It fits up to four kids and up to 250 lbs
But our favorite way to ride seems to be three kids on their tummies in a row
It can be rather hypnotic. Patrick almost fell asleep on our sweet neighbor girl while Daddy was pushing him in the swing near nap time.
Over the weekend Nathan also took Eleanor to their first ever Daddy Daughter Dance at the gym I go to. We're fairly certain she had a good time.
Chocolate fondue!
Medium level of excitement over dancing
High level of excitement over balloons
They made good use of the photo booth
The Daddy Daughter Dance took place on the day Eleanor had morning gymnastics, a morning play date in the park, a princess dance themed birthday party she attended during naptime, and then the daddy daughter dance started an hour and a half after she got home from the birthday party. She survived thanks to Daddy's amazing ability to get the girl to nap on command. He's very dedicated to naps.
And here she is at the princess birthday party. So many happy preschool girls. Elsa even came and sang songs to the children and posed for pictures but Eleanor was NOT into that and refused to go anywhere near her. I was assured that if it were Rapunzel or any other superior princess she would have gone over. But it was a firm no to Elsa.
It's good that Nathan has been so awesome whenever he's happened to be around, this has been the month of work trips and this is the third week in a row that he is gone. We miss him.
And when he's gone the little girl expects ME to read the super hero stories when I would really rather not. But how do you say no to this?
Chocolate fondue!
Medium level of excitement over dancing
High level of excitement over balloons
They made good use of the photo booth
The Daddy Daughter Dance took place on the day Eleanor had morning gymnastics, a morning play date in the park, a princess dance themed birthday party she attended during naptime, and then the daddy daughter dance started an hour and a half after she got home from the birthday party. She survived thanks to Daddy's amazing ability to get the girl to nap on command. He's very dedicated to naps.
And here she is at the princess birthday party. So many happy preschool girls. Elsa even came and sang songs to the children and posed for pictures but Eleanor was NOT into that and refused to go anywhere near her. I was assured that if it were Rapunzel or any other superior princess she would have gone over. But it was a firm no to Elsa.
It's good that Nathan has been so awesome whenever he's happened to be around, this has been the month of work trips and this is the third week in a row that he is gone. We miss him.
And when he's gone the little girl expects ME to read the super hero stories when I would really rather not. But how do you say no to this?
Side note: here is a very real conversation Eleanor and I had tonight at dinner when discussing how Daddy was gone again and how much we missed him.
Eleanor: "If you died, Daddy would have to strangle us."
Me: "WHAT???"
Eleanor: "He would have to wrangle us."
I guess I'm relieved? I don't know exactly how to feel about this conversation. Let's just focus on the good vocab term and move on.
When Bradley talks about Daddy being away he says "I want to go somewhere special to help me take my mind off of Daddy being gone." Which is his way of asking to go to Burger King, we went there with some friends whose daddy was also on a work trip at the same time as Nathan and I guess it made an impression on the little guy. Tater tots, french fries, and running around a giant play area? I guess I would beg for that too.
He does know how to work me, the other morning at breakfast I told him he had to eat his whole muffin before he got more cereal. He sat for a little while and finally said "I have a ouchie tummy so you need to be nice to me for the whole day." I was very confused for a moment and then I asked him "Do you just not want to eat the whole muffin before you get more cereal?" I was told yes, that would work, so he just had to eat a couple more bites before he got the cereal he wanted so very badly. As long as I'm not being yelled at I am more than willing to negotiate the food requests. What a sweet kid.
I do arts and crafts with my children upon occasion now that it's not just a horrible ordeal to go through. It's actually cute and fun! Patrick painted for the first time yesterday. It is good we have little sponges to use because he says "mess!" whenever paint gets on his fingers and holds them out for me to clean.
Making demands for more paint.
His first painting! A masterpiece!
Bradley preferred drawing dinosaurs on a giant piece of paper on the floor.
We have dinosaur toys that can be taken apart and reassembled into new creative combinations and it is so right up Bradley's alley. This has three heads and three tails and Bradley named it a Dinonocus. I just adore this little boy.
We're still doing the museum science classes, last one was called Simple Mechanics and they learned about levers and pulleys. They assembled a wheel and axle for their take home item. They just have a blast at these classes, we're going back for another one tonight.
Bradley and Eleanor bedtime cuddles remain over the top adorable.
