A Month (or so) in Pictures

It has been a great month, but very busy for all of us. I spent 2 weeks traveling for work and Derek has been busy getting better from the knee injury and working - yes, he accepted a position and has been working for the last few weeks.

Enough about us, the thing you really visit this site for is to find out about the little monster. Beckett has officially transitioned from baby to toddler. He is super cute - but very busy and in to EVERYTHING!

Leave your eyes off of him for a second and he will be into whatever drink or food is available. As they say, "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree" he would love to be able to down the dew. Daddy, what do you say about that?

His facial expressions are priceless. He has mastered the art of the tantrum and won't hesitate to use whatever he can to get what he wants. Here he is leveraging his cuteness - he knows that works better than the tantrum.

The whole family was invited to Jon Fozard's wedding. We tried to remind him that 15 month olds really like the sound of their own voice, especially when everyone else is quiet. Oh well, they now have Beckett recorded for posterity's sake.

Back to the mall for another ride on the carousel. This time it went much better. Beckett actually likes it now.
Early in August, we went to TX to visit family and friends. We went to dinner with Brian, Dawn and new baby Nate. He is about 20% the size of Beckett. But, he was about 200% better than Beckett at dinner.

One afternoon, we went to a Bounce House with all of the Bracken cousins. Beckett had a lot of fun. He did do his best to follow his cousins, but he is still a little small for the larger houses.

With the good comes the bad, Beckett spent the majority of the time chasing after his cousins and mimicking whatever they did. This included pulling the baby chair over to the wall to climb up and flick the light switch on and off. Yes, this was the beginning of the climbing... thanks guys!

Double trouble... Beckett was definitely interested in everything Zachary did... even time out.

Here they are - the three musketeers: Zachary, Hayden and Beckett at Gamma and Pap Pap's house. Too bad they don't get to spend more time together.

After we got home, we spent a few moments at Play it Again sports looking for a bike for Derek so he can continue re-habbing the knee. It is getting better, but he still has a little way to go. (No, this isn't the bike we got, this is what Beckett chose to ride around the store).

And, finally, we had a great evening out last weekend at the Bulls game with Leah, Joe and Alex. No picture with Wool E. this time, but maybe next time. We almost went the whole summer without going to a game. Thanks to the Houdes for the tickets.

(and, Mom, note that only one of the pics has the pacifier. We are down to only using it while sleeping. He is definitely a big boy: no bottles, no rocking before bed time, and no wake time pacifier usage.)

I guess that is it.