Artist Bradley and Tutu Cute Patrick

Here are the children. This is what they do.

Conversations with the children are growing more and more entertaining. This was what happened when I tried to pray at bedtime the other night:

Me: Dear Jesus ...
Eleanor: (to me) You would be so sad if you ate us. HAHAHAHAHA!!!

Dinner conversation:

Bradley: I want to have a lot of wives and burn a lot of tires!
Nathan: ??
Me: Birth a lot of childs.
Nathan: Is that ... better?

And this is a typical post dinner discussion that we had tonight:

Eleanor: Hey Mommy, do you want to play a calm princess game with me? The nice princess has to run away from the mean princess. You can be the mean princess.
Bradley: I want to play! Can I be the nice one? Does the nice one have powers?
Eleanor: No, the nice one doesn't have any powers. The mean one has powers.
Bradley: Can I be the mean one?!
Eleanor: No, Mommy is the mean one.
Bradley: (runs away roaring with a fake dinosaur tail attached to his shorts. A fake dinosaur tail is a long piece of yarn with a cup attached to the end if curious minds want to know).

Then they walked downstairs to join Daddy and Patrick chatting happily about whether the princesses should have dinosaur pets and whether or not those pets should be nice or mean.

These two. Nathan and I like to say "do they even exist without the other one around?" Here they are circling books from the Scholastic order form they brought home from school when I told them we could probably get them three books each.

Fully half of the books in the catalog ended up being circled. We'll just have to check them out from the library.

They are always draped all over each other when we go in to make sure they have some covers on before we go to bed.

This last picture isn't that impressive until you realize that Eleanor is supposed to be on the other side of Bradley. We left her over there and then when I went in in the morning she was back on her side and Bradley was hugging a Berenstain Bears book. Both were still asleep. No idea how this happened.

I've been trying to have more mellow time at home for the kids to play instead of tossing them into the car and getting them out of the house so that child behavior would be easier to manage. They've really been enjoying doing more around the house, Bradley in particular has been all about the arts and crafts lately.

Self portrait of Bradley with a flower he was planning to grow from the seed (which was actually a rock) that he brought home from school with him one day. 

This one is especially sweet. He had learned how to write the little "M" at school so I told him that meant he knew how to write Mommy and helped him through it. He then drew a picture of us holding hands to celebrate. I've never seen a more beautiful picture!

And of course Patrick likes to copy whatever Bradley is doing. Except paint is Patrick's medium of choice. I didn't have any choice about the pictured painting spree, he got all the materials out and yelled at me until I complied.

He also really likes to copy Eleanor, which is generally very cute.

But is increasingly becoming an issue in other ways. My general rule of thumb is that I'm going to try to keep things to a level where 17 year old Patrick won't be mad at me for letting him do this stuff when he was little and didn't know better. But have you ever tried to argue with an excited toddler about wearing a tutu?

Or the time we got Eleanor a new ridiculous pink frilly dress and he could NOT handle that she got something so cool and we were going to completely neglect poor Patrick.

I'm doing what I can, Patrick. At least the tutus and dresses are staying within the house right now. If you weren't so darn cute in them maybe I wouldn't take pictures of it. Too bad you're adorable.

Playing doctor with his friend Mabel

Patrick is so sweet with his little friends. He jumps up and down and screams generally when he sees them. Sometimes he also has to push them around a bit and hit them a bunch while squealing with glee. It's a lot of enthusiasm to withstand, we really appreciate how sweet his friends are about it. We're working on the hitting.

The others are doing their bit to make me a little crazy as well. There has been a fair bit of using nature as our potty when we've been out at the park lately, despite me asking children if they need to go before we leave. Bradley isn't too tough (although the amount of joy he expressed at peeing in the bushes is a bit concerning) but helping little Eleanor out requires stripping her down naked from the waist down. There's a path that goes right by the two little playgrounds we go to in the big park we back on, so it's all very public and we're lucky no one has walked by while we've been taking care of business. And I'm just lucky it's not an option for Patrick yet, he has already emphatically expressed his interest in participating in the fun new park activity.

