April 22, 2011

Still a bit chilly here- but Beckett loves being outside. Here are some pics from Friday: Beckett and Lua playing at the park and doing an Easter egg hunt. They caught on real fast about how to find the eggs and loved it! The 2 videos shows Beckett's 2 personalities towards Lua- a little bit of a punk and then sometimes sweet.

Trip to the Farm

For our 6 year anniversary we took Beckett to see some farm animals (and we went out to eat). Beckett is fascinated by animals. As soon as he saw the animals he would make the noise (well just sheep and chicken sounds). I think it's amazing he can recognize the real thing based off of children's illustrations. Like at the zoo he was really interested in them but scared of the big animals (mainly the sheep). He loved the chickens and especially the roosters- since they made extra cool noises. He would laugh or clap when the roosters made their noise. He had mixed feelings about the goat which was out roaming around. He wanted to get down and go play with it but would get scared when it came close to him. He was full of laughs and cries around the goat. Beckett had a good time- thanks to Dave for showing us around! You can see a little bit of Beckett's response to the goat and chickens in the videos below.

11 weeks, 0 days pregnant. I guess I just feel a lot bigger than I look.

The farm animals: chickens, roosters, sheep, lambs, and a goat.

Denver Zoo

We had a nice weekend trip to Denver last month. Since Beckett is fascinated by animals we took him to the zoo. It was a bit chilly and the animals all seemed to be in hiding. He loved seeing them- and would say hi to them all. His favorite was probably the hyperactive monkeys. He was scared of any animal that was more than twice his size though. I forgot to put this with the other posts. As you can see I am no good at narrowing down pics- and I was forever behind with what has been going on that I decided to quickly make collages of the many photos. Too bad they're so small and you can't really see them. We'll see at how well I manage staying up to date so I can edit and post big pictures- I still probably won't do a very good job at narrowing them down.

Recent happenings

Tomorrow Dan and I will have been married 6 years! Times flies, yet it seems like it's been way longer then that. I found out almost 2 months ago that I was pregnant. I'm no good at keeping secrets- so pretty much as soon as I found out we started telling people. I went for my first appointment a couple weeks ago and the doctor couldn't hear the heartbeat- I wasn't really nervous about that- I was just excited that I could get an ultrasound to get a more accurate due date. My doctor was like yea I would guess you're a week or two further along because your uterus feels pretty big. I told her I didn't think so just because my due date according to LMP was October 30 and my cycle is a little longer than the average. When we did the ultrasound she was like you're right- your due date is now going to be November 9, 2011. Which i didn't think I'd be moved back that much! Oh well. With Beckett my due date was 7/1 (based on LMP) and they changed it to 7/16- but I thought it was because I had just gotten off birth control that time- but I guess that is how I am with my pregnancies. So I'm not a huge fan of the belly shot- but I was just so surprised how all of a sudden my belly popped out last week. I swear I look 3x bigger than the photo too- I need to get a better photo to show it- and a more attractive one. I know they say with the second you show early but- I still am a little shocked. My belly button is already popped out and awkwardly showing through my clothes. So this photo is me at 10 weeks pregnant. I was looking at a pregnancy calendar and I won't find out the gender until probably late June- early July! Forever away- we'll be happy with either, but I can't wait to find out. The calendar also had a date on it somewhere in mid May that said "now it's safe to start telling people you're pregnant". I obviously didn't do that- but really people definitely would know by now- can't really hide this belly. I had a few people ask me if I could be having twins? Which there are no twins anywhere that I know of in our family and the doctor did the ultrasound and said there is only one. I'm sure I'm just going to be huge- I'm afraid to see what I'll be like in November! With Beckett's pregnancy I always measured a lot bigger (except at the first ultrasound)- it'll probably be the same. Maybe I have a big belly from all these sweets I've been eating recently- I'll just blame it on pregancy. We think 11/11/11 would be a cool birthdate or 1102.2011 would not quite as cool. But we were hoping to go to Hawaii with my parents for Thanksgiving so I hope it comes early- probably not likely.

Dan and I went to Grand Junction last week with Lua and Beckett. I took the kids shopping with me while Dan did a bike ride and we ran other errands like get Dan's blood draw for more allergy tests. Dan was like I'm not ready for 2 kids! In some ways I think it's easier when they are the same age- just that they entertain each other better- since they are in the same stage- but I also think that's what makes it hard- both Beckett and Lua want to run around and be independent (usually in opposite directions). At least when we have a newborn I can have the baby in a carrier and worry about chasing only one child. It was also nice when Dan was there to help- because we could each take one. I told him just wait until we have 3 or 4 kids! But Dan said he's good with just 2.

