Eleanor Climbs Stairs and Cuddles

We are loving the sunshine and springtime activities. In the past few weeks we've started climbing stairs (Eleanor) picked up a Winnie the Pooh obsession (Bradley) and gotten a ridiculous amount of baby cuddles (me me me!!).

HURRAY cuddles!!

Eleanor has finally developed some separation anxiety ... and I LOVE it. I get so many cuddles, which never happened with Bradley. He's cuddly once in a blue moon and I savor every second of my Bradley snuggles. But Eleanor gets a bit nervous around new faces these days and burrows into me while peeking out her head for shy smiles now and then. She has the ladies at the church nursery wrapped around her little finger. She's just so sweet.

This face!

She's sweet ... and mischievous. She progressed to legitimate crawling a few weeks ago (no more army crawl) and with her newfound mobility she hunts down kitties like it's her job.

Eleanor has much better luck with the kitties than Bradley. They seem to begrudgingly tolerate her for at least a minute or two while they just run away from Bradley, much to his delight. Chasing after kitties is great fun. I tried to let him give Meg some kitty treats the other day and it did not go well. He'd get so excited when she'd start eating a treat that he'd jump up and down and shriek with delight. Meg thought that no treat was worth that amount of trauma.

Casually hanging out by Meg. Meg continually has the trauma.

But the real achievement is her newfound stair climbing abilities. She went from climbing her first stair in the morning to taking on the whole staircase by the time Daddy got home.

She's not quite 10 months old.

Look, Mom, no hands!

Exhausted from climbing all the stairs

We took her and Bradley in to the pediatrician for well checks a couple of weeks ago.

Bradley gets his super focused look on his face whenever he's being examined. It's a bit funny and very adorable to watch.

Despite thinking that Bradley was finally getting almost kind of skinny, he came in at 82nd percentile height (almost three feet) and 96th percentile weight at 34 lbs.

But you can see ribs here! Isn't this what skinny looks like?

Bradley says if I think he's too skinny perhaps I could be less stingy with the cookies. Here is a video of my parenting abilities as I try not to make food into a battle but I just want him to try the darn quiche that was the hit of the church function I recently went to. A hit, I tell you! I think I'm going to call this round a draw. (Spoiler: he gets the cookie in the end)

Eleanor surprised us at her 9 month check up by coming in at a paltry 28.5 inches which is only 72nd percentile and 19 lbs 12 oz which is 59th percentile for weight. Skinny. I have a skinny child. Perhaps if she wasn't constantly crawling around or climbing stairs she could keep a little weight on. She certainly eats enough.

Happy after a successful eating session

However, nothing rivals Bradley's dedication to food. This picture is of his third muffin. I had given him two mini muffins prior to this and he kept hollering "big one, big one!" until he got what he truly desired.

Bradley also recently had to eat a packet of jam while we were on a Costco trip to keep his strength up. Jam packets are all the rage at the Scott household these days.

This was while we were in line for a hot dog in the food court. I hadn't realized he knew how to open the jam packets he likes to carry around. Oops.

One thing that these kids have in common is they both do a last minute grab for food when you're wiping them down after a meal. It cracks me and Nathan up.

Eleanor adores Nathan. I think it might be mutual. Here they are goofing off with Nathan's hat after a meal.

Poke!

And once in a while Daddy gets the Eleanor cuddles I've been hoarding for myself.

Bliss!

My favorite times at home with the kids continue to be when they're playing together.

Eleanor watching and learning. We love Bradley's birthday blocks from Grandpa Dan and Grandma Kati!

I have two imps. They are so funny.

I tested out the two of them sharing a crib after one of Bradley's naps. They're probably not ready to share a bed anytime soon.

Nope. It's just too much fun! How could we ever sleep?

Bradley has been really funny about his truck lately and likes to ride on it with a buddy.

