Bradley and the Monsters and Maniac Eleanor at the Park

Nathan will often take Eleanor into our bathroom in the morning so she can play while he takes his shower and I can sleep for an extra few minutes. However, there is not much sleep to be had when you can hear non stop LOUD toddler girl chatter for literally 10-15 minutes. Nathan doesn't have to say a thing, it seems Eleanor doesn't require another person to be involved in her conversations. It's so funny having a girl after having a boy.

She likes to get in the kitties faces and talk loudly to them. They don't seem to appreciate the attention as much as one should.

However, never fear, Bradley is beginning to talk more and more. We've been at the park a lot lately due to some incredibly balmy January weather (it was in the 70's the other day!). Here are some of the fun and loud conversations Bradley and I have had at the park.

Bradley: "Her naked!"
Me: "Nooooo, she's running in shorts and a tank top. Seeing arms and legs doesn't count as naked. Naked means no clothes on at all."

Bradley: "That's a baaaaaad dog"
Me: Smiles apologetically at the nice woman walking her large dog "Nonono, that's a nice dog. See, its tail is wagging. That means it is nice."

Bradley: "It's a big bad wolf!"
Me: "That's a husky. It's a kind of dog. It's nice!" (We've seen this dog three or four times and he calls it a big bad wolf every time in front of its owner).

Bradley: "That's a biiiiiig guy!"
Me: (hoping desperately that the rather large man who just walked by didn't hear him) "Yes, that's a big grownup Bradley. Like me and Daddy. We're all big grownups."

We're back to regular cold winter weather now and park trips will be few and far between and I can't say that I'm too sad about that at the moment.

A rare moment where Eleanor is not trying to fall off the path into the creek.

Cute kids playing together making a wood chip pile.

Bradley climbing trees again

Eleanor has turned into a little maniac at the park, I don't know what has happened in the last month and a half but she has turned into a serious daredevil. We were giving a Hispanic father with his tiny two year old son a thousand heart attacks at the park as Eleanor scrambled up a ladder to the slide through sheer force of will, bombed down the slide with a look of terror on her face and then immediately started saying "mo, mo!", climbed up another slide from the bottom on repeat, and then climbed up another large and tricky ladder.

19 months old

Meanwhile, Bradley was trying to keep up with a couple seven year old girls who were climbing on top of all the play equipment and teaching him plenty of new dangerous tricks. So the woman is who is large and pregnant was running all over the playground keeping up with her two small children who were showing little to no regard for their own self preservation. I keep saying that little baby Patrick will be my calm child but with the way he's moving around in the womb I'm beginning to doubt that will be a possibility.

We recently checked out a local museum which was pretty exciting for our dinosaur loving children. Also, we get parent points for taking our children to a museum, correct?

Button!

ALL THE BUTTONS

A few days ago I signed up Bradley for preschool at our church and I have the feeling he made an impression because the director of the program remembered us quite clearly when she walked by us on our way to MOPS the next day. We arrived at the end of signups and Bradley was delighted that a couple of his little friends were there to play with, as they were also signing up for preschool. Bradley started tackling one of his friends, to the great delight of both children, and had to be forced to get off his friend. Whoops. If he wasn't so gigantic perhaps it would be less of an issue, but he has a solid 5-10 lbs and a couple inches on most kids his age. One of the teachers for the four year old classes saw Bradley running around with a huge grin on his face and said that she'd love to have him in her class and was rather surprised when I said that the giant was only just enrolling in 3's. He really is a gentle giant most of the time, it's just a good thing that we know the woman who is going to be his preschool teacher so Bradley won't come as a surprise to her.

We had to take Eleanor in to get some blood work this past week and she was a champ. She can handle anything as long as she's getting to watch a show, I love our Kindle Fire for things like this. She cried once as they put in the needle and then ignored the nurses as the Bubble Guppies sang about trucks. She even thanked the nurse when we left. However, when we were leaving I had to turn off the show and Bradley was quite distraught. It was fun getting to tell the two concerned looking women in the waiting room that the crying child I was dragging along behind me was the one who did NOT get any work done. They laughed. Poor Bradley.

Waiting for blood work. Great focus on show.

However, he made out okay because it seems we watched the best show he's ever seen when we got home (Eleanor got to choose some bonus shows. You get blood drawn, you get shows, everyone knows this). We watched a Paw Patrol where a cow, goat, and chicken are standing on each other and get mistaken for a snow monster. And this happened.

Happily, talk of monsters upstairs didn't affect bedtime. But I have never heard him talk like this about anything, apparently I've been only trying to get him to talk about boring things with me in the past.

Sometimes the kids talk to me about important things, but it sounds more like this:

It's a good thing we're having another child because I am increasingly unnecessary around here. Bradley and Eleanor make their own fun.

Running around outside the library together

The other day I decided that instead of my usual routine of running around and getting things done while the kids watch a few shows, I would grace them with my presence and cuddles. I moved Eleanor away from Bradley so I could sit in between them and boy did I get chewed out. "No! Badley! No Mommy!" So I moved her back by her favorite person and sat off to the side while both children ignored me. Yeah. I think it's new baby time.

In retrospect, it doesn't look like she's exactly inviting me to come in and split them up.

A few days ago I told them to kiss each other before they got to watch a show. This is what I got. 

Holding head still so he can kiss it.

Hmm, do these two love each other? Eleanor was quite insistent about jumping into Bradley hugs the other day.

Sometimes my sweet children invent new games while Mommy is getting chores done around the house. I have to say, I never would have suggested "grab an end of the scarf and run around wildly" on my own.

"Spin Eleanor around in a chair and boop her back to make her laugh" was a new one to me as well but it seems to be a popular choice these days.

And we've finally figured out how to share a car cart and shopping trips are fun for everyone!

With the kids on their own team it's more and more important for Nathan and I to show our support for each other with great love and tenderness, and not use our children against one another for our own entertainment.

But it is SO funny to watch Eleanor terrorize people by throwing balls to them!

This. The cutest terror you ever saw.

When Eleanor wakes up from her nap she just asks for Bradley until he wakes up and I do my best to distract her. We played hide and go seek recently and I couldn't find her anywhere!

But then she got her Bradley fix. Probably because she talked so loudly and banged on his door a little bit before this video, but hey, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.

Okay, Mommy is needed for a few things around here. Like cuddles during strange and exciting Katy Perry Super Bowl halftime shows.

And they need someone to run in circles around in the evening

Scratch that, they can manage that just fine on their own.

Nathan and Bradley are at a Monster Truck Show this afternoon while Eleanor and I get to spend some solo time at the park. It's just as weird for me as it is for the kids to have them split up. I think we'll all have a good time though, there will certainly be a lot of new pictures for my next blog post!