October has been so nice (it's 80 degrees today) and we have been very fortunate that it's warm because Bradley skinned a knee about a week ago and has refused to wear anything but shorts ever since so he can see his "big ouch" at all times. This has proven a bit tricky at night since it's gotten a bit chilly in the evenings and we've had to put him in fleece jammies and then roll them up above his knee. But it's not that big of a deal because he also insists on having access to his belly button at all times so his footie pajamas were already crossed off the appropriate attire list.
You'll also note the sweet new ride in the pictures above. Thanks to Grandma Kati and Grandpa Dan for sending this and a matching pink one for little Eleanor! We've only assembled one so far because they're both too small for it just yet. But that hasn't stopped a LOT of enthusiastic scooting around.
Finally trying it outside. This is the way both kids prefer to ride on it. Fairly adorable.
I've decided I really need to stop bringing a stroller to the park. No one rides in it anymore, I just use it to carry all of our bats and clubs. Maybe child #3 will be my calm child that just likes to relax and hang out in the stroller for a bit? Both #1 and #2 currently view the stroller as prison. It probably doesn't help that I threaten them with being put in the stroller whenever they walk too slow or in the wrong direction on our way home.
But look at this face - how could I every deny it anything that it wants?
You'll note Eleanor's new, cool Frozen princess dress. This was a big hit, every time I put it on her she looks down at her chest and says "Anna, Anna!" while pointing at either princess. I got Bradley an Olaf the snowman shirt so he wouldn't be left out, which was also a hit. So much so that he didn't take it off for three days. Even at night he would beg for us to put it back on him over his pajamas. I somehow didn't get a picture of the front of the shirt but it's royal blue and it shows up in a lot of pictures. It figures that he would insist on being able to see his knees at all times and have a favorite short sleeve shirt just as cold weather is approaching.
For instance: here is the Olaf shirt at mealtime fun with Eleanor. She's feeding him a banana and everyone involved is very excited.
Fun Bradley anecdote: we've been listening to classical music during breakfast every morning and Bradley calls it "big bad wolf music". No idea where he got that from, but I like it.
The Olaf shirt was worn on a recent trip to Deanna Rose Farmstead.
We finally figured out that the wagons by the entrance were free to use and while my children hate strollers, they LOVE wagons. Mostly because one can get in and out on one's own and you don't feel so "trapped". It doesn't really speed along our time at the farmstead because we stop a lot to get out, and then in again, and then maybe you want to put your seat down and sit on top of that, but wait, Eleanor is in "my" spot, let's trade, oh, I want out again, and so on and so forth.
We went back again a few days later (they close soon for the season so we're getting in as much farmstead time as possible) and the kids had a blast checking out the Halloween decorations.
This played spooky music and the people on the sides spun in circles. Bradley watched for at least 15 minutes while pointing out all the "bad guys"
Checking out cows with our friend Eli
Wading through goats with Eleanor. She paused to pet and kiss the goats and Bradley mostly just wanted to push his way through.
Saving Eli from overly friendly goats. Seriously, that's what he was doing. Bradley is trying to push all the goats away from Eli because they cornered him once he brought them a bottle of milk. Bradley is the kid you want in your corner when you need someone.
Our favorite bridge in the cute garden area
And then we visited our favorite stone statue in the garden. I have no idea why Bradley loves this so much. But he wanders over there every time we visit and garden girl gets lots of loves. Although this time he stepped it up a notch.
Hugs for garden girl
Oh my. I told him to hug her so I could take a picture. Guess he thought he could do better.
I am not as terrified of being stuck indoors with these guys anymore, we have a pretty good time playing together or even trying out some arts and crafts upon occasion. The basement has been getting a lot of use lately.
Together. We are always together because these guys love each other so much.
Nathan has really been enjoying football season this year because not only is he getting to watch a lot of games, there are also many cuddles to be enjoyed! Granted, often it involves having the game on and reading to small children while they snuggle on his lap but I am hearing no complaints!
