Doing All the Things

Bradley has been very busy lately. Good thing he knows how to relax.

I just helped him onto the couch. He did the rest himself.

We went to a little friend's one year birthday party last week. Bradley thought it was awesome because there were puddles and cake. Really, what else does a boy need to keep him happy?

Eying the puddle

Bradley isn't really interested in stomping in puddles yet, it's much more fun to use your hands to whack the puddle. He was very wet and quite dirty by the time we left.

A puddle AND a stick. This party just keeps getting better and better.

We went to a petting zoo the next day and Bradley had a great time as long as he was free of stroller prison.

We loved the calves!

Although we were the only ones who demonstrated this love by shaking the bars of the pen as hard as we could and making a loud racket. Pictures soon came to an end as I got to follow him around and hold the bars steady so a boy couldn't traumatize the animals.

The next place we earned our freedom was an adorable kiddie area in a garden area of the petting zoo.

Bradley was happy to be free but wasn't too impressed by the setup

We wandered around watching children and then Bradley discovered there were fun flowers that you could poke your head through.

It became less fun for me and WAY more fun for Bradley when he saw other children poking their heads through the flower photo ops and would try to run up and whack them in the face. Best game ever! The giant pregnant lady tried to save small children from the one year old but one poor five year old definitely got whacked in the face twice. Sigh. We can't go anywhere. Bradley was unceremoniously put back in his stroller (many tears) and we soon left the petting zoo. I am the mother of a one year old bully.

That said, I do appreciate his ability to stand up for himself. I'd rather teach him to be kind than teach him to be less timid. We were at a kiddie play area in a mall and a little boy who was about four or five sort of pushed Bradley out of the way at a block spinner toy thing. Bradley watched him for a second and then went to work trying to edge the big kid out of the way so he could get back in to the toy he wanted to play with. Pretty funny to watch. Good job, Bradley!

Both Bradley and I got a lot of good time in with my mom this week, loved having her in town even if she was busy grading the AP Physics exam most of the time!

I got to have solo time with my mom one night, going out on the town with her and a few of her fellow graders.

Having some fancy boba tea together at Lulu's Thai downtown.

And Bradley and I went to visit my mom at her hotel room on Friday night. Bradley had a blast.

One of the few times Bradley was not in motion.

I brought a decent stash of Nilla Wafers with me so Grandma could give Bradley his favorite treat. It's pretty adorable to give them to Bradley, you ask if he wants a cookie and his whole face lights up. He'll even say something that sounds like Koook or oookie if he's excited enough. Of course my child's first real word would be cookie.

My mom was responsible for rationing the cookies I brought with me. The picture below is the result.

If you look at this photo he has three cookies: one in each hand and a whole one shoved in his mouth.

The next day was even more fun. My mom came over to our house and Bradley got a lot of fun outside play time with someone who happily catered to his every whim.

You want bubbles? Here you go, Bradley!

Bradley being carried everywhere his bossy little finger pointed

Grandma and Daddy helping Bradley walk up the path

It's worth clicking on this photo so you can see the look of sheer joy on Bradley's face.

We had such a good time even though we only got to see Grandma a few times. We can't wait until she and Grandpa come out after Bradley's little sister is born! Bradley will finally learn the meaning of the word spoiled.

We were extraordinarily brave and took the little boy who hates sitting still to a Royals baseball game on Sunday. It went surprisingly well, despite the yogurt incident. Apparently greek yogurt is now on the list of foods Bradley despises. We know this because of subtle clues like the child screaming when we tried to feed it to him and throwing/coughing up a reasonable amount of yogurt on both Nathan and myself.

After we wised up and gave him goldfish crackers

The Royals stadium is incredibly kid friendly, they were handing out some sort of cancer sweatbands in kid sizes which my GENIUS husband immediately acquired for Bradley.

It goes well with his muscle tee. And hair. The mohawk is back!

