Eleanor: Bradley, purple or pink?
Bradley: PURPLE! Because pink is like the inside of a mummy, duh! (cackles with laughter)
She better really hope this new baby is a girl.
Because yes, we are expecting Scott baby #4! I am due on Valentine's Day and things are going well, although there are a lot more questions about the baby being in my tummy this time around. I've already gotten to explain the history and purpose of their belly buttons a few times to the older kids.
My favorite part of this pregnancy, as always, was the moment we confirmed it was just one baby and not twins.
Video of heartbeat! Baby is the size of a grape. Also the source of a fair bit of older child discussion. They are very interested in the idea that they could eat the baby right now. Maybe we need to use non food examples of size for a while.
Yep, I see this photo and I think "we need another kid." The kids come in for cuddles every morning now and it's rather glorious. I love our lazy summer mornings.
We'll just stick a kid on my shoulders. Plenty of room for a fourth.
Eleanor naps are always best when kitties are involved. This morning Eleanor and I were cuddling in the master bedroom and very happy Layla was in with us and was sticking her rear high into the air as I pet her lower back. Eleanor sighed and said, "Layla, change your life."
Patrick quotes are some of my favorite right now. "I like this show! Don't embarrass me watching this show"
Or going for a walk in the park. We come across a woman walking her dog and pet said dog for a while.
Me: Okay, bye bye doggie! (Woman and dog start to walk away)
Patrick: No, I love her! (Chases after dog)
We went for a Kindergarten play date for Eleanor at the school playground and Patrick climbed the highest thing he could find. It doesn't even phase me or Nathan anymore, we just take pictures.
My favorite thing about this crew of kids is how they play together. There are some fights but in general they all love to be around each other and it says something that the worst punishment I can devise is to isolate a child in their room.
Bradley decided to play in his room one morning and the other two could not handle not being near him. So they invaded and everyone was very happy.
Nathan won stud dad prize the other week by making bows for the boys out of sticks and twine.
And then sticks for arrows. It's good enough for battling zombies in our backyard. Have I mentioned that these kids refer to zombies as "lots of me" based on an episode of Phineas and Ferb? They'll literally say "watch out for the lots of me!"
I'm not sure why Eleanor didn't end up with a bow. She wanted the princess one we saw at Target a while back. Pink does reign triumphant in her heart though, if it's not a pink bow then why even bother?
Boys planning a zombie defense on another day when I booted them into the backyard to play together. Patrick is going to be a wreck when Bradley goes back to school.
I've gotten to do a fair bit of baking this summer and Patrick is my best helper for clearing the bowl of blueberry muffin batter.
I just wish he though it was really yummy.
Cute Nathan picture out at a baseball game with work friends! We're trying to take advantage of as much baby free time as possible.
And my parents have moved here since my last post! We have been loving having them here and they're already active members of the pickle-ball set.
Eleanor likes having grandparents here because she's already scoring bonus toys, like this castle book thing my mom found for her at the used book store in our library.
The little playground by my parents' neighborhood pool is fun and we discovered that Patrick can will his way across a set of monkey-bars if the older siblings do it in front of him. It's hard work to keep up but Patrick is willing to forsake all personal safety in the name of being able to do anything his brother and sister can do.
My parents' move here was very well timed because we had a good crew of Nebraska and Texas extended family who came by a few days after my parents' arrived and we had a nice Saturday afternoon visit.
Patrick may love my Uncle Ray.
Everyone may love Uncle Ray.
And lovely Aunt Myrna.
I've often wondered what it would be like to have a shy child. I still don't know. Except for the time last week where firefighters came into the pediatrician's office to do a fire safety check and Patrick refused to look at them or talk to them but was insistent that I talk to them and ask them lots of fire related questions. Fun times.
The kids are cuddly enough. My dad is covering Patrick's mouth her because I'm pretty sure Patrick was being an imp.
My cousin Julie.
And the whole adult crew (minus photographer Nathan) with a little Patrick in the back if you look closely.
Eleanor was gone for a couple hours for a play date the other day, leaving me at home alone with two boys. While I love my boys I do not understand them at all sometimes, like when a favorite dinosaur song comes on and they start rocking out and doing air guitar with the vacuum cleaners.
