Bradley is officially potty trained! It went really well overall, he's been a little champ about the whole process. It is frustrating for him when we make him go in the morning before breakfast though, he doesn't appreciate any delays in the food process. He'll sit out on the toilet and yell "get OUT pee!" which is funny to watch but you also feel bad for the hungry kid. He does this for poos as well, generally when I mention his reward of animal chocolates for making a poop in the potty. "Get OUT poop! Get in the toilet!" There's lots to yell about.
Champion artist, champion kid
But the combination of potty training and church events is making me a little nervous these days, not because he has any trouble using the church bathroom, but because it leads to conversations like the one he and I had this morning.
"Bradley, I want to tell you a story! Once there was a little boy named Bradley and his sister Eleanor and they had three kitties ..."
"Big bad wolf!"
"Oh, you want to have the big bad wolf in the story? Okay. So the big bad wolf came and Bradley fought him!"
"Pee on the big bad wolf's heeeeeeead!"
I guess this is just the beginning of worrying about the stories my children will tell when I am out of earshot. We're still trying to stop Eleanor from pulling on her clothes while saying "naked!" on repeat. Yes, our children like to run around the house with no clothes on, let's just not talk about it during Sunday School, shall we?
Let's talk about blowing bubbles instead
We talk about baby Patrick too. Yes, we have an official name for the little guy!
Eleanor is preparing for baby boy as well, although she may need a little more training. Enjoy the video below, I barely survived filming it.
Nathan thought her aim in the video was quite impressive and was delighted when I sent him pictures of her shooting hoops at our neighbors house the other day. She's going to follow in her daddy's footsteps!
She started doing this with no encouragement from me, she just wanted to do what the big kids were doing.
That's our house across the street
Great form! Now to get the ball to go forward instead of backward ...
Our little stinker. My clingy child that lives for cuddles is also incredibly independent when it comes to trying new things and keeping up with the big kids.
Ponytail on the top of the head! I had to chase her all over the room in order to get a picture of this hair. The child who can't be out of my sight at home happily ditches me as soon as we get out of the house.
Playing with shapes. Looking like a doll child while doing so. Until Bradley came over and tried to take over and she started hollering "No, Badley!" at him and hitting him with the shapes. Little girl knows how to look out for herself.
I really do enjoy all the talking the kids do these days. Eleanor's new favorite word is "ick". We hear "ick" for everything these days. I'll tell the kids it's going to be time for dessert soon at the end of a meal and Eleanor will push away all the food she was happily eating and if Nathan tries to give her any she'll say "ick! ick!". Delicious dessert is on the way, she's no dummy. The other day I got some new clothes for her and wanted to try them on her and she told me "no! ick!" and then anytime she saw the clothes lying on the floor for the next while she would repeat "ick! ick!"
Maybe I need to get her a tutu. She likes this kind of new clothes! We tried this on at a friend's house and I think she was as happy about it as I was.
The other day we went on a bit of a pillow eating binge. She's lucky she's so fun, there's a lot of imp in these eyes.
And Bradley is proving to be my helper with tasks like meal planning. I hate trying to figure out new things to make for dinner but I'm trying to make a real effort before the baby boy joins us. I asked Bradley today for ideas for food to make for dinner and he told me french fries and cookies. I'm in! Genius child.
Bradley has gotten a lot more mellow in general and issues like hitting and pushing have largely gone away around other kids. However, we went to a birthday party recently and there was a boy probably a couple years older than Bradley who was running around with a toy sword. Bradley started yelling "Fight!" and "Get the bad guy!" and was trying to clock the kid with balls and any other toy he could get his hands on. The child was properly intimidated and we ended up having to save him from Bradley multiple times. If our kid wasn't so giant perhaps it would be a bit easier, Bradley is easily in the same weight class as most kids a couple years older than him.
Climbing a tree. Such joy!
Both of the kids are jumping maniacs these days.
This jumping video is a bit longer but there's a big Bradley hug and smooch for Eleanor at the end.
And we can end on some Bradley and Eleanor buddy pics. These two are inseparable, Eleanor generally wakes up before Bradley in the morning and for their afternoon nap and she asks about him a lot while we wait for him to wake up.
Bradley checking out what Eleanor is doing with the toy drill
Bradley regretting showing interest in Eleanor and the toy drill
Art time. Chairs are optional.
Outside time. One hopes Eleanor has enough bats and clubs.
Popcorn and show time aka the best thing in the whole world
Bath time! Just wait until there's a third little Scott child to toss into the tub. Can't handle that much cute all at once!
