Visit to Idaho for Uncle Tim's Wedding + First Patrick Smiles!

We survived the trip. This is what it looks like to travel with three kids ages three and under.

Wimps require a double stroller for two children. If Patrick was a little bigger we could have tossed him in there too.

Make friends and jumping around on airport chairs

It was also fun to get to have two "infants in arms" on the flight since Eleanor doesn't turn two until next week. Bradley and Eleanor could actually fit side by side on a single seat which is how they spent most of the flight. We're pretty sure that would be forbidden if it happened enough for the airlines to have a policy against it.

Snacks and shows. The only way to fly.

Patrick was a champ on his first flight, although he did blow out a diaper. Which I got to change on top of an airplane blanket placed on top of a toilet in the bathroom while he howled bloody murder. It's funny, the things that would have deeply traumatized me with my first child barely phase me with my third.

Patrick on his first flight!

It's nice to have social children who love meeting new family. The cousins were certainly the stars of this trip as far as Bradley was concerned.

Bradley was ecstatic when he was able to participate in no holds barred rough housing with his older cousins. Dreams came true. Major points to Logan, Connor, and Caitlyn for trying to be gentle with him. 

Bradley did not get the gentle memo and went nuts. We did keep neck holds to a minimum. It's a shame I'm so against contact sports.

Bubbles were a hit at Grandpa Dan and Grandma Kati's house.

Patrick was a hit with everyone as well. He started smiling on this trip, very exciting!

And pretty much everyone in the family fought for the chance to pass him around and get some baby snuggles.

 
I don't blame anyone for wanting to get a hold of this sweet sweet little guy.

With Grandpa Dan

Cousin Caitlyn was so good with the tired baby boy

 Okay, we forced some relatives to hold the baby, but I think Jake secretly liked it.

We also encouraged Bradley to rough house with his Uncle Jake, which was far harder work for Jake than just holding a baby.

As calm as it looks

Bradley and Eleanor got in some loves too. This is pretty much how things are these days.

Bradley and Eleanor managed to get some attention as well.

Cartoons and cuddles first thing in the morning. Kids could get used to this.

Grandpa spent a fair amount of the trip trying to train Eleanor to say "Grandpa is cute" and was finally rewarded with someone had Caitlyn ask Eleanor if she thought Caitlyn was cute and Eleanor said "no, Gampa cute."

On this trip Eleanor started to say "oopsie me!" with a little chuckle whenever she did something that was an oops and so Nathan and I have started to use the phrase on a regular basis. Even Bradley used it the other day, Eleanor is a trendsetter.

Family picture with all the cousins

Nathan helping Bradley get in photo mode ...

Grandma Kati thought it was pretty hilarious when Eleanor came out modeling a pair of her crocs. Eleanor got away with murder on this trip, at one point she had a full on tantrum because we wouldn't let her downstairs and when it was decided she could go downstairs after all she said "oh TANK you!" and bounced/skipped over to the stairs and people commented on how cute she was. Immediately after a tantrum. I agree with them, she truly is adorable, but it's ridiculous how much she can get away with.

 
We drove up to McCall for Uncle Tim's wedding and got to stay at Aunt Tina's very nice condo while we were there. Thank you, Tina!!

Tina's reward, being asked to hold a sleeping baby when we were out at breakfast.

Uncle Tim with Nathan and the older two kids.

Uncle Tim preparing for his wedding by watching Team Umizoomi with the kids.

We got to meet up with cousins and the rest of the family at the beach by the condo and I think it's safe to say we all had a pretty good time. Bradley jumped into the water off of the dock repeatedly and Eleanor would dip a toe in the water and then run back to her beach chair to sit for a minute and bury her toes in the sand and repeat over and over again.

Nathan and I went up to the condo to take care of Patrick at some point and looked out the window when we heard cheers and laughter. Turns out Bradley had decided his new favorite game was to wring out a water toy on Grandpa's feet and he was very dedicated to doing it over and over again.

Lunch and cuddles on the beach meant I got to snuggle up a little Eleanor who should be cold more often. I love me some Eleanor cuddles!

