Well, the big move is underway and while Daddy drives out to Kansas City with the kitties, Bradley and I are staying with my parents who deserve a medal for being so nice about us moving halfway across the country with a grandchild. Not to mention with another on the way.
Fun little Bradley story: Nathan was cleaning out the grill the day before the movers came so Bradley and I went outside to keep him company. Bradley discovered rocks and was happily playing with the little gravel rocks in the pathway to the house and I repeatedly tried to keep him from crawling around because I knew it would hurt his little hands. He eventually got his way and crawled on gravel. No tears. We know no pain when we really want to move around. We're so in for it with this kid.
Bradley is in heaven during this stay with my parents, my dad is able to work some flexible hours and is getting a lot of Bradley time during the day and then Grandma pretty much takes over the evening. Bradley loves both of them so much. Nathan and I really can't compete. This morning I handed the child off to my dad and went back to bed (it was a bit of a rough Bradley night) and apparently my mom had difficulty getting ready and getting out of the house for work because the Bradley monster was quite insistent that she hold him. And then this afternoon when my dad came home for lunch he did not get to have his ice cream dessert because as I was holding the little child he was making desperate noises and pushing off of me in order to get to his grandpa. It's pretty hilarious to witness.
I don't even try to compete. How can I compete with this? (The whole video is excellent but it gets AMAZING around the 45 sec mark)
And the thing I love about it is, he's like this with all of his grandparents. Mine have an advantage because they've been closer and been able to see the Bradley man more often, but he really loves all of his grandparents so much. Definitely more than his parents. Nathan's dad is driving out to Kansas with him and spending about a week with us there while we set up the house and I'm so happy the Bradley is going to get some quality time in with him. We hope we will have many visitors when we have our little girl, there's a spare room in the house and I'm pretty sure Bradley is going to feel neglected if the non-stop attention does not continue with the arrival of sweet little girl baby.
Bradley is a walking machine these days. He took about 7 or 8 steps in front of his great-grandma yesterday and then did so again in front of my dad later in the day. He hasn't done this in front of my mom because it's difficult to take solo steps when someone is helping you walk the entire time so you don't fall and maybe hurt yourself. Grandma is protective. Also, Grandma is the fun time person while Grandpa is the cuddle and go to sleep person. My dad was at work during Bradley's bedtime last night and so I told my mom to get in there and read to him and get Bradley snuggles because it's so sweet when he cuddles up to you and lays his head on your shoulder when he's going to sleep. She couldn't do it, he wouldn't settle down with her. She handed him off to me and he was asleep in his crib literally two minutes later.
The scary thing is, these are basically Nathan's and my roles with Bradley. I remember trying to play with Bradley when he was three weeks old and being a bit disappointed that all he really wanted to do was sit and look lights and shadows and then go back to sleep. And when he went to sleep I'd happily lay him in his crib so I could run around and get things done. On the other hand, Nathan was ecstatic to cuddle and take naps with our little boy and is really looking forward to getting to do this again with a fresh baby in a few months. While I am relieved that this time I can get some cuddle time in with the little girl but at least Bradley will be running around like a maniac so things won't be so quiet and quite frankly a little boring this time around. Wonderful and cuddly ... but boring when stretched out over a couple of months. I remember I was pretty relieved when Bradley started grabbing at toys and interacting with us. Just one of the things about staying home with the kids, I guess.
Not that I don't absolutely adore getting to be home with Bradley. He is so much fun these days and I love taking him out to the park and kiddie play places and even to the grocery store because I'm kind of a celebrity there when I show up with a cute kid. When we were gone for our house hunting trip in Kansas City I missed him terribly. Luckily for me, my parents took a crazy number of pictures. Here are some of my favorites:
Yes, they let the child get into cupboards and play with food
At least they didn't let him into the garbage and detergent cupboard
But everything else was fair game
Everything
Apparently my parents were pretty tired after their weekend of doting on the child's every whim
Playing with a pokey sharp thing. Delightful.
