Beckett's Second Birthday

We decided to celebrate Beckett's second birthday a month early this year, so that we were sure he got the fun party he deserved and it not get overshadowed by the new baby's arrival.  The theme this year was a no brainer:

Having the party early provided a great opportunity to host it at my parents' ranch, since the weather is nicer than in December. I'm a big fan of easy birthday parties and staying off of Pinterest, so we kept things simple again this year. We had some farm-themed snacks like tractor tires (oreos), farm animals (animal crackers), hay bales (rice krispie treats), a vegetable garden (veggie tray), etc.  Then for lunch we served BBQ sandwiches and farm-shaped mac n cheese, and it was all really easy and a big hit with everyone. We had a couple of balloons (literally, two), and I put a few sunflowers in mason jars and made a banner for the mantle and left the decorations at that.  We had three party activities:  letting the kids play with a million tractor toys in the huge living room, a hay ride, and a pinata.  Keeping things to a minimum allowed us to just enjoy watching Beckett have the time of his life doing all of his favorite things with all of his favorite people!  A couple people we invited were out of town but other than that everyone made the drive to the ranch to celebrate with us and it meant a lot.  And I think everyone had a great time!  There were 11 kids age three and under there, and not a single meltdown all day.  I'm calling that a victory for sure :)

Thankfully several people took pictures and sent them to me because I only snapped a couple on my cell phone.  Here's a peek at all the fun!

Everyone playing with the tractor toys.  No need to fight or even share when there are 4 toys for everyone 1 kid there!  (We borrowed toys from a few family members)  Plus there was so much space!  It's amazing how smoothly a party goes when there's plenty of room for a whole bunch of toddlers to run around like crazy and still stay out of trouble!

Beckett spent a lot of time on the tractor, as we expected.  It's his birthday and he can do what he wants!

 Beckett and his buddy William, up to no good.

All aboard!

There are a few couples at church that we are good friends with who have little boys that were born within two months of Beckett.  Here's that group of four buddies.

Tucker seems concerned about this set up...

Lunch break!

Hay ride #2

[Let me pause for a minute and mention that the hay for this hay ride was from the attic of an old dilapidated barn on the property and was acquired by my mom operating the tractor with my dad in the bucket and lifting him up to the attic from the outside to get to the hay.  They did this alone.  Safety is clearly a huge priority in our family.] 

 We don't have a big group picture but this one shows a bit of the crowd there to celebrate our boy!

Pinata time!

 Cousin Tucker showing us all how it's done! 

Sporting his pinata loot.

Time for birthday cake!

Kolby and I continued our tradition of making Beckett's cake together the night before his party. Most of the credit goes to Kolby this year for this tractor masterpiece!  Beckett was so excited when he saw it.

Blowing out his candles

I think he approves of the cake...

(that's a donut on top of cake on top of the farmer)

 An attempt to get a picture of Beckett and all his friends.  Just one in tears and one missing... not bad!

 It's like we told the kids there was candy buried in the grass...

Beckett got some awesome gifts, which I'm really grateful for because they'll keep him entertained when I'm feeding the new baby.  And check out those tractor rain boots!  Uncle Russell keeps him in cool footwear.

***

It was a such a wonderful day.

A very happy birthday to our sweet, tractor-loving boy!

Halloween and Baylor Homecoming 2014

Well, our Halloween didn't look quite like we expected it to.  We were going to be in Waco for the weekend for Baylor homecoming, so we decided to drive down on Friday early evening and take Beckett trick or treating in my parents' neighborhood.

There's not a good way to say this without it seeming more dramatic than it really was, but we were in a car accident with an 18-wheeler on the drive.  Thankfully, it was during rush hour so traffic was moving really slow.  We had just gotten on the highway and were in the right lane when a big truck tried to move into our lane without seeing us.  There wasn't much of an impact at all, just a very loud grinding sound.  Kolby was driving and honked the horn so the driver would realize what was happening and not push us into the barricade in the shoulder.  The accident was the truck driver's fault (although he wasn't being negligent, it was just a wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time thing) and he felt so, so bad when he came to check on us and saw that he had hit us right at Beckett's door.  I don't think it made him feel any better either when he saw that I was mondo pregnant.  Anyway, several cops came and to make a long story short we kept on rolling to Waco on a spare tire.  

Unfortunately it was nearly 10pm by the time we made it, so we had missed trick or treating.  Beckett is too young to understand so he didn't care one bit, but I was sad we had missed the opportunity to take him trick or treating with my parents.  Oh well--everyone was safe and that's what matters.

The next day we tried to make up for it by letting him trick or treat inside my parents' house, then when we got home on Sunday a few friends from church offered to let him trick or treat to their house just for fun.  Beckett was the cutest elephant you've ever seen.  It's his favorite animal (well, tied with a gorilla).  Plus I got his costume used for $5 and you can't beat that ;)

Saturday was Baylor homecoming and we had a blast!  We went to the parade early that morning and Beckett loved watching the marching band (which he still talks about) and the balloons and floats.

Then the game was in the afternoon and Beckett and his cousins did a great job rooting on the Bears!

Sic 'em Bears!

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

Maternity Pictures

We had a friend snap a couple pictures for us a few weeks ago to document our family at this fun stage.  Just the three of us, a baby on the way, and our other ever-present family member-- Beckett's drool stain :) 

Beckett's First Day of Preschool

Beckett started preschool (the one-year-old version) just after Labor Day.  He goes three days (more like half days) a week while I'm working and they do art and have music class and go on walks and play on the playground and learn and eat lunch and take naps.  It's a big change from having him at home with a babysitter but it's one he was ready for and we've been looking forward to it ever since we signed him up back in February.

Kolby took the morning off so we could bring him to his first day as a family.  Beckett was so excited.  We had gone to Meet the Teacher a few days before so he had seen his classroom and kept talking about wanting to play with the "bobtap" toys ("bobcat" as in construction truck).  As we pulled into the parking lot he started chanting "new friends" and clapping.  He was ready!

How adorable is his huge backpack and his John Deere nap mat?!?  We said our goodbyes at the door and gave our hugs and he eagerly ran right in and straight to the construction toys.  I thought about him all.day.long.  As silly as I'm sure it sounds, it was such an odd feeling to have him away at a new place having new experiences.  I just hoped and prayed he was having fun and being kind and making all the new friends his little heart desired.  When I picked him up it was clear he had had a great day and didn't even want to leave with me, he wanted me to come in and play with him in his classroom.

It's been a few weeks now and I'm happy to report that everything has exceeded what I'd hoped for.  He has the biggest crush on his main teacher and she's always the first name out of his mouth when I ask him about his new friends.  She's really sweet.  He also loves music class and his music teacher and talks about her a lot too.  He hasn't ever hesitated to run right into school and into his classroom--he barely even says bye to me!  And he's taken at least a one-hour nap every day.  I really wish I could be a fly on the wall at nap time: two teachers trying to get 6 one-year-olds to lay on their mats and fall asleep.  But some way, somehow they make it work and he even napped on his first day.  Which is crazy to me since he's never napped anywhere but a crib or a portable crib, where he had nowhere to go, not to mention we always keep his room dark and quiet.  It gives me the feeling that he's really been pulling one over on us this whole time ;).

Anyway, it's all been such a great experience and it makes me so happy that Beckett is thriving at preschool as much as he is.  It's so good for him to have a change of scenery and be around other kids his age on a regular basis, plus he's picking up some good skills like learning to play more independently, listening (sometimes), eating at a table rather than in a highchair, etc.  All in all, it's been a great start to his first preschool experience!