Thanksgiving at the Lionhood House

As we prepare for Christmas, we need to recap the last month since the baby was born and get some updates on Billy and the house guests that were in town over the Thanksgiving break. Billy is plowing head first into the infamous Terrible Twos, which is that wonderful time in every child's life when that little bundle of joy begins to develop an urge to make decisions for himself for the first time. No longer is he content to just do what you say without question. Now, an independence streak emerges. The trick here is making sure your child does what you want him to do without stunting his developing ability to make decisions for himself, which is a skill that will take decades of refining. Now, don't take this the wrong way. There is no lack of discipline in our home, and when all is said and done, what needs to be done will be done, but this is also a great opportunity. A chance to begin to truly develop your child's ability to think for himself and do so in a way that still has him doing what you're asking him to do.

The Twos. Well, they are reflected in changes in mood, attitude, indecision, conflicting feelings and emotions, emotional outbursts, and any other host of possible manifestations that can rear their ugly head. The phase begins at one a half and generally lasts until the child is about three, so Billy is just entering the Funhouse for the first time. Because of that, the battle of wills has begun and with it, a battle of psychology.

So now that we've touched on Billy's emotional development, let's take a look at some of his physical changes. He's still a relatively tall child for his age, coming in at the 75th percentile. The online calculators we use seem to predict his ultimate height will be about 6'1", so we'll see if that pans out. A.J. is also in the 75th percentile in height, so I wonder if that prediction will hold true for him, as well. Billy is noticeably stronger, sturdier, more agile on his feet, and for some time now, we've been playing a game where he walks on my back when I lay on the floor. Because of that constant need to hold himself upright on very tricky surfaces (curving back and slippery shirts), Billy's balance is exceptional for a child his age. He'll walk up and down my back without falling off for quite a while and can hold his standing position until he intentionally feels the need to jump down. At a recent birthday party for a neighbor, Billy was very nimble in the jumping jack, moving quickly from rounded slippery section to rounded slippery section, while the older kids were falling down.

From a mental aspect, he's beginning to string words together in 2-3 word short sentences or in full blown dialogue where 90% of it is clearly gibberish, even though he's fully convinced he's having a conversation and that you'll need to respond to whatever he's just said. His comprehension is exceptional, or at least it seems so. You can give him complex situations, such as "take the office chair and put it back in the office" and he'll do it without any direction beyond the verbal request. While that might not seem like much, that task requires him to steer that chair across three rooms, around obstacles, across various surfaces, and into the position it began in right in front of the desk, face forward. He does the same with his bedtime routine, understanding four to five directions when given to him at one time. Not bad at 19 months old.

We've also started working on his alphabet and Billy can repeat nearly every letter and actively identify about half of the letters when asked to point them out. We've also been working on counting to 10 both forward and backward. Part of that language development and understanding of the alphabet is Billy watching Daddy type on the keyboard. We often find him in the office with the keyboard drawer down, the keyboard slid out, and hear Billy playing with the keys like he's typing something.

The same bit of comprehension comes with our Iphones. We both have them and Billy can't put them down. At first, he was just touching anything that would move, but now, he's developed a sound understanding of how things work. He knows to hold the icons down to trigger the ability to move them around, and then how to drag them around the page. He knows how to get into his favorite games and videos, how to make a video of himself, and how to unlock the child lock on the phone that will supposedly stop him from accessing the inner workings. He's deleted several apps that Antoinette and I were certainly not trying to delete just yet.

Some other things that Billy's been into lately include his cars and trucks, most of which are pretty big and light up, taking walks with his Grandpa when they were in town, and watching Space Shuttle launches on Youtube so that he can say "BOOM!!!" over and over and over again. Never gets tired of those shuttle launches.

We also had Thanksgiving at our house as my parents came in to see the new baby and with Thanksgiving happening to straddle the time they were in town, it only made sense to have it all at my house. My cousin and her boyfriend, having recently moved here, welcomed down my other cousin and her boyfriend, so we had the four of them over to hang out with the family, watch some football, and enjoy what turned into a sizable Thanksgiving turnout. My Mom cooked the meals with the help of my cousin as Antoinette tended to the little ones and I entertained the rest of our guests.

