HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BECKHAM!

I'm so behind on this blog and there's so much to catch everyone up on. My little boy is walking and has turned a year old! Every week he is learning a ton of new stuff and I just hope I can remember as much as possible to document here.

A month ago, my family and some friends took a trip to the zoo. The weather was gorgeous and it was so packed. We had a nice little crew and it was so much fun. I'm really going to have to take Beckham more often before it gets too hot.

Right when he turned 11 months old, Beckham began walking longer distances and started letting go of furniture to walk on his own. It seemed like everyday he was walking further and further and in no time at all, he was a walker. The only time he would crawl was when he would fall and wasn't near a piece of furniture to lift himself on. Over the last week, he learned to bend down to pick up his toys and stand back up; and only a couple days ago, he learned to stand up on his own from a sitting position. It's amazing to see how quickly he evolves in just days.

Another big achievement!! Beckham has been off the bottle for almost a month! I found a sippie cup that he would actually drink his milk from and he hasn't cried for a bottle since. I can't believe how easy it was!

At the beginning of his eleventh month, he also started trying to blow out candles! This blew my mind because no one intentionally taught him this. I'm still not even sure where he first saw it done. But whenever he was up to a candle (supervised, of course), he would try to blow it out. I was really excited about this because I knew his birthday was coming up! During this time, he also started to really play "Peek-A-Boo". He would cover his face with a blanket and yell "Boo!" and then uncover his eyes! LOL. After his Aunt Tori would use his hands to cover his eyes during the game, Beckham would put his hands on his forehead or the side of his eyes when trying to do it himself. Funny boy!

This little boy loves to talk! For about a month now, he's been repeating just about everything we say. He even repeats his toys. One of them says "One, Two" when he pushes it and now Beckham walks around the house saying "tuh, two... tuh two, etc.". He also points to birds outside and says, "Bird". And one day he was looking at a Sesame Street book and kept saying "Big Bird" over and over again. He knows so many words now that it's impossible for me to record them here, but I just love hearing his little voice!

Beckham has been having his fake cough down for about 6 months now, but he now loves to fake sneeze too. When he first started doing it, it sounded like, "Ah poo!" but now he's doing better with saying, "Ah choo!". And when Joshua plays with him by saying, "Ah...ah...ah..", Beckham will respond with "CHOO!".

Beckham has a temper! He gets frustrated easily and when he does, he takes it out on his toys. If there isn't a toy around, he pulls his binkie out of his mouth and throws it. He's also been throwing a lot of tantrums when he's upset or tired. He hits or throws his toys then throws himself to the floor and rolls around crying and screaming. He's a boogerbutt!

One of my favorite things that Beckham does is make the hand motions to "The Itsy Bitsy Spider". It's one of the cutest things ever. He does hand motions to other little songs too. I've been taking him to the Monday music class at the Parenting Center but he mostly just sits there in awe staring at the teacher. Once the class ends, he gets excited and wants to sing though.

When I last wrote, Beckham had learned how to climb on the couch in addition to having known how to climb off. Well, the little boogerbutt climbs on everything now! Now he actually climbs over the back of the couch to get to the other side which we keep blocked off from him. I now have to make sure he is strapped into his highchair because he climbs out of the sit and sits on the tray. He also uses his little bike to climb onto the coffee table. I'm just waiting for him to figure out how to climb out of his crib!!

Beckham has finally started pointing! It took him a while to start doing it, but now he points to everything.

We finally took Beckham to his first parade! We took him to the St. Patty's Day parade which is the Saturday before the holiday. He got to hang out with his baby's cousins and catch some goodies. He caught a stuffed alligator from his Uncle Jay Jay who was riding along with some other stuffed animals from the other riders. He spent most of his time on his daddy's shoulders watching the parade from the back of the crowd though.

A few days before the parade, I took some pictures of Beckham playing with his cousins, Theresa and Payton. My brother Jason was getting the beads ready for the parade and the babies were having a blast playing in them.

Picture time again! Joshua and I took Beckham next door to the playground to take his 11 months photos. It was a little chilly outside and he had on a summer outfit so we literally took them in 5 minutes. Joshua would place him here and I would take some shots, then Joshua would place him there and I would take more shots, etc. Beckham thought it was funny and kept laughing. They actually came out nice! You can view them all at www.StaceyBreaux.com/elevenmonths.html.

