Eleanor Stitches

Two days after my last blog post we spent a lot of the day playing in leaf piles.

I think it's safe to say the kids loved it, especially Bradley who begged his daddy to toss him in again and again and again.

Kids being cute in leaves

 Bradley being thrown into leaves and enjoying it far too much

After the kids got covered in gross leaves and dirt and grass etc we decided to let them take a quick shower to rinse off before bedtime. We've done this many times before but on this particular time Eleanor slipped at just the wrong spot and fell and hit her head on the metal base to the sliding shower doors. It was just a big enough cut that we knew that we needed to take her in to get stitches. We are so grateful for the church friend who came over to put Bradley in bed while we took Eleanor to urgent care.

Eleanor did pretty well for most of the proceedings and we were so happy that the cut didn't seem to be bothering her at all while we were waiting on being checked in and getting everything processed so she could be taken care of.

However, when it came time for the actual stitches ... not a happy little girl. She couldn't feel anything, they had put numbing ointment on the wound for 30 minutes prior to any stitches. But she was not interested in being held firmly down while people messed with her face and she rage screamed / growled for at least ten of the fifteen minutes it took to put in her five stitches. It took three adults to hold her down while she was wrapped in a blanket and I got to sing soothing lullabies to try to calm her down. I don't know if it was the lullabies or the fact that it was an hour and a half past her bedtime but she finally fell sleep about two minutes after I was thinking that this was basically a scene out of the Exorcist minus the split pea soup. 

Here's our sleeping girl with stitches. Note that her face is bright pink from all the crying and under her head the paper liner is soaked with sweat.

Remarkably, she was happy and perky when she woke up a few minutes later and she sweetly waved bye bye at all the staff as we exited the urgent care building. It's a good thing the girl doesn't keep a grudge.

Her eye looked a little puffy the next morning but besides that she seemed in good spirits.

She loves showing us her "big ouch." Stitches were taken out just four days after she was first hurt and we're putting on a lot of vitamin E oil and leaving a bandaid on so she'll heal like a champ.

And don't worry, Bradley has been so careful with her ever since she got hurt ...

Please note the HUGE grin on Eleanor's face

So that was a bit of an ordeal but as far as a first trip to urgent care goes, it really wasn't too bad in the grand scheme of things.

The rest of our Halloween adventures we kept fairly mellow for this year. Bradley loved helping Daddy carve pumpkins.

That face! Pumpkin guts are very interesting.

We had our friends Kory and Fatima over for Halloween evening to hang out with us and help pass out candy while we trick or treated with the kiddos.

Both kids love Fatima and had an excellent time doing crafts with her before the evening festivities

Bradley tried to refuse to wear the awesome outfit his Uncle Thomas got for him in Hong Kong but like any good parent, I threatened him (a lot) and told him repeatedly how he wouldn't get any candy if he didn't put it on. I don't understand what wasn't to like about it, it was basically just a puffy shirt and pants which was perfect for a chilly Halloween night. Kids. Sometimes you just have to threaten to take away all the candy and sunshine. But look how cute Bradley and Eleanor look in matching Hong Kong outfits! We got a lot of compliments, Uncle Thomas. Bradley was the only critic.

Eleanor can say "trick or treat." We can't believe how much she can say versus what Bradley could say at this age - or really most other kids for that matter. Eleanor loves to parrot phrases back to you and she quickly realized that this was a very important phrase and used it with great effect on Halloween night.

The beginning of this video is adorable, the end where Bradley becomes very sad because Eleanor stole his pumpkin is not so necessary to watch.

The rest of the weekend was spent with Nathan's mom and stepdad. I realized after sorting through pictures that I had literally zero shots of Grandma and Bradley together. Grandma and Eleanor have quite the bond these days.

Here's a video for proof that Bradley was around. He's a cute little maniac, while Eleanor is a sweetheart who happily likes to collect nuts with Grandma.

 Grandma did one of her awesome crafts with the kids, we have cute glitter fall leaves on our windows now.

And snuggles before Grandma has to go bye bye. On one of their walks in the park Eleanor demanded that Grandma carry her at least half the time. Grandma happily obliged! 

