The Beach

Phyllis blessed us by keeping Luke so Josh and I could take Rebekah to the beach. For you Iowans, the Texas beach is not beautiful! However, it was her first experience to see so much water and we all had a ball (besides squeezing my post-pregnancy body into my mother-in-law's swimsuit- side note- Rebekah asked me where I got my "swimsoup" and if we could bring the "sunscream")! Rebekah eagerly trotted in the water as long as she had a hand she could hold onto. She, Josh, and I dug for shells (well, I dug until I dug up a crab that crawled on my hand and then I retired as a digging encourager!) and not so shockingly Rebekah was quite picky about what exactly counted as a shell...My favorite part was holding her hands- Josh and I both had a hand as we waded out into the ocean- Rebekah started floating on her tummy and excitedly cried out, "I'm swimming!!" It was precious.

Potty training is up and down to be quite honest...I am surprised at how frequently R lies to me about not needing to go- she says, "I need to not go potty...I need to not tee-tee," etc...we are definitely making progress and the past 2 days she has verbalized almost all her needs, which is wonderful! I still love how excited she gets about what kind of poops she does (2 poopies vs little bitty poopy).

Rebekah has also begun to pray for our meals- it goes like this:

"Dear Ward, thank you for Daddy...thank you for Nana...(she's looking around to remind herself who's there)...thank you for Papa...(looks around, as if she can't remember me :)) thank you for Mommy...thank you for Nana's glasses...thank you for the food...Amen!!!"

She also LOVES bossing Duncan (my in-laws' Westie) around! She LOVES to walk him and he is little enough that she is able to hold the leash- she commands him, "Duncan, no! Duncan, stay on the sidewalk! Duncan, do you want to go poop?" It's pretty funny. Luke LOVES being outside- maybe more than Rebekah, much to my amazement! He will be fussy and if we go outside, he almost always immediately calms down...he loves going on the walks in a sling, all wrapped up like a baby frog, sweating madly. :) I am soooo delighted my children love being outside- so do I!

Luke really is becoming his own little man- he is starting to respond so much more, reach for and hold things, move more- he pushes off his legs like crazy- granted I am comparing him to noodle-leg Bekah! We are starting to realize he is more social than I originally thought- he will cry until someone looks at him, then break out in a huge grin- little faker! On his best days, I want another child, on his fussy days (yesterday!), I am glad we might be done! Rebekah is definitely a fan of no more- she happily suggested yesterday when she wanted to be chased, but I was holding him, "Mommy, put Baby Luke down on ground? (no) Mommy- (looks around for his infant seat) put Baby Luke in his seat- I go get it! (no) Mommy, put Baby Luke down for nap?" Bless her heart!

At the beach-





(for my dad's side of the fam- doesn't she favor Kendall here?)

This was her best attempt at a smile...

In Josh's hat...

Little man gettin' a little handsy...

So sweet with their Papa...

So sweet with Mama!!
Bekah-in-a-bag
Bekah-Burrito
Bekah-in-a-wagon