Skyping with family to tell them about baby #3
Nathan thought this was the best way for Bradley to model his new Big Brother shirt ...
More reading
We read a LOT these days. I don't know who loves it most, it's a four way tie at the moment.
Sweet little Eleanor is following in her brother's footsteps and hides from me whenever she has a poo. I'll ask her if she has a poopy diaper and she'll grin at me and say "hide hide!" and trot off to a nearby hiding spot. But she has already surpassed him in her willingness to poop in the bath and/or shower. It's getting to be too regular of an occurrence, it happened twice in three days this past week. NOT our favorite activity.
Eleanor is relying heavily on her cuteness these days.
But there's plenty of adorable new habits she's picked up. We hide our eyes and then put our hands down to say "peekaboo!" to Mommy and Daddy.
We also have a couple of carved pumpkins on our front step that both kids like to go and say "bye" to before we drive anywhere. I'll ask Eleanor if she wants to see the pumpkins and she'll say "kitty!" (there's a kitty one) followed immediately by "BOOO" while shaking her head. Boo is for our spooky pumpkin. We have to allot a fair bit of flex time before leaving the house these days for things like getting shoes on, finding favorite books we NEED in the car, and saying goodbye to our pumpkin friends.
Eleanor also lets us know in no uncertain terms when she thinks it's time for a meal
And Bradley ... well, he hasn't changed much from when he was 6 months old.
I was talking to some other moms the other day and they were talking about how their kids asked for time to themselves and personal space and I realized I had no idea what they were talking about.
We are moderately cuddly around here these days. With each other, with the kitties, with everyone. Eleanor will sit and watch a show or two with me and Bradley now, but only if she's sitting on or near me. Bradley always runs over to join the snuggle fest. I enjoy our morning tv time quite a bit.
Bradley is our sleeper. I realize how lucky we are to have a child who loves to sleep as much as he does. For instance, sometimes he has to holler at me and Eleanor to get out of his room by yelling "no no no" if we walk in to his room after seeing him awake on the baby monitor and he's not yet ready to get up from his nap and in fact hopes to go back to sleep. Eleanor on the
other hand ... she greatly prefers to be awake. Bradley sleeps in later than her every morning and generally naps at least an hour longer than her as well. Crazy girl, sleep is wonderful.
Our two little sweeties in matching backpacks at church.
Nathan's company had a trick or treat event at his office and we had a grand time eating our way through the event. Bradley is able to open a surprising number of candy wrappers on his own, I was very impressed. Where there's a will there's a way I guess. We finally started trying to get him to at least space out the candy. We were not very successful. And he drug his sister down with him, she was eager to get on board with Bradley's brilliant candy plan.
Cheeks!
The candy has been hidden in our closet for the time being, wish us luck as the biggest candy holiday of them all approaches. How much candy can a one and two year old eat? ALL the candy. It's funny, even our picky eater is willing to try any variety of candy with happiness and trust. But potatoes! And pasta? Disgusting. Count Bradley out.
And here is one last video that best captures the relationship between Bradley and Eleanor. Adorable and full of tackles and jumps and loves.
Let's start off this post with some fun news: Scott baby #3 is set to join us in April of 2015! We're all very excited and the children have been really enjoying themselves at my appointments with our nurse midwife. Eleanor has been a little clingy so she got to help me get my ultrasound to make sure there was just one baby in this tummy. There is. Only one. Hip hip hooray!
Here Eleanor is in her official "Big Sis" shirt. So cute, thanks Grandma Kathy!!!
