Beckham is two

Beckham turns 2 and a half this month.
...which means I am almost 29 and a half!
Slow your roll.

B has a very mild case of croup right now.
Not even enough to really "bark" but just have the 'sound' at night--
and be whiney all day.
(which makes me crazy)

God knows what he is doing.

I would have sold my soul for Beckham to be a girl...
I thought that I needed a girl...
I wanted bows and glitter and rhinestones and lace...
And a cute little bob haircut with big brown eyes...
I dreamt of the relationship we would have as adults...
and I pretended that we would skip all the stages in between.

But whining to me, is like nails on a chalkboard--
and I am thankful that my kids stay mostly well--
because I am not a great mom to a snotty nose, sack of tears-- who takes the word "hey" 3 octaves too high and 4 seconds too long, anytime Maddox touches anything that he might want to touch within a 24 hour period.
I am handing out time outs and spankings like its Halloween candy...
sick or not,
this is not for me.

For that reason alone, I was obviously meant to be a boy mom.

With that said, I really enjoy parenting Beckham overall.
Unfortunately, I think I have let life over-run my blog sometimes, and I don't think that I document Beckham's stages as well as I did Maddox's.
So I will try and catch up.

I love 2.
It might be my favorite, honestly.
So far, the even ages have been my favorites for both of my boys, actually.

Beckham is sweet, and adoring, and observant, and heedful.
He is silly and funny and happy and kind.
He worships Maddox and will tell you that he is his best friend.
He is not far from me, ever... and tells me he loves me a million times a day... with kisses and hugs and snuggles.
Beckham loves to battle with Lance, and when he says, "Go Power Rangers!", you know its on.  He is also the loudest voice yelling from the fence when Lance plays softball.

He is very cautious of others.
And while Maddox rarely met a stranger, Beckham approaches everyone with caution.

Beckham is stubborn, independent, specific, strategic, and particular.
While I can dress Maddox any way that I want, with only the occasional polite request to wear his character shirts-- there are days that Beckham will demand a Mouse shirt, cry, yell and strip his clothes off over and over and over until we are both spent or I cave.
He is the same with his shoes.
And his hats.
And the cup he drinks out of...
or plate he eats from.

While Maddox still seeks approval with everything he does, before he does it--
Beckham does it, without caring if you approve, and refuses help from anyone.

He may look like an Erwin, but he is engineer minded like my dad.
He is constantly looking into how something works, how he can take it apart, and rarely ever just sits.

B still refuses to poop in the toilet and I no longer even talk about it.
About every 2 or 3 days he will ask for a diaper, hide and do his business.
I change him, tell him that he's big enough to go poop in the potty and tell him we will try again next time.
He sleeps in underwear and hasn't had an accident either way in a very long time...
I'm letting him control this, until he realizes that he's only controlling himself.

He loves to help.
His favorite "chore" is to set the table and put ice in the cups.
We eat on plastic plates with plastic cups most nights, so B can be involved.

He talks so well.
His favorite word right now is 'actually'.
"Do you want some water Beckham?" ..."no momma.  Well, actually I do."

He loves to run and jump and play rough.

He is still obsessed with Mickey Mouse, and all of Mickey's pals too-- He loves "ho ho" (Jake the Pirate)
and loves all critters that are above his age, like "Mec-a" (Captain America), Batman, Pida-man, Power Rangers and Star Wars, --like his bubba.

He still falls perfectly into my 90/10 diagnosis that I gave him a while back... 90% of the time, he is the easiest, quietest, most observant child.  Independently playing and tending to himself.
...and 10% of the time moody, demanding, and ready to set the world on fire.

He knows his colors-- but don't ask him because he'll most likely tell you green or blue.
However, if you sit and listen to him, you can hear him separating his blocks by color-- and correctly identifying colors in his books.
He can also count to ten.
Not because I asked him to... but because he thought I ate a fruit snack and I started counting them, "one", he angrily followed, "two", I said, "three" and he kept the pattern all the way to ten.

He is brilliant because he is determined...
however, he writes his own book-- in his own time...
and there is not a thing that I can do to change that.

Beckham is so much like Lance, with has a sense of humor beyond his years.
Stubborn, slightly annoying...
yet easy to love.

Beckham is two.
And 100% boy.

I love him to the moon and back!