See ya girl hair!

Today we finally got Beckett's first hair cut. Perhaps people will stop mistaking him for a girl now. All his curls are gone and we don't know if it will come back curly or not, but at least he doesn't have side mullets or Hasidic ear locks any more.

Here is a picture of his curls I took a couple of weeks ago.

Here is the hair right before the chop.

He sat in the chair but he was too low and he hated the booster seat so I had to hold him. He also didn't want to have a towel around him so he had to go shirtless.

Bye bye womb hair.

Do I look like an executive?

Hello handsome man child.

Seeing Eye Dad

This video clip, starring Dawnell's father and our brother in law Patrick, was shown on the KUTV local news last night in Salt Lake. As you can see, Patrick is one of those special folks that we like to call "Bart's People." Seriously though, we're very proud of the courage shown by Patrick and the example of service set by Dawnell's father, a.k.a. the Seeing Eye Dad.

P.S.- Bart's People, of course, being a gratuitous Simpsons reference, as it is Patrick's favorite television show.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girly_Edition

Cracker!

Last week Beckett and I were in the pet store in the mall. He walked around looking at the animals and noticed the fish tanks. They had some on shelves that were right on the floor so he could see them really well. Then I noticed that the tops were open and of course he noticed too and wanted to stick his hands in the tank. He went to a tank with the tiny goldfish in it and started to try and stick his hand in. I pulled it away and he looked at the tank and looked back and me and yelled, "Cracker!" and clapped his hands. Indeed, they do look like your favorite crackers, but I think you'd find the taste rather disappointing.

My life just got a little easier

Thanks new maid!

Utah Trip

Mostly this will be a photo essay with short captions because the plot of any trip to Utah is, "We ate Mexican Food, we had a lot of fun with family, and Beckett did cute things."

I went to the Thanksgiving Point zoo/farm with my girlfriends and all our kids. Here's Beckett making friends with Gabriel who's a few months younger.

And here are all of us with our kids. Michelle, Dawnell, Sara and Sheryl. And yes, I know all the children's names, but I'm not going to try and tell you who's who.
Notice anything unusual about the composition of this photo? Out of 11 children 10 are boys, and Sara (blue shirt in the middle) is currently pregnant with another boy. What are the odds?

Beckett, again showing his city nature, wasn't too sure what to do with the wildlife. Even this fake cow freaked him out. You think he's hugging me because I'm his mom and he loves me. WRONG! He is terrified and attempting to leap off the cow.

He did manage to look at the goats without too much fear.

Even though the fake cow was a bust I somehow thought...perhaps he'd like a ride on a real, live, moving pony. Not so much.

Patting the horse to get to know it was alright.

But the actual riding was not a success.

I even tried to bribe him with my phone to get him to stay.

In the end he made a leap for freedom and I let him get off. We never even started moving.

He did like the carriage ride. (Photo taken by Sheryl's son Jayden, nice job.)

This is how he spent most of the afternoon. Safely ensconced in the stroller, away from grass and animals and hanging with his buddy, Gabriel.

A momentous event happened for Beckett while in Utah. He turned front facing in his car seat. We probably could have done it sooner, but I didn't read the instructions on his car seat until now.

The 24th of July was exciting as always. Chris and I are too old (or Beckett is too young) to sleep out for the parade so we had to content ourselves with a delicious BBQ and a fireworks extravaganza. My sisters and I pooled our fireworks so it was a pretty good show. Lots of the neighbors came out to watch it. Chris was the official lighter guy and my brother in law Steve provided the musical accompaniment. He's in a band, Like Spinning Plates.

The roar from our multitude of fireworks was deafening.

Here's our grand finale fireworks. It was much better in person.

The smoky aftermath.

And finally, just because it cracked me up, here's Beckett attempting to drink from a mustard bottle.

Master of the Juice Box

Thank you commenters. I hope all of you who didn't appreciate their efforts.

Except for one ill fated incident at 2:00am which sugar rushed him, Beckett has never liked juice. We've never been able to get him to drink it. This hasn't bothered me too much except that I needed to cut back his milk intake and his water drinking has been sketchy as well. I finally figured out the solution, just give it to him in the box with the straw. The straw is short enough he can work it and actually get stuff out. He loves it and now we have a different hydration option on days when water or milk just won't cut it. Plus it's really cute to watch him drink from a juice box like a little kid instead of a baby.