Meal time is happy time
And ... back to destruction
Of everything
When he got really tired he would snuggle up to Spongebob. He was tired a lot.
I LOVE that they got this picture
And this may be my favorite. Wow.
This is about the sweetest thing ever. Until you realize that my math teacher mother is trying to teach the 11 month old how to use a graphing calculator.
Bradley loves raspberries
This is from our goodbye dinner with my family. This is my reaction when I find out that there are little girl clothes in this box.
Bradley is moderately impressed
Bradley with Great-Grandpa King
Amazing action shot. My mom starting shooting all pictures of Bradley in sports mode because the kid never stops moving.
With Great-Grandma King
He loves his great grandparents
He was also adorably attached to his Great-Aunt Jackie
So many cute pictures, he's such a little doll baby. It would almost be easier if he was a little more angsty and fussy, perhaps we wouldn't have to feel as guilty about taking him away from all of his family. I hear the blizzards are lovely this time of year in the Midwest, people should come and visit us!
Nathan and I can't believe that we'll be moving our little family to Kansas City in just a couple weeks. Since telling our friends and family that the move is official there has been 1) A gas line explosion at a restaurant four blocks away from where we shopping two days prior to that and 2) A "thundersnow" storm where it literally poured rain and they got about a foot of snow in not much time and the airport shut down. This was two days after the gas line explosion. The move was looking much better just a few days ago.
We had a very successful house hunting trip, found a nice big place just 8 minutes from Nathan's new job. We had a fabulous time house hunting thanks to my parents who took Bradley for the three days we were gone. My parents and Bradley had a fabulous time as well, NO ONE missed us. Bradley seemed really excited to see us in the middle of the night when he woke up and refused to go back to his crib which hasn't happened for a while, but in the light of day he was more than good with spending time with his grandma and grandpa and didn't bat an eye when we left the house to go shopping for a new car for Nathan. At least our kitties missed us! Absolutely ridiculous.
I momentarily entertained the idea of trying to compete with the grandparents for Bradley's affection and then decided it was too much work. My dad had a wisdom tooth taken out and was gargling and spitting out water for Bradley's entertainment (it made Bradley laugh) even though it aggravated his case of dry socket. This is madness, I can't compete with this level of dedication.
They took him on walks where they carried him the whole time and they held him whenever he seemed bored and let him destroy all the cupboards in their kitchen because he enjoyed it. My mom even made a little photobook of Bradley "discovering torque" to commemorate their time together. Nerdy and adorable, that's how my mom does it. Bradley is certainly catered to at home but not to the same degree by any means.
Bradley and I are kind of doing our grand farewell tour during the day while Nathan is at work. Also, I don't want him to destroy MY kitchen so we need to get out of the house so he doesn't run out of things to do.
Discovering his first ball pit. Shortly after this picture was taken he decided he didn't really like it all that much.
At the park. It was about 50 degrees out, we may not be prepared for Midwest cold.
Hanging on for dear life at Wiggleworks, a cute play place for kids not too far from us.
Banging tools at Happy Nest, another play center that we like.
And this is why we leave home. We get bored and attack the chair.
We went out for coffee and then went shopping with our friend Abbie, who is also expecting a little girl in June!
And if we're at home we are followed around by a very foolish kitty ...
And this is what happens. The picture is blurry but you can see that her tail is being grabbed. Bradley slipped after this picture was taken and tried to break his fall by holding onto the tail. Kitty was in great distress but she was too sweet to scratch. I love our cats.
And man oh man did he love our friend Serena's husband Joshua.
So yes, we've been busy. We're not going to know anyone in Kansas City so we're trying to maximize our social while we have it. This has resulted in a very tired boy most days.
We love this kid so much. He is such a sweetheart, still will happily go to any and all strangers.
He still loves food as much as ever, we recently introduced him to spaghetti and I think he's a fan
Although can it really compare to his first love of muffins?