Beckham also got his first real haircut! I say "real" because we had been trimming his hair for months but this was his first time at a salon. He did so well! He didn't start crying until the end when the lady pulled out the clippers. He always cried when Joshua used clippers on him too. But it went really quickly and I got it all on video!

A week and a half ago, Beckham got two more teeth! He cut two more on the top, one on each side of his two front teeth for a total of six teeth. I can see his fangs getting close too!

Beckham had his first birthday party a week ago! It was outside at Bayou Segnette State Park and fortunately, the rain held out for us. It was cool and windy the whole time but it didn't rain until most of our guests were gone. Beckham was sick so he didn't look well a lot of the time but you can see from the pictures that he still managed to have a good time. When it was time to sing "Happy Birthday" it was too windy to light his candle so I was pretty bummed about that since I had been looking forward to watching him try to blow it out. And he was really feeling cranky when it came time to eat his cake, and he cried when Joshua put his hands in it. He ate a little of it when it was fed to him with a fork but he definitely didn't take advantage of his first time being allowed to eat sugar like I expected. His grandmas sure took advantage of it though! They were feeding him suckers, cookies and cake as though they were waiting in the sidelines for me to say, "Go!". LOL. Beckham also got to hit the pinata and pin the nose on Elmo which he did surprisingly well with. If he weren't the birthday boy, he would have won! I posted a few pics below but you can view them all at www.StaceyBreaux.com/beckhamsparty.html.

My youngest sister, Mychie knitted Beckham a birthday cake hat for his birthday! She surprised us with it and it is soooooo cute!

Beckham's Aunt Tasha flew in from San Diego just for his birthday party! He has so much fun with her and it's always sad when she returns home.

For Beckham's actual birthday which was two days ago, I took him to have lunch with his daddy at work. He was walking around the office and playing with some of the other Marines.

That evening, we went to my dad's house where Beckham's Maw Maw baked him a yummy cake. We lit the candle and sang to him and he only tried to touch it a couple of times. After we finished singing, we were all trying to get him to blow, and then he finally did and blew out the candle with one blow! I was so proud of him and Joshua was amazed. Haha! We sat him in Theresa's highchair with a slice of cake and he went at it! He ate the entire piece and then started eating crumbs off the tray. He was covered in cake and chocolate so Robin gave him a bath in Theresa's ducky. He really had a nice birthday!

Yesterday Donna and Gene took Beckham for the day while Joshua and I went to my doctor's appointment. It was a gorgeous day so they took him to City Park where he got to fish with his Puhpah and play with the ducks. The pictures they took are sooooooo cute!

ABOUT BABY BREAUX #2:

A little over two weeks to go! I'm getting so close to meeting my little boy that I can hardly stand it. He should be at least 6lbs and around 20 inches long right now. Of course it feels like there's a giraffe in me at this point. The pain everywhere makes me feel like this baby is coming at any moment. As much as I'd love him to be here today, there's still things I'd like to get done before he is here. I have to go to a baptism, do two photoshoots, celebrate Easter and our three year anniversary. So anytime after April 7th would be perfect!

We finally started working on Everett's nursery last weekend. We bought the wood letters for his name and Joshua painted them green to match his bedding; and I unpacked and hung up all of Beckham's 0-3 month clothing. Over the last week, Gene built Everett a bookcase/organizer that is also painted green to match his bedding. We have his cutains up and now we're just waiting to pick up his crib and put it together. We decided not to paint the walls since we may have to move over the next 6-12 months so his room isn't nearly as much work as Beckham's was.

My doctor appointments have been going great. At my first exam I was already 2cm but that was about all. At the second exam, I was 2-3cm, 50% effaced but still hard. At my last exam which was yesterday, I was 3cm, 70% effaced and very soft! My doctor said that based on my progress over the weeks, he doesn't think I'll make it to my due date. Great news! Also good news is that I've only gained 25lbs so far this pregnancy. I still look and feel like a cow but it would be much worse if I had gained 40lbs like I did with Beckham.

That's all good and great but the sucky news is that I got a bunch of stretch marks this pregnancy. Amazing, right? I'm not bigger this time or anything but my skin still isn't holding up. My doctor says that the only way he can explain it is by guessing that it's because my pregnancies were so close together. Everett better be an angel to make it worth it! ;)