For my parents, the trip to Jacksonville gave them an opportunity to spend some of the first moments of his life with A.J. and finally get some one on one time with Billy, something we've been trying to setup for some time, but circumstances made that nearly impossible. Before long, Billy had his Grandpa trained to take him for walks around the block and even after they left to head home, we would find Billy laying in bed with his shoes on in the morning as if the first thing on his mind was more of those great Grandpa walks.

As for A.J., Billy and the little guy get along great. Billy can get a bit aggressive with him from time to time, but that's really kept to a minimum. His minor attacks were more tests to see how the baby would react and the response was surprisingly mellow. Sometimes, A.J. would just look at him like "what was that for", but not give Billy the satisfaction of crying. Now-a-days, the extent of Billy's attacks are typically a non-stop showering of head kisses for little A.J.

The little guy seems to have learned quickly that he needs to pack on pounds to survive in this house. He's a voracious eater, packing on two full pounds by his two week doctor visit and leading the doctor to let us know that we can slow the nighttime feedings. A.J. went from the 30th percentile in weight to the 75th or so in just two weeks. On top of that, the doctor gave him a clean bill of health and asked that he come back at 8 weeks so that he can get his first shots.

Speaking of night time feedings, this kid head faked us out of the gates with 3-4 days in a row of 5-6 hours of sleep, but before long, he "regressed" back to the 2 hour windows so common with newborns. Antoinette has done wonders keeping these guys on a pretty tight schedule when they are this age to get them to sleeping through the night within a 12-13 week time frame. For A.J., we wondered if it wasn't taking. Just a week ago, at about a month old, he was still sleeping just 2 hours at a crack, but all of a sudden, in the past couple days, A.J. has been catching 4-5 hours in a row without waking. We wonder if all of Antoinette's hard work and effort are starting to finally take hold of his night time cycle. Either way, she's enjoying it when she can and keeping her fingers crossed that this is a long term change.

With his extra weight, A.J. just feels sturdier. He's no longer the skin and bone toothpick he was at birth. Now, you can move him around quite a bit more without the worry of hurting him. As the weight comes on, his face and little body are beginning to fill out and he's starting to look a lot like his Mother. He has her eyes (color too), fingers and toes, her ears, and several other minor items that we catch every now and then. He's also using that developing face to begin to smile back at Momma and Dadda, who he can finally begin to recognize. And he watches Billy like a hawk. He loves Billy's squeaks and squeals and their high pitch seems to catch his attention.

Antoinette tries to get him down for tummy time when she can, but with a one and a half year old who doesn't seem to know where his own feet are have the time, putting him on the floor was a bit dangerous. Tummy time usually takes place on Momma's chest for a nap and he's already pushing off to pick his head up regardless of where you ultimately decide to put him.

One of the best attributes about this little guy is that he very well behaved. A.J. is not a colicky baby by any stretch. Instead, he is extremely calm and only seems to really go nuts with his crying when he's hungry, tired, or needs to burp. He seems to lack that "for no reason" crying session every now and then that many babies, including Billy, seem to go through at some point. In the coming weeks, A.J. will have his first Christmas and get his first shots, which are clearly two totally different experiences.

Finally, last but never least, is a little update on Antoinette. Since the delivery 6 weeks ago, Antoinette has dropped about 25 lbs and has just 5 or so left to get back to her pre-pregnancy weight, which of course she finds very exciting. She's still operating on little to no gas due to sleep deprivation staying up with the little guy, but that's to be expected to some degree. For Antoinette, her own 6 week checkup is right around the corner and she should get a clean bill of health to return to her normal activity.

Alexander James Lionhood...

Alexander James Lionhood was born on November 14th, 2010. At birth, he weighed in at 7 lbs 3 oz and was 20.5" in length. The bulk of this blog update is going to be the story of A.J.'s birth, with a bit of Billy mixed in here and there.

