Nathan Birthday and Family Visits and Patrick Laughing Video

I really shouldn't go three weeks between blog posts. This is going to be a long one!

One could need a nap in a ridiculous position after reading through the whole thing

We celebrated Nathan's birthday and I was fortunate to have the best helpers to make cupcakes and pick out presents for Daddy!

I worked my buns off to have the island looking like this for Nathan when he got home from work.

Nathan got a "rooster shirt" because I took the kids with me to Target on a very enthusiastic shopping adventure for presents for Daddy and that's the animal Bradley thought Daddy would like.

Classic alphabet song video taken in the Target parking lot. A lot of classic videos and pictures are happening these days, we're in quite the adorable phase.

 We also started a new tradition that I really like where the kids get to pick out a new toy or game for themselves that they will play with Daddy as part of the birthday celebration. This year it was a dinosaur toy for Bradley and a doll that can go in the bath for Eleanor but in future years I think it will be a new board game or something along those lines. 

 

And thanks to Grandpa Dan who was firmly on board with any opportunity to get grandkids new toys and got Bradley a bonus dinosaur and more Pete the cat books for Eleanor.

Big guy Patrick got on in reading time. And here Nathan is modeling his new birthday shirt. At least we didn't get him a tie. 

We've had a number of visitors lately! Grandma Colleen and Kerry came out for one weekend and my Aunt Diana visited the next. One of the nice thing about having guests is that we have an excuse to get out and do a bit more, which is a lot of fun.

We went to the Louisburg Cider Mill with Grandma Colleen and Kerry and despite not going on an official Cider Fest weekend the place was PACKED.

Giant slide down the side of a hill. Kids were game. 

Escaping from the kid maze version of a corn maze. 

It's decorative gourd season!

The highlight was certainly a bouncy "pillow."

But we still made sure there was time for grandparent cuddles. These kids could sit and be read to forever.

 Grandma toughed it out with a sleeping Patrick. Sweet snuggles!

And an obligatory park trip. 

Classic Eleanor singing video while Bradley hollers.

Major points to Nathan who independently decided to get a group photo! He did really well, too bad Patrick decided that Kerry was fascinating just in time for picture time. 

My Aunt Diana came to visit! She arrived just as we were finishing up family photos in the park. Hopefully I'll get the finished results in a couple weeks, can't wait! And as you can see, she and Bradley shared an instant bond.

She was great with the kids.

I lost count of the number of times she helped by putting Patrick to sleep. 

We got to take her to Deanna Rose! I don't know that we actually looked at any animals while we were there but she was a very good sport. 

We met up with my friend Jayme and her son Eli. Eli and Bradley share a special bond and proved to us that yes, that are both silly and cute little boys. 

These faces ... classic.

 We went to the Overland Park Arboretum. So pretty!

I took a picture of the two of us together. Proof that I got to see her too! I always just do pictures of the kids, trying to get myself in there occasionally as well. 

Costume fun with Aunt Diana.

Running fun with Aunt Diana.

Aunt Diana and my Uncle Bill are doing a family tour of Nebraska and are coming back to see us this Saturday, the children cannot wait!!

Eleanor. Oh my goodness. She gets an impish gleam in her eye whenever she's doing something "naughty." Here she is trying out Bradley's car seat while she was out on a shopping adventure with Mommy.

Is it bad that moments like these are when I feel closest to her? I sent my parents this picture and they responded by sending a picture of young me at an impish moment. Ahhh, genetics.

But seriously, it's a good thing that Bradley has a strong sense of self because Eleanor would happily run the show around here.

Patrick is becoming such a little person and I love it. I terrified him a couple of weeks ago by getting ready to go out on my first run since last summer (I think pregnancy fitness is overrated) and I put my hair up in a ponytail with a bright pink headband. Mommy was WRONG. There were a lot of tears and I'd try to hug him and he'd pull back to stare at me. Baby trauma!

He's also getting so mobile, he is an adept backwards scoocher and he can get up on his knees and even just hands and feet! It's very fun to watch. Here is a video that only a devoted parent and grandbaby obsessed grandparents should watch in entirety. He moves! He smiles! He's adorable. He can also scoot forward tiny amounts when something he wants is just out of his reach. No crawling but he can get pretty much wherever he wants, there's plenty of willpower.

And here's a 41 second treasure of Patrick laughing at a hilarious game of peekaboo about a minute after the first video was taken.

I've trained Eleanor to help feed him puffs and I don't know which one of them enjoys it more. That's a lie, Eleanor LOVES it and often requests the opportunity to feed him puffs.

I recently let Bradley get it on the fun and perhaps it was a bit much for little Patrick all at once.

Patrick is such a little love, I can't hardly stand it. He smiles at anyone and everyone that looks at him.

Eleanor and I say comforting things to Patrick when he's sad or fussy and Bradley generally assists by roaring loudly. I keep trying to make Bradley stop doing this but it hasn't seemed to affect Patrick's love and obsession with all things big brother.

