Neurotic Cats and Team Umizoomi Fun

We're getting prepped to go to Nathan's uncle's wedding next week so I had Eleanor try on a fancy dress and play around with hair bows and clips.

Bradley was pleased to finally get in on the hair accessory fun.

For the record, I put none of these on him, he managed everything just fine on his own. I call this next one "Star Trek".

It's funny to have him copying Eleanor at something because it is usually the other way around.

The weather has been very wet lately which has cramped our fun a bit. Turns out I just needed to put Bradley in appropriate rain gear and everything would have been fine ...

Fun note: Bradley's favorite color is blue and it's rather difficult to get him to wear things that are not blue. But his favorite letter is B for Bradley (we look for B's for Bradley and E's for Eleanor whenever we're driving in the car, or when we're at church, or at home, or really anywhere and everywhere) and this particular shirt has TWO B's for Bradley so he will allow us to put it on him. He's particular about fashion too, in his own Bradley way.

Because of the weather we decided to do a family book store trip last weekend and we went to Barnes and Noble to play and let the kids pick a book or two to bring home. As we walked into the store Eleanor tripped (over nothing) and fell down and as she started to pick herself back up Bradley shoved her back down so he could walk over her. Walking over his sister is one of his favorite things to do, I have no idea why. But Bradley may not have taken Nathan and me seriously when we told him not to do that anymore because we were both laughing quite a bit. And sadly, Eleanor didn't even protest. She's far too used to this kind of thing. She is so tough.

Our obsession with the show Team Umizoomi only grows but I love it because my children are talking about shapes like rectangles, triangles, and ... dodecahedrons.

But mostly we talk about the shape bandit.

And we count. This is my favorite kind of counting.

Bradley also talks about booby traps a lot now because they appear on the show on a regular basis so we have to jump over all sorts of booby traps that I was previously unaware of that seem to be hidden all over the house now, especially on the tiles in the bathroom which one must jump over at all costs.

My favorite part of the show is the dancing though. Eleanor waves her hands high and low on a regular basis now and they can watch the show forever as far as I'm concerned, this is too adorable.

We made it out to the pool last weekend and everyone had a blast. These two pictures best sum up the children's approaches to entering the water for the first time.

Bradley jumping in

Eleanor clinging

But Eleanor was soon going down the slide like a champ and fighting with Bradley over sand toys. Good times.

Also of note, we saw our favorite life guard from last summer who is truly wonderful and learns the kids names and helped Eleanor go down the slide a lot last summer. I said hi and pointed out Bradley and said that we had made another little person since the last summer. He said "I remember Eleanor" and I said "nope, over there" and pointed at the baby carrier. Winter pregnancies are the best, I love that I'm back in action for the summer. And Patrick will be able to enjoy the pool too before too long!

Here are the kids in their cute swim suits for this summer. Note Eleanor's turtle water shoes. Our fashionista is in love with these shoes (yay, makes it so much fun for Mommy to get her clothes!)

I think the cats have settled in a state of distress and neediness upon the continued small amount of attention they are receiving now that we're busy with our new little guy.

Layla claiming the spot that is rightfully hers

Ear nuzzles for Nathan

Meg has started acting incredibly weird around the baby swing. She gets in it and tries to whack at the toy birds around the top. While yowling. It is a successful way to get some attention around here.

And Sookie continues to try to find loves with Bradley, whether he wants them or not.

It's all very sweet except for Meg lying in wait for me in the night outside the baby's room and yowling with neediness in 3 am as she follows me back into the master bedroom so she can cuddle my face in the night. Fortunately, all of the children are so used to her yowls that they can sleep through it. It's not quiet.

Our sweet little Patrick is growing bigger and stronger and although he hasn't gifted us with any smiles yet, he's growing increasingly alert and definitely appreciates having someone in his face while doing tummy time rather than being ditched on his own.

Good thing he likes it because he gets plenty of face to face time with his loving siblings. 

He's such a little cutie.

Chins!