About a week and a half ago, Antoinette's Mother arrived in Jacksonville for the birth of her second Grandchild. We had scheduled her to arrive on Wednesday, thinking that the baby would be born Thursday or Friday of that week, since Antoinette was scheduled to be induced at that point. Over the course of the past couple months, at various points, we thought Antoinette's date for induction was Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of that week. It wasn't until after Antoinette's Mother arrived that we were told Antoinette had been bumped yet again from the induction calendar because her induction was not technically medically necessary until she was 41 weeks along. Because of that, she got moved yet again, this time until the following Tuesday (last Tuesday).

This created a significant problem since Antoinette's Mother was set to fly out of town the very next day, which meant there was a chance she wouldn't see the new baby at all. The doctor told us that the only advice she could give was to try several different tricks that could trigger oxytocin levels to increase. That increase could cause her to go into labor naturally.

So we began. Long walks, bumpy car rides, etc. Anything we could think of that according the doctor could help get this show on the road. Sure enough, after just a couple days of trying to move things along, at about 1 AM on Sunday morning, Antoinette told me that she had a particularly strong contraction. We started the clock and about 5 minutes later, the next one hit, equally strong. By the time the 4th contraction hit, they were about 4 to 5 minutes apart and I got up and began getting the bags ready to go. On contraction #5, we called the doctor's office and awaited the call back from the on-call physician. By #6, we got that call and the doctor advised us somewhere around #7 to pack up and head to the hospital.

So about an hour after contractions had started, we were loaded up in the car, left Billy and the dog with Charlotte (Antoinette's Mother), and were on our way to the hospital. The hospital was about 30 minutes from the house, so we arrived at about 2:30 in the morning. By 3 AM we had been signed in and transferred to an Observation Room on the Maternity floor where Antoinette was hooked up to some machines and checked, coming in at 3 cm. We were told that they would come back in one hour and if she was still at 3, we would be sent home to labor at the house for awhile. The thought of this was really freaking Antoinette out because the contractions and corresponding labor pains were really hitting hard.

An hour later, at about 4 AM, the nurse came in and checked Antoinette and sure enough, she had progressed to 4 cms. The process of moving her to a main suite on the floor began and in about 3 minutes they were walking her down the hall and getting her situated in a bed. While the nurse proceeded with the blood work and IV's, they had already paged the Anesthesiologist to work his way over to our floor for the epidural, which if you ask Antoinette, couldn't get there soon enough. By 4:45 AM, he was in the room, Antoinette was prepped, and the epidural was hooked up and ready to roll. Within two contractions, all pain had subsided and Antoinette was feeling like a million bucks by 5 AM, having dealt with roughly 4 hours of some pretty intense contractions.

Shortly after, Antoinette and I closed our eyes and tried to get some rest. By 7 AM, I woke up to Antoinette letting me know that the doctor said she was at 7 cms already and that it wouldn't be much longer now. They broke her water and administered some pitosin to speed up the contractions since the little guy's heart beat was a bit erratic. About 45 minutes later, Antoinette was at 10 cms and they were inserting a heart rate monitor into the baby's scalp to get a better and more accurate read in case of distress.

By 8:25 AM, everyone was ready to go and it was time to start pushing. About 15 minutes later, at 8:40 AM, the baby was out, the cord was cut, and the process of getting him situated began. Alexander James weighed in at 7 lbs 3 oz, which was the 30th percentile for infant boys, but was 20.5" long, good enough for the 75th percentile. In other words, like his older brother, he was a long and lanky baby. Both were 20.5" at birth, but A.J. was about a half pound heavier. During his checkup, he scored an 8-9 on his Apgar, which is excellent, and his heart rate had stabilized. He was hollering from the first minute of birth, but once he was comfortably under the warmer and people had stopped yanking on him, he began to settle down. That being said, every time someone pulled this kid's diaper off for anything, he would immediately respond by both peeing and pooping on them. Sort of a natural defense mechanism or something. Hilarious.