Eleanor was up an hour past her bedtime the other night and I could hear her playing on the baby monitor. She had taken a late nap and was being fairly quiet, so I let her play until she fell asleep. But we may need to scale back on the fun stuffed toys in the bed sometime soon ...
The weather has been unbelievable. I'm okay with skipping on snow almost entirely this year. Sunshine is worth it - although I'm told this means we'll have horrible bugs this summer. Oh well, we'll just go to the pool when that happens. In the meantime ...
Nice weather means lots of picnics!
And climbing trees.
Popsicle weather! In February!
Patrick has a *small* amount of personality these days and there is no questioning his thoughts and feelings on certain matters. Such as having Mommy hold his hand to walk around a park perimeter when Bradley and Eleanor do it without Mommy. Go away, Mommy!
The other morning he was cuddling with Eleanor and repeatedly yelled "away!" at me. Should I be offended? Or touched by his devotion to his sister?
The kids have discovered the joys of park gymnastics. Eleanor NEEDED to do what Bradley was doing but was a bit worried about it once she actually tried it out. Bradley is more independent but I still get to help him down a lot of the time and the first time I helped him out he sighed and said "I wanted down in your beautiful arms." Oh my. We may be overdoing the wise and beautiful Mommy thing. But do I ever love this sweet little boy.
We had the longest walk home from the far playground when Patrick insisted on pulling the wagon and yelled at anyone who tried to help him. That included me trying to push from the back or Bradley putting his hand on the handle even from inside the wagon. Patrick would stop and hit at hands and yell at everyone until things were back to his liking. He is SO fortunate to be the youngest and to have such nice older siblings.
They are quite the little trio these days.
But things are always better when Daddy is home.
I so love when the kids start talking. Even when they use their new speech skills for stinker behavior.
Patrick still wants to "use the potty" upon occasion and I have to say I let him more than I should because I am a sucker for bare buns moments with this guy.
I'm fairly obsessed with Patrick these days. Just look at this.
This morning he found a bag of graham crackers and was trying to get me to open them for him. I gave him a funny look so he came over and started hugging me and giving me kisses all while saying "wuv oo!" Did I melt? Did I make him sort of recreate the moment on video?
Bradley is such a champ these days. I love how creative he is getting. He gets quiet time in his room every afternoon during nap time and he makes book buildings for his dinosaurs and other animals.
This next video is long but he and Eleanor will play together for hours. Dinosaurs and My Little Ponies, the classic combination.
We had a bunch of friends over for Patrick's friend's 2nd birthday party the other weekend. It's so fun that he's old enough to have friends that he really likes now and gets excited to see.
He LOVES his friend Mabel. We spent a beautiful Valentines morning with her at library story time and then we went to the museum and they cuddled in a Sauropod footprint together. As you do.
Bradley and Eleanor loved Valentines Day celebrations at school although I must say I laughed a bit at the stickers they were given to decorate their Valentines bags. If you look closely, the sticker directly above the death sticker says "wild thing".
I find that it's important to keep things calm while Nathan's away on a trip and it's just me with the kids.
So very very calm.
And I give the children little tasks to do to help me out around the house.
Or I let them play with play dough. I thought this was a safe fun task. And then Eleanor started begging me to leave the room ...
Yeah, she just wanted me to leave so she could eat the very old play dough and not get in trouble. She is so fortunate I find her cute and hilarious.
We hope Daddy has fewer work trips in the next few months. But in a pinch we can always find a way to ship Patrick off so he can join Daddy on one of these trips.
When Bradley talks about Daddy being away he says "I want to go somewhere special to help me take my mind off of Daddy being gone." Which is his way of asking to go to Burger King, we went there with some friends whose daddy was also on a work trip at the same time as Nathan and I guess it made an impression on the little guy. Tater tots, french fries, and running around a giant play area? I guess I would beg for that too.
He does know how to work me, the other morning at breakfast I told him he had to eat his whole muffin before he got more cereal. He sat for a little while and finally said "I have a ouchie tummy so you need to be nice to me for the whole day." I was very confused for a moment and then I asked him "Do you just not want to eat the whole muffin before you get more cereal?" I was told yes, that would work, so he just had to eat a couple more bites before he got the cereal he wanted so very badly. As long as I'm not being yelled at I am more than willing to negotiate the food requests. What a sweet kid.