Nathan watching over the tough guy.

The Royals stadium is absurdly family friendly. There's an area in the back with a carousel, kid playground equipment, fountains for kids to run around in, and a mini golf course. Yes, a mini golf course. Absolutely ridiculous, absolutely amazing. 

Tough guys on the carousel

Our child found a sign to hide under and was instantly happy. Oh goody, hiding games in public places. I do not support this.

Bradley made it through the entire baseball game but didn't quite make it out to the car afterward. The Royals won by the way. They were playing the Astros so I'm told it doesn't really count for much, but a win is a win. Great first game to go to!

Bradley had been riding on Nathan's shoulders and starting to lean more and more on his head, so Nathan took him down because he thought he might be sleepy. Nathan was very correct.

Getting the sleepiest boy around into his car seat.

There have been a few other sweet and memorable moments over the last week or so. I'm so excited for baby girl but I can't quite wrap my head around a house that is not entirely Bradley focused. It's going to take a little adjustment. It's probably REALLY good for Bradley that his sister is coming sooner rather than later. He's used to being the center of the universe and the only way we're going to be able to remedy this is with a sibling. Also, we think that he's going to have a blast playing with her (and vice versa) once she gets mobile. Cute little buddies!

Bradley's love of books is so wonderful to see. And he's getting better about not throwing them at the head of his preferred reader!

One of Bradley's new favorite "games" is getting into his closet and playing with all of his diapers. I don't know if this is good parenting on my part, but I find it hilarious and let him wreak some havoc. Some of the diaper packs are fairly heavy and unwieldy so it takes some strength to get them out and throw them around!

 

Our son also had a blast helping Nathan wash both of our cars this past weekend. I didn't take any pictures because I wanted to make sure I actually "enjoyed the moment" but I probably should have taken pictures because it was pretty amazing. Bradley got soaked and was so ecstatic about every aspect of washing a car. He liked to get a stick and dip it in the soapy bucket and then run over to the hose and rinse it off and then go back to the bucket, repeat repeat. And at one point Nathan had me take over the hose and showed me the little lever on the side that controlled water flow and while I was messing with it I managed to have the hose dumping water directly over Bradley's head. And he didn't mind ... what a kid. It was COLD hose water too. Little Annie would have cried immediately if something like that had happened to me. Bradley blinked twice and then started to grin and run around again.

I'm both proud and a little afraid of his fearlessness. We went to the park this morning and called our time there a success since we left with only one scraped knee and a chin bruise/mouth bleed from following big kids up metal steps and then falling. He made it up twice just fine and then fell the third time. I'm getting rather casual about blood, it's not like it happens all that infrequently anymore. I just wish he would stop injuring his face. It's probably bad that I keep telling myself that he can't scar at this age so it's okay. We're going to have to work on teaching self preservation.

Brave Boy

Our Bradley knows no fear. We were at the park today and another mom commented on it as I chased after my little boy who was charging off to explore new things. Bradley's mobility is both a blessing and a curse as I approach giant pregnant lady status. I don't have to carry him as much but I do have to climb up onto children's play equipment with him and I did haul him up a short slide today in order to get him up to the level I was on.

He prefers to climb up slides on his own though. Thank you older children who showed him how much fun this could be.

I gave him zero help in big slide climbing. He did horrifyingly well all on his own. He is only 14 months old ...

I can't complain though, it's never boring being out with Bradley. We revisited the sandbox and had a great time trying to "help" the older kids with anything and everything they were doing until we remembered how fun it was to throw sand and Mommy got to haul a sobbing Bradley out of the sandbox. I have the feeling this is going to be a regular occurrence for a while.

Look at all the tools I found!

I'm actually quite impressed by how quickly he's learning how to use all the different sandbox tools.

We had a busy weekend, Nathan's company had their annual picnic which is completely geared towards kids. We spent the majority of our time in a toddler bouncy ball pit that was full of wild children that were typically one or two years older than Bradley. So basically it was Bradley's idea of heaven.

