Beckett's Fish Adventure Begins

 Ok, so Beckett finally came home with some fish to fill his birthday tank.  After prepping the tank, and reading tons on how this is all supposed to work, it was time. This boy was beyond excited about his new little friends.  We went to Petsmart and he picked out four glofish, which are not really all that big, but are very active and look amazing under a black light.  He had a blue fish, orange fish, purple fish and an yellow fish.  The blue one he picked out had a missing fin and looked a little beat up.  The lady who put it in the bag asked it he was sure he wanted that one, and he assured her that he was.  He said he wanted to take it home because nobody else would want it.  I love that he said that.  It's moment's like that when I get to see what a huge and generous heart Beckett has.  And so, home we went with the new fishies.  We floated the bags and finally let them out into their new home.  After happily watching them for a while, Beckett named them all and decided to name the poor blue fish Leader, because it seemed to him that he was just that.  It was a big night for him and his new swimming pets. 

The next morning we had a sad discovery though.  Beckett called me in to his room after searching for Leader, and not finding him.  I figured he was just hiding out somewhere.  As I looked closely I saw a bit of blue underneath the filter and my heart sank.  His poor little fish that he'd rescued from the store hadn't survived the night.  We were all sad.  Beckett was the saddest of course, and we explained to him that he'd probably been towards the end of his little life already and that Beck had shown him more love and a better home than he'd ever known even if it was just for one night. 

Beckett's doing better and loves the fish so much.  He's determined to watch them and study them and take good care of them (with a whole lot of help from me).  Onward we go on this fish adventure!

Disneyland 2016

After anticipating our Cali trip for several months now, it finally came. Woot!  We had such a great time that nobody wanted to come home when it was over which was a good indicator that we had a great trip and that we needed to stay longer.

The flight out was fun...it was Dawson's first flight and Beck hadn't flown in a while (he was a little nervous and talking about it leading up to the day we left).  Dawson flew perfectly and Beck loved flying so much he didn't even play with the Kindle on the way home...something about "wanting to look at all the land forms from above."  Once we arrived, it was off to Disney ASAP.  We met up with my parents at the hotel where we  checked in, dropped off the bags and hopped onto the shuttle.  Grandma and Grandpa were a huge boon to our trip offering up baby sitting during rides, hugs, attention, love and prizes to the kids.  It was fun having them along...thanks for everything you guys!  Day 1 was fantastic.  A weekday at Disneyland in February did not disappoint.  We hit all of the big rides, some of them several times, and fast pass-ed it up as much as possible.  The weather was fantastic, and we truly had a great day.  Beck rode on everything (incl. Indiana Jones, and Space Mountain...still not a fave for this boy) this time despite being nervous.  Way to be brave buddy!  Asher loved all the crazy, fast, spinn-y rides the best.  This trip was our first try at pin trading.  Asher and Beck came with about 20 pins each and couldn't wait to start swapping with cast members.  Honestly, I think that was one of their favorite parts and we will definitely be doing it again.  Aside from losing pin backs here and there (I've ordered some stronger replacements already, haha) it was loads of fun and they both came home with some fun treasures.  Even the hotel had a board for pin trading!

Day 2 was also fantastic.  Weather, food, rides, and the kids.  All of it was great!  We hit California Adventure, which is just such a beautiful theme park and so nice and new-ish.  Again, we went on all the rides we wanted to (minus the Monsters Inc ride...we were next to board and the whole ride broke down, boo).  We loved the Cars racing ride...Grandpa bought 'Piston Cup' pins for the boys...somehow they all won their races so he just "had to."  This time the Screamin' Rollercoaster wasn't closed and we thought it was GREAT.  Beckett could not be coaxed into trying it out, but the rest of us thought it was the best. Throughout the trip we grabbed baby swap passes and they made it possible for everyone to ride attractions multiple times if they wanted to.  So fun!  Thanks for being a baby Dawson...except that I can't wait for him to experience it all next time.  Asher's fave rides were Space Mountain and Screamin', and Beck's favorites were Splash Mountain and Cars.

Parade time!