I do arts and crafts with my children upon occasion now that it's not just a horrible ordeal to go through. It's actually cute and fun! Patrick painted for the first time yesterday. It is good we have little sponges to use because he says "mess!" whenever paint gets on his fingers and holds them out for me to clean.
Making demands for more paint.
His first painting! A masterpiece!
Bradley preferred drawing dinosaurs on a giant piece of paper on the floor.
We have dinosaur toys that can be taken apart and reassembled into new creative combinations and it is so right up Bradley's alley. This has three heads and three tails and Bradley named it a Dinonocus. I just adore this little boy.
We're still doing the museum science classes, last one was called Simple Mechanics and they learned about levers and pulleys. They assembled a wheel and axle for their take home item. They just have a blast at these classes, we're going back for another one tonight.
Bradley and Eleanor bedtime cuddles remain over the top adorable.
Eleanor was up an hour past her bedtime the other night and I could hear her playing on the baby monitor. She had taken a late nap and was being fairly quiet, so I let her play until she fell asleep. But we may need to scale back on the fun stuffed toys in the bed sometime soon ...
The weather has been unbelievable. I'm okay with skipping on snow almost entirely this year. Sunshine is worth it - although I'm told this means we'll have horrible bugs this summer. Oh well, we'll just go to the pool when that happens. In the meantime ...
Nice weather means lots of picnics!
And climbing trees.
Popsicle weather! In February!
Patrick has a *small* amount of personality these days and there is no questioning his thoughts and feelings on certain matters. Such as having Mommy hold his hand to walk around a park perimeter when Bradley and Eleanor do it without Mommy. Go away, Mommy!
The other morning he was cuddling with Eleanor and repeatedly yelled "away!" at me. Should I be offended? Or touched by his devotion to his sister?
The kids have discovered the joys of park gymnastics. Eleanor NEEDED to do what Bradley was doing but was a bit worried about it once she actually tried it out. Bradley is more independent but I still get to help him down a lot of the time and the first time I helped him out he sighed and said "I wanted down in your beautiful arms." Oh my. We may be overdoing the wise and beautiful Mommy thing. But do I ever love this sweet little boy.
We had the longest walk home from the far playground when Patrick insisted on pulling the wagon and yelled at anyone who tried to help him. That included me trying to push from the back or Bradley putting his hand on the handle even from inside the wagon. Patrick would stop and hit at hands and yell at everyone until things were back to his liking. He is SO fortunate to be the youngest and to have such nice older siblings.
They are quite the little trio these days.
But things are always better when Daddy is home.
I so love when the kids start talking. Even when they use their new speech skills for stinker behavior.
Patrick still wants to "use the potty" upon occasion and I have to say I let him more than I should because I am a sucker for bare buns moments with this guy.
I'm fairly obsessed with Patrick these days. Just look at this.
This morning he found a bag of graham crackers and was trying to get me to open them for him. I gave him a funny look so he came over and started hugging me and giving me kisses all while saying "wuv oo!" Did I melt? Did I make him sort of recreate the moment on video?
Bradley is such a champ these days. I love how creative he is getting. He gets quiet time in his room every afternoon during nap time and he makes book buildings for his dinosaurs and other animals.
And he'll basically do anything for Patrick cuddles.
This next video is long but he and Eleanor will play together for hours. Dinosaurs and My Little Ponies, the classic combination.
We had a bunch of friends over for Patrick's friend's 2nd birthday party the other weekend. It's so fun that he's old enough to have friends that he really likes now and gets excited to see.
He LOVES his friend Mabel. We spent a beautiful Valentines morning with her at library story time and then we went to the museum and they cuddled in a Sauropod footprint together. As you do.
Bradley and Eleanor loved Valentines Day celebrations at school although I must say I laughed a bit at the stickers they were given to decorate their Valentines bags. If you look closely, the sticker directly above the death sticker says "wild thing".
I find that it's important to keep things calm while Nathan's away on a trip and it's just me with the kids.
So very very calm.
And I give the children little tasks to do to help me out around the house.
Or I let them play with play dough. I thought this was a safe fun task. And then Eleanor started begging me to leave the room ...
Yeah, she just wanted me to leave so she could eat the very old play dough and not get in trouble. She is so fortunate I find her cute and hilarious.
We hope Daddy has fewer work trips in the next few months. But in a pinch we can always find a way to ship Patrick off so he can join Daddy on one of these trips.