Cute pregnancy story: I didn't get any serious morning sickness for the first trimester but every once in a while I'd feel a bit queasy and drink a ginger ale to settle my stomach. We generally don't drink soda but the kids are used to getting to steal sips of whatever I'm drinking if it looks interesting and they were VERY interested in the ginger ale. Bradley had a drink of it for the first time and made a funny face so I said "I know, it tastes funny doesn't it? Mommy just drinks it because my tummy feels icky" so Bradley immediately said "MY tummy feels icky too!" and begged a bunch more sips off of me until he was cut off because he started blowing bubbles in it. But then the next day when I got a bit of a smoothie drink out of the fridge Bradley started yelling "My tummy is icky!" and I was very confused until I realized that he thought that's what you said if you were going to drink anything besides milk or water. We're generally pretty boring with our beverages, poor child.
It's been fun telling people about the pregnancy because EVERY TIME I do so, the children pick that moment to be especially wild and ornery. But really, they are a lot of the reason that we feel so good about adding another child to the family already. They are crazy about each other and their little worlds absolutely revolve around being around each other.
Insisting on holding hands as we walk out of church
Insisting on riding on the same toy truck
Insisting on reading next to one another. If one got up to get a new book the other would pat the empty spot on the bear chair so the other one would know where they were supposed to sit.
More reading. Bradley went over and plopped down by Eleanor. It's always more fun to read with a buddy.
We had a rather glorious period at the tail end of Eleanor taking morning naps where she took them on Bradley and me while he watched his morning show. I know he enjoyed it as much as I did because there were frequent smooches for his sleeping lil sis.
I could frame this one
Bradley generally demands that Eleanor sit right by him at meals which is cute until something like a spoon fight happens. They both found it hilarious (it was with plastic toddler spoons) but I did have to put a stop to it. We have to at least pretend to have table manner around here.
And good news, they take turns making sure that the other child doesn't go hungry.
I've been letting Bradley practice using a butter knife lately. I think it's going well.
He's certainly learning to respect the knife.
And when we're not eating at the table we're eating the table ... these kids. Eleanor starting biting the counter and Bradley found that hilarious so he copied her. They really spend every waking minute together, it's quite sweet.
Here's a fun Bradley tale for the ages: Bradley recently got in trouble for hitting in his classroom at church while I was at my mommy MOPS program. In fact, I was told that not only was he hitting, but all the other kids were afraid of him. I felt like a horrible mother and agreed that we would have a talk with Bradley before the next class and let him know that he would be put in a time out if he hit and that hitting was absolutely not okay. So I was expecting the worst when the woman who runs the childcare program came up and beckoned me to come aside towards the end of my next MOPS meeting. But then I got wonderful news: Bradley had not only been a perfect child, some other rotten excuse for a kid had BIT him while Bradley was being complimented for doing such a great job. So not only was my child perfect, but someone else was obviously a far worse parent than me because biting is surely worse than hitting. I never would have expected to be so happy to have my child bit but I was. I knew he was fine, the boy injures himself all the time, a little bite wasn't going to shake him.
Later at dinner I told Nathan the good news about the church biting and our angelic son's contrasting behavior to the little hellion. I decided that we'd go above and beyond and use this as a teaching moment for Bradley so I said to him "Bradley, did you get bitten?" An enthusiastic "Yeah!" in response. "Do you forgive him?" Bradley: "Hit him?". "NO!" I said, "FORGIVE him" "Oh," said my son. We still may have a bit more work to do.
Gentle play with Eleanor ... I stopped taking pictures when I had to go save her.
I don't know where all this hitting and bashing came from. We do go out for walks in the park armed to the teeth now - Bradley generally carries two bats and Eleanor carries a couple clubs. And then we beat up grass and the plants and Bradley talks about hitting the "bad guy snake" if we see it. It's cute until some poor soul comes along walking their dog ... we don't look so friendly.
We still stop for smooch breaks
And baseball hat breaks?
And breaks where we hide from "bad guy snake" under our favorite tree. We talk a lot about hitting snakes with our bat if they get close to us. And yes, there is a lot of practice hitting.
I take the stroller along on these walks solely in order to cart all our gear. Both children hate being imprisoned in the stroller. Not as big of a deal for a little walk in the park behind our house but we had a disaster of a zoo trip recently and unless I invest in some child leashes we're not trying it again anytime soon.
