The Beckham's Blog: Keeping up with the Beckham Boys

It's been quite a while since I've posted anything about the boys. Life has been pretty hectic with work, building a house, and just daily "stuff". I'm feeling guilty that I've missed so many opportunities for posting about my babies who are growing up so quickly. As much as they can drive me crazy at times with all their energy, I really think this is the best time in our lives. They add so much humor and joy to everyday and we love watching them grow and learn. (Beware: it's a looooong post!)

First up...the eldest...our sweet yet stubborn Sam.

You are in 2nd grade already and really love school. You excel at everything and make friends easily. Sadly, you've moved on from Thomas the Train and think he's for "babies". However, you still like building elaborate train tracks for Carter. You have lots of friends, but your best buddy is Brooks Blanton. Together you have an obsession with everything Star Wars.

This year your personality has developed more and you have a very goofy side and like to tell jokes and act crazy. Sometimes daddy and I have a hard time getting your sense or humor, but other times you crack us up.

Beside loving Star Wars (and video games), you also really enjoy playing sports. Everyday on our drive home from school, I ask you about your day. You rarely share anything about class, but will give me some details about recess. Typically you play football or basketball with all your buddies. This summer you loved playing baseball and daddy was your assistant coach.

Then this fall you played soccer and dad was your head coach. You are very fast and aggressive... always slide tackling and falling down and you even scored a few goals this year too. You loved playing goalie and took great pride in not letting the other team score.

You are an outdoors kid and LOVE the water. Summer is your favorite time of year and everyday you beg me to go to the beach or a friend's pool.

As parents, we are quite proud of how well we've completely brainwashed you into being a diehard University of Michigan fan already. Every Sat. we hang out with my side of the family, the Fregos, to watch MI football games. Mostly, you just like going to spend time with your cousin Mya, but during the week, you want to wear Michigan clothing to school EVERYDAY. I have to purposely not wash certain clothing items otherwise you would wear Michigan stuff daily.

Daddy took you to the first game of the year, Michigan vs. Eastern Michigan. You loved everything about the experience, even when it started down pouring and they cancelled the game in the 4th quarter and you and daddy had to sprint all the way back to the car.

Yesterday we put a tiny Christmas tree in our rental house and you insisted that the tree MUST have a Michigan ornament. Most of our ornaments are in storage somewhere, so you ran to your bedroom, came back and handed me a little paper ornament that you had been hiding to give me for Christmas. So sweet! Our tree is now officially complete. :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Next up....our rambunctious, carefree, and curious little man....Carter Jacob.

I love this age! You are three years old and absolutely the cutest thing on two feet. Clearly, I'm biased, but daddy and I can't get enough of you! You still have a sweet baby voice, curly hair in the back, big blue eyes, and you're FULL of energy and life. Walking is not in your repertoire of skills. It's all run, run, run! And you're fast! The other thing I don't like about this age is all the questions! Why? why? why? No answer satisfies you and is always followed up with another "why?!"

You are so carefree and happy. Always smiling or laughing.

Similar to Sam, you have a deep affection for Thomas the Train. While Sam was always curious to know the name of every single train and loved to build tracks, you are more content to just play with the trains. You aren't really concerned about knowing their names and you'd rather someone else build the tracks...you just like the trains and everyday you have a new favorite. You often rotate between Gordon, Thomas or Percy.

Holidays are a big deal for you this year. Halloween was bigger than life and couldn't understand why we had to wait for Halloween. You wanted it RIGHT NOW! and wore your costume on a daily basis for weeks ahead of time.

Lately, you've developed a love for reading books. Every night daddy or I read to you and then we allow you to leave your lamp on and read for another 1/2 hour. You just love to do this and pretend you are reading books...always trying to do the same thing as Sam.

YAY!!! You are officially potty trained! This was a much easier task that it was potty training Sam. Probably because I waited until you were ready. Shortly after you turned three we started the process and it only took a few weeks and you had the hang of things. You even wake me up in the middle of the night in a panic yelling, "Mommy, I've gotta pee!!"

Other than trains, you also love to swim. No fear, just like Sam and the two of you make me so nervous at the pool or beach. I have to keep an eye on you at all times because you're a "runner". This summer, on more than one occasion, you took off running down the beach and we couldn't find you for a couple of very panicky minutes/seconds. The last time we went, I put the monkey backpack on you with a leash! Seriously, you do not understand how to sit still at all yet.

This is especially true at church. For some odd reason, you seem to enjoy being in front of people. I always get nervous when you go up front with the pastor for the blessing before Sunday School because we never know what you'll say or do. Last week, you ran up front, did a couple of laps around the pulpit and then ran up to the pastor and yelled, "Ka-chow!" while doing a sidespin. This happened more than once and poor Pastor Matt had no idea what you were doing. For those who have seen the movie "Cars", the main character Lightening McQueen (a famous racecar) always spins out and says "Ka-chow" before getting his picture taken. This event was both embarrassing yet hilarious, especially when Sam leaned over and said, "Mom, did he just Ka-chow the pastor?"!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As much as we love these two separately, the best part of being their parents is watching them together. There are moments when they definitely do not see eye to eye, but mostly they love being together. I'm so happy to see how well they get along. Here's some pics of our boys being buddies....