Emily and Kolby

Beckett at 18 months

Beckett recently turned a year-and-a-half old and I have to say, I’m more excited than ever to write about what he’s up to these days. I’m just so proud of the little boy he is.

He’s running around like crazy these days, and by running I mean walking really fast and excitedly with tiny steps and his mouth open and with his huge belly leading the way. Seriously, his walk is hilarious. I spent an hour the other day just taking video of it because I know he’ll grow out of it soon and we’ll forget how funny it was.

He’s such a good communicator. On the day of his 18-month checkup I made a list of the words he commonly uses and made it to 75 easily and I knew I was forgetting some. He probably adds a new word every day, so I’m sure this was my last count and can assume it’s just going to grow exponentially from here. He’s started stringing a couple of words together at times and it’s so fun to hear him “talk.” Occasionally he’ll jabber what he seems to think is a full sentence but is not coherent at all. My favorite things about his speech right now is how he makes the “s” sound with his tongue and front teeth (precious) and substitutes a “t” for a “k” sound. As in, “tar” for car and “Tuh-ter” for Tucker.

He’s so sweet with other people and it makes me so happy. He loves to wave and say hi and blow kisses and give hugs, and we’ve been teaching him to say please and thank you and to be sure to look at the person’s face when he says it. He finally learned to give real hugs rather than just leaning in and making the other person do the hugging.

A couple months ago I was having to watch him pretty closely when he was playing with his friends because he was not always gentle with them, although some of the roughness stemmed from him being a fairly new walker and he’d lose his balance and grab at them. He is so much better now. He’s very steady on his feet so that has helped a lot, but he’s also learned to be gentler and it’s been a long time since I’ve had to get on to him for being too rough with a friend. Unless he has a bat. All bets are off if he somehow gets a bat in his hands. He doesn’t intentionally hit anyone (usually), but he also doesn’t pay a lick of attention to the consequences of swinging a bat in close quarters.

This past month he’s really taken to hugging his friends, totally unprompted. It’s seriously the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen. The recipient is usually his best friend, William. And I use the term “best friend” for real here—if you ask Beckett who his best friend is he always says William. It’s the little boy (and son of some best friends of ours from church) that our babysitter kept at our house this past school year along with Beckett, two days a week. He also likes to hug his friend (and second cousin) Liam and he LOVES to hug his cousin Tucker.

Speaking of Tucker, Beckett is ENAMORED by Tucker. He seriously thinks he hung the moon. Tucker loves him too. The other day we met Brad & Remy for dinner and when the boys saw each other they ran up and gave a big hug and danced around and had the most excited look on their faces. I’m pretty sure even the strangers at the table next to us teared up. Seeing their relationship is one of the things that makes me most excited about having baby #2 on the way. Beckett is going to absolutely fawn over having a sibling!

OK, so probably the coolest thing about the past couple of months has been the continued emergence of Beckett’s personality and temperament. Specifically, the seemingly boundless zeal he has for life. He meets every new situation—and I mean every.single.one—with so much happiness and enthusiasm. Nothing fazes him. Some examples lately: first trip to the pool, getting dropped off at a different church’s nursery, first trip to a splash park, several new babysitters, first older-kid birthday party, and his first time to go to a gymnastics place. In every circumstance, he’s off having the time of his life the minute we let go of his little hand. No tears, no hesitation, no stranger anxiety, no clinging to mom & dad… he is just go-go-go. I love seeing him have so much fun and try so many new things. He’s just an always-happy-go-with-the-flow kid. I’m so proud of him.

To somewhat keep tabs on how his interests change, here’s a list of his favorites these days.

Foods: banana, sweet potatoes, scrambled eggs, blueberries, strawberries, pancakes, smoothies, avocado, rice, any type of bread

Toys: baseball cards, bat & balls, his Superman book, hats, cars

Activities: riding the tractor with Pops, playing in the driver’s seat of the car, turning his bounce house on and off, watching the Ken Burns baseball documentary on TV, swimming

Also, at his 16 months post I wrote about how his obsession had moved on from hats to baseball. Well, it's moved on again. He is FULL FORCE obsessed with tractors now. It stems from getting to ride a tractor with my dad when we are at my parents' ranch. It seems all we hear these days is "na-na-na (that's his sound for tractor) Pops" or some combination of the tractor sound, sit, up, down, keys, on, please, Pops... telling us all about how he wants to sit on the tractor with Pops and use the key to turn it on and make the bucket go up and down PLEASE. It's really cute and super annoying at the same time, because unlike hats and baseball, we can't satisfy him when he gets fixated on wanting to ride a tractor. Usually we can pacify him by pretending our knee is a tractor and giving him a tractor ride, showing him a YouTube video of farm work, or calling or FaceTiming Pops and having him explain that they can ride the tractor soon.