No new posts

I refuse to post anything new until I receive more comments on the awesomeness that was the Police concert. And I already have two posts done and saved. If you want to see more Beckett I suggest you start typing.

I guess this is their last goodbye...

And I did care. And I did cry.


Last night Chris and I went to the final concert of The Police tour, a benefit for public television.

Back in the day:

Today:

It was amazing. It was probably my favorite of the three shows we've seen.

The B-52's opened which was great. We got to dance to "My Own Private Idaho", "Roam", "Rock Lobster" and, of course, "Love Shack." And they played some stuff from their new album which I had no clue what was.

And while that was great we all couldn't wait for the "real" show to start.


When they finally came back they opened with this riff I recognized, but didn't attribute to The Police. I said to Chris, "I can play this song on guitar hero." It was "Sunshine of Your Love". It was such a fun way to start.

Then they went to Message in a Bottle with the NYPD police band.




And here's a quick clip. I couldn't take long video clips but here's a little flavor. Please try and overlook my off key singing in the background.




And we got a great "Full Monty" look from Sting. No, not that. I mean the look before the clothes come off.




Stewart has the best drummer faces ever. I think he'd broken 2-3 sticks by the end of the 4th song. He was on! Here he is with some "Ghost in the Machine" graphics.

Stewart gets this awesome percussion solo in Wrapped Around Your Finger




Here's a clip from the song. It's kind of out of focus, but you can hear the music pretty well.



Andy is also still rocking his guitar. I have hardly any pictures of him though. He never got as much camera time as Sting and Stewart and when he did it was mostly close ups of his hands playing the guitar. It seemed like every time I tried to take a picture by the time the high sensitivity setting took the picture it was back to Sting.



Here's a great riff and as Sting said, "This is the last time we're ever going to do this so let's raise the f***ing roof!"




There were so many good things like Sting bringing his daughters out on stage to dance during "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic".



Can't Stand Losing





At the end of the show Sting shaved off his tour beard. Then he came out for the encore (Purple Haze, Roxanne, King of Pain, Every Breath You Take, So Lonely) beardless and shirtless. A nice combination.







Andy and Stewart wonder when the prima donna will come back out. "We can't start the encore without him."




And here Sting is with his naked face.


Purple Haze



And here you go Taudine, So Lonely. (Sorry he didn't do "lo lo lo lo lo")




Every Breath You Take

(I couldn't get Blogger to upload this so I had to go with youtube. And evidently there are some technical difficulties. I'll make Chris fix it tonight)


After the second encore (just one song, All I Want Is To Be Next To You) to let us know that it was over they brought out the fat lady (er man in drag) to sing us a little opera solo. Then Porky Pig told us know, "That's all folks."


And in a nice end end end to the show Stewart decided to take his shirt off too as they were walking off stage. Looks like Sting isn't the only one doing yoga.

Yes, yes, it's a terrible picture, but trust me, he looked good.

Here's the BBC's "review" of the show:



Rock band The Police have performed the final concert of their reunion tour in New York's Madison Square Garden. In what is thought to have been their farewell show, frontman Sting thanked his bandmates for their "musicianship, companionship and understanding". It was the 150th show of their reunion tour which has lasted 14 months and was the top-earning tour of 2007. The band scored a string of hits in the late 1970s and early 1980s and played their first US concert in New York. The band played at the far smaller CBGB's nightclub in 1978. Sting told the crowd: "The real triumph of this tour is that we haven't strangled each other. "Not to say it hasn't crossed my mind - or Andy's or Stewart's," he added. After playing a set that included covers of Jimi Hendrix's 'Purple Haze' and 'Sunshine of Your Love' by Cream, the trio walked off stage to the cartoon signature tune, That's All, Folks. During the show, Sting removed his shirt and had his greying beard shaved off by some female stylists and was kissed by drummer Stewart Copeland. The singer was also joined on stage by three of his daughters at one point during the set, while New York City's police band also performed with the group. The tour, during which the band are estimated to have played to more than three million people, has made 0m (£181m). © BBC News