Seriously, best daddy ever. The kids haven't stopped talking about this.
Things are settling down in the Scott household. Have I mentioned how fun Patrick is to be around these days? And how nicely the kids generally play together. We're in a pretty sweet spot and we are enjoying it thoroughly.
Here's Bradley running in to hug Patrick as he wakes up from a nap.
We're a cozy crew.
Patrick desperately trying to get me to let him sit in the back row with the big kids.
This is how the kids like to play after they eat breakfast in the morning. Every day my children play games in which their toys' parents are dead. Thank you, Disney.
Bath time with all three kids mostly works ... sometimes things are a bit too cozy, even in Mommy and Daddy's big tub.
And while Seattle is buried in snow, Kansas has been nice! Very mild weather and we've gotten quite a few park outings in. Some are more okay with what I feel is reasonable park weather than others ...
I don't think Eleanor ever made it out of her pile of blankets in the wagon on this particular outing.
Later trips to the park met with more Eleanor approval.
I found out that Bradley has a really good friend at school. Not from Bradley, I heard it from his friend's mom at a classmate's birthday party back in December. A wealth of information Bradley is not. And it seems that the little boy lives approximately two minutes from our house and will go to the same elementary school next year. We finally had little Noah and his little brother (who is Patrick's age!) come over for a play date while Eleanor was at gymnastics on a Saturday and Bradley played with his friend a fair bit but also worked on this:
Yes, that is his favorite dinosaur board game combined with: duplo legos, additional dinosaurs, play doh, pieces from a train track, sticky goo dots, and bath toys. He would do this to everything in the house if possible. It's hilarious and creative and adorable but we are also missing a fair number of puzzle pieces due to this predilection.
Bradley is amazing at games. One of my favorite things these days is taking a power nap with Eleanor while Patrick is sleeping in his room and Bradley has quiet time in his own room. And then I go get Bradley and we play lots and lots of games while the other two are still sleeping. Bradley is a champ at Slamwich, which is our current favorite. It's a speed game that's ages 6+ and it has quite a number of specific rules and Bradley knows them all and legitimately outslaps me a fair number of times. Then he laughs and taunts me. I'm so happy about all of this. I have been trying him to be a good loser when I happen to win a game and we have a mommy victory song/smooch attack that he laughs through. But seriously - family - all this kid wants to do is play games with you.
Here he is teaching Patrick how to play The Sneaky Snacky Squirrel.
Mario Kart was a bit of a stretch it turns out. Ah well. We can wait on the video games.
Bradley is also quite excellent at getting himself invited to birthday parties these days. A little friend of Eleanor's was having a birthday party at Urban Air Trampoline Park and I had told Bradley that it was just a party for Eleanor to go to and not for him. He asked why and I may have made a mistake when I told him it was probably going to be mostly just for girls and he was a boy. He found the birthday girl at preschool pick-up and asked her if he could go to her birthday party, if it was for boys too. The newly four year old girl enthusiastically told him yes, he could go so I checked with the mom (fortunately it was a friend) and he ended up at the adorable birthday party that Saturday. Well played, son.
Who's the kid in the group picture that's half a head taller than everyone else? Ah yes, that would be my son.
Eleanor is loving her gymnastics classes and Nathan and I have a lot of fun trading off who gets to go watch her on Saturday mornings.
No idea why this video uploaded sideways. But it's still pretty darn adorable. Eleanor is very tired after gymnastics class, she is moving the entire time.
One time I even brought Patrick with me to watch because there is a little play place available for younger kids while the big kids are in class. We'll see if we repeat that little experiment. He mostly just wanted to run around in the hallway. Slide did not last long. The only other activity was telling a 14 month old girl who was literally half his size "mess mess" on repeat as he picked up the Legos she was trying to play with by sloppily spilling them out all over the floor. Patrick knows how to keep up standards.
Patrick got his first haircut a couple weeks ago! It was very much time for it to be done. He watched Bradley get his hair cut first and then wanted nothing to do with the scissors and instead wanted the loud and what we thought would be more scary clippers. But nope. Patrick was not to be jipped of his haircut experience.
Pretty cute result!
Strangers come up to me and tell me that they would take "that one" home with them. No one can handle this much cuteness.
Cute and naughty ... it's a deadly combo.