And if this all sounds very tiring for a little boy and girl, it was.

Reading with Grandma Kati before a bedtime

And normally I would feel bad about speaking poorly of one of my children but Eleanor was SO NAUGHTY about bedtimes on this trip. Bradley would generally pass out pretty quickly but Eleanor would be in bed pointing around the room hollering "pink one! geen one! boo one! Bradley's favoyite coyor! Pink MY favoyite coyor! Puple!" and then would start poking parts of my face while hollering "eyyyye! nose! mouth!" and then fingers would try to go into my mouth. During all of this I would be trying to sing soothing songs which would get a little less soothing when she laid her arm across my mouth so it was vibrating as I was singing, which was HILARIOUS to be sure but not as hilarious as climbing on top of me and sticking her nose against my nose repeatedly. Okay, the last one was pretty funny and I laughed a bunch too which made it all the harder to calm her down so she would go to sleep.

But even sleep was tricky because we figured out after the first night that she would be hysterical if she was anywhere but a bed since the toddler cot we brought along did not allow for the amount of moving around that she was accustomed to. Nathan and I discovered that Eleanor's preferred position of sleep on the bed that she would share with one of us was to be horizontal, which meant she would kick us a fair bit in her sleep. In the face. Eleanor is so lucky she is cute.

We had a good time at the wedding, largely because Grandpa Dan watched the older two during the ceremony and then we all went for a fun lake cruise together.

With the groom! And Patrick in the carrier.

Again, snacks and shows were the order of the day for Bradley and Eleanor.

Without shows

Luckily, Grandma Colleen and Kerry were up to the task of helping cuddle grandchildren during their shows

With shows

We returned to Boise the next day after a quick trip out to Grandma Kati's mom's house.

So many children. I can't believe they're all mine.

The kids were getting pretty fried by the latter part of the trip but did really well overall. At one point I told Bradley he was a stinker because he didn't want to go use the potty before a nap and so he yelled "I'm a stinker, I'm a stinker!" and tried to get away from me and Nathan as we trapped him and forced him into the bathroom. Whoops. I guess he figured if he was indeed a stinker he didn't have to do what we said? 

We took the kids to a little spray ground with Grandma Kati and Aunt Abby. Lots of fun, even when Patrick had the biggest poop explosion ever all over Grandma Kati's leg. She laughed it off - Grandma Kati is a hero.

Pre poops. Apparently Patrick felt very comfortable on his Grandma.

It's so funny to watch Bradley and Eleanor in action. Bradley wanted to be running around in the water at all times and even let big buckets of water be dumped on him.

Eleanor preferred to be carried so she could have a toe dipped in the water from a position of safety. 

And even when she played with a fountain on her own it looked like this. 

Such a bathing beauty. She did work up to stomping on the water by the end, but it took a long while. 

Post water snacks.

And before we made it over to the spray ground part of the park Bradley practiced jumping off of tall rocks. Both kids passed out hard on the 10 minute ride back to Grandma and Grandpa's house. 

We got to get frozen yogurt with Colleen and Kerry that afternoon. I even got some help eating mine, I'm so lucky.

One of our favorite parts of this trip was when the cousins taught Bradley how to play Ring Around the Rosie. So so so great.

The video. Watch the video!

And the next day we somehow made it home despite everyone (especially mommy!) being a tired disaster.

Eleanor falling asleep on Bradley during a show

 Calling our friends during our layover in Minneapolis. Eleanor rocks a top of the head pony tail.

Also, I'm not saying I've become obsessed with getting smiles from my sweet baby boy but it's pretty much all I want now and I would do pretty much anything for more of these sweet sweet smiles.

 The drive home from the airport. Done done done.

It's been good to be home. Good news, Ring Around the Rosie still is happening.

And the Patrick smiles just keep getting better and better.