About 45 minutes later, his prints were taken and he was handed to his Mother to have his first meal. Antoinette felt pretty good, all things being considered, and the baby was in good health according to the doctor. It was a crazy morning, but both of us were the happiest parents around. Antoinette had just given birth to our second baby boy, and this one was just as healthy as the first, so what more could two parents ask for?

Later that morning, Charlotte showed up with Billy and they both got to meet the new arrival for the first time. Billy was fairly indifferent to his brother at first. He had been practicing how to say "baby", "A.J.", and "brother" for some time and got a little practice testing them out on the new guy, but he was quickly distracted with a couple new toys that he was given to help distract him from all the attention that was being paid to A.J. A few co-workers of mine showed up to say hello and give Antoinette and the baby a present, which was very nice, and a few others were unable to make it because Antoinette and the baby had to get some rest since they hadn't been asleep since the previous night due to the late labor and delivery. Plenty of thanks to Brian, Jeana, Treasa, Carli, Heath, and Hannah, all of who were either able to drop by or who have stated that you intended on making dinner for the family so Antoinette could rest or wanted to babysit the first chance you got. Your gestures are greatly appreciated.

Late that first night, the night nurse came in and had to wake Antoinette up to feed the baby. It had been 3.5 hours and A.J. hadn't woke to feed. So we woke him and she took care of that feeding, but it made me wonder since Billy was a 2 hour on the dot kind of feeder. An hour later, the doctor had to take him again for a night checkup and I let Antoinette sleep while I accompanied her down the hall with the little guy. They weighed him and checked him out again, restocking his little bassinet with all of the items he would need. He weighed in at 6 lbs 15.8 oz, having dropped about 3-4 oz since birth, roughly 18 hours before, which was perfectly normal as newborns tend to shed water weight shortly after birth.

The following morning, Antoinette was feeling great. The baby was on his way down for his circumcision and we were talking to the doctor about an early discharge. An hour later, A.J. had completed the period of recovery and observation and was getting a once over by the pediatrician, which he passed with flying colors. We left the hospital at 10 AM on Monday morning, just 26 hours after Antoinette had given birth to the little guy.

So Monday morning we brought A.J. home to introduce him to the house and give him a more formal introduction to Billy and Hunter, as well as to allow his Grandma to spend a little more time with him. He also had a chance to watch his very first Bears game (from TIVO, since Daddy was prepared just in case Mommy went into labor), which was a stomping of the Minnesota Vikings enjoyed by all the Lionhood men. Sorry, I got distracted there for a second. Anyway...on a more important note, we quickly discovered that the night in the hospital may not have been a fluke when A.J. slept 5 hours straight on the first night, followed by 6 hours straight each of the following two nights. Our pediatrician advised us that it was OK to let him sleep even thought the hospital thought otherwise. He said if he was eating well throughout the day and eliminating on schedule, then there was no cause for concern and that the hospital was just following a strict protocol for all Mothers and babies. As of this update, he's slept for at least 5-6 hours straight 80% of the time now, so we may have lucked out in this regard, but only time will truly tell.

A.J. is a very quiet baby. He cries little, spending the bulk of his day either sleeping or sitting there with his eyes wide open trying to take everything in. He'll hang out in Mom and Dad's room until he's about 10-12 weeks old, at which point we'll try and get him transferred into his crib in the boys' room. With Billy safely transitioned to his toddler bed, the crib is just sitting empty for the time being. As for A.J.'s hearing test, that should come in early December due to some issues getting it lined up before we left the hospital, but the pediatrician said he was showing no signs of not being able to hear. In fact, if you snap your fingers next to his ears when he's crying, he'll usually stop and try and look around at what's going on, so we're fairly confident that shouldn't be a problem, but I'll update the blog when the testing is complete.

At this age, A.J. has a short, reflexive smile that he's shown a couple times so far. He has good movement of all of his arms and legs, which is a sign of good health, as well as the ability to pick his head off the ground for short intervals during his "tummy time" sessions. While his vision is limited to 12-15" in front of his face and to high contrast patterns, he's clearly interested in familiar voices and faces. You can see him staring at you when you hold him, which for any parent is a great feeling that is very hard to describe in words.

