A Mother's Prayer

I attended a baby shower for a friend on Mother's Day weekend and received this sweet prayer.  I had to read aloud the two lines in bold... how appropriate!  I absolutely love this poem - how true it is.

Dear Lord,

It's such a hectic day

With little time to stop and pray

For life's been anything but calm

Since You called on me to be a Mom

Running errands, matching socks

Building dreams, with building blocks

Cooking, cleaning and finding socks

And other stuff that children lose

Fitting lids on bottled bugs

Wiping tears and giving hugs

A stack of last week's mail to read

So where's the quiet time I need?

Yet when I steal a minute, Lord

To ask the blessings of your grace

I see them, in my small one's face

That you have blessed me

All the while

And I stop to kiss

That precious smile.

This was my first official Mother's Day and it was such a special day!  We went to my sweet nephew's house (Luca) for brunch with Kammie and had some delicious food as always.  These Pullaros/Barolos/Ponaths know how to cook!

Kammie with the boys.  Luca is pondering something very important.  Beckham just wants to get all his fingers in his mouth.

It is impossible to get both boys (exactly two weeks apart) to look at the camera, get their hands out of their mouth and smile at the same time!  If you could only see what four parents and two grandparents were doing to get this!  Here are the boys with their Great Granddaddy.

My precious son (with the help of his thoughtful Daddy) made it the most special day!  I received a few lovely Mommy gifts - a gift card to buy B some new clothes at one of my favorite stores for him (Janie and Jack), a massage and a pass to take the little man to Playmania (like Gymboree but in The View)!  Beckham even helped me open all of my presents.

This is fun!

It tastes good too!

Daddy, please tell Mommy to stop squeezing me!

Then after Beckham went to bed, Justin prepared a delicious dinner - fish, scalloped potatoes, asparagus and leek soup and an amazing cookie cake.  He is quite the epicurean and most certainly outdid himself.  He even set a candlelight table with two dozen long stem roses.  The worst part is - I was miserably sick by the end of the night.  Not because of the food... just a cold Beckham and I were passing back and forth.  It's my fault - I just love to kiss him!  It's a small price to pay...

Rubber Ducky

On March 27th, my nephew turned one. Beckham and I flew up to Charlotte for his first birthday party. My sister, Ester, planned such a special celebration for him at a beautiful local park. And as every party hostess knows, it's not complete without a theme. Jakson loves bathtime, so this one was all about ducks!

My mom smocked a cute little duck outfit for Jakson (of which I have no pictures - because he has a bib over it when he wore it).

And, she made these monogrammed bibs for the cousins.

Jakson's grandpa made this amazing cake for the little man.

And this little one for Jakson to eat. Unfortunately, he it was too much pressure and he wanted nothing to do with it!

I've been thinking about Beckham's first birthday party ever since. Now that we're four months out, I'm going to get serious about planning it. I just need to narrow down the theme... there are just so many cute ideas out there! I'm thinking Curious Beckham (after Curious George and the Monkey he loves) or Mr. Man or even a Nautical theme because Beckham loves the water. I'll have to narrow down some of his favorite things.

In the meantime, here are some sweet pictures of Beckham at the party.

I just love this face!

Uncle Marshy entertained Beckham for a long time at the park. He knew this would keep him happy! Tia Ysa, where are you?

Such great smiles...

Eating his first ever teething biscuit and loving it!

Always a burp cloth in arms reach... Papi's learned to be prepared!

Happy Birthday, Jako! I love you! I'm so glad we got to celebrate with you! And I'm even more excited because Beckham is going to have another cousin nearby. Ester, Jason and Jakson are moving to Sarasota in mid-June! It will be so fun to have her close by. By the way, Jakson... do I have something on my face? We took lots of pictures together and he just would not look at the camera. Well, at least I like the picture of me! :)

Three Surnames

We dedicated Beckham Cruz in front of our church family (South Tampa Fellowship) on April 18th. It was such a sweet time for our family. My parents and Justin's sister (Natalie) flew in from DC for the service. Justin's parents and grandparents, our dear friends (the Codes and Nations) and our beloved church small group family were also there to celebrate with us.  (I'm very upset that I don't have pictures of everyone with him on that day.  I should have put someone in charge of that.  I'll do better next time...)

For the superficial specifics...
Beckham wore a light blue dupioni silk outfit that my mom made for him along with a bonnet that Justin would have rather done without!

I was petrified my son would spit up in front of the entire church congregation. Mama Nations came to the rescue and made this beautiful heirloom bib for him (it has a little boy embroidered on it) and a matching burp cloth. It was the perfect accessory to his sweet outfit.