Notice the pink shirt? That's how I negotiated him out of a tutu before we left the house. It's a fair trade apparently. Patrick also climbs everything at the park now.

When I try to help him on the biggest one he hollers "Myself! Myself!" at me until I leave him alone. I'm all for letting him figure out his own limits at the park but I would prefer to avoid six foot drops just yet. He makes it on his own though!

Patrick is so strong because he eats well. I credit the healthy eating habits that I have established in this household for general strength and vigor of the children.

Yeah, that's a lot of donuts for one boy. He did well.

Bradley is both strong and ridiculously nice to his siblings. He is in heaven when they're crawling all over him or demanding Bradley cuddles.

And Daddy jungle gym status remains unchanged.

He made the grievous error of asking children to walk across his ouchie back.

Do you want to know what the scariest sound in the world is? The sound of complete silence when all three children have shut themselves in your closet. I finally opened the door after I hear Eleanor saying "I am a superhero!" over and over. The boys were playing in Nathan's clothes and Eleanor had found an old halter top sundress I had worn on my honeymoon and found a new use for it.

I guess we have to keep it now.

Eleanor is really into brushing hair now. It's quite the experience to have her brush yours.

She has been our little gymnastics champ every Saturday morning for 10 weeks now and was very excited to get her diploma for her class this past week.

However, she talks constantly about her new ballet class she's going to be starting in another week and a half. It's actually called Intro to Dance but she is only interested in the ballet aspect of things. If you ask her to do ballet you get some pretty amazing moves. Nathan and I are very much looking forward to taking turns watching her do her class.

She went on a quick shopping trip with me last night and can I say I think I deserve some sort of prize for getting a toddler through toy aisles without actually getting anything? We found so many things we loved so dearly. I take pictures and tell her we'll try to remember for her birthday.

Fun Eleanor story from the other day (and perhaps why I don't think she needs any more toys): I asked Eleanor what she thought she was doing as she threw a bunch of stuffed toys off a chair one by one. She responded cheerfully "Making a mess!"

Okay then. You certainly do know what you are doing. Carry on, I suppose.

The best shopping is with a buddy though. This is how we do Costco. (Please note how Eleanor's finger is in Patrick's eye. She thought this was hilarious.)

And good news, we still love our fancy swing. I am a bit concerned about using it in the summer months because one warm day it had a fair number of gnats on it and ever since then Patrick has carefully inspected it for bugs and if he even sees a speck of dirt he yells "Bug!" on repeat until I brush it off. We're in Kansas, kids. This isn't the place to be if you have a thing about bugs.

The swing is great for cuddles, by the way.

We've been getting a fair amount of Kory and Fatima time lately, much to the children's delight. They went with the kids and Nathan to the dinosaur museum one weekend and we had them over for dinner this past weekend.

Bradley at his favorite spot in the Discovery Room at the museum: the baby area where he can play with toy dinosaurs.

Sometimes guests are not prepared for the Patrick dinner loves when he insists on sitting between people on the bench.

There are a fair amount of loves to be had. And your hair might get pulled a bit in the process.

No idea why the kids are such big fans of the fun people who come and make a big fuss over them and give them rides on their shoulders. It must remain a great mystery.

Patrick even cuddled on Kory's lap for a solid 10 minutes while warming up from his time playing out on the deck while Nathan was grilling. I don't know what calm Patrick cuddles feel like. Kory is indeed a lucky man.

The kitties know all about Patrick cuddles. The other night we tested their devotion to their special treat of wet cat food by giving it to them while Patrick was around. He loved this plan.

And he had so many kisses for kitties.

Look at that physique! And look at Layla. She never left the cat food despite SO MANY Patrick loves.

Patrick loves Bradley too. It really is quite sweet, these three kids together. They certainly have times of angst and conflict but when it really comes down to it they are nuts for each other.

Patrick is really into kissing me now. It's fully as amazing as you might think it would be.

Please note how this video ends. This is standard Patrick behavior these days. Poor Bradley and Eleanor.

We're having fun but we're very tired because of all of our very busy cool kid stuff we do. Also, daylight savings is so annoying. Luckily Nathan is willing to take one for the team when there are tired kids that need to be cuddled. Well done, honey.