I think my favorite thing about parenting these days is the kids interacting with one other. Their worlds absolutely revolve around each other. Eleanor is a big fan of running around the big loop on our main floor and she'll come up to Bradley and enthusiastically say "run! run!" and he'll sweetly reply "okay Baby Ellnor" and they'll tear around the main floor. He runs a bit faster than her so understandably gets tired faster and tonight he was trying to rest on some blankets in the living room and she kept coming back up to him saying "run! run" and he'd sigh and say okay and get back up and jog around with her a little more. Finally I told him it was okay to tell her he needed a little break and he repeated back what I said word for word to Eleanor. She was displeased and spent some time patting his head trying to encourage him to get back up. He owes whatever athletic success he has in life to coach Eleanor.
Coach Eleanor says to eat good meals
Coach Eleanor says get good rest
And Coach Eleanor says to take care of yourself (testing out Daddy's new back massager)
We had our first snow of the season a few weeks ago. Bradley likes to smash snow and eat snow (not the best combination) and Eleanor likes to be carried around in the sled and not get her hands messy. She also likes to eat the snow.
They had a blast with grandparents over the holidays. We went to Union Station twice and saw Christmas light shows and went to museums and even ate out a bit.
Bradley was way more into the miniature Christmas train this year. We couldn't get Eleanor to sit still long enough to get her on it, we'll try again with her next year.
Here is Bradley dance/running for Grandma Colleen
Craft time!
Present time!
And the grandparents' favorite: cuddle time.
Bradley had a tough time while Grandma Colleen and Kerry were here because he didn't nap on a couple of the days of their visit so that meant he was a tired tired boy for a lot of the time. We went out to eat at a fancy hibachi grill where they cook your food in front of you and put on a show and all he wanted to do was watch Bubble Guppies on our Kindle (it killed me to let him watch a show during dinner but he was such a mess otherwise). Bradley perked up considerably when the chef started tossing bits of food straight from the grill into people's mouths. He started laughing and cheering and then started to open his own mouth like a little bird so he could participate as well. Nathan helped catch some food the chef tossed his way and put in in Bradley's mouth so he could know much joy. Immediately following this display, Eleanor started acting funny about her food and we're fairly sure that we could have had an 18 month old participate in the fun food throwing game as well.
Also at this meal: the nice family that we sat next to during dinner asked Bradley how old he was. He immediately said "6!". He's been doing this for ages, no idea why. If you ask him how old you are, he'll say "5". The boy knows that 6 is better, he's no dummy.
We went to a Christmas Eve service and Bradley probably would have been okay with no presents after that, he got all he had ever wanted in life when he was allowed to help hold candles during Silent Night. They also did a special singing of Away in a Manger during the service where the whole congregation sang the first time and then just the children sang the second. Bradley and Eleanor have an Away in a Manger book and had been sung that song every night for about two weeks straight so Bradley knew all the words to the song, but he waited until the very last word to join in and yelled out "hay!" We got a lot of smiles and Bradley was very proud of himself.
Christmas day was very nice, although it started with a bit of excitement since Eleanor got another nosebleed in the night despite having a humidifier in her room. We've been getting way too used to what I call "Tales from the Crypt" Eleanor. Face and hands covered in dried blood, not a delightful thing to become accustomed to. We got her cleaned up and managed to contain a very excited Bradley who could see from the top of the stairs that Santa had visited and needed to get down to see his new toys SO badly. Eleanor got a Little People princess castle from Santa and Bradley got an Imaginex Pirate Ship. I love this age, both kids enjoy playing with each other's toys and everything gets well and thoroughly played with by all parties involved.
However, I have little to no pictures of children playing with toys because of constant blurry movement. I have this.
Eleanor stealing my hot chocolate gift
Eleanor not being quite sure about her new art bib
Opening presents took approximately two hours after we ate breakfast and got dressed. It takes a while to get the job done when you have to play with each present after you open it.
My parents came in the afternoon and got a week's worth of much needed grandchild time. They also noticed from time to time that Nathan and I existed, which was rather nice. To be fair, this seems to be a common grandparent trait. I was out of the house when Nathan's mom got here the weekend prior and Nathan said he opened the door for her and she walked right past him and held out her arms and said "my babies!" to the grandchildren while he was completely ignored. Ah grandparents.
I still got some cuddles while grandparents were here. Aww, I'm pretty crazy about these kids.
Bradley has been a bit of a maniac about his horsie rides ever since Grandpa was here.
Eleanor was quite pleased to get reliable help to touch forbidden Christmas ornaments
We had one nice day in the 50's while my parents were here so I got us all out to the park. I still can't believe that our house backs on this, it's so convenient and fun.
My complaints about how hard it is to get things done at times because of how clingy Eleanor is was met with joy at the opportunity to steal some of these cuddles.
Kids helping make some applesauce crumb squares. Bradley started saying "I making piles!" and we had to put a stop to the helping soon after that.
More helping, this time with sewing.
