I've seen this before

Recently Beckham has discovered his lips and all the fun things he can do with them (besides giving Mommy besos).

He likes to make this face when he says things like "Nooo" and "Uh-oooh."

But it struck me that I have seen this before. In fact it was literally the first thought I had in my head when Beckham was born and the nurses were cleaning him up. Here's what I saw and thought, "his lips are huge!"

And then a few weeks later, he decided to do it again.

What do you think?

Valentine's Day Project

One Hundred Hearts Valentine's Day 5x7 folded card

Create personalized greeting cards and invitations by Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

In all honesty, I'm posting this in hopes of receiving $25 off my next Shutterfly order!  :)

Here's a sneak peak at some Daddy love from Beckham.  Hopefully Daddy won't read the blog until Valentine's Day!  I spent the morning taking some pictures of Beckham outside.  I'm excited I was able to get him to smile all by myself - it involved chasing after him!  He is such a ham - quite the little character.  I'll post some video of him doing his new tricks soon.  For now, accept these besos and abrazos (hugs and kisses) from our little valentine!

So Much To Say

As you can plainly see, we have not taken the time in quite a while to post some of the latest Gator Tales. But man, oh man, there are so many things to say.

Recently, Beckham has begun to say anything and everything. Some of my favorite moments are when he goes through the family tree naming everyone with their nicknames.

I point to a picture... Mama he says with a grin. Pa-pa (he doesn't want to say the "pi" of Papi yet), Ysa... Nat Nat. He goes through them all. The best is when he wakes up and asks for Dada by name -- like the first thing on his list this morning is to see me and smile.

Then after showing off his proficiency, he'll throw in a daa-dee-daa-dee-dee-daa stream of nonsense while pretending to talk on the phone to let you know he's watching you and this is what I sound like still.

He'll say 'hola' to any person that will give him the attention and loves to announce his departure of any restaurant with 'buh-bye' to all who will notice. He's quite the social butterfly!

With so much to say, I can only pray that in time we can fill his vocabulary with words of kindness and love -- that his speech would be seasoned with grace for all who he meets.

Older photos, but appropriate.

Look Whoo's Two!

Time is passing me by faster than I can blog about it... so since I've officially missed Beckham's 1st birthday (I will get around to blogging about it one day soon; well at least before he turns two!), I'll start my forgotten and neglected blog with the celebration of Beckham's favorite little girl, Finley! 

I got a little trigger happy and took more than 200 pictures.  Needless to say, I'm going to keep it simple so that I can actually finish a blog post and not keep it in my drafts folder.  I'm sure Finley's Mommy will have all the sweet details and more on her blog if you want to check it out. 

Finley had a little owl party and every detail matched the occasion - from owl backpacks for the chairs, cookies, table cloths, centerpieces, Finley's birthday skirt and even Beckham's shirt (from Etsy)!  It was all so very sweet. 

The kids enjoyed blowing bubbles (and some eating them) on the front porch, some dinner and cake, then swinging and running around the front lawn.  JP never wants to take a family picture, but I managed to snag this special father-son moment during all the playtime.

We tried to get a picture of the four little kids - a task nearly impossible!  This isn't necessarily the best one, but the funniest indeed.  I love how K-man is hugging on Beckham.  (It's the best place to be - between two Gators!)  Javen is enjoying his sippy cup (we had to keep everyone distracted so they would actually sit still!) and Finley's expression is priceless.  I think she's ready to get away from the boys!

We were able to get some really cute pictures of Finley and Beckham.  I think I'm going to save this for the wedding slideshow!  :)

 A couple pictures of the birthday family... soon to be four!

Finley's giving her party a thumb's up!   Meanwhile, Beckham's not shy about how exhausting a birthday party can be.  My little man got to stay up late and enjoyed every minute of it! 

On a side note, I am very proud of the fact that Beckham will wear a hat!  It didn't come easily, but I was determined.  After his birthday party (where he wouldn't wear his hat), I decided I needed to try to fix this.  So on his actual birthday, I worked with him all day to keep his hat on.  I made him wear that crazy birthday hat everywhere - around the house, to the park, to lunch at Chick-fil-A, etc.  Some lessons pay off... ha!

 Happy 2nd Birthday Finley-Bear!  We love you dearly! 

DBE - Sellin' the Sizzle

WARNING
Content is intended for adult viewing only

Straight from the tabloids - making even TMZ blush:

May the female population in the Tampa Bay area under 2 years of age be warned.

Corporate Says Viewership is Down (DBE)

What better way to fix this then post a video recapping Beckham's first summer!

Enjoy!

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.