Three and a half years I ago, I came across a blog about a baby girl that totally inspired me. I was not only inspired to create a blog myself, but I was also inspired to be a mom just like the one I was reading about. I've been able to watch that baby girl grow up to be an amazing child, and I am so thankful to them for sharing their lives with me so that I am now able to share mine with you. Happy Anniversary, readers!
Here's a link to my very first blog post! http://www.babybreauxblog.com/2008_07_20_archive.html
Well we've made it! We've been living in Cali for 2 months now! Crazy, I know. Life here is wonderful. I really couldn't ask for more. We thought that were as happy as anyone could be back in New Orleans, so I'm amazed how much our quality of life has improved here. I really didn't think life could get any better! We love it so much that we're already talking about retiring here in the future. The weather is always nice, the views of the hills & mountains are beautiful, and who doesn't love being able to go to the beach everyday? I'll get into more about our new home later in this post, but I'm going to start this off with some updates about the boys and pics from before we left.
BECKHAM is growing up fast! He is so incredibly smart that he blows my mind. I probably mentioned that already. Right before we left NOLA, he heard me telling someone my phone number over the phone while we were riding in the car. During the ride, he repeated the phone number to himself a few times. A few days later, we were in the hotel room hanging out, and he picked up the phone and said the last four digits of my phone number! That is just an example of his unbelievable memory.
Beckham has been riding his tricycle for a couple months now, and last week he started riding his "big boy bike"! He was finally tall enough to reach the peddles; and although he got a little confused with the brake (his tricycle didn't brake when he back peddled), he got over it pretty quickly.
Beckham tends to overreact about a lot of things and when he does, I tell him to calm down because "It's not a big deal". Well now he always replies back "It is a big deal!".
Beckham wants to do everything like a big boy now. For example, he wants to walk around stores like a big boy and climb into his car seat like a big boy.
When we first moved to CA, Beckham made friends with the neighborhood kids right away. I quickly noticed that my little man didn't really know how to play with children his age or older anymore. He learned a lot of rough play from his daddy which is also how he loves to play with his poor brother, but it wasn't going to fly with other kids. In a playful way, he would push and punch the kids. I had to be on him like a fly so that I would always be there to correct him, and he ended up getting out of those play habits soon after I noticed them.
I have finally started the potty training process. It was something I have been putting off since Beckham first showed an interest in using the potty back in August of last year. It was just not something I felt ready to get into since I had two children. When he started using the potty last year, it was very difficult because he would want to sit on the potty for at least 30 minutes at a time while I read him books. Well, as I'm sure you can imagine, that is very difficult with another little baby needing my time and attention. Now that I'm looking back, I think it would have been best for Beckham if I would have gone along with his desire to use the potty at that time. Now that he's become older and wiser, he is not making the potty training easy for me. After talking with my friend who has a son a couple months older than Beckham and who is potty trained, Joshua and I finally decided that it was time to give it a go. I started on Tuesday and Beckham was not into it at all. I put him in underwear and sweat pants as my friend suggested and let him continuously pee on himself until he eventually agreed to sit on the potty. He peed on himself 6 times that day and pretty much refused to sit on the potty. When I did get him to sit, he would tell me very seriously "I'm not going to pee pee in the potty" or "I'm not going to poo poo in the potty". I even put Everett on the potty and poured some water in it when he wasn't looking so it would play music as if he peed in it. I then put Everett in some underwear and called him a big boy. At the time, Beckham acted like it wasn't a big deal but later that day he told me "I don't want to be a baby" at the end of a fit. The next day, Beckham started crying to me before he started peeing at times, and actually agreed to sit on the potty. Although he sat down on this day, he did a lot of whining and trying to get off, but I was able to distract him with books which helped him to pee in the potty a few times. At one point he walked up to me and said "I'm not going to pee pee in the potty." And when I explained to him "Well, that means you're going to pee in your pants.", he told me "It's ok. You can use a wipe." That boogerbutt! He ended up pooing on himself this day. He came up to me and told me "I'm just gonna poo a little bit... just a little bit." The following day as he was pooing on himself again, he came to me and said "I'm not gonna poo poo a lot. Just a little bit." This is also a sign when he's about to pee a lot. He comes to me and says while using his pointer finger and thumb to show me how much, "I just peed a little bit". As soon as he says this, I run him to the bathroom where he finishes. Each day there has been improvement. Today he only peed on himself twice and he goes sits on the potty without a fight. Sometimes he still cries because he doesn't want to let it out but most of the time it isn't a problem. I just have to play the "High Five" game that I made up with him: he pushes a little out and then we do "cross" high fives (my left hand crosses over to his left hand and then my right crosses over to his right). Then he pushes out a little more and we do it again. We continue until he is just dripping and can't push anything else out. He also gets 5 M&M's for peeing in the potty and 20 for pooping, although he has yet to poop in the potty. We have a baby potty and a toddler potty seat. He has peed in the baby potty a couple of times but he prefers to sit on the big potty.