Eleanor is our little memory keeper and talks about the time we left her water bottle at a friend's house pretty much every time we get in the car and says things like "We go to cider mill! Daddy sad." This is a reference to the first time we went to the Louisburg cider mill and brought back doughnuts for Daddy and talked about how sad he would be if we didn't save any for him. We talk about things like this ALL the time, Eleanor always has a favorite memory she wants to relive.

This is a new nightgown that we inherited from a friend that is not weather appropriate for sleepwear anymore and she will NOT forget about it. She's scored two new flannel princess nightgowns in my quest to get her to move on though, she isn't suffering too much.

She's also starting telling me "I so powd (proud) of you" which really warms my heart because I hadn't realized I had been saying these things enough to the kids to make it stick. She and Bradley will sometimes start saying "I so powd of you" "I'm proud of you too!" and then have a little hugfest and I could just roll over and die from the sweetness of it all.

Bradley's face here. And Eleanor's! Hilarious. Eleanor thinks he makes a great tree chair. 

However, there is balance in the force. I was eating breakfast with the kids one day and decided to tell them how happy I was that I had them in my life and they were so wonderful and I would be so sad if we didn't have them. Eleanor immediately said "I be sad if I didn't watch shows." Sighhhhhhh.

Eleanor has also started copying Bradley and now walks up to her room and lays down on her bed whenever she's "sad". She's had ample opportunity to observe Bradley in action, I don't know why he started doing this but whenever I give him a lecture about something like losing his dinosaurs forever if he keeps trying to have them play on top of Patrick's head he'll go full Charlie Brown on me and his chin will go to his chest as he sadly stomps up to his room and lays down on his bed. I always go to him and give him a hug and comfort him and I guess Eleanor thought this was a good deal. She watches EVERYTHING.

Taking a "nap" with Bradley

Making memories at Deanna Rose with friends. Good luck finding any pictures of my children with an animal, we like tractors and playgrounds and the garden area.

Eleanor and Bradley have different ideas about how good of a plan it is to share Eleanor's tractor.

The children still enjoy trying out Mommy's shoes for themselves.

Bradley has started to get a bit sneaky, which I'm not a big fan of but fortunately for him he's usually darned cute about it. Eleanor and Bradley were in the bath together and I stepped out of the bathrom to talk with Nathan while he was getting Patrick dressed in the nursery. I heard Eleanor crying, so I went back in the bathroom.
Me: "Eleanor, what happened?"
Eleanor: "Badley HIT me!"
Bradley: "No ... she hit herself." Gets a little grin on his face and starts whacking himself on the head with his hand to demonstrate.
Me: Desperately trying not to smile. Said something about getting along that I'm certain fixed all future sibling disagreements.

Bradley also employs similar quick thinking when I ask him if he needs to make a pee and he'll say "I'm just DANCING" or "I'm just HOPPING" and he'll demonstrate accordingly until he has to make a desperate run for the bathroom ten minutes after I first asked.

Bradley hasn't stopped enjoying having stories told to him that is made up by a caring parent or grandparent but it is very difficult to actually tell him a story because of the amount of direction that is given before the story begins and throughout the course of the story. You'll start something you think is pretty good and then you'll be loudly told that your story is supposed to be about a GIANT hippopotamus. And he's blue. And has tiny hippopotamus friends. Also, there is a dinosaur. So you get started and are interrupted to be told there should be a bad guy robot version of all the characters. You get going with that and things are looking a little resolved when you find out that there need to be more bad guys! Also, Eleanor should be in the story and she needs a robot bad guy version of herself as well. We rarely finish a story around here.

A lot of the story requests occur on our park outings. 

We love our friend Gracie and her sister Natalie and I kid you not, this is how we get them to come out and play with us at the park. We stand on their fence and yell until they come out. There is so much joy whenever they are home and the yelling method works. 

 Climbing trees with friends.

Oh, and Patrick had his 6 month appointment and weighed in at 20lb 4.5oz and 27.5 inches tall. That's a little over 90th percentile weight and 70th percentile height. Solid. For comparison, Bradley weighed about 10oz less at this appointment and was an inch taller. Patrick is going to be able to give Bradley a run for his money!

I can not properly share just how excited Patrick gets when he sees Nathan when Daddy gets home from work. It's hard to hold Patrick in my arms with all the squirming and jumping around he does while smiling from ear to ear.

Eleanor has been increasingly upset about having to leave Bradley at school so I've been trying to step up the fun at home while he's at preschool.

I do okay I think but can anything equal having a picture taken of you and cut on and placed on your paper house you created? 

We also got to bring home Elliott the class elephant for the weekend which came with games and books and we had to bring the little elephant puppet around with us all weekend. School is so exciting!

Elephant matching game. Eleanor wants in on this.

Eleanor subtly letting her presence be known during elephant story time.

Bringing an elephant with us to the cider mill.

Perhaps if she didn't desperately need to copy Bradley for everything ...

These sweet kids. This is a picture that happened after Eleanor informed Bradley that she was going to read to him.

And running around like maniacs in the leaf covered front yard. 

We love fall, we spend so much time outdoors. And we get to go trick or treating at Nathan's office this afternoon! The kids are SO ready, it's going to be a lot of fun.