Sometimes Bradley has trouble finding a willing partner. Eleanor says no most of the time now and his friend Eli was less than thrilled by the chumminess when he was here to play the other day.

Baby skin! The only thing cuter than two little kids playing together is two kids with no clothes on playing together.

Eleanor insists on being involved in any activity that Bradley is engaged in. Playdough was interesting the other day. I told Bradley that Eleanor couldn't have any of his playdough and I didn't want him to share because she would eat it and that was ick ick ick. Next thing I knew I looked over and Bradley was licking the playdough and grinning at me. How did I end up with such an imp?

Oh, and Eleanor absolutely got her hands on some of the playdough and ate a little. Bradley needs to work on his vigilance.

Couch buddies!

And here is an extended video of the two of them being adorable together in our basement.

It's been great having the two of them play together because a lot of times I can do things like cook dinner and clean up a bit while they're having a good time. However, the other day I left them downstairs together unsupervised for literally three minutes while I put the rice on the stove and had to run back downstairs when I heard Eleanor hollering. I found her with no pants and an innocent looking Bradley standing by her. Sigh. 

I put her pants back on and soon got to see Bradley's method. You just grab a pant leg while the baby tries to crawl away. Hopefully I've put a stop to removing baby clothing for the immediate future.

Bradley has a host of new and adorable quirks these days. He yells "hat off" at me whenever I try to put a baseball cap on inside the house now. No idea why he dislikes it so, he doesn't do the same thing for Nathan. I wear a baseball cap pretty much all summer, he better get used to it!

Cool girls in hats!

He also insisted on wearing Eleanor's baseball cap the other day. She disapproves of gross boy hats.

And made a big fuss over an ouchie on his knee for days and days and hollered at me whenever I put long pants on him so he couldn't see the band-aid. This was awkward at night when I had to put him in footed pajamas.

He also had to holler when I put his battery toy in the dumb bubble blower toy ... the bubble blower toy is awesome. Batteries are inanimate. I did not understand the allure.

We also may not be on the path to weaning Bradley from his pacifier. Is more pacifiers in the mouth at the same time the correct way to go? Sure hope so because Bradley thinks it's hilarious!

Hiding has got to be the biggest new Bradley trend. He loves it and it's mostly really funny.

He'll yell out "hide!" and then shut his eyes or hide under a blanket.

Hiding at the dinner table

Sometimes he's a little too good for his own good. This one took me a couple minutes because he was so quiet about it and it was a bit unexpected. Such a stinker.

We still go to the library on a regular basis to play. I've yet to read a book to one of my children while we are there.

But we love to have books read to us! Bradley has been a champ ever since we promoted him to toddler story time. Look at this kid, sitting nicely and listening! Big boy!

We've also been visiting our friend Olivia's house. I like to take a lot of pictures of Bradley with his little lady friends just in case he ends up doing the right thing and marrying one of our friend's kids.

Olivia being cute and sharing bubbles with Eleanor.

We went to Bradley's friend Eli's birthday party a week ago and had a great time.

But the best part may have been the car ride home. GREAT party Eli! When everyone is so tuckered out that they fall asleep on the ride home you know you've done things right.

Grandma Colleen and Kerry are visiting us for Easter weekend which is a lot of fun! Bradley is loving having books read to him.

Eleanor has fun getting in on the action too.

We had a really good time painting a ceramic bunny for a special art outing. And it turns out that I'm a sucker for Bradley is a paint splattered apron so we'll definitely be going back!

How could you not LOVE this?

Bradley was unsure about the painting process at first but with Grandma's help he was soon pretty enthusiastic about the whole endeavor!

Eleanor got to do a little hand print tile! Not to compare children, but the time I tried to do this with Bradley at a little ceramic cafe in Seattle we had to leave in shame because he screamed bloody murder the whole time and I couldn't get him to do either a hand print or a foot print. Eleanor was not really sure about painting her hand but she put up with it like a champ!

Cute!