Pathetic cat trying to get some cuddles

It's crazy to have had three kids and to have them each be so different from each other. Patrick is more mellow in some ways but may be the most cuddly of the bunch, which is saying something. He needs to be held always or there are tears. He also "talks" to me more when he smiles, which is incredibly endearing. I feel like he has more mournful sounds he makes when he's upset while I'm holding him, which goes straight to my heart and he would never be anywhere but my arms if I didn't have to put him down at times so I can take care of two other children. His soft spot is on the middle of his head towards the front and when he's breathing heavily you can see it go up and down, which is honestly a little scary to see. It makes him seem too fragile! I have no idea what color his eyes are going to be, they are still a good shade of baby gray. But I'm just crazy about this guy, it helps my bonding with the baby so much to be getting eye contact and smiles.

Bradley is a baby fiend in general and now we have a baby for him to go nuts over on a regular basis

He's been demanding to hold Patrick more and more. This is all so new, he was so young when Eleanor was a baby.

Nonstop Bradley loves

Terror from above!

So tired

Bradley and Eleanor are ridiculous and cute. Before we left for the trip I attempted to watch some tennis since the French Open was going on. I can't believe how foolish I was.

Eleanor doesn't understand why we would watch this on purpose.

Eleanor loves Umizoomi so much, it is the ONLY show that matters.

Don't mess with Eleanor. A few days ago Bradley stole a book Eleanor wanted and she was very upset so I tried to hand her a replacement book. The new book was WRONG so Eleanor chased it around while crying hysterically and tried to hit it repeatedly as I tried to get it out of her way. At one point she was doing circles around me, flailing her arms at the book. Replacement book was not to be tolerated. I don't know if it's good or bad parenting that these situations make me laugh as I'm trying to provide behavioral correction to the angry toddler.

Bradley sometimes goes cuddly on Eleanor which everyone but Eleanor truly appreciates, although she will tolerate it at times.

Sometimes Bradley likes to run after Eleanor and kiss her until she cries. The things I have to put him in timeouts for are truly ridiculous at times.

Bradley in timeout for doing something to Eleanor. Eleanor joining a delighted Bradley in his timeout.

We've begun to send Bradley to be alone in his room for a few minutes as a next level step if he does naughty things while in timeout and I think the only one we really punish by doing this is Eleanor. She sobs when he's shut in his room for a few minutes and she's not allowed to be with him. What on earth am I supposed to do with them?

The other day Eleanor followed me upstairs from the basement as I went to change Patrick's diaper and I heard howls from Bradley. We came back downstairs after a couple minutes and Bradley said "Eleanor did leave me. Woohoo! Eleanor!" I don't know what the inseparable duo are going to do when Bradley starts preschool. 

I "punished" the children on the way home from the park the other day because they had a stick fight. The punishment was to hold hands for the rest of the walk home (two houses). They loved it, I loved it, and the stick fight was stopped. Mission accomplished.

They are quite the duo, I've been limiting time in the swing at the park because it's hard to push them while I have Patrick in the baby carrier and they would happily swing forever given the opportunity. So they decided to take matters into their own hands.

"I strong!"

This is the face Eleanor makes when she's being strong.

However, it's cute when Eleanor has a little solo time because she'll get the chance to touch some of the toys Bradley rarely allows her to play with. Eleanor playing with dinosaurs is pretty great.

I'm enjoying these kids so much, even Patrick is extra fun now that he's smiling (yay!!).

Enjoying Bradley's free birthday cookie at church. His birthday was more than two months ago, yes, it takes us a while to get around to some of these things. 

Bradley's expressions crack me up. He makes faces and does exaggerated hand gestures when telling stories. Here is his response when I tell him to tell Eleanor which comic book characters are which.

"I not know!"

 And sunglasses on head face. Love this kid.

The latest in Eleanor fashion. I had nothing to do with this, she did every bit of it herself.

And wish us luck, Eleanor has taken a great interest in the potty lately and we found her like this a couple nights ago. We now take off her pants and diaper and letting her sit on the potty before bed. She hasn't actually done anything yet but this just reaffirms my belief that the first child is the only one you truly have to potty train, the others just copycat their way out of diapers.

 

We're looking forward to my parents visiting next week! We're so happy to be getting so much family time this summer.