Two other notable things that happened lately. First, the day Beckett turned 18 months old was the day we left him with my parents for 5 nights while Kolby and I took an anniversary vacation to Florida. It was our longest time away from him. He had such a blast with my parents (and they with him)! And he slept well and napped well and didn’t cry, so he was as easy as a one-year-old can be… but that’s still pretty exhausting. I’m glad they got to spend some time alone together, and that we got to relax knowing he was in good hands! Second, here are three changes that happened at 18 months that to me signify how much he is growing up (insert sound of me wailing):

1) He now calls Kolby “Daddy” rather than “Dada.”

2) He’s tall enough now that I can walk totally upright while holding his hand (this doesn’t sound like a big deal, but it’s really such a strange feeling after stooping over for months!).

3) He now often kisses with his lips closed. It’s funny how his breathy, drooly, open mouth kisses were so gross but now how much I miss them!

Also, his 18-month stats.

Weight: 28 pounds (90^th percentile)

Height: 32 inches (95^th percentile)

He was right at average size at one year, so he's really hit a big growth spurt these past few months. He's got a big ole belly and it's the cutest thing in the world. Also, his fourth bottom tooth finally came through (now he has four on top and four on bottom) and he got his first four molars over the past two months (two on top and two on bottom). His molars coming in made him hard to please at times but overall he's been an pretty easy teether. And for memory's sake: he sleeps from 8pm-7:30am and takes a 2-3 hour nap every day after lunch. His sleep schedule is absolutely amazing these days!

Some pictures lately (in no particular order):

Playing in the car.

Possibly my favorite food of all time is a soft pretzel. My mom and I would get pretzels every time we went to the mall. So I snapped a picture of Beckett eating his first mall pretzel. He loved it, obviously. I got him his own because there's no way I was sharing any of mine.

Hugging Tucker.

On the tractor with Pops.

A little 7:30am romp in the bounce house (we got him this for his first birthday).

Just killing time waiting for Kolby to get home.

Bath time.

Another ride on the tractor with Pops.

Reminding us that we hadn't yet prayed before dinner.

So excited to introduce his bedtime pals to the great outdoors.

Doing his part to contribute to Family Ranch Work Weekend. No one is exempt from Grams' to-do list.

He graduated from mommy and me swim lessons, along with his buddy Declan.

Just a little building.

My second favorite food is a chocolate covered donut with sprinkles. He's a fan of those too.

Mother's Day and Father's Day 2014.

An impromptu first trip to a splash pad.

My sweet napping buddy.

Flying a kite with his cousin Kyndall.

This is a photo I posted on Instagram showing my 18 week belly vs. Beckett's 18 month belly :) He's totally winning.

First Rough Riders game!

Waiting on the doctor at his 18 month check up.

We moved his car seat to face forward at 18 months and we all love it!

Family Rangers Game

I have been wanting to do something special for Kolby for awhile. I'll try not to go on and on here, but Kolby basically deserves a gold medal daily for what he does for our family. And not only what he does, but his eternally happy attitude while he does it all. Especially lately, particularly the first four months of my pregnancy when I was so sick in the evenings and unable to do much of anything, he's done the bulk of the cooking and a lot of the daily cleaning up around the house. And he is the most present, involved and loving father in the world. I just never seem to find the words to convey just how much I appreciate him, for it all.

So I knew I wanted to do something, but it took some time to think of what would mean most to him. As everyone knows, Kolby loves baseball and the Texas Rangers. And one of his heroes is Eric Nadel, the Rangers' radio broadcaster (since the 1980s). We listen to Eric Nadel basically every night during the baseball season (we don't get the games on TV because we don't have cable) and I swear even Beckett recognizes his voice. Anyway, we have a friend with connections at the Rangers and I reached out to her on a whim to see if there might be an opportunity this summer for Kolby to meet Eric.

One thing led to another and she went way above and beyond, and blessed us with the most amazing night as a family... all a surprise to Kolby. Here's a peek into what I'm sure Kolby would classify as one of the best nights of his life!

First we arrived at the ballpark early, and our tickets (which were given to us) came with dinner at the Capital One Club. Which apparently is not your typical ballpark food. It was amazing. A waitress came and asked what we wanted to drink and we felt like giddy kids again when we asked for Cokes (we are always way too cheap to order anything but water when we eat out).

