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!
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