Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Driving Miss Bekah

What can I say? My kids are super-advanced...here Luke is working on sending some emails...

...and giving me "the look"- this is Luke's most common look!

Rebekah always seems up to something!

Family tummy time- I think Josh's facial expression is priceless!

So is this one! We make cute babies!

I uploaded these in a weird order- sorry! We visited our dear, dear friends, Jason and Candice Mayhall in Louisiana. It was an awesome time and we loved hangin' with their 3 kids. My parents were precious enough to keep our 2 for 2 days while we had a great time!

This was a present from Candice...

Mamama with Baby Luke...

Here's our girl- she was crazy-excited to "drive!"

Evidently, she is aware of the driver-gets-to-adjust-the-radio rule that operates within our family...

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Sharing is never fun!

It's hard going from being the only grandchild to 1 of 3! This look is priceless! Riley Jane is more than happy to share anything, but you can see Rebekah does not share that sentiment!

Happy Riley Jane!

This is much sweeter!
Rebekah loves to mother RJ! She said the other day, "Mommy, I want to feed her! I need to feed Riley Jane!" So began Rebekah constantly holding, feeding, and general care-taking of her cousin. RJ is a great sport!

Rebekah with her other cousin, Olivia- they are a great pair! Both are big sisters of sweet baby brothers, so they compete on who can boss the other more!

A flashback to our second trip to the beach with Nana. R was a huge fan of her floaties!

My sweeties...


My first birthday celebration with Mike and Phyllis


Rebekah is still keeping us on our toes. She has added "I need to __" to her vocabulary, such as "I want to see, no I need to see Mamama and Grandi!" or "I need to eat that."

She can also correctly identify Bluejays and they frequent her imaginative stories.

We have had parties galore this week for bdays, showers, and other things and R has been LOVING it! She is sure we need to sing Happy Birthday at each gathering and it has been delightful to see her social personality emerge!

Luke has been up and down- he has been fighting his bottle at times, which is strange, but I guess if he were nursing, I wouldn't know he took less...he has been better-behaved the past 2 days, but for a couple days her was fussing more. His eyes have been really watery and glassy and he has been sneezing and has had snot- I am wondering if he has allergies that are specific to this house. My brother's allergies flare up here- it's an older home...anyway, just a thought.

Luke will be 4 months tomorrow- crazy! He has a precious smile and laugh and is a sweetie- most of the time!

Friday, August 08, 2008

My Funny Girl

I was thinking I should update on potty training- Rebekah is a champ!!! She now verbalizes almost all the time when she needs to go, especially poop! This is huge progress! However, as she has gotten more and more aware of her urges, she makes me leave the bathroom when she needs to poop. Imagine my surprise the first time she did that saying, "Mommy, leave! Go in another room!" Who knew a 2-yr-old would need privacy for a bowel movement.

Last night at Carino's (my favorite Italian place), Rebekah saw our pizza and saw something she had had once and wanted again- she asked for "Sunglasses tomatoes?" I quickly deduced that she wanted sundried tomatoes...she had only heard the word once, so I was impressed with any recall at all! I'll say it again- my girl has a vocabulary!

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

The Zoo, the Duck Pond, & Tummy Time

Rebekah, Nana, Papa, and I went to the Texas Zoo here in Victoria. (Josh stayed back with Luke) Anyway, it was a perfect zoo for precious Rebekah- she LOVED feeding the goats who licked her hands! She also loved the bird sanctuary where she got to walk amongst the birds. She even got her first vacation tee-shirt from her grandparents! Oh- I almost forgot to mention that Nana took us to the duck pond, too! At both places, Rebekah would haphazardly throw the food at the animals and command them to eat- "Eat, duck! Eat, goat!" She even asked the duck, "Did you get in the water, duck?" as it did indeed get in and swim away... :)

(side note- there's a pic of R and Mike looking at a bird house- the idea is that something of a cool or distinctive texture is unseen inside and can be guessed at by sticking your hand in and feeling it (a deer's antler or a tortoise shell). Rebekah is sooo my girl! There was NO way she was sticking her hand in something she couldn't see! However, she readily volunteered Papa to do it!)




I get this look a lot, so I thought I would document it before she turns 13 and it's all I get...



Duck Pond- this is a fave of mine- you know a kid's excited when all they do is point!



Baby Luke being entertained by Dad


One of my favorite friends of Phyllis' is Betty- she invited us all over for a great dinner last night- she even set up a slip-and-slide for Rebes...I had my doubts, but as soon as we turned down the water to a dribble :P) and Josh threw her down it, Rebekah was all for it!

Baby Luke chilled with Nana...

Slippin' and slidin' is hard work...


Rebekah also insisted "I want to do tummy time with Baby Luke" this morning- it was very sweet! I forget sometimes how much she wants to be a part of things...yesterday, she carried in his bottle to Nana- she carefully placed her forefinger over the nipple with one hand and shook it with the other- I had NO idea she knew that's what we did to prepare his bottle!


Mike and Phyllis bought us tickets for the local production of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor DreamCoat" so we had a nice dinner and date night! Of course, Rebekah "borrowed" the heels before we went!

A few other Rebekah tidbits-

I'll ask her to come with me somewhere and she'll realize she "needs" something precious and say, "Let me get my ____ " before agreeing to go- such a female!

When she wants me to do something, she'll ask, "Mama, do you want to hold me? Mama, do you want to chase me? Mama, do you want to hold this? Mama, do you want to open this?"

Her new phrase is "I can not _____." For example, she colored with a pale yellow crayon and it was really light so she squinted and said, "I can not see the yellow" as she scornfully shook her head and discarded the crayon.

HEB grocery store gives out free balloons- this has been quite a hit with R! One time, I said, "Look at that sad balloon over there..." It had been lost by a child and was losing its gas...anyway, now our grocery store visits are defined by how many "happy" and "sad" balloons there are- seriously, that's all we talk about!! Last time, she pulled my arm (I guess she realized I was distracted) and said, "Mama, look! Do you see that sad balloon?"

Saturday, August 02, 2008

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