I wonder why photo ops with our friend Eli don't always go well - oh, because my sweet child is trying to shove him off the bear statue.
Actually looking at an animal. I had to get a photo for proof.
Exhausted on the way home. Incidentally, the 15 minutes Eleanor slept in the car was it for her for the day. It is NOT GREAT when the one year old gets a 15 minute nap for the entire day.
Eleanor may be strong willed and a little imp in her own right, but she is melting hearts and taking names around here. Generally when you pick her up from her crib after a nap she'll give you a huge hug while laying her head down on your shoulder and she'll even pat you on the back a little. And lately she has entered into a huge Daddy phase and it is "Dadda Dadda Dadda" she lives and breathes for. Dadda is okay with this, to put it mildly. The other day Eleanor woke up crying from her nap and on the monitor we heard her say "Dadda Dadda Dadda!" Nathan gave me a huge grin and rushed in to his little girl.
Daddy had trouble leaving for work on this particular morning
A new tradition has been Daddy putting on Eleanor's boots in the morning. A girl's love for shoes starts early, it seems. I don't encourage this at all, I just take pictures of it when it happens ... which is often.
It's cute but I may have an opinionated little fashionista on my hands because I tried to get her to wear her kitty tennis shoes to go out this evening and she was adamant about needing to wear her black boots. Bradley still doesn't care about clothes, it's very new to me to have a child who does. She's not quite 16 months old ...
However, the girl who loves shoes is also determined to spend the entire time we drive somewhere in the car trying to get both her shoes and socks off. She's achieving a higher and higher rate of success in this endeavor and I'm not looking to winter where this kind of behavior is going to matter more.
Eleanor is also obsessed with nose boops these days. You never know when the sweet little girl in your arms is going to squirm around in order to boop your nose. Stuffed toys and kitties also have been known to get their noses booped ... the kitties are not big fans of this.
Our little girl. Such a sweetie pie. She makes sound effects while she tries to play soccer with little yarn balls from Grandma Colleen.
Pretending to feed herself play food.
One funny character trait has been insisting on sitting inside or on anything interesting. I tried to build her a Lego tower and we didn't get too far before my building site was blocked rather thoroughly.
We love Skyping with family
Singing the ABC song to herself
And to be fair, I'm pretty head over heels for Bradley these days too. We're just in a really good phase with both children overall. And it helps his cause greatly when he joyously shouts "Mommeeeee! Mommeeee!" when we're reunited after even a short separation.
This is how we watch shows now.
Or like this ... Eleanor will only watch if there are Mommy cuddles involved. Bradley is always keen to get in on any available cuddling too.
And although Bradley still can't get the cats names right to save his life, he knows that giving them loves makes everyone make a big fuss over him. Poor Meg.
Bath time - I put in a little cool water to cool down the bath and Bradley really appreciated the drinking fountain. This may have been a bad precedent to set.
We've been out enjoying a lot of fall activities. We went to the Louisburg Cider Mill with friends and had a blast. But really, how can you go wrong when you let your children run around climbing on hay bales and then feed them fresh cider and mini doughnuts?
Bradley LOVES Eleanor
We've also been to pumpkin patches where we don't really see any pumpkins but play on awesome kiddie play equipment. Sometimes we are forced to share swings, I find it adorable but the kids are not huge fans.
I think Bradley was in time out for this picture. Oh well. It is so fortunate for him that he is cute.
And we've gone to a bunch of play dates with our new mommy and me group which has been a blast.
Eleanor HAD to be in the toy RV with Bradley
And the group's fall festival. We partied hard and I think our children ate primarily chips and cookies for lunch and had their first Capri-Suns. Great success for all involved.
Our little family is going to be not so little very soon - just 6 months until we are joined by the new addition! It's a little surreal to be starting over with a "fresh one" but we are very excited. I may be "slightly" biased, but we make amazing sweet, smart, and truly adorable children!