So alert

Eleanor is the most enthusiastic at helping Patrick out in the swing. I need to make sure I strap him in for what becomes a roller coaster ride without careful supervision.

Patrick loves pushing himself up to a standing position with a little support from Mommy or Daddy, he's quite strong. He also prefers to fall asleep while grabbing tightly onto someone's finger. His Daddy in particular is putty in his hands.

Nathan is our cuddle master around here.

Patrick snuggled on Daddy.

It's still a little tricky to get out of the house for certain things but as a whole we're settling into the new routine and everyone is doing really well. Honestly, while I appreciate baby snuggles it is not where I excel as a parent and I am very grateful for Eleanor and Bradley time during the day. Who couldn't love this kind of impish and cute behavior?

 Cuddles with the excitable Bradley boy

Reading our new Umizoomi book together

 Target trip. It's always more fun when Daddy is giving you a rather wild ride in the cart.

Dress my mom made that our fashion conscious little girl demanded to wear to the store. Eleanor has started to have the occasional tantrum and they are pretty much all fashion related - wrong pair of shoes, wrong dress, etc. I'm way too happy that she cares so much about clothes. 

Here are the kids reading their Umizoomi book together. They're fairly precious together. 

We made it out for a couple of fun park outings a few days ago. I can't believe this is all right behind our house, I have yet to take it for granted. 

So much happy childhood to be spent out here. I miss Seattle quite a bit sometimes but wow Kansas can be pretty great. 

Bradley with a bucket on his head. Of course.

Eleanor helping out Mommy with wagon duty

Eleanor is such a helper these days, not a door in the house is left open if she has anything to say about it, which a lot of times you DO have something to say about it because you're trying to walk through the door that she is trying to shut. And when you try to help her she says "MY shut door" and shakes you off. Independent and stubborn, I know of no other children.

Nathan's Iowa State ball has replaced the Easter egg as Bradley's favorite toy and he takes it everywhere with him (ask Nathan how delighted he is by this turn of events). He discovered a matching hat the other day and was quite pleased. 

And lastly, here is Eleanor bestowing some attention upon a neglected kitty. Lucky kitty! 

T-Rex Bradley, Tummy Time Patrick, & Ready for Action Eleanor

We've discovered that Patrick prefers to be on his tummy and will cry immediately if left on his back for any length of time. While this means that he is getting a lot of good tummy time practice and is a very strong little guy, it also means items like our swing and rock n play are essentially useless, since they require a baby boy to tolerate being placed on his back.

Bradley and Eleanor approve of all this tummy time.

I may have set a bad precedent by telling the kids to lay down so Patrick could do tummy time on his siblings. They LOVED it and Eleanor hollers whenever we get a tummy time quilt out and I try to place Patrick directly on the quilt instead of his sister.

Patrick is never going to want for love and attention from these two

After demanding Patrick tummy time on herself

Hugs!

Kisses!

The kids were ecstatic when Patrick joined in on our family hiding from the snow monster.

Grandma Colleen and Kerry came down for a visit last weekend and got to meet Patrick for the first time. But Bradley and Eleanor made sure they still got their fair share of attention.

We kept it pretty mellow while they were here and mostly played around the house and the park. As usual, Grandma Colleen had a fun craft planned with the kids and they made "stained glass" by putting flowers in between some laminate tape. Bradley enjoys looking at it and telling me that his grandma made it for him. Which is very true, Bradley had little to do with the actual creation of the art. Grandma Colleen asked Bradley and Eleanor to help find flowers and I'm told that Bradley would say "there's one!" and then stomp on the poor flower, rendering it rather useless for art. We're working on him loving nature instead of bashing it, but I may not be the best teacher ...

Me teaching Bradley the ways of the kitty mustache

Bradley's attempt to give me a mustache. No one feel sorry for this kitty, she wasn't crazy about her tail being used as a mustache but she was loving the attention.

For example: Tonight a fly got in the house and Nathan trapped it in the bathroom and then left it in there because we were in the middle of dinner. Bradley was VERY interested in the fly so after dinner we let him go in there with Nathan to finish the deed. He was very excited about helping to kill the fly. I guess it's not surprising that the kid who loves to play dinosaur isn't above a little fly destruction.