EVERETT walks! He was taking steps forever, but he finally got it down the day we arrived in San Diego (14 months old). This picture was taken of him that morning in the hotel room when he kept walking back and forth across the room.
Everett says all kinds of things now. He pretty much repeats every word you tell him, but his favorite thing to say is "Thank you". He walks around handing things to people and saying that. He pronounces it so well, even better than Beckham did at that age. He says full sentences like "I love you" and believe it or not but his first sentence was "I am a robot". I know it's strange but we were asking Beckham to say it, and Everett surprised us and started saying it too. He said it over and over for a few days, perfectly clear with a funny robot voice (because that's how we were saying it) and then he refused to say it again. My favorite is when he says "Uh Oh Spaghetti O". So cute!
Everett loooooves to dance and he has great rhythm. There doesn't even need to be music for him to start getting down. Here's a video of him dancing on our back porch!
Everett is such a good baby when it comes to sleeping. He always sleeps in his own bed and he naps three times a day, and sleeps for about 11 hours at night. We just ask him, "Do you want to go see Scout?" and he gets really excited to go to bed. Scout is a stuffed animal that he got from GG, his maternal great grandmother, for Christmas that sings songs and says his name. He is so attached to Scout!
Everett LOVES dinosaurs! If he sees one or even hears the word, he begins roaring like a scary dinosaur. And he is pretty good at making the loud, scary ones!
Both of the boys MUST have a cup of chocolate milk first thing in the morning. After Beckham is finished sucking his down, he yells to me "Here, Mommy!" over and over until I take it from him. Well, this is just one of those things Evie has learned from his brother. Whenever he finishes his milk now, he also yells out "Hea!" with his cup in the air.
The boys have a collection of animal towels (thanks to Aunt Bri who knows how much I love them!) and we have a bath time ritual where they have to look at themselves in the mirror as the animal before I dress them. They get soooooo excited, and we make the animal sounds and act like that animal. Here are a couple!
Time to start where I left off in my last blog!! May 17th was my birthday and it was a fantastic week. One of my best friends (Beckham's girlfriend), Ariana has a birthday just a few days before mine so we celebrated together for two days! I also had a big birthday/Going Away celebration with my closest friends and family. It was bitter sweet celebrating my birthday but also saying goodbye.
A couple days before we left home, I took the boys to my great grandmother's house where my dad and grandmother met up with us. So this is the boys' great great grandmother, Marian, their great grandmother, Marilyn who they know as Gammaw and their Grandpa. Since we've been living in Cali for the last two months, I've been calling my great grandmother (Marian) on the phone once a week. She really gets a kick out of talking to Beckham on the phone. One day she asked him "How ya doin', Dawlin?" and he laughed and said "I not Dawlin... Nonna's Dawlin!" because that's what his Papa' calls his Nonna. LOL. Later in the conversation she told him that she loved him and he said, "I love you too, Dawlin!". It's really nice talking to her every week. She always has a good story to tell from back in the day!
Finally! Here are some pics from our road trip to California! It took us 8 days and we stopped in Tuscon, AZ for 4 nights as the "relaxing" part of our trip. We did have a scare our first day there though. It was morning and we went out to the pool. Joshua just bought the boys these new boats to float in so it was the first time we were using them. I got in the pool first with the boys in their boats and then Joshua asked me to get out to put suntan lotion on his back. The boys were floating right by the steps only two steps away from me when I looked up to check on them and Everett was at the bottom of the pool. He was face up, wide eyed. I can still picture his face. I immediately jumped in, grabbed him out of the water and handed him over to Joshua. He coughed up some water and was totally fine, but it was definitely a big scare! It didn't make a sound when he tipped over; and Beckham was just floating in his boat and didn't say a word. That quickly and that quietly, our lives could have changed. Thoughts about that haunted me for the longest time.
When we arrived in CA, Donna was there waiting for us at Tasha & Frank's house. The boys were so happy to see her! Gene arrived just a day or two later and we got to spend about a week all together.
In June, we got the exciting news that Joshua was going to be promoted to Sergeant on July 1st! I was such a proud Marine wife that day, and a proud mother too as I watched Beckham pin his daddy during the ceremony.
Donna came to visit us again the weekend of July 4th! The boys immediately latched on to her when they saw her. Everett had the biggest, sweetest smile that wouldn't fall and he hugged her so tight. She stayed with Tasha and Frank for a couple nights and stayed with us for a couple nights so we all had a fair share of Nonna! On the 4th, Everyone met at our house, and we had a picnic and played at the park. Then that night we took the kids to see some fireworks on the base.
