Beckham's 2nd Birthday [part 2]

I had planned months in advance for Beckham's 2nd Birthday party, but one thing you can't plan for is the weather. It was seriously in the 60s the week before Beckham's party and it raaaaained for like 4 days straight. Saturday, the 19th it was super cloudy and stayed in the lower 70s...in July....in Louisiana....INSANITY! Everyone was saying this was a once in a lifetime occurrence and it really was. It's usually in the upper 90s- crazy hot, sun beaming, all of that! But, not this year! It was down right cold, and I know 70s sounds like perfect weather, and it really is- but not for a swimming party with a bunch of 2 year olds. :( Last year, we had the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse jumpy and it was almost too hot to jump in it. So, I thought this year we would get a water slide and all of that. Ha! The joke was on me. The jump house would have been perfect this year with the crazy weather.

With all of that being said, Beckham and all of the kids that came seemed to have a great time anyways. A few of them got kind of cold at times, but they'd go wrap up in a towel for a little bit then head back out to play some more. Because it rained so much prior to the party, our yard was a mess. We are still trying to grow grass in areas so it turned into a muddy mess. None of the kids minded but I'm not so sure the parents were thrilled with them getting so dirty. Anyways, this post is sounding more and more like a Debby Downer and I really don't mean for it to be. I just worked so hard and had such high expectations that I was kind of bummed that the weather didn't cooperate. Oh well I guess, you live and learn.

So, we didn't really have a 'theme' this year. I just went with a color scheme and did everything water/Summer related (water slide, kiddy pool, sand pails, sunshine etc.) Everything turned out so cute! I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves.

Beckham's birthday is only 3 days before Butch's so it's always crazy around here trying to plan for Beckham's party(s) and also include something special for Butch. This year, Beckham's party fell on Saturday, the 19th, which is Butch's actual birthday. I couldn't think of any way to plan anything other than have Beckham stay the night with someone after his party so we could go eat or have some kind of date night. Almost all of my plans for Butch's birthday got changed around but that's another post. I was talking to my step-Mom, Monica about doing something for Butch's bday and she enthusiastically volunteered to keep Beckham, which was great. She was so excited and he loves her so I knew it would be no problem. So, Saturday evening after everything died down and we were cleaning up Beckham went home with Monica, a few hours later she text me letting me know that everything was great and she said that Beckham, while in the bathtub, unprompted, said "Beck Beck Birthday was FUN!" At that moment my heart melted and it didn't matter about the horrible weather, or that I didn't think everything was just perfect- HE had fun and that's really all that matters to me.

All in all, we really had a great day. It was a lot bit crazy at times (as usual) but I generally enjoy planning his parties and I think everyone enjoyed the festivities. :)

 thank goodness for Ella or Beckham wouldn't have opened any of his presents! 

side note: I can't believe I have a 2 year old. :(

Beckham's 2nd Birthday [part 1]

Beckham's actual birthday (16th) fell on a Wednesday this year so we had planned a small get together with Butch's parents and brothers. (My Dad was recovering from surgery and my Mom was already coming over the next day.) As soon as Beckham woke up I had a box full of different decorations to hang all over the kitchen. He really loved it and liked watching me climb and stand in the chairs (great things I'm teaching him, I'm sure).

Anyways, I made roast, carrots, potatoes, garlic bread, and I baked Beckham's first and actually only-since we had cupcakes at his big party 2nd Birthday cake. I made funfetti cake with whipped cream cheese icing. Roast is also one of the only meats Beckham really likes consistently. Even though there was a lot going on, with four additional people in this small house- we were in tight quarters, Beckham still ate really well and was so excited to blow out his candle. Weeks prior to his birthday, if anyone asked what he wanted for his bday he would say a candle. ha! It's the little things. He has a slight obsession with blowing out all types of candles. So, we ate, sang, and let him blow out his candle and after he blew it out he said, "do it again." So, we let him blow it out a few more times. Grami and Pop brought some presents for him to open, and naturally I got zero pictures. Yep. This is my life. So, here are the few, poor quality, iphone pics that I actually got on his real birthday.

Dear Beckham

Dear Beckham,
First of all, happy birthday. Two years ago today I laid eyes on the most precious gift from God. I honestly can't believe you are already two years old. Where has the time gone? You amaze me every single day. You can throw a fit like no other, but you are truly the sweetest, gentlest, smartest little boy in the entire world. You still want to be a big boy so badly, but I am still enjoying you be a little boy for right now. I love when you say, you're Mama's baby because you really are and always will be. It is easy to have a conversation with you- you can tell us everything you want, how and when you want it. You still love your blanket (bean) and have to drink cocoa (chocolate) milk every night to go to bed. Honestly, you would drink cocoa milk all day everyday. We tried to get you potty trained by two years old, but you just weren't interested. You are sometimes a little too smart. I often ask if you want to try to teetee in the potty and you simply say, "no". Hopefully before school starts you will want to use the potty.