Day 3 was a Saturday so we decided to hit Disneyland again.  My sister Laurie and her family had planned their own Disney trip at the exact same time by chance (Bonus!  The boys were SO happy to see cousins.) and so we met up with them for the first half of the day. The morning was a total success and we were able to hit some great rides, but after we ate lunch, all bets were off and the crowds were horrendous.  It's the busiest I've ever seen it and I can't imagine it getting much worse, honestly.  The high that day was 80, so my best guess is that all the locals came out to enjoy the weather too.  Yikes!  We battled the hoards all afternoon and rode only a few rides...one being the monorail (Beckett's pick) which we had to wait a ridiculous amount of time for and didn't seem to be loading or unloading at all for 40 minutes.  We did get really lucky and ran into Tigger and Eeyore as they were just finding a spot for meet and greets.  Dawson was OVERJOYED by these guys.  It was the cutest thing I saw all day.  He was smiling laughing, grabbing them and really just excited as could be about it.  Our luck wasn't up yet though...we came across (drumroll....) Mickey tucked behind an area near It's a Small World and the line was maybe 10 people long.  Score!  Dawson, of course, adored Mickey too.  Cutest thing ever.  Asher had really wanted us to see Mickey so we were thrilled to be able to make that happen without waiting in an hour long line (like the one we'd passed up in Toon Town).  Corey HAD to buy Dawson some Mickey Ears complete with embroidered name on the back.  Dawson, er, tried hard to love them (see picture below).  It was hilarious, but they are so darn cute, you have to admit.  We called it a day around 5 and never looked back.  EVERYTHING had ridiculous lines.  We even tried to get ice cream on the way out and just couldn't see waiting for 45 minutes for a treat.  Nope.  In fact, the day was so busy, our new mantra will be Disney on week days only, whenever possible.  Sheesh!

D's favorite souvenir ever.

Laurie's family...on wheels:)

Day 4 we tried to go to church but the time was wrong on the website, so we ended up going to the beach to let the kids play.  Newport Pier was gorgeous.  The weather was (again) perfect. Asher loved jumping in the waves and finding shells,  Beck enjoyed finding mini clam shells, and Dawson enjoyed perusing around on all 4's (or at least his style of the crawl) in the sand and water.  That baby loves the beach and wasn't afraid of getting cold, or wet.  Miraculously, he didn't even try to eat the globs of sand he held in his fists.  It was our last bit of time with my parents before their flight, and I think they enjoyed it as much as we did.  It was gorgeous and the kids had the best time just playing in the sun and sand.  Love love the beach.  We headed back to Anaheim and decided to try out some Rosscoe's Chicken and Waffles.  Service was bad, food was good.  May or may not go back but it was fun to try it out.

Day 5 was our last day and our flight was scheduled to leave at 3:15 so we made the most of our morning by taking the kiddos to the Discovery Cube, which was a short drive from the hotel and was a great kids science museum.  It was wide open, clean, not too busy and had some great exhibits.  The kids had a good time exploring before we headed over to LAX for our flight.  While getting off of the rental car shuttle, Dawson threw up some milk, which was strange but I just figured it was a fluke.  The flight home, the boys were well behaved and well occupied.  Dawson's prior milk incident proved to NOT be a fluke after all.  The poor little fella threw up.  Two more times.  All down the front of me.  Now, although baby throw up is definitely not as bad as the big kid stuff, it did still smell and feel awful.  I put a coat over my totally disgusting clothes and wrapped Dawson up in Corey's jacket.  D was so sad and not wiggly at all.  Just sad and still.  What a heart breaker.  At that point I was ready to get home of course.  The awesome trip was over and we had a super sick baby to get home, clean up and snuggle.

Til' the next time....which I hope is really really soon!  We love our California trips so much!

P.S.  Grandma and Grandpa Pettit...the boys are really loving their custom built Light Sabers...swords are clanking, lighting up and crashing around.  The dark side is being defeated one duel at a time over here.

12 Months

Yowser!!  Shock.  That's what this is.  Writing about my 'baby' at 12 months.  The time has gone by in a blink.  He's the best thing we've had happen to our family in 6 years, and we have ALL enjoyed this little buddy.  At 12 months, the little man...