Tasha and Frank only live about an hour from us so we meet up with them every weekend. One of my favorite things about moving here is that my boys will get to become close friends with their little cousin, Isaac. A couple weeks ago we met up at the San Diego Zoo so below are some pics from our visit. And wow! This zoo is freakin amazing! ...just gotta say.
One of my other favorite things about living here... the people! I love my new friends. Every weekend, everyone on our street gets together to hang out; and during the weekdays, we have little playdates at the park. One of my most interesting nights here so far was when the girls got together and went clubbing. Some funny stuff! But just about everyday, my buddies are the neighborhood kids. The little stinkers have really grown on me!
During the week when Joshua is at work, I have a strict routine with the kids. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays I take them to the park in the morning; and Tuesday and Thursdays I take them to the pool. They come home, eat lunch, nap and then we ride bikes, go for a walk, or play with the other kids in our backyard. So we spend all day, every day outside.
Joshua and I take the boys to the beach every weekend so we have a ton of beach pics. Here are some of my favorites!
Here's a link to my very first blog post! http://www.babybreauxblog.com/2008_07_20_archive.html
Well we've made it! We've been living in Cali for 2 months now! Crazy, I know. Life here is wonderful. I really couldn't ask for more. We thought that were as happy as anyone could be back in New Orleans, so I'm amazed how much our quality of life has improved here. I really didn't think life could get any better! We love it so much that we're already talking about retiring here in the future. The weather is always nice, the views of the hills & mountains are beautiful, and who doesn't love being able to go to the beach everyday? I'll get into more about our new home later in this post, but I'm going to start this off with some updates about the boys and pics from before we left.
BECKHAM is growing up fast! He is so incredibly smart that he blows my mind. I probably mentioned that already. Right before we left NOLA, he heard me telling someone my phone number over the phone while we were riding in the car. During the ride, he repeated the phone number to himself a few times. A few days later, we were in the hotel room hanging out, and he picked up the phone and said the last four digits of my phone number! That is just an example of his unbelievable memory.
Beckham has been riding his tricycle for a couple months now, and last week he started riding his "big boy bike"! He was finally tall enough to reach the peddles; and although he got a little confused with the brake (his tricycle didn't brake when he back peddled), he got over it pretty quickly.
Beckham tends to overreact about a lot of things and when he does, I tell him to calm down because "It's not a big deal". Well now he always replies back "It is a big deal!".
Last week I learned that Beckham knows the entire alphabet! I did not know this about him until I was sitting on the couch and decided to ask him to sing it. I was shocked when he actually did! Here's a video of him showing off for the camera by jumping around while saying it.
Beckham is such a polite little boy. He is finally saying "No or Yes Ma'am/Sir" when answering questions, but mostly he answers with "No thank you" or "Yes please". Yesterday Everett was sitting his highchair crying for the cup Beckham was holding and Beckham was telling him, "You want this, Everett? You have to say 'Please'."
Beckham wants to do everything like a big boy now. For example, he wants to walk around stores like a big boy and climb into his car seat like a big boy.
EVERETT walks! He was taking steps forever, but he finally got it down the day we arrived in San Diego (14 months old). This picture was taken of him that morning in the hotel room when he kept walking back and forth across the room.
Everett says all kinds of things now. He pretty much repeats every word you tell him, but his favorite thing to say is "Thank you". He walks around handing things to people and saying that. He pronounces it so well, even better than Beckham did at that age. He says full sentences like "I love you" and believe it or not but his first sentence was "I am a robot". I know it's strange but we were asking Beckham to say it, and Everett surprised us and started saying it too. He said it over and over for a few days, perfectly clear with a funny robot voice (because that's how we were saying it) and then he refused to say it again. My favorite is when he says "Uh Oh Spaghetti O". So cute!
Everett loooooves to dance and he has great rhythm. There doesn't even need to be music for him to start getting down. Here's a video of him dancing on our back porch!
Everett is such a good baby when it comes to sleeping. He always sleeps in his own bed and he naps three times a day, and sleeps for about 11 hours at night. We just ask him, "Do you want to go see Scout?" and he gets really excited to go to bed. Scout is a stuffed animal that he got from GG, his maternal great grandmother, for Christmas that sings songs and says his name. He is so attached to Scout!
Everett LOVES dinosaurs! If he sees one or even hears the word, he begins roaring like a scary dinosaur. And he is pretty good at making the loud, scary ones!
