Beckham has a new obsession with the Lion King. He likes to pretend he is Simba. Scott picks him up and sings the tribal chant from the beginning of the movie. Beckham's reaction is priceless- every time he does it he wears this giant goofy smile!
A certain little 8-pound someone has been occupying a LOT of my time lately, so I took advantage of some time while he was sleeping the other night to actually get down and PLAY with Beckham. WOW! That sounds really pathetic, doesn't it? Its just so easy to get into the groove of watching him play these days. :(
Again with the deep concentration. . .
Monday night, I found myself dancing around our coffee table with him before bedtime, singing "Dinosaurs Marching" (his favorite song from music time at playgroup). Not that I don't have anything to do, but I am definitely going to make an extra effort to give the little prince the attention that he's craving.
Last Friday, my girlfriend from high school, who just happens to be a phenomenal photographer, came up to do a photo shoot with the boys. We headed to the railroad tracks for Beckham's pics. He was so good for her! It was actually freezing cold and I had a short-sleeved polo on him, so we had him jumping and clapping his hands to stay warm. Once he clapped them, though, he kept them together- which made for some adorable pictures. Fortunately Karen made really good time getting the pictures, because a cop drove by and yelled at us from his car intercom! 
Then we went back to our house for Brooks' pics. It was amazing to watch her work! These are just a few of the gazillion pictures she took. I stole them from her website. If these are just a teaser, I can't wait to see the rest! Her work is awesome!
Due to the restrictions on visitation at the hospital, no one under 18 got to visit us while we were there. And since we didn't get home until Sunday afternoon and Brandon had school all week, he had to wait an entire week before he met his new nephew. He was so precious holding Brooks. He couldn't take his eyes off of him. But as soon as he put the baby down, Beckham reclaimed his territory and kept him entertained!
Finally! The weather was nice enough this year for our neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt to be held outside. Beckham was so excited to get dressed up and look for eggs. He was so cute!! He ended up with 8 eggs, which he got to trade in for treats at the clubhouse. . .
After getting his fill of the Easter Bunny, we stepped outside to the playground where I discovered that my once cautious child has become a bit of a daredevil. He climbed a very steep ladder all by himself then climbed around in a tunnel that had large gaps in the bottom where his feet could get stuck.
And, of course, he is brave enough to do slides all by himself now. He attempted to do a very large one by himself with no one to catch him at the bottom. I pulled a scaredy-cat mom move and caught him with my feet and went down behind him. Needless to say, no heads were cracked open, and I ended up with some lovely slide-burn on my ankles :)
Scott was fortunate enough to be able to take a week off work for "paternity leave". While he was off, he took advantage of the beautiful weather to get some yard work done. He started with raking up last falls leaves in the front yard (or at least the first layer of them). . .
Then he and Becks headed to the backyard to do some much needed mowing.
Check out how hard Becks is concentrating!
And the icing on the cake was pressure-washing the driveway, sidewalk, front and back porches, and awning over the front porch. AMAZING!! Now, if only I could train him to keep up with ALL the yard work (just kidding- its really one of MY favorite things to do).
The car ride home was a breeze. Scott and I made a quick detour through the drive-thru at the Varsity to appease our cravings for burgers, onion rings, and Frosted Oranges. Then home again, home again, jiggity-jig!
Beckham welcomed his new baby brother with open arms. It was like Christmas- a new baby doll with ALL of the accessories!
the favorite of which was the paci
the new family of 4
A HUGE thanks to Grammy and Grandma for all the help they lended over the weekend. Beckham is SO lucky to have such wonderful grandparents.
The first night at home went very well, but a bath was needed before more visitors arrived.
Check out those dirty-blonde curls!
Uncle Sean and Baby Brooks finally meet. He was so disappointed Brooks didn't come earlier on Friday so he could leave work to come to the hospital :)
And Aunt Amanda got some more one on one.
The rest of our hospital stay was wonderful. Many prayers were answered. Brooks was born with absolutely no issues- the epitome of perfection :) 
He stayed in our room and had a few visitors. Grammy and Uncle Ben came first thing Saturday morning and couldn't wait to love on him.
And Grandma & Pap-pap came shortly after they left.
It was so wonderful to love on our new baby whenever we wanted!
Oh, yeah. . . Go Stillers!
Sunday, Daddy came to pick us up just in time for the little man to be circumcised. Thus, we waited around for a little while before we could leave.
But we were SO EXCITED to be going home when they finally gave us permission. We couldn't wait to get him home and introduce him to his Big Brother.
Scott and I checked into the hospital at 7:30 Friday morning for an induction of labor. The doctors wanted to make sure that Brooks was not born with any of the same issues that Beckham had when he was born, and I was already presenting with some of the same symptoms. 12 hours later. . .
At 7:36 p.m. on Friday, March 12, 2010, Brooks Edward Parker was welcomed into the world. He surprised us all with his arrival, since we had waited all day making very SLOW progress. Scott and I were going crazy! I started pushing somewhere in the vicinity of 7:35 and delivered 10 seconds later!!!
Needless to say, tears were shed.
Proud Papa
My beautiful doctor (who thinks she takes bad pictures!).
Brooks weighed a mighty 7 pounds 4.1 ounces and was 19-1/4 inches long.
One of the blessings of delivering immediately after the change of shift is that my wonderful friend Melissa was able to admit Baby Brooks. (I was supposed to be working along side her, but obviously I had to "call in sick".)
And "Favorite Aunt Amanda" came to the rescue at the end of our long day. She hand delivered a delicious meal of sandwich rolls, fruit salad, greek salad, chips, gatorade, and giant black & white cookies. YUM! I think she deserved to be the first family member to get her hands on the little man :)