Care for A.J. is fairly limited and regimented right now. Plenty of sleep, feedings, burping, and diaper changings, as well as constant supervision around his brother and the dog. He is scheduled for fairly frequent well checks with the doctor and we have to treat his umbilical and circumcision sites for the next week or so to ensure proper healing. He is also getting a sponge bath every couple days since he can't be fully immersed in the water until these two spots are fully healed up.

Finally, to wrap up some of the newborn stuff, the baby did have that first pediatrician appointment, at which point he received a clean bill of health. He has some tiny red bumps on him, which is perfectly normal in newborns in small patches that come and go in the first weeks of life. He also had his cry checked out as he has a bit of a raspiness to his tone, but the doctor said this is just normal variation in a child's cry. Surprisingly, in just 5 days, he had already recovered his lost weight since birth and surpassed his birth weight by 3 oz, coming in a 7 lbs 6 oz and moving him from the 30th to closer to the 35th percentile in weight, so the doctor advised he is cleared to sleep as long as he wants at night. While his eye color appeared to be lighter than Billy's, even looking bluish at certain angles, a closer look under the lights seems to indicate that the little guy is going to have lighter brown eyes than Daddy and Billy, more like his Momma, to go with what now is jet black hair.

So with Alexander's birth covered in pretty significant detail, let's take a look at what's going on in his brother's life, other than having a new little buddy to share the room with. On the whole, Billy has taken to his new brother quite well. He's overly interested in sharing, which has to be monitored, since he's willing to share anything from pretzels to toys, sippy cups to hugs. So far, the only outward signs of jealousy that have appeared are the occasional tugs on your pant legs if you're holding the baby, but we've been able to mitigate those with the other parent coming to the distracting rescue. Billy's had a chance to hold A.J. while sitting in his Mother and Grandmother's lap and done quite well. He's also had a chance to touch his hands and face and gets noticeably upset when the baby begins to cry, which is typically only when it's time to eat or during diaper changes (which A.J. seems to hate).

Billy is doing very well from a developmental standpoint. He's added quite a few words to his vocabulary and certainly seems to be able to understand quite a few more concepts when you explain them to him in plain language. He can show you up to half the letters in the alphabet (including handing his brother A.J. the letter "A" because "A is for A.J."), has a rudimentary understanding of how counting anywhere from three to five works, and can even identify 5 out of the 7 continents on a map that we gave him pretty consistently when asked to point them out. Not bad for an 18 month old.

His sleeping situation has continued without a hitch for the most part, aside from a couple additional terrible twos tantrums when he wants to play and not go to bed. Those are quickly addressed. They are normal, but so is the response coming from Mom and Dad, which is that they are not tolerated when in direct response to something it is time to do. It is explained to him very clearly what is being asked of him once the tantrums begin, which we don't always expect him to understand, but when the explanation is again met with resistance, discussion is over and the ability to perform the task on your own is no longer an option. He's learning. He can read the look on your face and see just how serious you are, gauging just how far he wants to push this matter, and even trying to push it with a smile to minimize any punishment that might occur when he's caught.

Since he's been sleeping in his toddler bed, he's only fallen out one night (the bed is just 12" off the ground or so, so it's not a far fall) despite the fact that he has a guardrail on the bed. That night, I actually picked him up off the ground twice and moved him back into his bed because he's such a heavy sleeper than when he falls off, he just continues his sleep on the floor. And is he ever a squirmer. Within hours of putting him to sleep, you'll find him with the covers kicked off, upside down, pillow off the bed, and out cold in some twisted up sleeping arrangement far from the one you left him in. Sometimes that flopping around at night leads to him appearing on the floor instead. On one occasion, I actually slept on the floor next to his toddler bed and woke up in the middle of the night when he came down to the floor to sleep there next to me after he realized I was in the room (I was probably snoring or something). Apparently his bed was more comfortable because that lasted for about 20 minutes before he realized he had a bed a foot away that was calling his name and he was climbing over me to get back up there before you knew it.