As we were finishing eating, guess who walked in? The one and only Eric Nadel. And not only walked in, but walked up to our table. And sat down. And chatted with us for 10 minutes before he had to get back up to the booth to you know, announce the game. Kolby was beside himself. It really meant a lot to him to just get to meet Eric, much less get to sit and talk with him. Success!

Right before first pitch we made our way to our seats. Our seats that were in the second row behind home plate. In a section with a concierge and popcorn and peanuts in every seat and a cooler full of bottled water and sodas (apparently all it takes to make my day is free coke, ha). Amazing!

Beckett practicing his swinging as he waits for his pal Elvis Andrus to come up to bat.

P.S. as Elvis was batting apparently Beckett made it on TV!
(Video won't play on Macs or iPhones... not sure why)

Hanging out, cheering on the Rangers.

I know I'm biased, but this boy is beautiful.

After the first couple of innings, my cousin who lives near the ballpark came and picked up Beckett so he could get some sleep. So Kolby and I got to stay for the whole game and enjoy the view from our awesome seats.

It was such an amazing night, and Kolby had blast and hopefully felt a fraction of the love and appreciation that Beckett and I have for him!

Anniversary Trip

In early June Kolby and I took a trip to the beach to celebrate our 5th anniversary (we want to take a fun trip together every 5 years). Our 5th anniversary actually fell a week after Beckett was born, so we had to postpone it a bit, but better late than never! We thought about going last summer, but I ended up deciding it's not a real vacation if I had to pack a breast pump :). But this year as soon as Kolby got out of school, off we went!

We took a little road trip and spent 4 nights at what I'm now convinced is the greatest beach destination in the U.S.-- a quaint little beachside bed & breakfast in the Destin, FL area called the Henderson Park Inn. Y'all. I'm going to go on and on about this place so just bear with me. It was amazing. Some family members had recommended it to us and it did not disappoint. Amazing rooms, amazing views, adults only, private beach, chairs & umbrellas set up for us every day, a delicious breakfast, lunch, and happy hour included, tons of beautiful places to sit and enjoy the views and the ocean breeze, and possibly best of all-- refrigerators stocked with complimentary sodas and candy bars (!!!). We had the best time together.

A few pictures...

Our room:

My view from bed every morning... after sleeping in as late as I wanted:

View from the balcony:

Enjoying the beach:

Dinner at sunset:

Five (6.5) happy years down and cheers to many more to come!

Party of Four

Coming November 2014!

We are absolutely thrilled to announce that we are expecting baby #2 shortly after Thanksgiving. This little turkey will be promoted to big brother just in time for his second birthday :)

Thanks be to God for this dream come true!

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Ephesians 3:20-21

Children and Church

One of my very favorite things about our church is that our kids worship with us. They go to Children’s Church during the sermon, but for worship, reading Scripture, prayer, and the Lord’s Supper (Communion/Eucharist)—they are with us. Watching us. Learning from us. Making their own joyful noises to the Lord (and not so joyful noises).

The kids are often a distraction, no doubt. It gets loud at times. Particularly in the last five minutes of the service when most of the babies have reached their limits. But I think it’s important for our children to experience corporate worship, even before it means anything to them.

Anyway, I’m so grateful to have been encouraged to keep Beckett with us for so much of the church service. Mainly because it has given me a chance every week to experience my very favorite moment of motherhood: praising God right into my son’s ear. I hold him in front of me and stroke his hair while singing words that I pray will rest in his heart:

God is Able

He will never fail

He is almighty God

Greater than all we seek

Greater than all we ask

He has done great things

Lifted up, He defeated the grave

raised to life, our God is able

In His name, we overcome

For the Lord, our God is able

Yes, our God. His and mine. He doesn’t know Him yet, but I do. I know what He has done for us. And I praise Him for us both.

At first Beckett would sleep through it. Then he’d coo, then he’d grin or chew on my necklace, and now he waves or blows kisses at whoever is sitting behind us. But one day he’ll hear my words, and one day he’ll start to comprehend what they are, what they mean. And based on how he surprises me daily with what he actually understands, those days will come sooner than I think.

I wish I could say that I’ve prayed with him or for him every single day since the day he was born, but I haven’t. I don’t want to come across like I’m this uber-spiritual mother who has it all together. I just want to share about this piece of motherhood that I cherish so much.