Wild children running all over the place. Bradley is so happy.

I'm not sure we're supposed to walk through here but oh my, look at all the balls we can play with!

Nathan showing Bradley how to hold himself up and jump in the bouncy house. Bradley proved to be an apt pupil.

 

The SLIDE!

Bradley surprised us by figuring out a safe way to go down the slide all on his own. We honestly were expecting him to charge down headfirst but with no guidance from parents and really no example from the other kids he figured out that it was best to turn around and go down on his tummy, feet first. This kid may have some sense after all!

http://youtu.be/r3quIPSqBSQ - super cute video of Bradley going down the slide

My mom is also currently in Kansas City as part of a group of high school physics teachers who grade the AP Physics exam (yes, she's kind of a big deal). We were able to see her on Saturday and to say Bradley was excited to see Grandma was an understatement.

http://youtu.be/CkcWpPkDz5E - this video is when Bradley finally calmed down long enough to sit on Grandma's lap to read the ADORABLE book she made for him.

Reading Grandma's book for Bradley. The tarantula is our favorite page by far.

Showing Grandma his cool foam mat

Sitting to read another book. It's so fun to read to this kid.

But seriously, he mostly ran around the room and showed off all of his toys. Or played hide and seek or chasing games. We can't wait to see my mom again this weekend!

And Nathan is gone on a business trip for a couple days so my poor child gets to eat Anne versions of meals while he's gone. Which means pancakes for dinner! Bradley is actually an enthusiastic supporter of pancake meals. I tried a variety of preparation techniques varying from plain pancakes, pancakes with berries on top, and pancakes with syrup before I finally hit on the winning combo of pancakes with homemade whipped cream on top. Or to put it in Bradley's perspective: whipped cream with pancakes. Here was his reaction when he thought the whipped cream had run out:

Yes, that is my child. Fortunately, I had additional reserves on hand and just gave him a few small scoops of whipped cream while I finished my dinner. That helped improve morale tremendously. Is it horrible that I see nothing wrong with feeding my child plain whipped cream? Here's my reasoning:

1) It's basically just MILK with a little bit of sugar. Milk is good for children!
2) It's homemade. Anything homemade can't be all THAT bad for you.
3) It counts as dessert. After his birthday I gave him a reasonable amount of cake with frosting after a number of his dinners, this has to be healthier than that.
4) I could be feeding him fast food and I'm not.
5) Do I want him to be a skinny weakling? No! Let's keep this kid well fed on good food!

In addition to all these things, the moms who bring all organic foods mostly consisting of vegetables and legumes to playdate and park lunches kind of annoy me. Mostly I just dislike the judging eyes when I pull out the goldfish crackers which are a staple of our meals on the go. We try to be reasonably healthy but the kid gets to eat fun stuff too and I think that means he'll be a better eater in the long term. There won't be as much to rebel against. Also, the idea of putting that much work into food is rather exhausting.

Quite frankly, most things are pretty tiring these days. Nathan is going to accompany us on Costco trips until the baby is born which is a-okay as far as Bradley is concerned.

Note the cool Kansas City Zoo baseball hat. Nathan is as much of a sucker for Bradley in a baseball hat as I am.

And I am happy to share that I have excellent assistance getting ready in the morning now that Bradley helps me comb my hair. I let him hold onto my brush while I dry my hair (the brush is used as a hammer on anything within reach while this is taking place) and then Bradley gets to help me comb it straight which he finds both hilarious and exciting. It's getting a little less fun now that Bradley doesn't want any help, beforehand I could guide his hands to gently move it through my hair but now my hair mostly gets whacked and yanked on with the brush. Still, it gets the job done and he's so darn cute about it. Love this little boy, he's more of a spunky sweetheart every day.

