!! Hello 2010 !!

(The date by the title of this blog says Monday, January 8th because that was when I started writing it; but when I say "today", I mean Wednesday, January 20th or "yesterday", I mean Tuesday, January 19th.)

Since I last wrote, Christmas has passed and we're over half way through the first month of the new year! Yay for 2010 and all of the exciting things that will be happening this year!

Our first Christmas with our own little baby was priceless! He was the perfect age and made the holiday so much more special for us. Santa stopped by the night before Christmas Eve and left our little angel some fun surprises! We woke him up early Christmas Eve morning because Joshua had work that day, but he couldn't complain was he saw what Santa had left him. As soon as Joshua put him on the floor in front of his new toys, he crawled straight to the ball pit, reached inside and tried to eat the balls. When we sat him inside it, he kept smiling and clapping his hands. The ball pit has clear, plastic circles on the walls and he kept smashing his face against them. In addition to the ball pit, Santa left him an electric drum set, a walking toy, and a baseball toy (he hits the baseball with his hands instead of with the bat). He took turns playing with them all and then unwrapped a gift from us which was a sock monkey we named George. George is the only stuffed animal he's taken a liking to so far and he just loves him so much. He's always giving him hugs and kisses, and he takes all of his naps with him.

On Christmas Eve night we went to a party at my dad's house where Beckham opened a ton of gifts. Well, I opened most of them, of course. He also got to sit on Santa's lap again and this time I got pictures of him crying!

We spent the night there after the party and woke up Christmas morning to more gifts! Beckham got to spend Christmas morning with his 2 first cousins, and it was so wonderful for us having all of the babies together. We then went to my great grandmother's house, my mom's house and Joshua's parents house where Beckham received more gifts at each place. This boy is so loved and he has no idea how lucky he is! Check out the picture of everything he got this Christmas!!

We spent most of the following week with the Breaux's because Joshua's sister and her husband were visiting from San Diego. It was like no time had passed since Beckham had seen them last four months earlier. We even spent New Year's eve with them and Beckham made it all the way to eleven thirty before he knocked out. He was so tired that he even slept through the loud fireworks. Before he passed out, he did get a chance to watch some fireworks throughout the night. Most of the time he didn't budge, but when Donna, who held him most of the time would jump, he would start to fuss. Overall, I was surprised at how well he did.

Things that Beckham learned to do over the last month:

1) The day after Christmas, Donna, Gene and Tasha pulled Beckham around their neighborhood in his new wagon; and while he was out, he learned to clap his hands! He now claps his hands and says, "Yay!". He also claps his hands when you sing Patty Cake.

2) Beckham loves giving High 5's now!

3) In addition to "Daddy" and "Mommy", Beckham now signs "All Done" and "Milk".

4) As of yesterday, Beckham now knows how to get off of the couch feet first. No more leaping onto his face!

5) Beckham loves to walk, or should I say run, using his walking push toys.

6) Beckham is still learning how to blow a kiss but he has the kiss sound down.

7) Beckham stands on his own for long periods of time! He could even stand longer but he slowly gets down to his knees taking his time.

8) Whenever someone coughs or fake coughs, Beckham loves to mimic them! haha! He also laughs whenever he hears someone else laughing.

A few weeks ago, Beckham got to sit on his very first ride! They have some at the mall so we sat him on one. He wasn't really interested in it while it was moving; but once it stopped, we let him stand up and play with the steering wheel and he loved that.

At the beginning of the month, I became a member at the Parenting Center where I've been taking Beckham for playdates with his friends. For the last two weeks, I've been bringing Beckham to a baby group at The Parenting Center called "Busy Babies". It's like a discussion group with an instructor for mom's with babies 6-12 months. Beckham is such a ham there! The first time we went, he was sitting in the middle of the group and kept laughing when everyone else did. When people were quiet talking, he would yell gibberish to get everyone's attention. And at the end of the class when we were singing songs, he was clapping his hands and dancing. The last time, he went and sat right in front of the instructor and stared at her the whole time she was talking. After a little while, he stood up on his knees and waved his arms at her to get her attention. He did this a couple of times!

