Little Boy Beckett

This post is about my little boy Beckett. Currently he is our daily challenge and always a daily delight. He is such a funny, funny kid and I know I'm not even doing him justice with these pictures and little stories. Keep in mind, all of these pictures are from about a 1 hour time frame so you can imagine what he does in a whole day.

Beckett found a hairbrush and with no hair, had no idea what to do with it. He gnawed on it for a while and ended up with a mouthful of bristles. He looked so innocent yet so guilty at the same time.


Then he spent about 10 minutes sitting on the couch and pulling on his ears. He didn't have an ear infection; they are just a source of amusement for him.


This is a daily occurrence. He has a plastic container that he puts on his head and goes about his business. He just hangs out with a container on his head. No joke.


There is a smaller container that is that is too small for his head and if he tries that one first he screams and throws himself backwards in a fit until he gets the larger one that fits.


He'll crawl around with it on. Play with trucks with it on. Read books with it on. Everyone once in a while he'll pull it up, look underneath and then put it back on and keep playing.


Oh my funny little astronaut. Guess he is just getting prepared to go to space camp.

I thought I had a mess on my hands before

We've figured out two new ways to make a mess. Let me talk about the first way which we have named, "party planning."

Generally, the kitchen is off limits for playing because my kitchen is not baby proofed and because they are so speedy now it takes 3 people to watch them. I can have one playing in the pug water bowl, another banging on the window and a third pulling out pots and pans before I know it. But they get tired of just being in playroom and the nursery so sometimes we let them play in the kitchen in one specific cupboard that has all of the paper products leftover from parties.

Addy is the lead planner and pulls all goods needed for the event that day yelling orders at the other two.


Beckett dutifully sorts and organizes.


Socks or cups, it doesn't matter to Eloise. She'll pull them all apart.


And this little game is what we call party planning.
Then it all gets shoved back into the cupboard until they have another event booked. Anyone want to come to my house for a backyard BBQ?


But nothing is a mess compared to spaghetti. I normally just give them fusilli or ziti or some pasta that I thought would be easy for them to pick up, it never occurred to me to give them long spaghetti until it was leftover from the adults one day.


"Look Mom, it keeps going, and going, and going..." -Beckett


One year of sucking on bottles prepared my crew to be picture perfect spaghetti eaters.

Fav Girl Picture

I have about 5 minutes before the critters wake up from their morning nap and I was trying to organize the 500 pictures we took when my mom was here for the 4th. I ran across my favorite girl picture and couldn't resist posting it.

Eloise is standing up with a smile as bright as the sun and Addy is sticking out her tongue and poking it.

Notice the matching green bracelets?
My mom bought all the girls jade bracelets in Hawaii so they have their first real piece of jewelry. I can only let them wear them around soft surfaces because there appears to be some confusion between jewelry and hammers. Don't worry, I'll get that straightened out in a hurry.

Like Father Like Son

I've said before that there are few things that are worthy of upsetting our schedule. Might as well throw the schedule out the window this month; not only is it World Cup but more importantly (for Rich) it is TOUR DE FRANCE time.

To prepare the kids for the importance of the Tour, Rich let the kids touch the new racing wheel for his tri bike. It doesn't get any better for Beckett.


He was totally enthralled. He couldn't get enough. It was like the best day of his life.


It was the best day until it was time to finish eating. Talk about a heartbroken little boy.

Chuga Chuga Chuga Chuga Choo Choo

I've been waiting for months to bring out the Choo-Choo wagon. After a disastrous 4th of July (think explosions in Beckett's pant and explosions in our air conditioner) the best way to lift our spirits and start the new day on a bright note was to bring out the Choo-Choo Wagon for the first time.


Everyone is in this picture, including Pickles and Bella hiding behind the wagon.

Rich had a good point. It looked like we were secret service transporting the triplets. I was pulling, Rich was behind and my mom was next to the wagon; they had a full entourage reminding them to stay seated.

Addy was originally in the last wagon but was moved to the first wagon which helped to remind her that standing in the moving train was very dangerous.
(She is not wearing PJ bottoms. They got destroyed during breakfast.)