Bradley and Eleanor are two little peas in a pod now. Sometimes it's adorable, like when they run around and hug each other and fall down together and think it's all beyond hilarious. I can't believe she can say things like "I fall down".

They both are so kind and generous and help their daddy out when he decides it's a good idea to try to get some work done at home.

They like to swing together and both yell at me to push them "way big high." Both of them. Eleanor cackles with glee when she's going high enough that her bottom loses contact with the seat. No wonder Bradley thinks his sister is so great, she loves the same things as him. 

The picture below is a pretty accurate depiction of their relationship. 

And anything Bradley does, Eleanor MUST do too. Climb on a fallen log? Is Bradley doing it? Yes. It must be done.

It's mostly cute that she wants to be his little shadow but it's tough for certain things, like being able to take a stroller anywhere (hah) or being able to put a child in a cart while grocery shopping. Bradley is pretty good about walking near the cart (as long as he gets a LOT of reminders) and Eleanor can't understand why she can't walk too. Obviously being in the cart is wrong wrong wrong. So I get to hold a crying little girl and say "Cart or Mommy! Those are your choices! If you cry while Mommy holds you I'm putting you in the cart!" while shoppers meander by me and give us little smiles. I generally end up carrying Eleanor through the entire shopping trip now and I've told Nathan that premade Costco dinners count as a homemade meal in terms of effort. Carrying a 23 lb toddler for approximately an hour of shopping is no joke.

Speaking of 23 lbs, we recently went in for Eleanor's 15 month and Bradley's 2 1/2 year checkups. Eleanor weighs in at 23 lbs 5 oz (48th %) and 31.5 inches tall (67th %) and Bradley is a whopping 36.8 lbs (96th %) and 3 ft 2 in (85th %). Thank goodness our clingy child is the petite one.

Bradley has his moments though. The other day Nathan had a work dinner that he had to go to in the evening so the kids weren't going to get to see him again after he left first thing in the morning. I told Bradley about his daddy's evening plans and he started crying and said "I just want to hug him one more time!"

Daddy may have said his heart melted when I texted him this picture and told him why Bradley was so sad.

 The kids are all about being read to these days. Everyone loves this.

And the very real benefit of Eleanor often being a clingy mess is that she gives the BEST cuddles. 

I am having such a blast with these two. I enjoyed bits and pieces of being home with the kids before but I send Nathan genuinely happy updates on most of the events of the day now. And we can do crafts! Being stuck indoors will not be a death sentence to Mommy's sanity this winter (have I mentioned that last winter was tough??)

This is what self sufficient children look like. Minimal assistance required. Glorious. 

However, sometimes Eleanor steals Bradley's scissors (which she has no clue how to use) and she knows she wants them more than anything and is so naughty happy at his angst. Poor Bradley. But don't worry, they both do fine jobs of standing up for themselves. Bradley tattles on Eleanor whenever she does something that he gets in trouble for (Her pushing me! Baby Ellnor said "NO".) Ahh parenting. I can handle anything as long as I've gotten seven hours of sleep the night before and can halfway verbally communicate with the parties involved. 

We went to a fire station with our mommy group last week and I got a couple of cute photos of the kids. The poor fireman tried to give us an informational tour when he just needed to let the small children climb all over the fire truck and hand out candy or something. We brought some homemade cookies for the firemen and Bradley and Eleanor were so happy to be able to provide taste testing assistance with cookie dough at breakfast. And then they tested freshly baked cookies right before we got in the car to drive to the fire station. And ate a cooled cookie at lunch. I got a lot of positive feedback from the children about fire station trips, they said they would be okay if we went every day.   

We had a difficult time convincing Eleanor to leave the cool seat she found in the inside of the fire engine.

Things are going pretty well now as a whole! Nathan and I have been getting in some good date nights and we are excited to see my Nebraska family for Thanksgiving. And Christmas - I can hardly wait to put decorations up. There have been enthusiastic responses to the Christmas aisles at Costco and we go and look at the trees and talk about snowmen and nutcrackers and Santa decorations every time we go. These kids are going to go nuts when we decorate the house.