This kid just keeps getting better and better.
I wrote this caption for a birthday picture of him on Instagram and
it’s about the best way I can summarize him at this age:
He’s funny, responsible, social,
smart, strong-willed, polite, and chatty.
He loves baseball, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, cantaloupe, Kolby, and bonus
time. He loves learning and is always
saying the cleverest things. Everyone he
meets is a “new friend” and nothing in life is worth anything unless he’s
sharing it with someone and narrating everything about it. I so wish I could bottle up his sweet little
voice. He’s the most perfect blend of
the best of Kolby and me and the exact answer to our years of praying.
He’s loving school and made his first real friend on his own. The boy’s name is Will and they aren’t in the
same class but they do story time and the playground together and apparently
they have hit it off. If we see them on
the way in the boys run to each other and hold hands all the way to their
classrooms. It’s pretty darn sweet.
I don’t think I’ve documented his bedtime routine as a toddler and I
want to for my own memory’s sake (and to explain the “bonus time” mention above!). Every night (and naptime too) we put his
pajamas on then he gets 5 minutes of bonus time, then we read two books. What is bonus time you ask? Well, it’s basically nothing. I don’t remember how exactly it came about,
but I think he was doing his usual wigging out about getting his pajamas on one
night because he wanted to keep playing, so we told him that if he got his
pajamas on now he could have a few minutes of bonus play time before bed. It worked like a charm and over time became
this amazing bargaining chip for us. If
he’s not being cooperative or if he’s disobeying, all we have to do is tell him
he will lose his bonus time if he doesn’t listen and obey and BOOM, magic. He takes keeping his bonus time really
seriously, which cracks us up because it’s really not that cool of a thing. We set a timer and he gets to choose what he
wants to do with his bonus time, and usually by the time he decides what he
wants to do and starts it, the timer goes off.
And the funniest thing is he runs over and turns off the timer off then
chooses his two books and meets us on the couch, not even flinching about how
he ran out of time right when the fun started.
Dude respects the rules of bonus time, ha! So we read the two books, then we brush his
teeth and go to his room to pray and tuck him in with his
stuffed animals (his favorite is his wolf named Brian) and sing him Beckett Boy, which is a song Kolby made
up for him when he was a baby that has stuck.
Usually he calls for us a couple times—he likes to hide under his covers
then ask us to find him, or he’ll have some random question, need water, etc.—but he goes
to sleep pretty easily. He sleeps from
about 8pm-6am. Can’t complain! And right around his third birthday he had a
nap renaissance of sorts and takes a nap 95% of the time now, after being kind
of hit or miss with naps the few months before that. I thought maybe his napping days were coming
to an end but man, I can’t tell you how amazing it is that he’s still going
strong with it. Mama sure enjoys that break in
the afternoon :)
Beckett still loves to read, and we always have a slew of library books
around because Kolby takes the boys to the library a couple times a week. His favorites are The Jungle Baseball Game, I
Really Like Slop!, and anything construction themed, like Dig Dig Digging and Tap Tap Bang Bang. His teacher
at school reads several books a day to them and he eats it up, and I love that he’s
a little bookworm.
I don’t know what else to say about him these days—he’s just a hoot to
be around and I could listen to him talk all day long. He is always learning and picking up on
things and every single day he surprises us by saying something really
thoughtful or clever that seems beyond his years. I love that he’s so talkative and that it
lets us get a peek inside how his little brain thinks about things.
Now on to some pictures…
Getting dirty being a boy
Playing with his bud Liam
Storybook Parade at school
Still a baseball fan...
This was Beckett's first year to go to Grams Camp and he loved it! A week packed with activities and crafts and field trips with my mom and his cousin Tucker.
Carving our pumpkin
Hanging with my best play-doh, puzzle and trampoline buddy
Helping me at work
Cool dude
We went on a breakfast date and he was the best company!
Texas State Fair!
Baylor Homecoming 2015- it poured and poured but we had a great time at the game with this guy!
To my fellow Arrested Development fans, he started doing the George Michael sadness move and it's so hard to take him seriously!
We spent Thanksgiving with my family at the ranch and Beckett has reached the age where he can run wild outside with his cousin Tucker and they have the best time together. They play with sticks and go on fake hunts and ride the Gator and do who knows what else but it's the coolest thing that they have each other and all the space to be boys together!
Neighborhood patrol
His hair is still crazy and I love it