• Says "uh-oh."  All the time, seriously.  This might have something to do with his brothers repeating it over and over (and over) again, trying to get him to say it. It's pretty cute though.
• Points to where and what he wants.  This is a welcome new skill.  Communication!  Woo-hoo!
• Sleeps like a champ.  This boy sleeps through the night, every night, and doesn't wake up til around 7-7:30.  He sleeps 11-12 hours a night.  Best sleeper I've ever had!  The other two were always up so early (although I will not complain, because they slept through the night too)!
• Can make a 'kiss' sound.  Cutest thing.
• Will NOT keep his socks on.  This has been an ongoing issue, but he just won't do it.  
• Will spit things out of his mouth for me when asked!  Unbelievable.  If I'm afraid something random found it's way in, I just ask him to spit it out and he happily obliges!  (Not that anything random would EVER be on my always perfectly clean floor...wink, wink.)
• Had his first urgent care visit.  After playing in the oven drawer one day, he climbed on inside and then fell forward onto the tile. Ugh.  Awful.  He was crying and bleeding and it looked all cut up inside by his lip, so to the dr. we went.  Thankfully it was only a torn frenulum which doesn't even need stitches since the mouth heals so fast.  What a relief.  But, OH was this not fun.  Poor little buddy. 
• Adores his brothers.  And the feeling is absolutely mutual.  They have their own special club.
• Climbs onto the hearth now.  Drives me nuts.  Please, Dawson...stay on the ground!
• Is fascinated with the robins out on our back lawn every morning.  He loves to watch the 'birdies' while standing with mom on the window seat.
• Crawls up the stairs like a pro.  Daddy is his favorite enabler.  He's kept at a distance most of the day, but when daddy gets home, he points to the stairs and just knows that daddy will take him to play on the stairs. And he does, every time.

We just love, LOVE, love this little fella.  Dawson, what a fun year it's been!

Dawson's First

Dawson boy turned 1, oh yes he did!  We have been so excited about his birthday!  I just love, love, love first birthdays.  Every one of my boys 'firsts' have been so much fun!  Corey helped pick out a smash cake for me to make and we decided on Cookie Monster for Dawson.  Cookie has been one of his favorites from very early on so we thought it'd be fun and it turned out really cute.  When it came time for the big 'reveal', Dawson was excitedly eyeing and grabbing for the cake, which was a couple of feet away.  After singing to him(which he loved),  Beckett helped him blow out his candle, and we let him at it.  And waited.  And waited. We waited for him to attack that cake as only a one year old can, but he just didn't want to eat that Cookie Monster cake.  He did want to eat Cookie's cookies, but that was it.  So after grabbing the cookies and eating them he just sort of looked at the cake, then us with sort of a now what do I do with this look?  I tried and tried to get our sweet buddy to eat that yummy chocolate cake (we always do chocolate...call it a Reitz baby rite of passage) with the best ever creamy frosting (it really is so good, not like the normal sugary stuff), but he just wasn't interested. We started thinking that maybe playing with Cookie Monster is okay, but eating him was not.  Oops.  My bad, buddy!

After accepting defeat in the cake department and getting our reasonably clean faced baby down from his chair, we all watched him open and play with his new presents.  He opened some fun blocks, a shake and go car (he loves those things...except that he tries to shake every car he plays with now), and a new copy of his favorite book, The Very Lonely Firefly (he ripped the old one in half, oops).  It was a fun evening with our family.  We had a great time celebrating our most favorite little man.  Dawson, we love you more than ever and are so grateful you're a part of our family.  Happy 1st birthday buddy!  Your smiles make every day brighter.

P.S.  The next evening we gave him some leftover cake (exactly the same stuff, it just didn't resemble Cookie Monster in any way) and he LOVED  it.  The Cookie theory may be correct after all!

B Turns 7!

Happy birthday Beckett! This awesome kid of mine just turned 7.  He's getting so big and smart that it just blows me away.   We celebrated a few days early since we'll be in Disneyland over his big day, and figured that would be celebration enough, plus taking presents on a flight is huge pain!  This boy requested a blueberry cream pie for his birthday...with a smiley face on it.  He was really excited about it, and I kind of was too (funny though, since I think I made this only once before and it was several years ago!).  One thing about Beckett that's really great is how gracious he is when it comes to receiving gifts.  He loves it all and it just makes the givers feel so awesome (ie, me and Cor).  He's been wanting a fish really bad for a little while and so he'd told us he was going to buy one...which would take a very, very long time at the rate he earns money.  So, we decided that would be a great gift for him, however, we couldn't buy the fish until after our trip, so I just wrapped up everything that he'd need sans fishies.  As he opened up a net, fish food, a tank, a sunken ship, and some rocks, his response was "Wow!  I always wanted a (fill in the blank) for the fish I'm going to buy!  Too cute.  He was even thrilled with rocks.  When we told him we'd be buying fish after the trip he was ecstatic, and, oddly enough, really surprised he was getting fish to go with ALL that fish paraphernalia! He also received a microscope, which he was excited to open since he's been pining away after Asher's for a while now...he wants to examine the world now, so all things small should run and hide lest they be smooshed beneath a slide cover.  Beckett was even happy to receive new clothes (rare for 7 year old boys for sure).  He had a great birthday and it was fun celebrated our awesome boy.  Happy Birthday Beckett!  We love you buddy!