Eleanor will also sit in her high chair and wait for food without screaming at us to feed her feed her feed her instantly. Perhaps this is why she is in the wimpy 59th weight percentil instead of 90th. Nothing matches baby Bradley's dedication to food.

We've been spending a lot of time running around at the park. We're looking forward to the Easter activities tomorrow!

Love this big girl so much! I can't believe she's just two months away from being a whole year old!

One last little story about our two little bugaboos. Nathan reads to the kids before putting them in bed every night and often little Eleanor falls asleep during one of the books. And then Bradley likes to hold her hand. This is so typical of sweet Bradley. I love how rough and tumble he can be but that he's also just a sweet little love. The terrible twos aren't so bad so far!

Bradley's 2nd Birthday!

Bradley turned two this past Sunday! It's so crazy that he's two already. We had a little party for him on Sunday which was tons of fun. And he even blew out his own birthday candle! Turns out it's been good that I've been giving him burning hot food that he has to blow on at dinner, it's the same principle.

Singing happy birthday and holding his birthday cupcake

The birthday crew chowing down on cupcakes.

Bradley ate the tops off of three miniature cupcakes and two full size cupcakes. It was his birthday, okay?

I wanted to have some kind of activity for Bradley and his little friends at his party and Nathan and I came up with this: a balloon room!

It was amazing.

Honestly, balloon room was a huge success. It cost a total of about $5 to get the balloons from the dollar store and then Nathan and a couple friends helped blow them up. Bradley was a fan from the start.

Unfortunately, we did this 20 minutes before Bradley needed to get ready for bed and he was NOT happy when we told him it was time to leave the amazing balloons and go to sleep. There were a lot of tears. Poor kid, what a rookie parenting move to give him something amazing right before bedtime.

This was Bradley's reaction the next morning when he saw his balloon move.

And besides Bradley tackling all of his friends during the party while playing in the balloon room, it was fun for all involved!

Family party photo!

I may be a bit biased, but Eleanor was SO adorable at the party. SO SO adorable. Here she is playing with her friend Lucy. Lucy prefers not to be tackled so I think Eleanor may be her favorite of the Scott children.

I am so crazy about this little face.

 And here are all the party kids together. Bradley definitely had a blast.

We went out the day before Bradley's birthday to test out all the awesome outdoor play equipment that Nathan picked out for his birthday.

Walking to the park. Bradley knows the way and likes to lead.

Bradley seems more interested in golf than baseball right now. But he was game for anything involving running around chasing after balls!

Eleanor liked the bat just fine. But mostly she liked being ... ADORABLE! Seriously, I can't really handle how funny and cute she is these days. She played a hilarious game of peekaboo with her Daddy tonight that had both of them cracking up, there is nothing not to love.

Eleanor says "sup homie"

We had tree trimmers come and do a bunch of exciting stuff the day after Bradley's birthday. You'd think the boy would have been glued to the window. You'd be wrong. Bradley watched for a little bit but then he wandered off and would only watch for a minute or two when I'd drag him back to the window to show him something especially cool. Bradley loves sports and super heroes. He is so much a miniature version of his father.

Bradley and Eleanor are such little pals/partners in crime. Bradley was so delighted to get on this truck with Eleanor.

And if I don't watch him he puts food on Eleanor's tray or steals food, whichever suits his fancy.

And they both love rough housing with Daddy. Daddy is very tough.

Bradley loves that Eleanor is getting more mobile. He especially gets excited when she uses this mobility for naughtiness. Look, Mom, I can stand up and push all the forbidden buttons!

This is now her favorite spot in the room. She gets a huge impish grin on her face when she's into things she knows she's not supposed to touch, it's hard to take her away from it when I'm busy taking pictures of her being hilariously naughty. I'm in a lot of trouble when the children figure out that as long as they're cute or funny when they do naughty things they can get away with pretty much anything.