Toddler Boy

Is it too early to say that in the battle of wills, I may actually be losing? How did Nathan and I end up with an extremely friendly yet extremely obstinate child?

But look at how cute he is when he's unconscious! Both my boys are so cute when they nap together.

This kid is beyond adorable but despite my determined efforts to teach him the meaning of gentle, we still hit everything. And what we don't hit we throw.

This is sort of a longish video but it's so sweet. Bradley running around the family room throwing things. Balls are the best toys ever.

http://youtu.be/NzqgsoIequE

We went to the park today and I took this adorable video of Bradley being excited to see a little girl and giving her a toy (21 seconds long).

http://youtu.be/B6m320ViCFc

Please note how quickly that video ended. 1) I didn't want to be creepy at the park filming someone else's child and 2) Bradley quickly took back his toy from the little girl. Also, within minutes he discovered you could throw sand and despite my best efforts to say no no and shake sand out of his hands as well as encouraging constructive sand use ... we just kept throwing sand. It was most fun to throw it at other children. Also we liked to hit other people's sand piles with whatever tool we were holding at the time. We were an adorable whirlwind of violence and destruction. So Mommy soon got to haul a sobbing child away from his favorite sandbox playtime ever. Is this what the toddler years are all about? I thought this was supposed to start at around age 2, not 14 months.

Luckily, I still get some angelic looking photos

We also went to the zoo today and had a blast. We even seemed to care about the animals to a small degree! Although the carousel and the kiddie playground area may still be our favorites.

On the carousel with our friend Fatima. We cry and yell when we're in line for the carousel and we don't get to get on in a timely manner. This child has inherited my patience!

Lemurs are SO fun!

Actually watching the macaws!

The other day there was a thunderstorm in the afternoon (there are SO many thunderstorms here, it's going to take some getting used to) so we had our friend Eli over since we couldn't go play outside. Poor Bradley, it was awful. Eli tried to touch some of his toys so Bradley had quite the job snatching away each toy Eli got his hands on. It was tough work, lucky thing Bradley was so dedicated. (Sharing is currently another losing battle I'm fighting). Finally he settled down a bit and just followed Eli around to supervise anything and everything he was doing. Toys that Bradley hadn't looked at for months were suddenly of great interest.

Bradley NEVER plays with this piano toy. Suddenly it was the best thing in the room.

The play date ended with Bradley throwing a wooden puzzle piece at Eli's head. Yet another losing battle. Unless that counts as sharing ... (!!). At the park today I met a mom with a little girl almost exactly Bradley's age who complained about her daughter not throwing balls or anything yet. I love my Bradley, but I'm rather excited at the possibility of having a sweet little girl who gently hands things to people and doesn't yell and point if something is not to her liking. With Nathan's and my genes, I'm not betting on it, but at least it's a possibility.

For instance, tonight at dinner I tried to sneak Bradley potato soup with some veggies instead of spaghetti with meat. Here is the end result.

SO MUCH SPAGHETTI was eaten and ended up all over Bradley's face. He had to holler at me and point insistently at my spaghetti several times but finally even the most oblivious of mommies had to figure out that a boy was not going to eat crummy soup when pasta was an option. He literally ate 2/3 as much as I did ... and I'm eating at 36 weeks of pregnancy levels. The boy is a beast.

We had a great Memorial Day weekend, Nathan and I went on a quest for a kiddie basketball hoop and to say that Bradley likes it is an understatement. Here's Bradley's very first glimpse of the basketball hoop.

http://youtu.be/9LeL3N95Jz0

We're going to show this video when he's a shooting guard for the Pistons (I think that's a real position and a real team. Nathan keeps saying that our girl is going to be a hardcore athlete but she is going to have a good amount of Anne in her keeping her from such an icky, sweaty future).

We went to the park and poor Bradley had his work cut out for him telling us what he wanted to do. He must think we are the slowest parents around, he has to holler and point so much to get his point across. If he wasn't so cute when he did it maybe he wouldn't have to try so hard.