Winter

Here's my cute little boy and his girlfriend Lua playing outside. We're just hoping it will finally warm up so we can go on walks and play at the park. It was nice for a few days the past couple months and then would snow the next day! I'm ready for spring with the beautiful blossoms and flowers. Beckett is really trying to talk- he repeats a bunch of words we say- it just doesn't sound too much like it but he's trying. His favorite most frequently used word besides no and mom is trash. He will find the littlest piece of trash and have to throw it away. He also has now figured out how to flush the toilet and will put a tiny piece of toilet paper in and flush it- over and over. He was a sand a water table that grandma gave him and it's his favorite thing to do outside. He tries to see if he can scoop out all the sand and water. He also loves taking care of his stuffed bear and puppy and carries them and his blankets around now. He tucks them in, feeds them, etc. He can make many animal noises- his favorite is the cow. He loves hide and seek- which he's better at- he can find dad by himself and he'll hide until we find him. He gets so excited. Of course he always hides where we last hid- or in the coat closet- because it's his favorite spot. We're trying to teach him to count to 5 and then go find us- because he usually comes running right behind you- if you don't have someone to wait with him. He's kinda starting to count- and trying to count with his fingers- not very well yet. In February Dan and I went to Las Vegas for a photography convention. Dan's mom was nice enough to come and stay in Rifle to take care of Beckett while we were away. Dan was only able to stay for a few days and I was there about a week. We loved trying all the different foods- so many delicious options. We ate too much-but when Dan left I just snacked or grabbed a quick bite at the convention center. That was my first time to ever go to Vegas (I've been in the airport many times though). I had a blast going to all the classes (which were offered like 8am-8pm with little breaks and I went to about all I could)- that I kept forgetting to call and check up on Beckett- oops. Dan took care of that for me- since he wasn't quite as busy. That was the first time we had ever left him (both Dan and I gone). I got a lot of good ideas on how to build my business- probably too many. Now i just need to put it to work. So I'm trying to get serious about the photography so we can earn some extra income. I got my website up- I'm still making some tweeks to it though. There are a ton of other things I'm trying to get done to be official. Thanks to Mayara who's been helping watch Beckett. Check out my website: http://www.ashleymickelsonphotography.com/

I babysit a beautiful half Brazilian little girl, Lua, who's about 4 months younger than Beckett. They are such good friends now. Beckett gets a little jealous and possessive around her- but he loves having her around. They get so excited when they see each other. They love to hold hands. Beckett is good at making her laugh. They are starting to play and interact more with each other. They'll chase each other, throw balls to each other, etc. Beckett loves going places, especially outside. He tries his hardest to leave with Lua and cries when she goes home. He loves playing over at their house because they have different toys and a dog. Beckett loves dogs- he constantly wants to go see our neighbors dogs. Beckett will grab his jacket and try to open the door- hint hint mommy lets get out of here! I didn't know a little toddler could get so bored and have so many people and places to see! Beckett also started going to Nursery!! He loves it- that we never doubted. He is not one to think twice about his parents leaving him- he hardly even gives a wave goodbye- he's off to play. Even with our church during his nap and lunch time- he doesn't show it- he's such a good easy going boy... just wondering how the second child will be. Beckett loves the snow! He'll stay outside all day even if it's cold. He also loves his snow boots. We had to hide them from him because he wanted to where them all day everyday- with his pjs, church clothes... Then we had to hide his black shiny church shoes because he wanted to wear those everyday with his sweats or anything. Crazy kid!
Beckett loves the snow. When he says snow- It's "No!"-which is different from no- because it's high pitch and excited. He doesn't do an s sound at the beginning of words- but he makes many other words that shouldn't be plural- like ups, mamas,... These pictures were before I got him snow pants and boots and before we got him his own snow shovel. We gave him a spade- which probably isn't the best thing- he loved helping Dan shovel the snow.