Our Union Station trip. Grandparents love Union Station, the kids love Union Station, and I love Union Station. It's a win win win.
And don't worry, Mom made nerd books for the kids again so we have lots of photos of my children with Calculus and Physics books and TI-89 calculators.
Mom took a lot of jumping pictures of Bradley for his book. She was quite fortunate to have such a willing volunteer.
And we did a lot of other things. We kept very busy during our family visits!
Helping Grandpa with stickers.
Playing This Little Piggy
This photo perfectly sums up Eleanor at this point in her life. Boots, cat, messing with Mommy. Got it all covered!
Children helping Grandpa put the tree away
Eating out at Fritz's. The milk shakes were a hit!
Pretty sure all Eleanor ate for lunch was half her giant milk shake and some french fries. She says we can go back any time.
Both children delighted both sets of grandparents we had visit with their desire to run around with no clothes except for a diaper while hollering "naked!" This is a cute trick to perform around grandparents but it was a little more embarrassing to explain to our teenage babysitter a couple weeks back when she told us that little Eleanor started shouting "naked! naked" at her while Eleanor was being changed into jammies. Whoops.
Bradley also started saying "doggonit!" about something at the dinner table while my parents were here and that is exactly what I say when I'm really frustrated about something around the house. My mommy swear, if you will. Good thing that's about as naughty as it gets around here these days.
One of my dad's favorite memories from the trip will surely be the time he was holding Eleanor and Bradley in his lap and reading a book to them before a nap. Eleanor insisted that she was dying of thirst so I handed her a rather full cup of water which she touched to her lips and then promptly dumped over Grandpa's and Bradley's laps. Bradley cried a little bit and Grandpa laughed a lot and both required clean clothes afterward.
We also sold my wonderful CR-V and got a minivan over the holidays. I loved the CR-V and was very sad to see it go but my new Odyssey is absolutely amazing. It has automatic doors and Bradley can already climb in by himself. Eleanor probably could too if getting her to go where you wanted wasn't like herding cats. If I load her in without buckling her in her seat she immediately tries to climb into the front of the car so she can push all the buttons. I sat in our garage in the minivan with my mom and Eleanor at one point during their visit and Mom and I had a nice 20 min chat while Eleanor happily pushed ALL the buttons. This kid.
Eleanor and my dad say that the minivan passes the comfy snooze test
Post Christmas activities included a lot of snuggling up on the couch for books and shows. Again, I'm not sure who enjoyed this most.
This is what happens when I try to grab some "me" time in a common area. Bradley says Edgar Allan Poe is dark but he's okay with it.
And then I got Eleanor too.
Nathan might be okay with Bradley's interest in his new comic books.
Snuggles with my sweetheart boy
Grandma made a highly popular decision to make cookies with the kids the morning before they left. Nothing that touched the kids' hands actually made it into the oven but a good time was had by all.
Eleanor discovering that this is food
I asked her where the cookie dough went so she showed me ...
Approximately half a second after Bradley joined the party. I wish you could see that he is holding a giant wad of cookie dough that entirely fills up both hands. Even Grandma thought it was a bit much to eat all at once and managed to get about half of it away from him. Don't worry, he still got a week's worth of sweets from sad grandparents on their last day here.
And here is a cute but very long video that probably only my mom will want to watch in full. It's worth skipping to the 4:20 mark to see Eleanor's imp face in action.
We promoted Eleanor to a big girl bed about a week before Christmas and she loves it and while we still have to go in to help her out here and there during the night she's doing so much better than when she was in the crib.
Helping Daddy build her new bed
Happily zonked out
Bradley helping Eleanor test out the new bed. He said he would sleep in it. We're hoping to have them start sharing a bed in the next few months so he may get the chance!
Here is our best family holiday picture.
And here is Nathan's favorite picture from the holidays. He has been hoping and dreaming for this moment ever since Eleanor was born. I'm not kidding. I've heard a lot about how family naps should be a thing.
In other news, I'm getting big and the baby boy is moving around a lot these days. Only a little over 3 months until the due date which is incredibly surreal. I've been talking to Nathan about how this is my third child and yet each time I've been pregnant it hasn't seemed real until I've actually given birth to the child. He thinks I should write letters to the child with my reaction to each being born. I doubt that's going to happen, here's a quick summery.
Bradley's Birth: Hey you ... um ... hi, stranger. Wow, there was an actual real person inside of me? How do I hold you and feed you? You're adorable yet terrifying.
Eleanor's Birth: Hey you ... wait - you look exactly like your brother. Can't I have a child that looks like me? Come here, little stranger. I don't know you yet but I know how to hold you and feed you.
Baby #3 - please look at least a little like me. If you have dimples you're going to be spoiled within an inch of your life (although to be fair you're probably going to be spoiled within an inch of your life regardless).
