brush that led to the most impressive Bradley meltdown I have seen thus far.

And this is her "I want it" face. The phone was in her possession about two seconds later.

Eleanor has also started hiding behind curtains and then peeking out with a huge smile to see if anyone sees her. Bradley hides under blankets when we're playing hide and seek with him, no idea where she picked this up but it's beyond adorable and I love it.

Eleanor has a favorite book "Go Dog Go" and will bring it over to you while chanting "go dog go go dog go go dog go" and throw the book in your general direction. She'll then back up and plop herself down in your lap and settle in for a nice read. I melt every time.

She also has begun to blow raspberries on my shoulder while I'm carrying her around. She'll cackle to herself and latch on, blowing raspberry after raspberry. She's going to be a sad girl when summer ends and Mommy wears something with sleeves once again.

And the kids and the cats continue to bond.