Eloise was totally lounging in the train. Next time they can have sippy cups to put in their cup holders.


It is still going to take several more rides with an entourage to keep them seated but they learned pretty quickly.


I think we found a new favorite past time. Eloise cried when it was time to get out and take a nap.


Here is a preview of the next post. We had our own little photo shoot with another first. Bows in the hair...

So glad these things come in seedless

More swimming pictures because it is so darn hot here. As long as were were outside and barely dressed it was a perfect time to introduce watermelon slices. They eat watermelon 2 or 3 times a day at the table but that is usually 1 or 2 1-inch cubes. I wanted to know what they would do with a whole slice. Also I'm tired of cleaning up watermelon and watermelon splashes off my white floor. Tired of hearing about my white floor yet? Maybe I need a new floor.......

We started them off eating watermelon IN the pool. I forgot that Addy likes to suck on food and then spit it so our neighbor Lisa who was holding her kept having to catch and scoop up the watermelon. Sometimes when I pick her up out of the feeding table her entire chair and lap are covered in food.


I guess she prefers the rind.


She went through dropping about 5 slices but figured it out. Still sucking and spitting but at least eating the right section.


Beckett just ate his watermelon in the pool with Clarke. He was more interested in swimming than eating.


They've started to "share" their food and think it is gut-splitting hysterical if you eat something they give you. I've gotten used to eating lots of soggy food. Eloise must have been done and was sharing with me while it looks like Bella was hoping for the leftovers.


The other two are wild about being in the pool, kicking and splashing and screaming while this is Eloise's idea of good pool time.

Big Week at the Newman House

Lots of firsts so I'll just jump right in.
The first big one was on Father's Day...
Eloise started to crawl! At our last pedi visit there was some talk about getting her into therapy because of possible developmental delays. I said I didn't think she needed it and she is going to crawl and do things on her own schedule and we could hold off on therapy as long as she is progressing. I also think it was partially my fault that she wasn't progressing as quickly as the doctors would have liked and I was even warned about it. Because she is the "little one" I was warned that I may have the tendency to do things for her rather than let her figure things out for herself. I'm sure that was happening. The only reason I think she started to crawl was because I purposefully stopped coming to her rescue the minute she fell over or didn't like her positioning.
What do you know, she started to crawl AND pull herself up to standing AND starting to "cruise" or standing and move hold onto furniture this past week.
Prior to that I could tell she would get frustrated because she would cry until you helped her stand and then walk pushing the dump truck until she hit a wall (15 seconds later) and then cry until you turned her around just to hit the opposite wall 15 seconds later. It was kind of funny but entirely exhausting. She is so much happier now and much more interactive with the other two. She also is able to stand up for herself a little better because because she couldn't get away when someone was harassing her or trying to steal a toy. She has always been a very happy baby but now she is just ecstatic and screams with joy to play, to find a new toy, see her siblings, get up in the morning, see the pugs, the list goes on and on.


The new toy that we got today was a shopping cart. They love anything with wheels, anything they can put things into and anything that they can stand playing with. They also love to try to drink out of anything. Here is Eloise trying to drink the maple syrup that came in the shopping cart.

Here is the 2nd big first...
Rich FOUND and USED a screwdriver (see in the background?).

He put the shopping cart together. I was totally impressed. He even put the screwdriver away where he found it. Be still my beating heart.

The 3rd big first...
Addy started to WALK!

Not a great picture but I'll explain more about that in a minute. She had been standing by herself for a few weeks and would get scared when she would take a step. Yesterday she took a few steps without even thinking about it and then today she just kind of took off. And she usually has something in her hand like a washcloth (for cleaning) or her socks or her sippy cup which is really cute. She is still holding on to things most of the time and prefers to crawl but I think her max right now is 8 or 10 steps.


I can't leave out my little boy. Beckett is still being his curious, stubborn and funny little self.

He is crazy about wheels, doors, banana pudding and stealing toys (worst offender). He is so busy all of the time doing stuff like trying to push toys through the gate, opening and closing things (IE, doors, books), and flipping things over and looking underneath or playing with the wheels.