You really love to play baseball with Daddy at night, but you both had to wear your LSU hats together. You can run, jump, and climb on anything. You even get stuck quite often trying to climb up the bathroom cabinets. You still love to take baths-thank goodness. You never want to get out. You love drawing on the bathtub with the markers and crayons. You also still love Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, you watch the same movie every single night to fall asleep. Actually, the movie pretty much plays all day long whether you're in there watching or not. You are a night owl for sure (you get it honestly) it's 1:00am as I'm typing this. We really need to get on a better schedule before school starts and I have to go back to work. Speaking of work, it's going to be really hard to leave you. With the exception of a couple of days, we have pretty much spent every waking moment with each other this Summer. You are definitely a Mama's boy (which I love) but you are increasingly becoming more stuck on Daddy too. One of your favorite phrases to say is "where did (anyone) go?" If I'm not in your eyesight, you ask "where Mama go?" and the same for Daddy. I think your favorite place to go is Walmart. You always get a prize and are a really good shopping buddy. You've finally grasped the concept that we have to pay for things before we open them, which means we can't open anything in the store. It took some time to learn, but you've got it now. You have exceptional memory. You will start talking about things that happened weeks ago. For example, Donna came over one day and you were amazed by her blue toenail polish. Then, about a week later in the bathtub you were rubbing blue crayon on your toes and I asked what you were doing and you said "paint toes blue like Don". Genius.

I could go on and on and on for days about all of the amazing things you do. You are so special and one of a kind. I am truly thankful, grateful, blessed, and all of the above to be your Mom. I don't think you'll ever quite understand what joy you have brought to my life. I know people say this all the time, but I truly can not imagine my life without you. It's like I wasn't fully living or loving until I laid eyes on you. I hope you always know how much I love you, little boy. You truly are my sunshine and as I write this tears well up in my eyes because I want to be the best Mommy possible. When you're older I want you to be proud to have me as a Mommy because I am so proud to have you as my son. I love you, sweet boy, to the moon and back.

Compare to six month and one year letter to Beckham.

18 month checkup at 22 months

I said in this update that we didn't make the 18 month doctor visit so here's technically the 18 month update although he was 22 months old...don't judge. I had good reason to not take him to the doctor in the middle of flu season. And I stick by my decision!

So last week we finally made our 18 month check up. Beckham at 22 months weighs 28 lbs and 6 ozs (75%), he is 34 inches tall (50%), with a head circumference of 19.5 (90%). His pediatrician was happy he was back in 75th percentile weight range since he had been in 50th for so long. She is still pushing for us to switch to whole milk, but his stomach just can't handle it. It's no fun, and not worth it in my opinion. He's not a skinny baby- he's all muscle. Beckham is seriously talking up a storm. He now says 4 or 5 word phrases. His favorite phase has got to be "Sit Mama's lap, play phone." Seriously, he could/would play on my phone for hours if I let him. And the sad funny thing is he's usually watching videos of himself. My favorite thing that he says is, "What's that about?". It's so cute. Speaking of cute, he loves to show me random things like blocks, puzzle pieces, etc. and say "Awww cuuttee!". He also loved to wear sunglasses, or any glasses actually and look at himself in the mirror and say, "too cute". I've given up trying to count how many words he says, however he has a book of 101 first words and he knows every single one (and it doesn't have most of the words that he says), so I'm guessing he knows around 200-300 words total. Our pedi was shocked when he said "sit Mama's lap, play phone" while we were in her office. She said that was a 3 year old phrase.

Although he does so much beyond his age, we are having a few issues. Namely, his bed and potty training. First of all his bed- he officially hates it. I have NEVER been one to put him in our bed, we would play in the bed but never lay down for bedtime in there. However, he wakes up like clockwork around 12:00 every night crying and saying Mama a million times. I put him in our bed the first few times and now it's an every night occurrence. I. Don't. Know. What. To Do. He usually falls asleep watching TV in the living room, so I'm thinking when he wakes up in a different place he is scared. I honestly don't know. I'm just trying to rationalize an almost 2 year old. So, we put a big bookcase with a TV and DVD player in his room and I am hoping that will help and he will want to stay in his bed. I think it's a little early to transition to toddler bed, and then I am dealing with the whole -stay in your bed- issue. I'm not ready for that!

Now to the potty issue. Okay so, he HAD a lot of interest in the potty, he even went 6 nights in a row using the potty before his bath, so I thought it was time to try to potty train. I set aside a few weeks to stay home and have some consistency. I bought all kinds of underwear, pull ups, a potty seat, all of it. We talked about how the underwear were different from diapers and big boys wore underwear. We talked about how if needed to use the potty he needed to tell me and not go in his underwear. The first day he did great. We only had two accidents and before his bath that night he used it before his bath. The next day he would have nothing to do with it. That morning I said, "let's go try to use the potty" and he said, "no". I kept asking if he wanted to go try and he kept saying no. UGH! So, I have no idea what to do about that either. I don't want to force him because he is still young, but I don't understand how we had a good first day and from then on he wants absolutely nothing to do with the potty. At. All. I'm at a loss. Therefore, we are holding off on potty training for a while, hopefully in the next few weeks he will show interest and we can make it his idea to use the potty. I just hope it's before I go back to work in August.

That's pretty much all we've been dealing with lately. He completely runs the show around here. It's undeniable. Monday we are getting his playhouse- which is an early birthday present. I'm so excited about it and can't wait to see his face when it's all put together. I opted to get it early so that we can play with it all summer and we'll have it for his birthday party. Speaking of birthday party, of course I am in full-on planning mode. I can't wait. But, I also can't believe he is about to be 2! WOW! It seems like a month ago I was planning his first birthday. :'( Anyways, that's what has been going on around here lately.