Beckett at 22 Months

Beckett is a hoot these days.  He gets even more fun the older he gets. 

His vocabulary is amazing.  He can communicate absolutely anything he wants to, and we’re able to understand it.  He remembers new words after hearing them just one time, and then uses them later on in the right context.  It’s crazy.  Kids learn so fast at this age!  He talks all the time.  Especially in the car.  And he’s started asking questions.  Mainly “where is so-and-so.”  And he’s not afraid to ask the same question over and over again, even after getting an answer.  And over again.  Like a broken record.  It’s a real treat J

Some of our favorite things that he says are:

-“Otay, Daddy.” or “Otay, Mommy.” –when we tell him something or give him an instruction.

-“sessool”—every time I pick him up from preschool we wash our hands before we leave and it involves stacking two step stools on top of each other so he can reach the sink, and something about the way he says that word is just the cutest thing in the world because he uses his little tongue so much.

-“big tiss”—he knows that the answer to the question, “What does Mommy/Daddy need?” is either a big hug or a big kiss, and the way he says kiss will just melt your heart.

-He has a toy where Ernie is the driver, and he says Ernie really, really cute.

-"... for Thine is the “tingdom, power, and dory forever and ever, Amen.”—he’s memorized about ¼ of the Lord’s Prayer and his pronunciation on the last part is the sweetest thing.  He also starts with “Dear Faddah” “Dear Dod” and it’s pretty darn cute too.

-“Mommy/Daddy, listened!” or more recently, “Listened first time!”—he knows when he listens (like when we tell him not to touch something, etc.) we make a big celebration for him with a big hug and high fives, and it’s really endearing to hear him so excited to tell us about it and wait for our reaction.

-“One finger?”—Awhile back we started a thing where if he wants to touch something off-limits (like something at a store) we tell him that he can touch it with just one finger.  Someone suggested this to us as a way to satisfy a toddler’s curious nature but also keep him out of trouble.  Anyway, now he’ll see something he wants to touch but knows he shouldn't and he’ll ask, “Touch it?” and we’ll say no and he’ll quickly reply, “One finger?” while holding his little finger up by his face and looking at us innocently and it’s super cute.

-We’re having an early birthday party for him this year and it’s tractor-themed (of course!) and he will say “tractor birthday party” as clear as day and it’s really sweet.

-Also, just for my own memory when looking back at this, when he says the word “frog” it sounds exactly like the f word and I think it’s hilarious.  Kolby thinks I’m really immature.

He will also say 5-7 word sentences and it’s really impressive but also really funny because you can tell he has to think really hard about what he’s trying to say before he’s able to finish it.

Until the past month or so, if he said something to us that we didn't understand, we could guess wrong or say something like, “Oh yeah?  Cool!” and pretend like we understood, and he wouldn't care and would just move on.  Not anymore.  If we guess wrong he’ll say “no” and say the word again and again until we get it right, and he won’t give up.  He knows if we try to fake it or distract him and will insist that we repeat the word back to him.  Thankfully we can almost always figure it out, but it’s funny how insistent he is on being understood.

Beckett is absolutely thriving in preschool.  He is smitten with his teacher and talks about her all the time.  He also loves music class at school and clearly has a crush on his music teacher.  He does all sorts of art and plays with his friends and they always have some sort of seasonal sensory activity (like a bin full of gourds and a hollowed out pumpkin) and I really like the variety of fun and learning he has at school because I’m not creative enough to come up with that stuff at home.  I just couldn't be happier with our decision to enroll him in “school” (technically it’s just Mother’s Day Out) and love getting to hear all about his day there when I pick him up.  And it makes me feel confident in working (albeit part-time), because it gives us a reason (and $) to send him to school, and I think he benefits from the mix of time at home with us and time in a structured, learning/social/play-oriented setting.

Things I want to remember:

-When I get him out of his crib in the morning I always ask how he slept and what he dreamed about.  He almost always says, “fumblerooskie football.”  (Fumblerooskie is a game he plays with Kolby where they fumble the football then fall on each other).  Then he proceeds to name other random things, like whatever is on his pajamas (fire trucks, dinosaurs, etc.).

-When he listens and obeys he runs up to me (or Kolby) and says, “Mama, listened.” while pointing at his ear then says, “big hug” or “high five” followed by “big tiss.”

-He HATES getting his hair combed so he has wild hair every day but Sundays when I force him to let me comb it.

And now, some pictures!

 Snuggling with Mommy 

 Sharing a popsicle at breakfast with cousin Kyndall

 "Meeting" baby brother/sister for the first time!

 One of many after school ice cream dates

 Playing with Dada 

 School picture day!

 Bath/play time

 The first of many forts

 Found him like this one day

 Waiting on cinnamon rolls

 Flipping through baseball cards on his big boy bed (which he isn't sleeping in yet)

 Handsome boy, on the way to church

 A little vacuuming help

 Tractors, tractors, tractors

 A photo I snapped of Beckett's first haircut (which he got alongside his dad, grandfather and great grandfather) won a ribbon at my office's annual art show.  It was so fun to get to share the news with Great Grandfather!

 Beckett "caught" his first baseball!  We were at a Rough Riders game and a player tossed it to us at the end of an inning.

 My whole family went to the first Baylor home football game this year, which was also opening day for the awesome new stadium.  It was so hot... but so much fun!

 Clean up in aisle 6

Play date with his buddy, Declan

 Swapping stories about their days at school