Dan got Beckett a balance bike and Beckett loves it. He was a little scared to ride it at first- but he's getting to be a pro. He feels so cool to ride a bike like Dan. We've taken him to a bike park in Grand Junction, where Dan does a lot of his mountain biking. They've got a pump track which is a good size for Beckett. He likes being pushed around and he does a little bit by himself- he'll be riding a bike before you know it. I didn't really understand the balance bike at first- but I'm sold- no need for training wheels. I have two videos of Beckett riding. He of course did not want to perform for the camera. The day I brought the camera he just wanted to run up and down the hills and play in the dirt with his ice cream spoons. He did a lot better at riding the week before. But here's the videos to see him in action. He loves it. We have since got him a bike helmet- which his head almost fits in Dan's helmet! Dan made him a "B" sticker and put it on his bike- so he now knows the letter B. He'll point it out to everyone and say B. Which he'll say B, bubble, baby, but- bye for some reason is Dye. Who knows!

Christmas 2010

This past Christmas my parents took our family on a cruise to Mexico. We took a limo to the port- because that was the cheapest option to get us and our stuff there. We had a fun time hanging out, relaxing, not having to worry about cooking and cleaning. Beckett enjoyed all the attention. He had a little fan club of waiters and waitresses. Beckett had a favorite waiter- for some reason he really took a liking to this one waiter and would look for him anytime we went to eat. He would always do a soft forehead bonk with him when he would see him- and would pat his head to signal that's what he wanted. His other favorite thing was the telephone since he could reach it in our rooms so easily. He liked going hot tubbing with daddy- but was a little nervous at first. He unfortunately started doing a fake beaver smile with his eyes closed anytime he saw the camera or you told him to smile. He had a bit of a picture overload I would say. Bytheway I didn't bring a camera so all these pics are from my mom's camera. Next time I'll make sure I bring my own.

Our cruise was for a week. We stopped at 3 towns on the Western Coast of Mexico: Mazatlan, Puerto Vallerta, and Cabo San Lucas. Dan and I went to Puerto Vallerta on our honeymoon about 5 1/2 years prior, so it was kind of fun to see what we remembered. We mostly just did sightseeing and hang out on the beach. Beckett could not get enough of the sand! He loved the beach and playing in the water. I never was brave enough to get in the ocean (or swimming pools) the water was a bit chilly- Beckett didn't seem to mind. The instant his foot touched sand he would plop his butt down and start playing. Beckett also like seeing the fish in the glass bottom boat. When we were getting back in the boat- some how Dan slipped and fell on the stroller. After a few minutes into our boat ride we noticed a big puddle off blood on the floor. Dan checked his foot and his big toe was missing a chunk. The stroller screw or something carved a little piece of meat out apparently. That ended our touring of Cabo San Lucas a little early. In Mazatlan we did a hike up to a lighthouse which was kinda fun. The statues are along the Malecon in Puerto Vallerta- which Dan and I have similar photos from our honeymoon. We got back into LA from our cruise Christmas morning. This is the hotel that we stayed in.We opened a few gifts- mostly just watching Beckett- at my brother, Alex's apartment. Beckett loved his soccer goal, jersey, balls, and other noise makers. He got pretty excited about it all. We played games and hung out. We played "Shout About Movies" and then Beckett unfortunately learned that you shout at the TV. For the rest of the trip he would yell at the TV. We stayed in LA for about a week. We went to the park we did a bike ride along the beach- pulling Beckett in the bike trailer. We got some good exercise. The weather was really nice- only a little rain. Thankfully we missed all the floods they had while we were on the cruise.We also went to the science museum. It was a lot of fun. They had many things to see and I don't think we even saw half of them. They had many "Discovery rooms" for toddlers which Beckett loved. One was a kitchen which made Beckett feel right at home. Except this kitchen had live mice and cockroaches in the cupboards. He loved playing with all the toys- his other favorite area was playing with the tools. Beckett loves fish- they had a huge aquarium with lots of different fish- that was probably Beckett's favorite spot. He even tried to climb into the glass wall aquarium. He enjoyed climbing onto the many exhibits (that u weren't supposed to) and seeing different animals and creatures. We went and checked out the old Las Angeles zoo. Apparently when they built the new zoo, they didn't demolish the old zoo and left some of the animal cages for you to explore- kinda fun. We were going to check out the real zoo but they were full so we went to a nearby railroad museum and park. Beckett liked waving to the kiddie train as it drove by. We enjoyed eating out at new restraunts. One of our favorites was a Cuban Bakery- can't remember the name right now- had tons of different options desserts and sandwiches at a good price.

18 months

Beckett's recent checkup stats:

weight: 20 lbs 4.2 oz (<3%)
height: 31.5 in (25%)
head: 19 3/8 in (90-95%)

His stats are remaining about the same as always. He's still a lollipop. Beckett hardly ever cries (except naptime sometimes). Normally when we go to the doctor he's fine- he cries a minute after the shot and then he's fine. This time as soon as he saw the nurse he freaked he was crying the entire time clinging on to me and not wanting to get measured... He didn't even get any shots! It was weird- I think he is now putting togehter what usually happens in the doctors office and last time the doses of the vaccines were the most painful.