It started when I was pregnant actually—standing and swaying with my hands clasped under my growing belly, getting to praise God for working this miracle for us. And I look forward to the next phase even more—getting to worship God along with Beckett. What a sweet, sweet sound to the Lord that boy will make!

Beckett at 16 Months

Beckett took his first steps right before he turned 14 months old and he switched over to being a full-time walker right before he turned 15 months old. It is so much fun to have him walking. I can’t get over how much I love holding his hand and walking into places together. Or how much I love it when he clings to my leg. Melts my heart.

People warned me that he’ll get into so much more once he’s walking. I can’t say that I agree. Maybe people didn’t realize how much he got into things before?!? One change, though, is how quiet he is around the house. When he was crawling I always knew exactly where he was. I could turn my attention away from him for a minute and know when he’d move an inch—his hands slapped loudly on the wood floors as he scurried off. And I knew if he was getting into trouble because I could hear him start to crawl faster. But now that he’s on his feet, he’s super stealthy. I turn my back for one second and he’s gone and I never know which way he went. Keeps me on my toes for sure!

We signed him up for a Mother’s Day Out program at a local church for the fall. He’ll go to MDO a few days a week for half days, while I go to work. I visited several programs and feel so confident that I found one that will be perfect for him and his personality. He’s so sweet so I knew I wanted someplace that would nurture him and love him well, but he’s also go-go-go and loves to explore and learn and play hard so I wanted to make sure he got some adventure too. He’s going to have an absolute blast, I’m sure of it!

The last couple months have seen some big changes to our daily routine. For one, we dropped Beckett’s morning nap. The writing had been on the wall for his morning nap for a while, but I tried to hang on to it as long as possible because it was my morning nap too :). And anyone who knows me knows that my morning nap is sacred. But alas, all good things must come to an end. So we dropped it just before spring break (right as he turned 15 months old). Y’all. Do you know how long a morning with a busy one year old can be? Holy moly. Kolby and I each had a day where we were home playing with Beckett and having a blast, doing this or that around the house, having breakfast, doing a load of laundry, playing outside, coloring, laughing, etc. and figured it was about time for lunch when we looked at the clock and it was barely 9am. It didn’t help that Beckett has always woken up for the day at 5:30 or 6am. But after a week or two we got used to it and now it’s really nice to have the morning free where we can meet up with friends or run errands or go somewhere and not have to worry about coming home for a nap.

With the move to one nap a day came the final farewell to Beckett’s beloved exercise ball. I think I’ve covered this well here, but in case you missed it, a series of events led to us bouncing Beckett to sleep on a giant exercise ball for his naps. I realize how nuts that sounds. We had tried to wean him off it before but once he learned some sign language it was a lost hope because I’d try to put him to sleep another way and he’d curl out his bottom lip in the saddest fashion and then point to the ball and sign “night night, please?” “night night, please?” (Not to mention that when I would give in and move to the ball, he’d smile so contentedly and occasionally sign “thank you.”) But Kolby and I had resolved to quit cold turkey when we moved to one nap, and we did. It was rough for us all but I can now proudly say that I no longer cradle my 25 pound toddler and sit on an inflatable rubber ball to put him to sleep. Well, maybe proud isn’t exactly the right word. In either event, he falls asleep on his own now like a big boy (and like he has done at night time for quite some time now). He takes his nap right after lunch and usually sleeps for 2 hours or so. It is wonderful! He also finally has gotten attached to a comfort object/lovey/whatever… he has a stuffed animal monkey (creatively named “monkey”) that he sleeps with now and it has really helped smooth the transition to him falling asleep on his own.

I’m afraid to even write this for fear that it will jinx it, but Beckett has started sleeping in. Cue the hallelujah chorus. I don’t know if it was the dropping of a nap or the daylight savings time change or something else, but for a while now he’s started sleeping in until around 7:30am. That is TWO HOURS later than usual. I don’t even have the words to express how exciting this is.