For the more meaningful specifics...
Our son has three surnames - English, Spanish and Italian! Maybe he'll be trilingual. :) There is nothing special about the name Beckham, except that we really liked it. We actually didn't name him after the soccer star, but it is quite appropriate that Justin loves soccer. He's continuing to live up to his name (since he was Frank Breech in utero).

His middle name is what has significance to us. Cruz is my maiden name. Long ago we decided that if we ever had a son his middle name would be Cruz. My parents only had daughters so there's no one to carry on the family name. However, all three of us girls have used Cruz as our middle names since we married because we didn't have one.

His middle name also has deep spiritual significance to us. It means "cross of Christ" and it's our prayer that one day Beckham would "take up his cross daily and follow Him" (Luke 9:23).

Beckham: someone who lived beside a stream
Cruz: Spanish for the cross of Christ
Pullaro: from Sicilian puddara denoting a plant of the pimpernel family (I wasn't sure what that was, so I googled it. Here's a picture for you visual people like me.)

Later that day, we celebrated Beckham's dedication with a family dinner at Nick and Suzette's house. They were so sweet to host this dinner for us - as tax season ended only three days before.

Thank God for mothers - she worked tirelessly to help me get everything ready and make it a special dinner for Beckham.

The food was amazing! My dad grilled fajitas and brisket and Papaw grilled chicken and ribs.  (Once again, only have pictures of the food and not them.  Ugh!)

 

My dad (Papi) and Beckham in their matching seersucker outfits!

For the dessert table, Suzette made an amazing carrot cake and chocolate chip cookies.  We also had chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese and strawberry frosting and some homemade chocolate peanut brittle. 

My mom and I made some cake pops (from scratch) and used them as the centerpieces for the tables.  My friend Kristin came to visit the night before and I put her artistic talents to work - she hand painted five clay pots (freehand) with a cross and Beckham's monogram.  It's amazing what people can do at one o'clock in the morning!

Finley loved them!!! 

Thank you to all of you who have and will come along side Beckham in the years to come and encourage him to follow Christ and grow in a deep relationship with Him.

Up In The Air

I'm sitting here at Panera waiting for my much anticipated phone call... any minute now I will find out my future at Takeda. There are three options and I really am okay with two of them - I keep the best part time gig in the world or I lose my job and get to stay home with my little man. It's the one in the middle that has me on my knees, literally. They could dissolve my job share and offer me a full-time position. I have no idea what I will do.

I got a little emotional for the first time driving home yesterday. This job was a godsend. Without it, I would probably still be waking up at midnight and working holidays at my "dream" television job. I couldn't be more thankful for my three-and-a-half year tenure at Takeda. It has been such an amazing experience - both professionally and personally. I could go on and on about the things I did, the places I went, the people I met and the things I learned. But, no one really cares. I was exactly where God wanted me and there's no better feeling. And this hour I trust the same - His best is where I'll be.

I thought I had more pictures on my laptop to share, but these are the only two pictures I could find.

Here I am at a Diabetes Convention with two famous ACTOS characters! I got to know two wonderful Takeda reps - Shannon and Misty. We had a great time in DC!

We are with a Diabetes legend - Dr. Ralph DeFronzo. After our program, we headed to The Ritz in Sarasota for some live music. Jordan, my partner until this April (beautiful blonde on the far right), and I started just a month apart from each other. We literally learned this business together. We were the two newbies in Sarasota. When Susan told me she had hired me a partner, she said I would LOVE her! She couldn't be more right! Jordan is more than a business partner (I think I talk to her on the phone more than anyone I know!)... she is truly one of my dearest friends.

And because I wouldn't be here without her, I had to include a picture of my hiring manager and sweet friend! Susan and I are far from work here - in the Holy Land when we went back in 2007. She taught me everything I know about this business and I owe her everything for that! Thank you, Susan for giving me this incredible opportunity! I am praying for your future - God is going to do great things!

Cheers to my friends at Takeda! I'm excited we won't be "up in the air" for much longer.

Beckham = Personality (DBE)

Some of the best moments with my son are when I come home from work and get to see Beckham right before bed. For some reason, he's usually in the best of moods and just flat out hilarious.

See exhibit A:

'Cito vs. 'Cillin (DBE)

Beckham is affectionately referred to by his Daddy as the Bubbacito. This is because Raquel's family are the Kings of Spanish nicknames and they usually end in -cito... and since I think this is awesome, I had to get in on the action, and thus, The Bubbacito was born.

Sunday we learned that The Bubbacito has his first ear infection and he needs some amoxicillin - something his Dad was allergic to (mom, feel free to post some comments about what you recall).

So we are now in the process of finding out if Becks is allergic to penicillin or not... it's the 'Cito in one corner, and the 'Cillin in the other...


"Let's get it on!"