Beckett is also our big hugger. He will crawl past you and stop to snuggle for about 20 seconds and then wiggle back down and go along his merry way.
Another favorite past time is to try to shake down the gate.

This actually was a first for him today. He pushed this from the other side of the room and I think was trying to ram down the gate with the walker. It's a new jailbreak strategy.


And the last big news is that I got a new camera. My mom and brother bought a totally awesome SLR camera for the triplet's birthday. I love getting presents on other people's birthday. For the first time in my life I'm going to sit down and read an owner's manual because I'm so excited to be able to finally take decent pictures. This post was the first with pictures from my new camera. Even without knowing what I'm doing yet and no eye for this kind of thing, I can see a huge difference in the quality of pictures. Like the following picture that I would not have been able to take on my old point and click.
I was taking a picture of Eloise and caught Rich hanging Addy upside down in the background.

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Father's Day Weekend

What do you do in TX when it is 90+ degrees for days on end? Eat BBQ and swim.
We started off the Father's Day weekend by checking out a new BBQ restaurant. If you haven't noticed we go to a lot of BBQ- mainly because it is casual, no one cares if the babies make a mess and I like anything with sauce. Not to mention the babies like to eat the free things like pickles, crackers, bread and at this place BEANS! Funny thing is that you put some BBQ sauce on all of that and that is pretty much what I eat too. Originally we were going to sit outside because it was crowded and we weren't sure we could find a place for the stroller/car seats/highchairs but when the thermometer said 100 degrees on the patio, we headed back inside. Like I've said before, it is all of the gear that causes a scene, not the babies themselves. People just kind of watch us gather 3 highchairs, wipe them down, wipe down the table, then strap all 3 in and try to find a place for the stroller/car seats out of the way then finally sit down to eat.
Like I said, totally casual is the best for us.

One if Rich's favorite flavors is banana and Beckett must have gotten the same gene because he got his first taste of banana pudding and loved it. Beckett loved it so much that he howled at the top of his lungs when it was gone. We thought that was funny but I'm sure other people didn't think so.

Our nanny, Maria, gave the babies a baby pool for their birthday and since the only thing you can do outside during the day in this heat is swim, we decided to try it out. First we blew it up in the playroom on Saturday night which they thought was so much fun. Then after lunch on Sunday we had our first family swim.

I'm not sure why this kid is always eating sunscreen. I slathered them in so much sunscreen the water in the baby pool turned cloudy.


We would put two babies in the baby pool and take turns taking a third into the adult pool. We originally put all three in the baby pool but Beckett crawled right out so the boys went into the adult pool while the girls hung out together.
Bella the pug was out with us as well and Bella thought the baby pool was a huge bowl of drinking water but Addy would cry anytime Bella took a drink. It was kind of humorous.

Beckett would scream with joy when Rich would pop up from under the water.


I took Addy the little fish into the big pool while the other two hung out together.

- No pictures of me with Addy because Rich had the camera and I have some great shots of the top of my head.

Eloise

Mr. B

(Forgot to mention that we had our first "Time out" this week. It was Mr. Beckett. What a stubborn and determined little guy.)

Addycakes

This picture is more representative of my kids. Addy is laughing and making faces, Beckett is about to throw a temper tantrum because I wanted him to stay put and not crawl out and Eloise is drinking water. She drank so much water that a few hours later her diaper almost fell off it was so soaked.


A few minutes later I had Addy in the big pool and I kept thinking that something smelled funny. Then I remembered that the "Little Swimmers" are just really for "catching the chunks" as my neighbor Suzanne pointed out to me last week. What a mess.
Do you know impossible it is to get a wet swimsuit back on a wiggling wild beast? It was easier to just leave it off after that. I figured she didn't need another diaper; the damage was already done.

Of course I didn't think to get a Father's Day picture until everyone was tired and hungry and naked so this was not the traditional Father's Day photo but it is typical for us. Babies crying, naked, wiggling and Rich trying to juggle them. He legs look so freakishly long that it reminded me of another picture when the babies first came home. This picture totally cracks me up every time I look at it. Absolutely love it.