The boys have a collection of animal towels (thanks to Aunt Bri who knows how much I love them!) and we have a bath time ritual where they have to look at themselves in the mirror as the animal before I dress them. They get soooooo excited, and we make the animal sounds and act like that animal. Here are a couple!
A couple days before we left home, I took the boys to my great grandmother's house where my dad and grandmother met up with us. So this is the boys' great great grandmother, Marian, their great grandmother, Marilyn who they know as Gammaw and their Grandpa. Since we've been living in Cali for the last two months, I've been calling my great grandmother (Marian) on the phone once a week. She really gets a kick out of talking to Beckham on the phone. One day she asked him "How ya doin', Dawlin?" and he laughed and said "I not Dawlin... Nonna's Dawlin!" because that's what his Papa' calls his Nonna. LOL. Later in the conversation she told him that she loved him and he said, "I love you too, Dawlin!". It's really nice talking to her every week. She always has a good story to tell from back in the day! 
Finally! Here are some pics from our road trip to California! It took us 8 days and we stopped in Tuscon, AZ for 4 nights as the "relaxing" part of our trip. We did have a scare our first day there though. It was morning and we went out to the pool. Joshua just bought the boys these new boats to float in so it was the first time we were using them. I got in the pool first with the boys in their boats and then Joshua asked me to get out to put suntan lotion on his back. The boys were floating right by the steps only two steps away from me when I looked up to check on them and Everett was at the bottom of the pool. He was face up, wide eyed. I can still picture his face. I immediately jumped in, grabbed him out of the water and handed him over to Joshua. He coughed up some water and was totally fine, but it was definitely a big scare! It didn't make a sound when he tipped over; and Beckham was just floating in his boat and didn't say a word. That quickly and that quietly, our lives could have changed. Thoughts about that haunted me for the longest time. When we arrived in CA, Donna was there waiting for us at Tasha & Frank's house. The boys were so happy to see her! Gene arrived just a day or two later and we got to spend about a week all together. In June, we got the exciting news that Joshua was going to be promoted to Sergeant on July 1st! I was such a proud Marine wife that day, and a proud mother too as I watched Beckham pin his daddy during the ceremony.
Donna came to visit us again the weekend of July 4th! The boys immediately latched on to her when they saw her. Everett had the biggest, sweetest smile that wouldn't fall and he hugged her so tight. She stayed with Tasha and Frank for a couple nights and stayed with us for a couple nights so we all had a fair share of Nonna! On the 4th, Everyone met at our house, and we had a picnic and played at the park. Then that night we took the kids to see some fireworks on the base. 
One of my other favorite things about living here... the people! I love my new friends. Every weekend, everyone on our street gets together to hang out; and during the weekdays, we have little playdates at the park. One of my most interesting nights here so far was when the girls got together and went clubbing. Some funny stuff! But just about everyday, my buddies are the neighborhood kids. The little stinkers have really grown on me!
During the week when Joshua is at work, I have a strict routine with the kids. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays I take them to the park in the morning; and Tuesday and Thursdays I take them to the pool. They come home, eat lunch, nap and then we ride bikes, go for a walk, or play with the other kids in our backyard. So we spend all day, every day outside.
Joshua and I take the boys to the beach every weekend so we have a ton of beach pics. Here are some of my favorites!
So... as if my scary story of Everett in the pool wasn't scary enough, it wasn't the last. Like I wrote above, we go to the beach every weekend and last weekend was no exception. This particular beach that we went to was extremely packed with people (which you can see in the pic above of Joshua's head in the sand). The water was really rough too with big waves even up by the shore. Everything was fine when Joshua and Frank's brother decided to take Beckham up by the water to dig a hole. They were only gone for about 5 minutes when I looked over at them and noticed that Beckham was not with them. I called to Joshua and asked him where Beckham was. Confused, he looked around and said that he saw Beckham standing beside him just a minute ago. Suddenly, everyone was in panic mode! Beckham was nowhere in sight and with all the people and waves, I don't think that I could have ever spotted him. After a few minutes of us scurrying around, looking in our immediate area, Joshua called to me to get the lifeguards. Running over to them, my thoughts were racing like nothing I've ever experienced. I had to stand there giving the lifeguards information for them to fill out a form in order to get a search party going. Being so still, the number of thoughts were endless... I was thinking things like "What was the last picture I took of him? What if this was the last day that I spent with him? What if I'm one of 'those' moms now..." and then I started picturing things. And that was just a few! After the form was completed, they sent one lifeguard with me. Not long after, Beckham was found far down the beach with a woman. He was smiling and had no idea what was going on. I think this tops the other 2 scariest moments because it lasted the longest which made the fears grow to be much worse. Anyhoo... sorry to end on such a bad note! Here are some happy pics! lol
saw it!
