King of the Throne

He did it!!! As with most things with Beckham, he did it in his own time, but he did it! To give some background, Beckham was due October 25th and didn't arrive until November 2nd (and even that took prompting). He moved into a big boy bed in January last year and gradually over the past year he has progressed from hour long bedtime rituals and multiple getting-out-of-beds to a 5-10 minute bedtime and staying in bed. Over the past month he has nearly eliminated coming in our bed in the middle of the night! Woohoo!

As for potty training, we started October last year (nearly 6 months ago). He didn't take to it easily, but we kept strong about it. We went from stickers to candy to money to whatever the heck it would take for the stinker to make his pees and poops on the potty (mostly to no avail). In true Beckham style, something clicked one day and he started telling us nearly every time he needed to go potty- even the poops! Hooray for Beckham! He still has the occasional accident, but now they are true accidents (not hiding in the toy closet or behind the piano with his eyes closed).

**Scott and I are super excited to NOT be hand-washing poopy underwear in the sink 2-3 times a day any more!

A Haircut to Remember

This was another proud mama moment! Beckham had the option of me cutting his hair or going to the barber shop and he chose the barber shop. After much convincing from Mommy and Daddy that haircuts don't hurt and a "blue coconut slushie" in the near future, we made it through with NO TEARS!! He chose the frog over the motorcycle, watched 'Toy Story', got a gumball from the machine afterwards, and paid the nice lady and said "fank-you". He did so great! I even got a smile out of him at one point :)

So, we headed to Sonic and got him a slushie then went to the "train park" to drink it. We lucked out with a train passing by minutes after getting there.

all the kids (minus Brooks because he freaked out) watching the train

Look who is still watching the train even though all the other kids went back to playing- haha!

And some brotherly love was captured today, as well. Melt my heart!

Growing Pains??

Or pain in the butt???
Scott walked in from work while I was making dinner Friday and found Beckham like this- totally unexpected. He's been quite the handful lately with his little mouth and temper. So, again I ask, growing pains or pain in the butt?

A Birthday and Some Puppy Love

Wednesday was Sofia's 6th birthday, so the boys and I headed off for the day to help her celebrate. Beckham was so happy to have some cousin time! They played outside a ton and even got to play with the newest litter of pups. When it got cooler out, the bonfire got started and we had an old-fashioned cookout. Happy birthday, Pita!

Leader of the Pack

There's a little birthday girl who likes to sneak into pictures :)

all the puppies in the wagon

all the puppies escaping from the wagon

and all the puppies chasing the wagon. Needless to say, we had a fun day. The boys got to stay up super late and slept SO great that night :)

Growth Chart

BIRTH
1 MONTH

3 MONTHS

6 MONTHS

9 MONTHS

1 YEAR

At 1 year old, Brooks is weighing in at 24 pounds, 13.8 ounces. He is 29-3/4 inches tall. Way to grow, Brooksy!!

My Super Heroes

Showering Baby Max

We had a baby shower Sunday for my girlfriend Gretchen and her bun in the oven, Max. We had a great time and Gretch got some really cool stuff (including this awesome growth chart courtesy of Katie- I can't believe she free-handed the animals!)

"the girls"

And since it felt like summer, we soaked in some rays while we ate.

the "Kosmetatos" girls

Tara and I (another mommy-to-be)

all the preggers- Erin is due in August, Tara in June, and Gretchen in April

Me and Max's Mom

the gorgeous Millie Kate

A Brooks in the Making

This day one year ago was spent in agonizing anticipation of Brooks' arrival. Today, we spend our time chasing after the little rugrat! Brooks Edward Parker is a stinker. A heart-breaker, but a stinker. At one year old, he can out eat his mommy and daddy (and definitely his brother since he has become the typical non-eating 3-year-old). He smiles almost all the time, except when he is crying. The tears are usually only for teething pains these days (he just got his 7th tooth this week). He is a very boisterous little fella these days.

bois·ter·ous/ˈboist(ə)rəs/AdjectiveNoisy, energetic, and cheerful; rowdy

Our once quiet household has become one of noise and hullabaloo! Brooks can say a handful of words such as mama, dada, baba, ni-ni, down, hi, bye-bye, no, and a-done.