He looks so old in this picture. Pretty sure this is what he's going to look like at 16.

Playing t-rex has become all-consuming for our little guy and a few days ago I noticed that Bradley was choosing to eat his sandwich by mashing his face onto it on the tray. I told him to use his hands and he told me he was eating like a dinosaur so he couldn't use his hands. I was told "dinosaurs use their TEETH!" It's hard to argue with such sound logic and he wasn't being too messy so I haven't even tried to make him stop. I'm such a sucker for cute kid obsessions.

Bradley trying on a "bad guy" hat for me. I asked why it was a bad guy hat and I was told it was because there was a picture of a bear on it. Sorry Cubs fans.

Bradley continues to love to jump. I think he has about a 3 ft standing long jump already. This kid was born to be an athlete.

Eleanor has a number of cute quirks that we're enjoying. Here is a video of a previously mentioned "you're cute" debate.

She now says "mommy prepree" (mommy pretty) whenever you tell her she's pretty. Everything else she'll say "no, YOU cute" or "no, YOU nice." But Mommy is the pretty one. Such a little doll, I didn't even train her to do this.

She cares so much about clothes and it is so much fun letting her pick out her outfits and having her comment appreciatively whenever I put on a dress. However, she did have a ten minute meltdown last night because I wouldn't let her wear her turtle water shoes in the house. Fashion is important.

Such a cutie. I hope I got her a big enough smoothie from McDonalds.

Eleanor's fake smiles are so amazing. I love asking her to smile for pictures.

At Deanna Rose

The Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead (aka best petting zoo ever) has reopened and we enjoy going there and occasionally petting an animal while we run around on tractors and model horses and a cool playground.

Bradley happily ignoring Eleanor's attempts to get him off her horse

Baby goats!

Proud to be able to get up on playground chipmunk rocker on her own

These two are such buds. I cannot express how much I love the two of them being sweet together.

Bradley and Eleanor have so much fun now that they can talk to each other better and are able to do some imaginative play together. If Daddy won't give out horsie rides they now have other options.

Playing with stickers together

Hiding in Mommy and Daddy's closet. Eleanor always hides with a book. 

I got Eleanor a bunch of hair clips and here Bradley is lamenting his short hair which means no clips for Bradley. 

Here is what happens when I'm a little tired in the evening and go up to our bedroom to get a bit of quiet time. They find me. They always find me.

Good thing they were calm and quiet for me. 

Bradley and Eleanor have a new favorite show called Team Umizoomi. It's educational, which is nice, so there is a lot of talk about numbers and shapes around the house these days. Bradley walks down the stairs in the morning and says "One! Two! Three! Seven! Rectangle! Rectangle!" When he gets tired he says that he's run out of running power because of one of the episodes he saw. Eleanor likes to repeat all of the catch phrases from the show and we'll be walking along the path at Deanna Rose when she'll start bouncing up and down as she's trotting along and say "ready for ACTION!" or "super shapes!" However she does call every shape a rectangle so perhaps we need to watch the show more.

Daddy and his selfish basketball watching ways are cramping our style though.

Daddy and Patrick are having a tough time these days.

Okay, I get a little bit of the tired boy snuggles too.

When Nathan is not busy cuddling the baby he's putting the older two to work. Or ... he's trying to sweep the driveway and children have mini breakdowns until they get to help. No exaggeration.

Bradley enjoys the social calendar we're keeping these days and I am regularly asked if we're going to see friends today. I have a few moms with small children that we see on a pretty regular basis and it's really fun to see how many kids we can squeeze into a wagon. Four is the current record but I'm sure Patrick will want to be in the middle of this soon enough.

Family time on the couch! Patrick getting to read a book with his siblings. 

I asked Bradley to watch Patrick while I got some lunch ready and Bradley kept on kissing him. Super adorable. 

One final sweet Patrick photo for this post. He is such a little doll baby.