Beckham got to wear his first Band aid! At his last doctor's appointment a couple weeks ago, he had to do a blood test and Joshua and I couldn't believe how well he did. He sat quietly staring at the nurse while she pricked his finger and then he gave her a huge smile. He didn't even budge the entire time she was pushing bood out of his finger. It wasn't until she had trouble bandaging it up that he started to fuss. It was a Sponge Bob band aid and he rubbed it with his other fingers the whole ride home.

Last Thursday, I took Beckham to the zoo with Kate, Theresa and my friend, Ariana. He just couldn't keep his eyes off of Ariana! The only animals he was interested in looking at were the giraffes (probably because they were big enough to get his attention). Otherwise, he was watching Ariana. I guess he like older women like his daddy ;). We took pics but Kate has them on her camera :(.

Beckham just loves the kittens and they love him. They are now almost 8 weeks old, and we only have one left. When we still had two, they would sit together and watch everything he did. Beckham is so gentle with them too. He's really rough with Bunny Boo and Alaska but he's very kind to the kittens. I hate to get rid of this last one, but we'll remember them both with these photos.

Friday night, Joshua and I took Beckham to visit at my dad's house. I ended up getting the sweetest pictures of Beckham with his cousins and Grandpa!

Over the weekend, I was able to take Beckham's nine month pics. For fun, we did a "First Mardi Gras" set which came out so cute. You can view them all at www.StaceyBreaux.com/ninemonths.html.

When Beckham's teeth started cutting through a couple months ago, we created a bad habit. He was waking up screaming in pain in the middle of the night and the only way we could get him back to sleep was in our bed with us cuddling him and singing. There were even times that Joshua would have to sleep sitting up with Beckham in his arms. Beckham is still waking up in the middle of the night wanting to sleep with us so it is now the time to fix this. Also, we have been letting him fall asleep on the couch and then moving him to the crib so he hasn't learned to fall asleep on his own in the crib. Last night was the first night. In attempt to create a better nighttime routine with him, I first gave him a bath then read him a story. When I placed him in his crib, he was quiet for about a minute before he realized I was leaving him there. He ended up screaming for an hour which wasn't as long as I expected it to be. I went in to hug and kiss him (without taking him out of the crib) and lay him back down every 10 minutes. He did end up waking up at 2am as I expected; but to my surprise, I laid him back down, sang a little song and he went right back to sleep! I ended up checking on him at 5am because I couldn't believe he was actually sleeping through the night in his crib. He ended up waking up there at 7:45am! I was so proud of him! Tonight Joshua gave him his bath and read him his story, and put him down. He literally only cried for 2 minutes and he has now been sleeping for two hours!

Last week I learned that my brother, Danny is going to be a daddy! Yay for Beckham having more cousins! His baby is due only 4 months after Everett!

We also got some bad news last week. When Joshua went into work Monday morning, he received orders to be in Okinawa, Japan by May 1st, UNACCOMPANIED for 12 months.... just two weeks after Everett is due to arrive! We felt as though there was a good chance we could have it switched to "accompanied", but either way, this was bad news. Okinawa is a place we are definitely hoping to get in the future but the timing is just not right now with the baby on the way. Miraculously, the orders were cancelled and we are all able to stay home and together :).

ABOUT BABY BREAUX #2:

I'm in the third trimester with only three months left!! Everett will be here so soon! I am seriously dying to meet him. Plus, I am officially fed up with being pregnant! The first two trimesters were nicer than they were for Beckham, but this third trimester is so much worse than it was for him. I'm in so much pain all the time, pain everywhere! And get this, even my face hurts! I've been experiencing jaw pain every afternoon from about 1-6pm due to loosening of the joints. This jaw pain causes the worst headaches I've ever had hence creating pain in my entire face. I know, weird!

My last appointment was on Friday, and Everett's heartbeat was 150bpm... still high! We had a student dr in the room and both he and my dr had a lot of trouble getting a good listen because he was behind the placenta. If I hadn't been feeling Everett moving and kicking the whole time, I would have been scared to death! (Weight gain over the last month was 4lbs for a total of 13lbs.)

I ordered Everett's bedding last week so now I'm just waiting for it to come in. Since Beckham's room is blue, I really wanted to do Everett's green. I remembered loving my friend, Gina's bedding that she bought for her daughter, Leah so I ended up going with that!