Spaghetti dinners have resulted in even more frequent baths for our little glutton, good thing he loves a nice soaky bath!
Other fun Bradley updates: he is super cuddly these days. Nathan and I are so happy, I could count on my hands the number of times he was cuddly before 10 months. Now when he gets tired he'll come and snuggle up on you and you know it's bedtime. Love it so much.
Also, the walking is coming along by leaps and bounds! He can balance so much better and should be taking first steps without support anytime.
We never stop moving
He still prefers being carried when he's tired though, and will direct you where to go by holding an arm out in the direction of the item he wants while pushing against your chest or neck with his other hand. Kind of hilarious.
Oh, I'm so happy that I finally figured out the photo thing. This blog has been sorely lacking the photo fun for the past few months! In my defense, I've been pregnant and then there were the holidays and then there was all this business with figuring out the move. But with another little munchkin on the way I'd better be ready to bring my A game when it comes to taking and organizing photos! We're starting to acquire girl clothing (HUGE thanks to my friend Christine for the enormous amount of newborn and 3 month clothing) and this girly business is starting to seem more real. It's hard to believe that in a few short months we're going to have another little person that we're going to love just as much as Bradley. There's going to be lots and lots of love in the Scott household!
Bonus video of chewing on shoe and being generally adorable
It's a girl, it's a girl! I'm just a LITTLE excited about this. I love the little boys and I would have been more than happy to have another sweet fella running around wearing camouflage and athletic themed attire. But now I get ruffles and sparkles and heart themed clothing! What is this, does it seem that I wanted a girl primarily because of the clothing? Yes, yes I absolutely wanted a girl for the clothing. It wasn't for the teenage years that Nathan is dreading above all other things.
Nathan, Bradley, and I all went in for my ultrasound last Monday, on February 4th. It was quite a long ultrasound because our little darling is already a very active baby and squirmed around the entire time. The poor ultrasound technician kept having me turn from one side to another in order to try to get a look at all the things they check on and it took her about 10 minutes at the end just to get a head measurement because of all the moving about. I firmly believe that behavior in the womb is an indication of the temperament of the child so we're calling our little girl Kera 2.0 while I'm pregnant after Nathan's cousin Kera who apparently was a wild child in the womb and was an extremely active and precocious child. Now she's a teenager and is a lovely girl so we are hopeful that our little 2.0 will follow the same path!
It was so exciting when we officially confirmed that we were having a girl. I said that I didn't really care either way but I did start to cheer and applaud when we were told so apparently I was lying to myself. Nathan actually has two fears about having a girl, the teenage years and how much I'm going to spend on baby clothes. I don't think he needs to worry too much about the teenage years, I wasn't too bad. But his second fear is being realized RIGHT NOW to my great delight. We only have one newborn outfit so far and it's a white frilly sundress. I'm focusing on the essentials.
Bradley is really helping me feel happy and fairly confident about adding a second child to this family so soon because he is sleeping through the night like a champ, well on his way to learning how to walk, and just being a delight to be around in general. I know I'm biased, but even if this wasn't my child I would think he was the cutest and best behaved child ever ever ever. Okay, perhaps I'm a little biased. But he's such a little doll baby, full of happiness and joy. Even when he cries he's cute. I may lose some parenting points for this, but I have so much fun when he tries to touch forbidden things because I get to say no to him and he sticks out his lower lip and cries a little. It's adorable, I need to take a picture but I feel it's probably not great to make your child cry in order to take pictures. He's so good, he'll listen to me and not touch the light socket or vase or whatever else is forbidden for a little baby even though it makes him sad. But he's devious, he'll check to see if I'm watching before trying to touch something he knows he's not supposed to.