The love is real. Like when Bradley is at the park for a 1st grade play date and Patrick literally wraps his arms around Bradley's waist in order to follow him more effectively and both boys are completely satisfied with this arrangement.
So sweet.
Back scratch time.
I get Bradley loves too sometimes!
Patrick couldn't believe his luck the other day when Layla cuddled up on him during a show.
And here are the boys playing on the platform swing together in the back. Our yard has never really been used until this past year and thanks to the platform swing it is very well loved indeed.
Eleanor had a big day waiting for Idaho family to get here so she could have her family birthday party at my parents' neighborhood pool. She refused to put on regular clothes and went around in her swimsuit all day.
We had previously gone to Dairy Queen to order her ice cream cake and get the kids celebratory blizzards.
And all the waiting paid off when we went to the pool and got to do a family celebration for our five year old!
It was a lot of fun having Nana, Grandpa Dan, and Aunt Anna here to visit. Good news, there were plenty of cuddles.
They got to go see Eleanor's new dance class before we left for Lake of the Ozarks. We found a new studio that we really like.
The previous week when we went to her first class left the boys a bit jealous that they didn't get to get in on the fun.
It is a lot of fun to watch, the classes are small and the teachers are very nice. And the dancing is inspired!
Eleanor's fan club for her second class.
Hmm, where does Bradley get this from?
The audience seriously outnumbered the class.
Although at least one member of the audience would have happily joined the class if given half a chance.
We got to the lake and were given Patrick's new favorite clothes of all time courtesy of Nathan's cousin who owns a Soccer Shots franchise.
And good news, cuddles continued.
So many cuddles.
Eleanor and her cousin Ava had doll time together.
Matching hair!
And the boys went deep into video games together.
It was cool guy time, but cool guys can also cuddle, alright?
We mostly swam a bunch while we were there but we did take a break or two to watch Pokemon shows together.
Cutie at the pool!
Patrick started to swim while we were there. No joke.
He would also dive for toys and did so successfully but I didn't manage to get a video of that.
Eleanor had a great time with Ava and her Aunt Anna while we were at the pool.
Water ballet.
We stayed up and watched the fireworks from the deck in our condo and it was my favorite 4th of July in some time. Patrick finally noticed his cousin James the next morning and was very taken with him. He ran around lassoing him on repeat and wanted to introduce him to Bradley because "he is a gentleman."
The friendship became real when James offered to let Patrick have one of his green jellos.
Eleanor's morning.
Bradley's morning.
Our afternoon. Patrick fell on a stake that was just off the path back to our condo and we got to go to the ER for stitches. No lake for him or any of us, no swimming for two weeks. And also the gift of what looks to be a nice scar.
It took three hours before he actually got the stitches. We are very grateful that tablets exist otherwise I don't know how the waiting would have gone, especially since we had the other two kids waiting in there too.
Patrick was a champ about everything but the actual stitches. It's good that he doesn't know any swear words because he would have used them all.
We came home and I was instructed to have him take things easy.
That was super easy to do. I asked Eleanor why Patrick wasn't wearing any clothes on this particular morning and she said "because he's the butler!" Of course, so obvious.
I thought a nice park outing might be a good idea.
He showed medium signs of self preservation here as well.
Yes, he jumped down like this. On repeat.
Fortunately, we now have grandparents nearby. So we went by for some cozy playtime and some cuddles and books.
Patrick was calm here too.
Patrick knows how to have a good time.
We got to shoot off our 4th of July fireworks just a couple days late, over at our friends the Rutherfords' house. It hadn't been legal to shoot them off by Lake of the Ozarks. Little fireworks are the best kind, you can get quite a bit of fun for just $40!
Then we were rejoined by the Idaho crew who stayed at the lake a few more days than us.
We finally broke open the geodes that Uncle Daniel and Aunt Stephanie sent us for Christmas.
It was actually a great deal of fun to break them open! We all enjoyed it thoroughly!
We have them all on display on our built-ins by the fireplace now.
Although Bradley insisted on one special geode residing in his room.
