Beckett at 2 1/2 Years

Baseball season started in April and “baseball” about sums up Beckett in the months since.  He’s obsessed.  He’s really observant and loves to ask questions when he and Kolby watch the Rangers games together.  In turn, he’s really knowledgeable about the Rangers players and positions and baseball in general.  It’s pretty funny. 

His first love was pitching and the boy has an arm.  He can throw really well.  And he has a wind up that’s adorable.  Then he moved on to batting.  First on the tee, then he asked Kolby to toss it to him, then he moved on to asking for Kolby to pitch it overhand to him (“throw it like the pitcher does”) and it’s the craziest thing but Beckett can whack it.  I’d say he hits over half the balls pitched to him, and hard.  And now he’s moved on to catching.  He can’t catch worth a lick but he LOVES being the catcher.  He squats down, holds his glove up and wears one of his dress up hats (fireman hat, hard hat, etc.) as a helmet.  When he misses the ball (which is always, because he insists on holding his glove the right way and not the underhand kid-friendly way) the throws off his helmet to retrieve the ball then fires it back to the pitcher “like the catcher does.”  When I tell you that we play that game all.day.long.every.day know that I am not exaggerating.

[I'm going to be honest here and say that I wrote the above on time, but then never finished the post and now I can only think what Beckett is up to these days and I'll save that for his 2 3/4 years old post.  So I'll just move on to some pictures and maybe they'll jog my memory some more :)]

 Beckett came with me on a grocery run and I loved the one-on-one time.  Even though the checkout lady thought his name was "Bucket" and didn't even give me a hard time about naming him that.

 First dentist visit!  He actually has one more tooth than he should, what an overachiever. And for the record, he hated the appointment (don't we all) and the dentist accomplished nothing but counting his teeth.  Oh well!

 At an appointment about his milk and egg allergy we played some imaginary baseball while we waited for some test results.

 We went bowling with Kolby's family and he loved it.

Gymnastics all star. 

Shopping buddy. 

 Singing a duet with his buddy, Declan.

 Fishing with Pops.

Easter Sunday with his church buddies Haley and Evan.

Beckett LOVES cherry tomatoes.  He'd seriously eat a gallon at a time if we let him.  So he and Kolby made a raised bed and planted a garden this spring.  It wasn't too successful but maybe next year it'll go better.

 Most of you know this but I've had these three best friends since we were in middle school.  We all wound up living fairly close so we girls try to get together once a month or so, but we usually meet for dinner after the kids (we have 7 kids, going on 9 between us) are settled in for the evening so we can have a night out and catch up.  Our kids know each other but don't get to play together all that often since we mostly hang out without them.  So we had this bright idea to go spend the night at my parents' ranch and let the kids have a sleepover and play together.  But I think the kids knew they had us far outnumbered and it was a bit wild, but hey, we'll try it again in like 15 years :) 

 Beckett and Kolby go to the library almost daily, and they found this book, Trashy Town that is about a garbage man, Mr. Gilly.  Beckett got really interested in garbage men and garbage trucks as a result (and still is).  Here's him with a garbage truck toy he got as a gift.  I made a trash route for him, which was my one moment of creativity for the year.

 Getting the plants for his garden.

 Our city had a "trash bash" and Beckett got to pretend to be Mr. Gilly and loved it.

 Beckett is still a crazy good eater.  Even when he has friends over he'll sit and finish his meal long after they've gone back to playing (and he'll finish what's on their plates as well).  

 Kolby's grandparents live in a retirement community not too far away and we try to visit them as often as we can.

 Beckett and his friend William (our godson) were baptized together and we got together this year on the anniversary to celebrate and remember their baptisms.

 Working hard...

 My dad and brother took Beckett and Tucker (my nephew) to a monster truck rally at Baylor's new football stadium.

 Beckett is a daddy's boy all the way.  Here he is looking through his baseball cards with Kolby (and saying that catchers say 'you throw strikes!') and the next is them unwinding (all matchy matchy) after a long day. 

Last day of gymnastics! You can see he left it all on the court :)

My younger brother Russell lived with us this summer while he was in town for an internship (he's getting his MBA at Baylor).  He and Beckett became buddies.  Mainly because Beckett is ALWAYS looking for someone new to play baseball with him.

 I need to get my nice camera out and take some portraits of Beckett at this age, but here are a couple from when the Texas wildflowers were blooming.  Whew that hair...