Bradley wore a hat at the beginning of the zoo outing so Patrick insisted on wearing one too and all I could find at the time of our departure was Eleanor's old Minnie Mouse hat. Patrick is into high fashion already.
But seriously, the amount he copies his siblings is adorable.
It's a good thing they generally take it as the flattery it is.
We met up with friends and looked at a few animals, but mostly we "monkeyed" around.
Did you know half the point of the zoo is train rides? Ever since the Royals game, Patrick covers his ears when things are too loud (like a train whistle). Also, if you look closely you can see that Patrick is wearing shorts that exactly match his big brother's. Thanks, Grandma Kathy! They also both have dinosaur shirts on. Patrick doesn't exactly share Bradley's obsession with dinosaurs but he is certainly obsessed with Bradley and that reason enough to wear dinosaur shirts. We actually had to have Bradley pass down another shirt or two to Patrick so he wouldn't run out of dinosaur shirts between washes because that was clearly communicated as unacceptable. Little boy, big opinions.
Eleanor persevered on the merry-go-round despite not getting on her favorite pony this time. She's been a bit of a stinker lately, I didn't want her to wear this dress with sleeves to the zoo because it was going to be a hot day but she desperately wanted to wear it so she finally figured out how to dress herself. Usually I am still allowed that honor. Where there's a will there's a way!
She's lucky she's cute.
Do my children have strong personalities? Patrick still often insists on pulling the wagon even when it has about 80 lbs of children in it. I mostly don't argue with him anymore and just take pictures while telling him to hurry up until he gives up and accepts some assistance. It makes me look like the parent of the year! Pull faster, two year old! Keep up!
The highlight of July certainly was the long awaited visit from Grandpa Dan and Grandma Kati and Aunt Anna. So much joy upon their arrival.
Things got a little tough for Patrick because we took Grandma Kati up on her offer to have her go by Nana because we thought that might make the three grandma thing slightly less confusing. However, when you have a "Nana" and an "Aunt Anna" that is cause for confusion in and of itself. Patrick just went with calling both visiting female relatives "Aunt Anna" and at one point had a rather hilarious exchange with Anna where he called his Nana "Aunt Anna" and Anna said, "No, I'M Aunt Anna" and then he had to yell "NO, THAT AUNT ANNA!" while pointing at Kati and they went back and forth for quite a while in this manner. Eventually he sort of got it down but even now he'll get out a play phone and pretend to call his Aunt Anna and I have no idea if he means Nana or Anna.
We drove out to Lake of the Ozarks to see even more family. Our cousin James had quite the fan club.
And our kids missed no opportunity to find a friendly lap and a plate of chips. Everyone loves Aunt Tami.
Patrick even got in on the cuddles, but mostly he was very busy while we were there.
All the cousins on one couch watching shows.
And here is Patrick by Oshi, his love and obsession on the trip. Poor Oshi got followed around and had many high pitched demands to fetch or sit or play catch or go get it! And also so many hugs and smooches. We're really working on appropriate animal behavior, especially after he tried to lay on top of the neighbor cat in order to love it better while I was chatting with the neighbors, got scratched, cried, and then immediately tried to go back and love it again ...
The highlight of the trip for the kids was certainly our day out on the lake.
Bradley got to drive and could sometimes even see what he was doing. It was super safe.
But really he loved it and kind of looked like an adorable marine biologist in his sun shirt, classes, and sun hat.
Then the kids discovered wave runners. Nathan and I spent so much time playing frogger with boat traffic taking kids on rides back and forth across the lake. Mostly it was fine although it isn't too much of a surprise to me that while I was trying to go as fast as possible for Bradley and was screaming in terror a bit he was cackling with glee.
Nathan managed to get both of them thrown off the wave runner and into the water while they went out for their first ride and the boy LOVED it.
Eleanor and Patrick went out which was adorable and also resulted in Eleanor crying when water got in her eyes. She liked super calm Mommy rides after this.
We even get some cool parent points for figuring out a way for Patrick to get a nice nap in while we were out on the lake all afternoon. Kudos to Nathan for figuring out a way to have a sleeping baby on him on a big bed/floatie with a beer in hand. It's tough but someone had to do it.
Our kids loved the water, especially this one.
And I got amazing cuddles from Patrick on the way back so my day was made.
Bradley, on the other hand, got to ride on the floatie thing on the way back, with a giant grin pasted to his face the whole way.
Back at the house Patrick managed to find his second wind and was running all over the place bringing people bottles of water whether they wanted them or not so we were very grateful when Grandpa cuddled him up and let him play some games on his tablet.