Anna was the only "kid" who broke open her own geodes. Honestly it's fun for any age, there's lots to be said for getting to bust a rock open and find beautiful treasure on the inside!
And for our last morning with the Idaho gang we went to Deanna Rose. Patrick caught a fish!
There was great joy over ice cream. I love this picture.
And I love this picture too. Eleanor gets so excited about girls being here. There are just so many boys most of the time.
And our best nice group picture.
But I think this is my favorite. It is certainly more accurate.
We miss having the Idaho crew here and Patrick in particular complained a fair bit when they left. But Bradley mostly loves Legos right now and was cheered up with a new double headed dinosaur Lego creation. He literally spends hours every day building and creating with them, it makes me so happy.
And because we couldn't go to the pool due to Patrick's injury we made a very hot trip to the Arboretum with friends.
Mabel's mom got this picture of the best buds walking along together. They're just adorable.
I love this neat arch they have, I have a toddler picture of Bradley running through this that I love.
It was hot so we didn't last very long. I took the boys to Costco later, I think Eleanor was at my parents' house, and this is what it looked like as I shopped.
Shopping trip at Walmart a few days later. I mean, it generally doesn't stay all that calm in the kart but there's certainly a lot of love.
Waiting for Eleanor to get out of her dance class. Patrick is once again demonstrating how to take it easy on a leg with stitches.
And Eleanor's little mini recital. It was very cute.
Patrick and I take naps together in my bed most days and I love it.
But then, most of this crew gets pretty tired with all the running around we do.
Although this was rather surprising the other day. We had just gotten back from an exciting morning over at my parents' house and I guess it rather took it out of the boy
We took some friends to the Museum of Prairiefire and we all thoroughly enjoyed their new photo op.
And Eleanor's friend Greenlee taught Eleanor how to play Mancala! You know how I love it when my children learn new games. And this is a classic.
We actually hosted a bit of a game party last weekend because I got a couple of freebie copies of a new board game through a website in exchange for having people over and posting a couple of pictures of it on my Facebook page. It was a special edition of one of our favorite games, Codenames, so we were excited to try it.
Mabel was there and Patrick said "Sit on my lap for the show, Mabel!" and so she did. He isn't like this for anyone else, it's just so sweet.
Here is the complete crew of ten kids between three families who were all in attendance on this stormy Saturday afternoon.
And the grown-up crew! Plus a few younger interlopers. Actually, all the older boys were quite good at the game and were a lot of fun to play with. It was a nice afternoon!
We're mostly pretty classy around here these days.
Look, we're doing cheers with milk in fancy glasses at dinner!
Patrick got his stitches out a couple days ago and all seems to be healing well.
The process was highly exciting and also exhausting it seems.
The next day we went to the Berry Patch to pick blueberries with friends. So nice having grandparents who live here, they came along and we actually got a reasonable haul of blueberries this year!
Grandma and her helpers showing off their early work.
Bradley ditched his bucket early on and just ate blueberries off the bushes the entire time we were there so it's probably okay we paid a little extra to have to the kids go on the cute kiddie ride.
Also, before leaving I told Eleanor to change into something that she could get hot and dirty in while picking berries and this is what she selected.
Kiddie ride!
We were very lucky it was an overcast and breezy morning. The kids were still very sweaty from all the excitement and running around.
Please note all three children made it into this picture.
And my cute parents! It really is so nice to have them here. It's exceeding all expectations. Just so fun to have them able to join us on some of our outings and Nathan and I very much enjoying our now frequent brunch dates on the weekends while they watch the kids.
The kid crew from the Berry Patch.
Patrick is good at pictures.
We went home and made some berry cobbler as a team. This is right before it went into the oven. So. Good.
And in the interest of keeping things going, I took the kids to Science City this morning! With the Monahans, they have a membership and Patrick is a lot more enthusiastic about this outings if Mabel is going to be there.
It was a very good time, we were big fans.
And very tired after we left.
But what the crew is most excited about is to go back next week for their giant dinosaur exhibit. Truly giant.
Could they be any cuter? Could summer be any more fun? And we get to take Patrick swimming again as of tomorrow!
Things are going to be quite different in a few months when we are joined by baby #4 but these older three make me so excited to meet another adorable Scott child.