He's good with me and Nathan. My parents however ... this child already knows that they are complete pushovers. And so they are his favorite people. We went up to their house on Camano for a friend's baby shower this past weekend and I kid you not, my child woke up once we parked and was cuddly against me for the thirty seconds it took to get him out of the car and walk into the house ... and then he saw Grandpa. He literally pushed away from me and reached an arm out for Grandpa to take him. Thanks, child. My parents happily let him pull everything out of their kitchen cupboards and my mom made the ten month old unfrosted cupcakes so he could have a treat at the end of his dinner. I can't compete with this. They watched him for the Super Bowl a couple weeks back and we were away for an entire awake period and he didn't care because he had Grandma and Grandpa. I called to check in and my father couldn't get me off the phone fast enough because they were too busy having fun with their grandchild. I now understand how Nathan felt when his mother ignored her only son when he picked her up at the airport because she was too busy jumping in the backseat of the car in order to play with Bradley. It's weirdly heartwarming to be passed over in favor of your child.
And it's wonderful that he loves them so much because we're going to having to leave him with them for three days straight in about a week and a half because ... we're moving to KANSAS CITY. For a NEW JOB. And it's FAR AWAY. And both EXCITING and TERRIFYING at the same time. So we'll be spending the weekend house hunting before moving there in about a month. Nathan has been looking for a new job for a little while now and this seems like a great opportunity for his career, as well as a nice change in terms of our living situation. I say this never having experienced a midwest summer or winter but I think Nathan is looking forward to being a midwest boy once more. I just hope no one judges me when I refuse to drive anywhere because there's half an inch of snow on the ground.
So, big news all around! Nathan actually got the call with the job offer in the middle of our ultrasound, it was quite the happy day for the Scott household. Bradley won't even be one when we make the move, it's weird to think that he won't even remember Washington. And who knows where another five or ten years will take us. All that's important to me is that I have my husband and babies with me and a few kitties for additional fun and cuddles. And thank goodness for modern air travel because this would be a lot harder to do if I wasn't sure my parents would be able to make fairly frequent trips to visit and that coming back to visit is only a four hour plane flight away. Meeting new people won't be too tough, Nathan and I are friendly and Bradley is a charmer! But we'll miss the good friends we've made here, it will definitely be a transition. Again, thank goodness for modern technology because we'll hopefully actually keep in touch with everyone via email and Facebook as well as this blog!
Pictures will be up soon (I promise for real this time) because now all my midwest family has the link to the blog and I want them to see how adorable Bradley is. I have so many great photos and videos to sort through. Soon!
Shocker, looks like Nathan and I have a social child.
I just got back from a trip to the library for infant storytime. Guess whose child crawled around and visited as many people as he could around the room? My child! We had never been before and didn't know a soul. Bradley promptly ditched me as soon as we sat down and crawled over to the woman next to us and impressed her by pushing himself up to a standing position using her leg as support. He then crawled over her foot and rolled over and crashed in his quest to get to a group of ladies and their babies across the room. He didn't make a peep after the crash, just continued over to the other side of the room where he smiled at everyone and tried to grab at a baby face or two. I got him back in time for the beginning of the organized events and he paid a moderate amount of attention to me and only tried to escape whenever we weren't singing or bouncing. At the end the lady who led the story time came up to me as I was putting on his jacket and he literally lunged for her. Stranger, never met her before. I got him back after a few minutes of chatting and he continued to lean away from me and try to get back into her arms until she walked out of reach. I think he would have been most happy if I had just had him passed around the room for the entire time we were there.
I did get him to briefly look at a couple books. The first one was fine, my child turned the pages himself and I was very proud because a couple people definitely noticed how smart and advanced my child was. But then we started going on the second book which had pictures of babies in it. Bradley made it to page three before he started trying to give kisses to every baby in the book.
This behavior didn't come as too much of a surprise. Bradley and his little friend Makayla from our parenting group exchanged their first kiss a couple weeks ago. Open-mouthed. They seemed to enjoy it quite a bit and were very upset with me and Makayla's mom the next time we met up because Bradley was a little sniffly and we didn't let them make out at all. Poor babies.