And it finally is cute, now that it has stopped teething and sleeps through the night once again. And doesn't just cling to me crying and mostly asking for Daddy.
 |
| Lucky Meg |
The kids may begin to figure out they get more crowd pleasing food like this while Daddy is off on work trips and Mommy wants things to be easy and happy at home. He went to New Mexico this past week, it's surprisingly pretty there!
I would have been lonely in the evening without him around. Fortunately for me, I'm never truly alone.
The sweet neighbor girl Addison recently gave us a bunch of her old toys which the kids have been enjoying thoroughly.
But nothing is as fun as Addison herself!
And we're very much into family performance time on the fireplace these days. Jingle Bells is the song of choice.
Again, no idea why the video is sideways. My apologies.
And Patrick and his little friend Mabel have been getting a lot of time together lately.
We go to library story time with Mabel and her mommy on a regular basis and it used to be a kind of cute and mellow time. Although Patrick was always happy to ditch me and cuddle up with Mabel and her mommy.
Until Patrick discovered there was a jumping song. Now all he wants to do for story time is this.
Bradley has been all about giving Patrick horsey rides lately. I don't know which boy enjoys it more.
Even other games turn into horsey rides
Ring around the rosie is also a crowd favorite
Notice all the Seahawks gear? This is when Nathan still had playoff dreams for his team.
And then it turned into a dress-up party. I'm glad my wedding veil is still being put to good use.
I think this is the best picture to capture the Bradley spirit these days.
Interestingly enough, the violence he is referring to is not the football game, it was for a commercial for a movie. In a somewhat teasing manner I told him he shouldn't watch the violence and we didn't want him to learn about guns. So he immediately said with a big grin "I want to watch this, I want to learn how to shoot a gun." Sighhhhh. He's certainly my child. Such a stinker.
And ... this is the Eleanor spirit. So much. I rather love when they run around in their underwear. We play a game where they run laps and I try to catch them and give them hugs and kisses when they run by the couch. It is a favorite game for all.
Children with little or no clothes on is one of my favorite things. I really enjoy how if one strips down the other two instantly want their clothes off as well. Bradley came running downstairs in his underwear the other day to grab something and as soon as Patrick saw him he starting tugging at the front of his jammies and yelling "Off! Off!"
Patrick takes careful notes on everything his siblings do. Lucky for him they love being copied.
Don't worry, Bradley is studied and copied as well.
Eleanor is so fun. Sometimes she does exactly what you would expect: declare an undying love of princesses at every opportunity.
We moved her princess castle into her room and it has been a hit.
And other times she climbs on top of play structures in a manner even her big brother would not attempt and says her favorite color is red instead of pink or purple.
We have been taking full advantage of our membership at "The Dinosaur Museum" aka The Museum at Prairie Fire. They know me by name there and Bradley can recite the rules to the Discovery Room by heart,
Nathan and I went there without kids for a brunch date a few weeks back. So much fun!
Me at the exhibit
Bradley at the exhibit later on the same day. Like I said - we may be the best members they have.
Many thanks to our friends Kory and Fatima for babysitting the kids while Nathan and I checked out the museum. The kids thank you too and I heard many complaints when they woke up from nap time and you were no longer here.
We can even take friends there for free on play dates because I can get in up to six people for free!
 |
| Play date #1 |
 |
| Play date #2 |
And we continue to go for their Little Explorers Club classes. I sign them up for every single class regardless of subject matter because ... why not?
Which seems to be a great strategy because Surviving in the Ice Age was not nearly as popular as other classes so they got to play with glacier goo a fair bit. Seriously, they do such cool programming.
And this is what happens now when I tell the kids to hold hands on the way back to the car.
For the record, at not quite 22 months old Patrick still vehemently refuses to walk anywhere holding MY hand but holding Bradley or Eleanor's hand is fully acceptable.
Big kids both had dental appointments two weeks ago and were champion patients. I got so many compliments for their good behavior although I don't know how impressive it truly was because they got to watch shows through the entire endeavor. Thank goodness for tv's in dental offices, good for both kids and grown-ups.
And let us end this blog post on some sleeping photos of the big kids. We have to go in there every night to check and make sure kids are covered so of course we get some pretty amazing sleeping pictures.
I know ... it's a lot of sleeping pictures. But they are so darn cute. And often hilarious.
No comments:
Post a Comment