We walked to and from our condo to Aunt Tami's condo quite a bit on this trip and did you know that if you hold a particular two year old's hand to help him over a section of stairs he will shake you off, yell at you, and retrace his steps so he can do the stairs how he was supposed to do them in the first place, all by himself? It's not like Bradley or Eleanor are particularly mellow children but no one is quite as opinionated as Patrick.
Popsicle break. The kids were so happy for constant lap cuddles on this trip.
We slept very well on this trip. Bradley and Eleanor still fit into their "special room" at the condo aka large closet.
And Patrick slept at the foot of the bed. He slept not quite as well and Nathan is deserving of a parenting medal for how much time he spent cuddled up on the floor next to the two year old.
But seriously, I don't think Eleanor has recovered yet from the non stop cuddles that were available to her on this trip.
Oh, and that left me free to be pampered by the boy who developed an appreciation for brushing Mommy's hair. A moderately painful process, to be honest, but we all know that beauty is worth a bit of pain.
He's following in Bradley's footsteps with the water sports. He'll actually hold his breath to grab toys under the water, it's fairly impressive for a two year old.
And can you stand how cute he is in his frog towel poncho? This kid.
We rampaged at a park for a bit.
Does it seem like I should be helping a two year old doing the monkey bars and not just taking pictures? I agree with you! However, I get yelled at if I try to provide help before it is requested so now I just step back and let him figure things out on his own. I did eventually help the child.
We went home a day before Dan, Kati, and Anna and cute Bradley got to stay up late with Daddy and play volcanoes, because what else would you do if you napped a bit on the way home in the car and weren't at all tired at regular bedtime?
The next day we went to a sprayground because Nathan had the day off work and had never been to one with the kids.
The photo below is where I told him he officially got to replace me as family photographer.
Notice that these are all pictures of the boys getting wet? Eleanor dipped a toe in some water at the beginning but managed to remain remarkably dry through the entirety of our stay.
These boys. If there aren't toys to fight over they are such amazing buddies.
We were very pleased to be rejoined by family members that afternoon. Bradley loves the extra attention he gets when there are extra adults around to play games with him.
So does Eleanor for that matter.
Nobody was that hungry for dinner this evening. It was so weird.
But seriously, do you know how tiring this much fun is?
We took them to our favorite dinosaur museum for their last day with us!
FYI Eleanor has no problem with coprolite even when she's told it's dinosaur poop.
Patrick has a favorite staff member at the museum and always finds her and begs her to open the cockroach exhibit for him so he can pet one. And then he commands her to put it away. She's very sweet to our kids and makes it really fun to go and visit, we are big fans.
We had a hard time dragging Bradley out of the discovery room once we handed him and Aunt Anna a rather traumatizing mythology book to read together. Bradley has been talking about gorgons a lot lately.
Meanwhile, the other two had a rather fantastic tea party.
Yeah, Eleanor would be okay if grandparents were with us wherever we went.
Nathan and I even got a cute picture together while we were out at lunch like fancy folk at a restaurant near the museum! Smoochies!
Looking back at this pictures is helping me realize why Eleanor has been so clingy lately ...
And ... naked party happened. How could it not. Only Patrick and Eleanor participated. I guess modesty begins when you turn five.
And regardless of what Patrick thinks her real name is, the kids were all nuts for their Aunt Anna on this trip.
Bonus points to me for making sure nice group photos happened!
Eleanor was very sad when all of her cuddle buddies had to return home to Idaho and the lucky kitties got the benefit of Eleanor's need for constant snuggles.
Seriously though, I'm trying to raise three children who will become crazy cat people as adults. It warms my heart to see that at least one child is well on her way.
Honestly Patrick is probably the most affectionate with the kitties but he won't stop trying to pick them up or lay on top of them for cuddles so they mostly try to steer clear of him. Eleanor is gentle and they allow her to give more loves.
A lot of times Eleanor finds herself unable to walk over to the table for dinner, it really is a trial for her and she's accepting your hopes and prayers for the healing of her tired legs.
Patrick's favorite game these days is playing monsters with Bradley, who is still happily rearranging all of my furniture into forts.
I prefer it when we move the foam furniture around. Although that mat is supposed to be at the foot of the stairs. Bradley is very resourceful.
It's a bit uncanny how much the boys are alike when it comes to the two year old monster phase. I think Bradley was just a few months older when we took one of our all time favorite videos of him where he talks about watching out for the mmmmonster upstairs.
Seriously, he doesn't talk this much about anything. We had discussed how we were going over to Valerie and Kyla's house that afternoon and so he incorporated them into his monster mania.
I told Bradley not to get too wet ... he's so proud of himself.