It's a good thing we didn't let them get their smooch on, Bradley got worse and has spent most of the last week being a sick little boy. He was cheerful enough while there were people around which was fine during the day and not so great at night. But at least he was mostly happy and ready to play while Colleen and Kerry were here for part two of their visit. After they left I took him to the doctor and it seems that in addition to a stuffed up nose and a cough our sweet boy also had an ear infection. He's on antibiotics now and is sleeping much better at night. We ended up just taking him into bed with us, something I swore we'd NEVER do, because the alternative was to sleep on the recliner while holding him and I really didn't see much of a difference between doing that and having him in bed with us. He spent all of last night in his crib so it seems we didn't do any permanent damage to our sleep training with him by taking him into bed with us for a few nights. Lesson learned, no need to be super strict and by the book for every little thing when you have a sick baby on your hands.
And I wish I could blame it on being sick but it seems that we have a clingy baby on our hands. Clingy is probably not the best word ... extremely social baby. Except when I'm home with him I'm the only social he's got so he just clings to me and cries if I try to put him in any of his fun toys like his exersaucer or jumperoo that allow me to do anything besides sit with him all day long. The only time he doesn't want to be around me is when he makes a break for the forbidden kitchen where he tries to get to the forbidden cat food. He'll make his move and I'll speak sternly to him and tell him to come back and he'll sit and look me in the eye and cry until he decides to make a break for it or come back to Mommy. What a kid.
We're having such a blast with this sweet boy. He's becoming more and more of a little person and it's amazing to watch.
There have been a few development milestones in the past few days. Literally days. He didn't do any of these things four days ago and now he does them all the time. It's amazing to both me and Nathan how quickly these new skills can be acquired and there would probably be a lot more melancholy mixed with our pride at how quickly he's growing up if it wasn't for new baby on the way. Hurray for new baby!
Bradley's favorite new achievement for all involved is his newfound ability to clap, which is adorable and he'll do on command with a little encouragement. I guess all our games of patty cake have paid off! He also waves and is growing quite adept at turning pages in books. He also lives to pull himself up into a standing position ... which is cute in theory but is also the bane of my existence at the moment.
It started out cute enough, he'd crawl over to someone and want to hold onto their hands so he could pull himself up. He would then shake his hands free from said person so he could hold on to objects or do any of the other important things that one does with ones hands and it was up to the person to hold onto the swaying baby with very little sense of balance. He generally likes to clap while standing, which is pretty funny since it looks like he's applauding himself for his accomplishment. What a cutie.
However, since then he has started pulling himself up on inanimate objects and trying to do the same thing with less than stellar results. At least I'm around when he's in the living room so I can mostly save him from himself. But he discovered this morning that he could pull himself up in his crib and has spent approximately an hour pulling himself up, chattering excitedly, and soon falling over and whacking his face and head. Repeatedly. He's generally sad for about two minutes but then he gets up and repeats the process. At least the crib mattress is cushy. This is all too exciting and I fear there will be little napping today. Especially since he can reach the curtain and let in sunshine and also turn on his mobile now. Oh joy.
He started doing these new things at my parents' house this past weekend, much to their delight.
We were visiting because my brother Thomas was in town. We don't know if Bradley really remembers meeting Thomas from five months ago when he visited in the summer but he is certainly a fan now. Our child loves everyone though and while he still prefers mommy when he's very sad or very sleepy I can still hand him off to anyone and he's pretty content. And sometimes he flat out chooses someone more fun over me, like his Grandpa Redfern who spent over a half an hour with a delighted Bradley up on his shoulders singing songs and bouncing him up and down for a good portion of that time, all the while telling us how sore he was going to be the next day. And Grandma took him over to his favorite bear carving whenever he desired which is whenever Thomas wasn't airplaning him into a foam tower he had created specifically for destruction by baby. It's good for a number of reasons that we're having baby number two sooner rather than later, Bradley is going to have to adjust to sharing some of the limelight.