His favorite pastimes are mess-making, playing in the ball pit, mess-making, finding what toys fit in his mouth, mess-making, playing with anything he's not supposed to (i.e. the dog food, dirt from the plants, toilet paper, wine bottles), and playing underneath the kitchen table. Did I mention mess-making? The stinker loves to pull his clothes out of his drawers, pull all the DVD's and video games out, knock down the trucks and planes from underneath the coffee table, pull out the tupperware, and pull as many toys out of the toy closet as possible.

He is what one might refer to as "naughty". He knows what no means, but doesn't exactly like to obey. Rather, he acknowledges you've said it then continues the mischief with a smug look on his mug! It is SUPER hard not to laugh at!!

Seeing as he has been extremely independent since the day we brought him home, he has also been extremely easy to wean. My goal was to nurse him for 1 year and I did just that. He doesn't seem to have much of an issue with taking a bottle, though he has gotten rather clingy when it comes time to get in the crib.

As I mentioned in his party post, he has been quite the daddy's boy lately. Whenever we are around other people, he wants one of us to be holding him. He cries at the sight of other men, and puts his head down in a "shy" manner when anyone pays attention to him. If he didn't look just like me, I'd wonder if he was mine!

He has been a monster on the loose, in the crawling sense, since October, but has been working on a special birthday treat all week. And here is the big debut. . .

Cute Conversations

Beckham: There are no leaves on that tree!
Me: No, but spring will be here soon. Then the tree will have lots of leaves.
Beckham: The wind is going to come and blow all the leaves on the ground back onto the trees!!

Beckham: Mommy, what is Japan?
Me: Japan is a place really far away where other people live. Just like we live in Georgia.
Beckham: Pittsburgh is really far away AND Japan is really far away!

Peek-a-boo!

On the Second Day of Crafting. . .

Christmas!!! (sigh) My favorite time for making things :) I have taken absolute joy in making art projects "with" the boys. For Christmas 2009 I made pillows for myself, my mother, and my mother-in-law. I stole the idea from a class project my nephew Jakob did years ago. The back of the pillow is the cutest penguin material to top it off!

And in 2010, I made hand wreaths on a foam wreath form. I used felt, sparkly berries, and real ribbon. On the one I made for myself, I also added mine and Scott's hands and looped the fingers under to add some volume. I thought it turned out great. I can't wait to get started on Christmas 2011. I still haven't pinpointed what I'm going to do.

On the First Day of Crafting. . .

So it gives me the utmost pleasure to MAKE. . .
I love to sew, paint, craft, scrapbook. I love to make. I have had a lot of fun making things over the past year or so and wanted to share a few of them with you. I will do an entire series of blogs titled "On the __ Day of Crafting". I made the above cork board for Brooksy while I was still preggers. My mother-in-law had given me the letters at my shower and I had seen the cute little giraffe set at JoAnn's, so I put two and two together and voila! It hangs over his crib and gives the sweetest little accent to his nursery.

The pillow idea I stole from a lady that Mom always buys from at the Gold Rush Festival in Dahlonega. She's bought a pillow case there for each of her grandkids, but I didn't want to wait until October for Brooks to have one. So. . . I made him one for his birthday (and it turned out super cute, if I do say so myself).

The towel idea I stole from my sister. She had made Beckham's towel a couple years ago for Christmas. The "B" got really faded, so I took it off and appliqued an acoustic guitar on. Brooks got his for his birthday. His is rockin' it out with an electric guitar. (Thanks to my co-worker Kristi for monogramming the pillow and towel!)

Brooks' First Birthday Party

We celebrated Brooks' birthday Sunday and had all the family over for hotdogs and burgers. I cleared out the garage so the kiddos could play "outside" since it was raining out. We had a great time with everyone that came. Brooks took a 3-1/2 hour nap just before the bulk of everyone showed up, so he was happy- shy, but happy.

Rob and Shanna enjoying some grub.

Wendell and Mom, post meal.

Grandma Helen and her tea :) We had to trick her to get a picture of her, stinker!

Daddy got the honors of opening the gifts this time around (with a lot of help from Beckham). Brooks is an absolute Daddy's Boy, so he kind of made him do it :)

Since Toy Story kind of rules our house right now, we kept in the theme with Bullseye, Jessie, and Toy Story 2.

Howling at the moon? I don't know. . .

And somehow, by the end of it, Beckham ended up in Scott's lap.

Ben and Lisa watching the "Brooks' First Year" slideshow.

And the cake. . .

I'm pretty sure he loved it!!!

Thanks to everyone for helping make Brooks' birthday a special one! (even those of you who weren't able to make it- we missed you)