The other big change is that I finished weaning him. I can’t say that I’d really planned to nurse him until he was 16 months old, but apparently that’s what we did and it worked for us and I loved every minute of it (minus newborn weeks 2-3, ha!). By his first birthday I had him down to three feedings a day and when he turned 1 I swapped milk in for the mid-day feeding. [Which meant I no longer had to pump on the days that I worked (or ever, actually). HALLELUJAH. If it weren’t for the hope of future little ones I would totally have burned my breastpump in effigy.] Then on our spring break trip I swapped milk in for his bedtime feeding. I held on to his morning feeding the longest because honestly, I wasn’t ready to start my day at 5:30 or 6am. When he’d wake up then, we would all go to the living room and I’d nurse Beckett while Kolby and I ate bowls of cereal and watched a show on Netflix. It was mindless and easy and a great slow start to the day, and as a not-morning-person I can’t tell you how much I need that down time. If the alternative was him chugging a sippy cup of milk in 5 minutes and being ready to play at 5:35 in the morning, I wasn’t about to volunteer for that change. But once he started sleeping in, dropping that last nursing happened pretty naturally because every other day or so there wouldn’t be time for me to nurse him—either because I had to go to work, or we had to get ready for swim lessons or some other morning plans. Then one day, maybe a week or so after he turned 16 months old, I just decided it was a good of a time as any to stop. I had hoped he would just lose interest and self-wean so I wouldn't have to be the one to make the call, but he just never did. So I had to cut him off, which was a bummer but he did just fine.

Weaning him was bittersweet for sure. I loved nursing him so much. But thankfully, I’d gotten into this routine with him of cradling him across my lap and rocking him for a few minutes at nap time and bedtime, and just talking to him and telling him things and singing to him—and he decided it was exactly what he wanted too. He wasn’t really a big cuddler before, but I think weaning him made him crave that closeness. I feel like that made it less emotional to let go of nursing him, since I had a new way to get some down time with him. We do the same when he first wakes up; I hold him and ask him what he dreamed about and what he wants to do that day (to which he always says "Wa-Wa" (play with his friend William)). It’s just a brief time of calmness before he’s off and running, but it’s one of the best parts of my day.

*This is totally unrelated to this post but I have to share this tale of a breastfeeding mom, a story that any of you fellow moms can probably laugh along with. So, working two days a week meant I had to pump at work. I have a lot of really funny stories from that (to name one other, my office created a room for me to use then slapped a big sign on the door that said “Lactation Room.” Thanks for your discretion, guys.), but here’s one that still makes me laugh when I think about it. I was at an all-day work conference and had no choice but to use a stall in a public restroom to pump. Wasn’t my first time to have to do that, and wasn’t my last. Anyway, so I’m sitting on the toilet (nowhere else to sit, obviously) just doing my thing when these two women walk in to the other stalls and one says to the other, “What the heck is that sound?” And I’m thinking, well, that’s the lovely sound of a double electric breast pump which I’m awkwardly using like two feet away from you right now. I don’t answer and neither does her friend so she says again, “Seriously, what is that sound?” then later, “Do you not hear that?!?” I really don’t know if I should say anything, and apparently her friend knows it’s coming from one of the stalls so she’s polite enough not to comment. Then the woman says, “It sounds like an electric soap dispenser that keeps going off.” to which I thought, man, I’ve been listening to this thing for nine months and couldn’t quite place the sound. She was totally right. That’s EXACTLY what the motor on my pump sounds like. Touché. Anyway, she exits the stall and I guess puts it together that it’s coming from my stall and that she’s made a fool of herself with all the commentary and she and her friend quickly scurry off. Oh the joys of motherhood. *

A change maybe even bigger than all those changes to his routine is how much he personally has grown up. His mobility has soared. We went to our neighborhood park just six weeks after his very first steps and he shocked me by dominating the playground completely on his own. I stood and watched as he climbed up the stairs, toddled across the play set, and threw himself head first down the slide. Then he did it all over again several times, all with the cheesiest grin on his face. It’s crazy how fast he transitioned from a crawling baby to an off-and-running toddler.

About as soon as he decided he had the walking thing down pat, he became so talkative again. At his 15 month check-up the doctor asked about how many words he says and she seemed shocked when we ballparked it at 25 words. Plus maybe a dozen more that he signs but can’t say yet (a lot of words that he used to only sign he now says too). He loves to squeal as he walks and say hi repeatedly (sometimes with a wave and sometimes with a finger point and a “HEYYY!”) and just generally make noise. He’s gotten into a roaring phase lately and he also likes to boo. His little voice is so sweet, I can’t wait until he starts stringing words together and really talking.

This kid still just loves to learn. He now knows several animals and has a sound or motion (he does a sic ‘em for bears, points to his nose for pigs, etc.) for each of them. Monkeys are definitely his favorite (which is why we thought to try a monkey for his comfort object). Dogs are a close second. A few months ago, Kolby’s mom started this thing with him where she’d say, “Beckett, what does the Y say?” And he’d say “ya-ya-ya.” We tried it with another letter later and then one thing led to another and he now knows a lot of the letters—what sounds they make and he can also recognize many of them by sight. I guess I’ll be getting him a chapter book for summer reading?!?