Poor Layla still can't believe that she has to share Nathan with this tiny interloper.
We just had a nice visit from Nathan's mom and stepdad. It's actually part one of two since they're off to Hawaii and then will be coming back to spend a few days with us before going back to Iowa.
Bradley had the best time while they were here. Plenty of company in the back seat of the car (finally!) and as much playtime and attention as he could handle throughout the day. And he can handle as much as you can dish out. We went on little outings each day and Bradley's favorite was probably the aquarium. Nathan took an amazing video of him trying to watch all the tropical fish at once as they swam around their tank.
Our little stinker kept waking up early while his grandparents were visiting but he's so darn cheery in the morning that you can't help but forgive him. I'd take him out to the living room to play and since he isn't very quiet he would soon wake up his grandma. She'd walk out in her bathrobe and he'd flail all his limbs in delight while grinning and making happy noises. It's hard not to melt when it happens to you.
Bath time with Grandma!
And I'm sorry to report that I was cruel, yes cruel, to poor Bradley while Grandma Colleen and Grandpa Kerry were here and I made him stay in a cart while we were out shopping when he obviously should have been held cozy in someone's arms. I was finally holding him when we walked out to the car but he had to cry and fuss and hold out his arms for Grandma - who melted and immediately held him. This happened twice within a short period of time. If his Grandma Colleen wasn't already head over heels for Bradley this would have sealed the deal.
They're off to Hawaii now but will be back before too long.
The day after they left I went to not one but two doctor appointments, one for each baby! Baby in my belly is doing well and we find out gender in about a month. My obgyn scored points for being able to find the baby's heartbeat as the child did a little jig in my belly - she did this one handed while holding Bradley. Quite impressive.
And Bradley's 9 month appointment went well, he flirted up a storm with anyone who would look at him including the nurse who has given him a fair number of shots in his short life. She was delighted by this, apparently most children hold a grudge. Then the doctor came in and Bradley spent most of the time I was talking to him trying to eat his own reflection in the mirror. Absolutely amazing, I tried to take a picture after the doctor left but this was the best I got.
Here are his stats: he's 21 lb 9 oz (75th percentile) and 29 1/4 inch tall (75th-90th percentile). I had to go back and ask for a copy of his sheet with his stats and explain to the doctor that I do so because my husband likes to keep track so he can compare with our friends that have kids. And that my husband and I have bets on Bradley's weight each time we take him in. He seemed amused/flabbergasted and said that this was why America had an obesity problem. Um, we just want our child to WIN at being big and awesome! Speaking of which, Nathan is definitely a little sad that Bradley is no longer up around the 90th percentile in both height and weight. He said something about blaming how mobile he is now for burning off the extra weight. Hilarious.
Our little Bradley continues to grow more dear to us every day. It's hard to imagine what life was like before he came. He cries now when Nathan or I leave the room if he feels like we're ignoring him or deserting him. And if I leave him playing in the living room and go to the kitchen and make any noise he follows me in there as quick as he can! We need more baby gates.
He's so chatty and fun these days. Which has both its benefits and drawbacks. Bradley and I went to a kid friendly showing of a movie today at noon with my friend Christine who also has a baby. My child spent the early part of the movie stealing as much as he could of my lunch of apple slices and a muffin (he would lunge for muffin bites. Sigh) and then downing his own lunch as rapidly as possible. He then spent the remainder of the movie trying to flirt with Christine which involved babbling loudly and leaning over and grinning in her face and then trying to grab her nose to make it go honk (an "adorable" game his daddy taught him). We were the loudest ones in the theater by far. Fortunately for Bradley, both Christine and I thought it was rather adorable and the movie was not too great so we didn't mind the floor show. I just hope none of the other moms were particularly interested in the movie.
We get to go to the aquarium again before our evening PEPS parenting group meeting. Bradley is having a delightful day today.