We've been trying to work our way through 14 Land Before Time Movies that came in a collection. Thanks Grandpa Dan and Nana ... Bradley is very dedicated to accomplishing this great task.
And we've been going to the library a bunch. We ran into friends there the other day, which was very exciting for all involved. Do you know some librarians have a little bell they ding when you are being too loud? Fortunately for us we couldn't hear the bell at first (the system is flawed if you have to be quiet enough to hear the bell informing you to be quiet) but they came over and told us what the bell meant and that it had been rung already. So we very much tried to get things down to library levels of volume but the rest of our time at the library mostly sounded like ding ding ding ding ding ding ding!
So we left. Good thing we got a reasonable amount of fairy books while we were there.
This is a regular weekly haul from the library this summer. We average 20-30 new books per week.
Many thanks to my Aunt Diana for sending my kids cool Game of Thrones shirts. Of course they have no idea what that is, but they really enjoy their matching dragon shirts.
And I have a big thing for kids in oversized tshirts so between that and the matching thing they have been wearing the shirts constantly.
Patrick has been such a little awesome dude this summer and I don't just say this because he's been a lot more cuddly with me (but okay, maybe that has a lot to do with it).
I love his counting so much. We count to 14 a lot.
One rather funny part about Patrick leaving his room at bedtime these days is his recent habit of taking a handful of books into his bed with him, which he also brings along with him when he leaves his room. Sometimes we're talking about a rather sizable amount of books and the other night at bedtime after I heard Nathan leave Patrick's room and go in to Eleanor's room to read to the big kids I heard a few thumps and a door open so I thought I would go upstairs and check out what was going on. I walked up to Patrick's door, which was ajar, and heard deep groaning, kind of like how I imagine someone sounds when they have a hernia. I opened it and he was bent over a giant stack of books, trying to pick them all up and his blanket as well. I think he was rather relieved when I said I would stay in his room until he fell asleep and picked up all of his precious things for him, he cheerily hopped right back into bed as soon as I volunteered my services.
Eleanor comes in every once in a while too, either to get some moral support while she goes potty or to complain about Bradley not allowing her to cuddle him.
I can't imagine what he has to complain about. What is up with this sudden need for personal space?
Between nighttime disruptions and busy mornings out swimming or playing with friends, Eleanor has been one tired little girl lately. In theory she doesn't take naps anymore but they keep happening.
Patrick is happy to play bedtime with Eleanor. We're holding off on this happening for real. Three children sharing a room at night ... what could go wrong? I'm sure they would sleep tons.
Gymnastics birthday party at the local rec center. All three kids got to go. Could summer be any more fun? No wonder everyone is so tired.
We've been swimming a ton this summer, many times at pools with friends and a pizza dinner!
Bradley in particular is quite the swimming stud these days and even passed a swim test at the gym pool today which involved swimming the entire length of the adult pool! He got a cool wrist band and everything. He's been going down the big water slides both at the gym pool and at the community pool we go to regularly and swimming to the side like it's no big deal. Like most of my children's achievements, I am taking full credit for assisting him in this achievement although he pretty much just decided to swim and so he figured it out.
Eleanor actually started to swim a bit this past weekend, which was very exciting. She still does it without her face getting wet, which I respect and admire.
Sometimes at the community pool I can't be right by all three kids at the same time in the big pool so when Patrick went off across the pool to jump in while wearing his puddle jumper, I stayed by my friend and watched our girls play together while keeping an eye on Patrick from across the pool. When I eventually went over to retrieve the boy who had been jumping in on repeat for at least 10 minutes, the very nice woman whose granddaughter had been playing with him asked how old he was. I told her he was two and she laughed and told me he had said he was five when they asked him how old he was. And then when they asked him what his name was he hadn't answered so they had guessed Jackson and he nodded and said yes to this. Going to the pool is always a bit of an adventure with these sweet and hilarious children.
This is Eleanor she uses goggles. The first time she started tilting her head sideways in the water while wearing them I had no idea what she was trying to do. Then Nathan and I figured it out and started cracking up. It's rather ingenious!
A live demo. Bath is pink because we have color tablets that we toss in the water.
This was the outfit she picked out for herself for an easy Monday afternoon, hanging out at home.
And can you tell we've been ordering a fair bit of pizza lately? What else do you eat for dinner at the pool?
This crew. As long as we get to run our energy out we're just in a good place.
Eleanor remains so pink and so perfectly herself.
Bradley takes his big brother duties of showing Patrick how to do new things very seriously.
And I leave you with Patrick's story about princesses and and monsters. He loves to tell this story and we hear it often. Also, I adore how he calls me "Mama."