I’m surprised every day by what he understands. But that has raised the stakes around here because it’s getting to that time where we give him an instruction and we know he understands it yet he willfully disobeys it. Like asking him to not open the trash can and reach his hand in, or to stay seated in his high chair. Enter the start of our real parenting journey: discipline. Arg! Kolby and I laugh every day at our many false starts on trying to discipline him. Neither of us are good at keeping a straight face. We have no idea what we are doing but are just flying by the seat of our pants and it’s really funny too for Kolby and me to watch what the other comes up with. He’s only one. We still have some time to get a game plan together, right?!?

Also, another big transition this past month is Beckett is sloooowly moving on from his obsession with hats. Anyone want to guess what his new obsession is? Not shockingly, it’s baseball. Or “ba-baw.” He’s liked baseball for a while—mostly thanks to Kolby getting him baseball cards or talking about baseball—but things really took a turn after Opening Day. Kolby said he really watched the game and mimicked the swinging and throwing as the players were doing it. He came home and pretty much from that point on the kid has been all about baseball. He suddenly started showing interest in this baseball tee toy that we’d borrowed from Tucker months ago that Beckett had never really touched, would walk around swinging his arms and saying, “swi” and would point at the TV and ask to watch “ba-baw.” It sincerely started as HIS thing, not something that Kolby was pushing, although he’s thrilled and obviously is encouraging it now, ha.

Every stage has been my favorite, and that sure holds true for the stage he’s in now. He asks for “mama” a lot and there is nothing sweeter. His version of a hug is just leaning into you, and even that is just the best feeling in the world. And he will walk up to and hug other people on command, so we’ve really made some people’s day lately. He is so stinkin’ friendly. He always says thank you to others when we ask him to (he signs it, and it looks a lot like blowing a kiss which works too I guess!). He loves playing with other kids, especially older kids. He still gives breathy open-mouth-tongue-out kisses (gross). He thrives in new environments just as much as familiar ones. He's fearless.

I know there was something so precious about rocking with this teeny tiny baby on my chest, but there is something even more magical about rocking with a big boy across my lap and knowing him so well now and watching him squeeze his monkey tight and say “nigh nigh” and give me this smile that says that he has everything in life he could ever want. He sometimes gets in these silly moods at night and Kolby and I think about what needs to be done after we put him to bed—dinner needs to be cleared, dishes need to be done, the house needs to be reset for tomorrow, etc.—and then we just look at each other and say screw it, let’s just enjoy him for a while. We watch as he toddles around the living room in his footed pajamas making crazy noises and climbing on the couch wanting to roll around and be tickled, and dragging his favorite toys out of his play room to show us and chasing Maya (“naya”) and tasting all of her toys. He is just the best kid in the world. Our pride and joy for sure.

Some pictures lately (in no particular order):

Painting a picture for dada. It was actually a disaster of an idea.

Messy eater.

Someone has to keep the weeds knocked down.

Reading the book that Kolby and I wrote for him and pointing at "mama!" and "dada!" on the pages. P.S. his crazy hair was super voluminous that day so it looks like his head is shaped like an alien cartoon.

There is a page about baseball that he saw and immediately pretended to swing his bat. Love the expression on his face.. he really works hard on his swings!

He slept for his first 12 hour stretch and woke up with quite a bed head.

My little errand buddy. Yes, he wears his pjs a lot.

Kolby took him on an special errand one morning to Target to get a real baseball tee. Without hesitation he put the ball on the tee and hit it perfectly and really hard, over and over again.

Indiana Jones.

We do swim lessons with my friend Laura and her little boy Declan, and we always meet up for some play time beforehand. These two have so much fun together.

Psyched to be visiting Grandpops at his office, at the heart of Baylor's campus.

Family Easter photo fail. You can't win 'em all.

Our first 5K (I walked, Beckett strolled). It was a fundraiser for the crisis pregnancy center my mom volunteers for. Kolby was on a mini-triathlon team with my brother and SIL.

Yard helper.

Love his sweet profile.

At the park on the first day of spring. This kid is taking spring by storm.

You only live once.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Beckett. He just looks so innocent and perfect. I took this at our follow up visit with the pediatric cardiologist, where he got an A+ and we were assured that his heartbeat (although still irregular at times) is no cause for concern whatsoever and we never have to see a dr again about it.