Here is her being way too happy about a wood chip she managed to get in her mouth that took me a good five minutes to wrangle away from her. She's only nine months old, how is she so strong?

And this is a nekkie incident in the kitchen. I am so ready for summer and baby skin!

Eleanor has recently started clapping, which is super cute. Bradley gets so excited when she claps.

And here are my two cuties at Deanna Rose Farmstead on opening day yesterday. It's basically like a farm combined with a petting zoo and the kids love it. Also note the matching baseball hats. Bradley is a bit bossy these days and since I had a hat on, the baby needed a hat, and I was told in no uncertain terms that Bradley needed a hat as well. "Baby hat too!" "Mama hat!" "Me hat too!" 

We plan on going to Deanna Rose a lot in the next few months, there will be a lot of pictures of the kids feeding baby goats and running around in the sunshine!

Kisses and Hand Holding

Bradley has been into kisses on the mouth lately. We don't have anything against people who like to kiss their kids on the mouth but we're more into cheek kisses with our little ones. Well apparently we make smooching on the mouth look like too much fun when Nathan comes home from work. Because now Bradley is WAY into mouth kisses.

 
He's also into hand holding during meals. His hands may be very messy when this happens but Daddy doesn't seem to mind.

I've been getting back into running lately! I'm supposed to run a 5K in about 6 weeks so I'm finally running again after about three years off. I don't know how to ease back into things so I generally feel like I'm going to die after each run.

Teaching Eleanor that a pre run beer is an excellent way to go about fitness. I also had post run ice cream. Honestly, I want my kids to learn to enjoy food and enjoy some kind of athletic outlet. Forget crazy diets. Eat well and run around and you'll be just fine.

Bradley's current favorite athletic endeavor is jumping in his crib. All this and he still hasn't climbed out on his own.

I could feed my children literally anything if I threw it on the floor in small pieces and maybe tossed a little dirt on it. Eleanor motors around the kitchen looking for crumbs or pieces of fuzz on the floor and jams everything she finds into her mouth indiscriminately. And watch out if you give her access to something forbidden, like the dishwasher. I've tried to load dishes when she's across the room and she motors over, pulls herself up, and starts grabbing at dirty spoons as quick as 1-2-3.

She also likes to push her way around while holding onto the walker that a friend lent to me. She's very proud of her walking skills!

She also likes to chase after Bradley, a somewhat dangerous proposition at times for a little girl who probably doesn't want to be tackled repeatedly.

Bradley requests shows by their bad guys these days. He was shouting "howc howc" the other morning and I finally figured out he was saying Hook from Jake and the Neverland Pirates. He also really likes the Disney Silly Symphony for The Three Little Pigs and requests that by saying "bad woof". I think we should be concerned.

Much cause for concern. Mommy leaves the room and we like to do adorably naughty things!

Bradley makes nursing with Eleanor entertaining. He will come over and lay his head on Eleanor and howl with delight when she grabs at his face. I read that by 9 months nursing is supposed to take about 5-10 minutes tops each time and that is NOT the case with us.

Sometimes you just need to contain the children. How is Eleanor SO cute?

 I just love how much they are little buds. Bradley loves copying Eleanor and vice versa.

We're having a blast on our park trips. Bradley is so hilarious these days. This was his reaction when I kept scooting next to him while he was trying to eat his snack at the playground.

And on the way back he kept asking for my hand as he was walking. I don't know if you can tell in this picture but I have a huge smile on my face. I love it when my little boy wants love and cuddles!

I'm not the only one who is a sucker for all things Bradley these days. 

Bradley had just woken up from a nap and come downstairs in the picture below and when I told him to cuddle up next to his daddy he immediately snuggled in. If there was one way to make sure Daddy had a perfect weekend, this was it.

We're looking forward to Bradley's upcoming second birthday this next weekend! Hard to believe it's already been two years. So thankful for our sweet little guy! And for his wonderful little sister. And our three incredibly needy cats. Such a nice little family we have!