The SWING, Daddy, the SWING. Seriously, how is this difficult to understand?

All this activity leads to a very tired boy. Good thing he has a daddy who is always game for a good cuddle.

We had a very fun BBQ with about five neighborhood families and Bradley spent most of his time chasing around the sweetest eight year olds who were very nice about the pushy small child who wanted to play with their toys and follow them everywhere they went. He got very flushed and hot and kept chugging from my water glass (not my favorite thing, when you share water with Bradley you get plenty of backwash and bits of small food in your drink ... yummy) so I ran over to our house to grab the giant bag of otter pops that genius Nathan had gotten for Bradley. Bradley had almost two popsicles on his own and was soon happy and cool and there was a small whirlwind of young children who were delighted to share his otter pop stash. Kids and popsicles are about the most hilarious thing ever, these are basically just ice with lots of sugary artificial flavors and kids go nuts over them. Even our one year old. He came home with a small cut on his leg from falling on who knows what in the yard and his clothes were covered in mud and popsicle juice. I'm pretty sure he thought it was the best day ever.

We're having a blast these days and my mom comes out to Kansas City this weekend for AP Physics test grading and hopefully a reasonable amount of Bradley time. This is the first time we'll have seen her since the move, can't wait!!

Zoo Trips and More!

We're having too much fun these days.

Bradley loves playing with hangers and mirrors. In our bedroom he gets both!

Today we went to the zoo with Bradley's friend Eli and Eli's mommy. While we aren't super keen on the animals, we may love the carousel more then swings (which is saying something) and we also greatly love chasing our friend around. Bradley is just two weeks older than Eli so it's pretty adorable to see them run around together. Eli likes to try to feed Bradley goldfish crackers, which Bradley thinks is an admirable trait to have in a friend. Sometimes the goldfish makes it into Bradley's mouth and then is taken back out and then put back in again but Bradley is surprisingly patient with this whole process.

There was a lot of smiling on the carousel but shockingly enough none of those photos were in focus

New zoo hat! He didn't throw it off and actually wore it around the park. This is really good, hopefully we won't have to sunscreen his head everywhere we go this summer.

Playing with Eli. They love each other.

It's harder when they're playing pass the stick back and forth between strollers and Eli passes Bradley his stick, which Bradley takes and then passes back, and then Eli SELFISHLY holds onto his stick. A boy has to yell and holler when this sort of injustice takes place. Eli's mom tried to give Bradley a bigger, cooler stick so he would have one of his own to hold onto but she is clearly no judge of what makes a good stick and Bradley promptly threw away the inferior replacement and hollered at Eli some more. That's my boy.

Bradley is into everything these days and he's fearless, which is both admirable and horrible. We've been going to a number of parks with a mom group I joined and Bradley loves to try to follow the older kids around. He's getting better and better at climbing up on play structures and is very annoyed when overprotective Mommy comes along with him and insists on holding his hand when all he wants to do is see if he can walk off the side with no railing or go face first down the slide. I'm eight and a half months pregnant so we're quite the sight. No idea how we'll do this when the baby girl is here and I need to either stay by her in the stroller or have her in the baby carrier.

We may spend a lot more time at home playing in our backyard when little sis first makes her appearance. I got a couple kiddie pools in preparation and we tried out the gigantic one with lots of bells and whistles just last week. Unfortunately, it was a little cool when we got it out and the hose water was very cold. Nathan and I made a lot of trips with hot water from the house to help warm it up but Bradley was still not a fan. Especially when his daddy made him sit down in the water. Bad Daddy. But it should be great this summer, Bradley loves water and once we get it warm enough for him he'll be a big fan.