More words! Beckett says: mama! (I think he's now forgotten how to say dada- not really but everything now is mom) fish, bubble, Jesus, apple, uh-oh, please, apple, eyes, ears, bath, whoa!, maybe cheese. A lot of these words sound sound pretty similar. He doesn't pronounce them well- but he's trying and we're trying to decipher them.

Beckett had his first week in nursery! Hooray! He did so good- he didn't want to leave- I think it was mainly because of the bubbles. Which he started saying non-stop since then. Dan tried to be sneaky and check on him once to see how he was doing. Beckett saw him, gave a wave and kept on playing.

Beckett loves anything active. He now can throw a ball more accurately and catch a ball thrown to him (most of the time). He loves to spin, jump, get dizzy, dance, do rolls, be thrown, flipped, bounced, etc. He loves the snow and wearing his boots. He only wants to wear his boots now. He doesn't seem to notice the cold when he's outside playing. He also loves water. The melting snow, sink, bath, faucet, anything water he will play in it. He is getting more and more fun and active. He loves the attention. He also loves waving - he'd be really good in a parade. He waves at every living/ non-living thing he sees. Getting off the airplane or leaving the grocery store- he says bye and waves to everyone- even if that aren't paying attention to him. He's so curious. He understands and can follow instructions (if he wants to). He loves drawing. He loves helping Dan fix his bike- even if Dan's not home. If the closet doors were left open- Beckett will find some of Dan's bike tools (allen wrenches) and run to the other room and insert the in holes in the bike. When we ask him "where is Beckett's bike?" he points to Dan's bike even though he has his own tricycle.

He loves fruit and would eat a whole bag of oranges if we let him. His favorites currently are grapes, pears, apples, oranges and bananas. He's really a good eater. He can be picky- but usually he'll eat what we're eating or if he's stubborn he goes hungry. He'll eat 6 chicken nuggets and french fries for lunch. He loves french fries. When we were on the cruise for Christmas he was in heaven because he could have french fries and icecream at every meal! (well we didn't always let him). On that note, I don't really have any pictures from Christmas- but I'll someday be getting a copy of my parents photos. He loved the beach- the sand and waves. He never wanted to leave. I'll post some pictures when I get them.

Beckett only drinks water. And usually refuses to drink anything until the end of the day when he's dying of thirst and chuggs it down. He usually sleeps about 12 hours at night and takes a one hour nap. Although Beckett has had four days in the past couple weeks where he has refused to nap- even though I know he was tired. He would cry for over two hours instead of sleeping and then I'd just have to get him up to take him to cheerleading practice. He even refuses to sleep in the car a lot of the time. He can be quite the stubborn one sometimes. With that, he has been testing out his vocal cords and trying different screams and screeches- not very pleasant.

And now here are a bunch of short clips of Beckett recently. He unfortunately has learned to fake smile when he sees a camera. He scrunches his nose and squints his eyes, looking like a beaver or something. I think he does it in some of these videos.

These two clips are Beckett opening up a christmas present from some of Dan's coworkers.

This clip shows what Beckett does when it's bedtime or naptime- most of the time. He likes to get curled up in a ball before he gets tucked in.

Check out Beckett's dance moves. We've been trying to develop some different moves besides the knee bob. He'll watch us closely and try to figure out how to do it. He loves spinning- but can't spin without saying "Weeee!"

Here he's performing his forward roll. After watching the cheerleaders tumble, that's all he wants to do. He's not quite there though. But he's still proud.

This video is kind boring- it's the last few seconds where he shows off how he jumps. (usually one arm up in the air and he bounces on his tip-toes).

So a few days ago we had some excitement happen. The police were searching for a man in the land behind our house. They were hovering in our backyard (practically) in a helicopter. Beckett loved seeing the helicopter. Everytime he heard the helicopter he ran to the window and door. I had decided it probably wasn't the smartest idea to go outside and look at the helicopter anymore. But when Dan got home he put on some Pink Floyd music that had a helicopter sound- that Beckett started looking for.

Here's Dan and Beckett playing catch. I'm not sure why Beckett started sitting down to catch- he doesn't normally.

Here's another thing Beckett loves doing- falling. Even though you can't really see his proud happy face.