I've had a few favorite Bradley moments in the past week or so. One was after we came home from the park and Bradley had been running around in the sunshine and was a bit overheated and drinking water wasn't cooling him down fast enough for his liking. I got a strawberry popsicle out of the freezer and sat him down on the desk in the kitchen so we could share it. He was so so happy. I was sitting across from him and I'd take a bite, then he'd take a bite, and there was a lot of smiling back and forth. Beyond sweet.

Another great moment was this morning. I was doing some dishes while Bradley wreaked havoc on the foam floormat in the living room (he LOVES taking it apart) when it got a little quiet and then he ran into the kitchen with a huge smile on his face holding his Where's Spot book. He loves this book and he loves having me hold him on my lap while reading it to him. The dishes were left instantly and I read to my little boy. 

And here's another with Bradley and his daddy watering the new grass. Bradley was the best helper there ever was.

The video: http://youtu.be/jX6rZsHIplk

I ADORE this picture

Bradley loves Nathan so much. I'm a bit jealous at how good Nathan is at getting Bradley to cuddle with him. I get a reasonable amount of cuddles but Nathan is the master.

Daddy is also super fun and tall. Here are a few pictures from our first trip to the Kansas City zoo a couple weekends ago. Bradley quickly ditched his stroller for the much more fun Daddy ride!

This was probably the most excited he got about any animal while we were at the zoo. Yes, this is a polar bear statue. We're only moderately excited about animals that are not doggies or kitties.

Luckily - carousel! Instantly means that the zoo is a hit. And yes, I am getting quite round these days. There is a gigantor baby girl in that tummy. 

We've been having a good amount of fun around the house even before we set up the kiddie pool. I thought it would be nice to fill this bucket with water and have Bradley splash around and Bradley was very onboard with the idea. 

We brought out a few stacking cups and a pink ball for him to play with. We had a great time throwing them into the water ... and then we had a great time throwing them out of the water and off of the deck.

Bradley still refuses to go down stairs on his own so he was forced to beg his daddy for assistance whenever he needed to retrieve the ball that he had thrown far, far away.

Things got a little pathetic. And quite bossy.

All this hard work means we have a very good sleeper on our hands most days. No, that stuffed toy isn't smothering him, it's just the angle I took the picture. None of his blankets stay on him for long. He's such a stinker.

He's also getting a lot of new teeth (we're up to seven!) so he's been chewing on anything and everything within reach. That's half of a plastic Easter egg in his mouth, I had to hide them after I took this picture so he couldn't do this anymore.

In addition to the parenting award I should receive for the picture above, here is my child eating a Reece's peanut butter cup. Why didn't I take a picture of him scarfing down Nathan's grilled zucchini? I need proof that he eats vegetables.

Nevermind, I forgot about this picture. The kid loves corn. I didn't want to give him the cobb but Nathan insisted that he would like it and it looks like Daddy was right!

However, Nathan may have been less correct when it came to dressing Bradley for an afternoon of errands. I was told that this was a "hipster cool" outfit. Bradley and I are not so sure.

I can't believe how big my sweet Bradley is getting. Although it shouldn't be that much of a shock, he eats SO MUCH. But he's starting to really look like a little boy instead of a baby. And he's so fun to play with. Nathan spent a reasonable portion of this evening chasing him around the family room and Bradley was shrieking in delight and running alarmingly well until he'd look over his should and lose his balance and fall down. He's a tough little cookie and he definitely outlasted his poor, tired daddy. Probably this time next year he and his little sister will be chasing each other around! Can't wait!

The kitties can't wait either. Click on the link for the video of him chasing Sookie around with a kitty toy http://youtu.be/Aby332uW4fM

Playing with the balloon we were given at the grocery store. It's always a party when I go out with my cute and social little guy.

And here's one last video of Bradley running around in just his diaper. It's a little longer than the others but pretty cute and it's worth watching the last few seconds to see the force with which he throws books around. Yeah, that's how he "gives" them to me so I can read them to him. Mommy is getting some very good reflexes. http://youtu.be/z4zlqOKuJ4c