Billy's Grandmother had a great time with him when she was in town. She bought him a great new gift when she was here, which was a set of bongo drums. These things have several music settings with background noise from various drum related ethnic groups from around the world, such as Native American, Japanese, African, Indian, Latin American, and Carribean. Billy seems partial to the Native American and pushes the button for them so he can start dancing around the living room. It's pretty funny to watch him. If you try and change the sound to anything else, he freaks out, runs over and changes it back, and then starts dancing again.

On a final note for this very long blog update, the boys and I are going to sit down and watch our first Ohio State football game together as a family. The little guy is decked out in his "Poop on Michigan" onsie, while Billy and I are wearing more traditional Buckeye fanfare. Sorry to all you Iowa fans, but I think today is going to be a rough one for you as my newborn son, who was gracious enough to wait until after the Penn State win last week before trying to come into this world, needs to be treated to a big Buckeye victory to start out his life. And Michigan is next. Lot of company coming into town over the next few weeks, so I'll have a whole new enormous set of pictures after those visits. Until then, enjoy the slide show when I get it posted.

Last Week as a Family of Three...

Welcome to November and a quick apology for the two month delay since the last blog update. Had some issues with the website that have prevented me from getting a new video up here. The newest videos won't have a music soundtrack attached to them due to some issue with Youtube and the record label, so until that gets sorted out, they'll seem more like a Charlie Chaplin film.

In the meantime, let's get to Billy and his soon to arrive brother. Billy's growing up so fast that it's really hard to believe. As much as this Blog is for all of you, it's just as much for Antoinette and I so we can look back and see how much he's changed over the years. Crazy to believe that just a year ago, the little guy was just rolling over and holding his head up. Today he's sporting roughly half of his teeth and just recently got his first haircut. He's climbing on things, expanding his vocabulary and his understanding of the world around him daily (he can actually say the word "alligator" using four syllables), and is definitely his Daddy's son, climbing on everything, wrestling around, and watching football.

Billy has a favorite show now. We've talked about it before, but it's actually pretty funny because he gets so excited now over it. It's not football, Elmo, Sesame Street, cartoons, or some Disney movie. Nope. None of the above. His favorite TV show is Bill O'Reilly. How funny!!! We ask him if he wants to go watch Bill O'Reilly on TV and he stops what he's doing, begins shaking his head yes, and then runs into the living room at high speed and stands right in front of the TV. Then he waits there until we turn it on and start The Factor. He immediately starts pointing at Bill when he pops up on the screen and gets upset when he shifts to the other guests. It's really hilarious.

He also seems to really enjoy his books. Of all his toys, his books are clearly his favorite. He's often rooting around in his toy boxes and pulling one toy out of after another, only to pop out from the box with a book in his hand that's about trucks or random objects. He loves to play games with those where you ask him where any number of objects are on a page that could have up to 20-30 different objects on it and let him pick out the one you ask him about. We constantly practice saying each word, but they still sound awful similar to someone who doesn't live in our house. To us, we find that we can understand the point he's getting across more often than not, even if his annunciation is a bit limited.

Since the last blog update, we've had a boatload of new adventures. For one thing, Billy is old enough to hit up the park now. We have a couple in our subdivision, each with slides and rock climbing walls, tunnels and other fun stuff for kids. Even at just 18 months, Billy is all over those suckers. He's climbing up the stairs, running across the bridges, and heading down the slides (with some assistance for that part, of course). While he was reluctant at first, when his cousins were in town, watching his big cousin Ricky do big kid things meant he certainly had to give it a shot. He seems to learn quick from watching his cousins do something he can't. That's basically how he picked up crawling, walking, and most recently, jumping off furniture. Wow...

About a month ago, we took a visit to a local restaurant down here. It's one of Antoinette and I's favorites. A quiet little oceanfront restaurant called Sliders in Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island. If you get a nice night, you can't beat it. Great breeze off the ocean with the waves and the smell of the surf just a couple hundred yards away. Outdoor patio dining with some live music next to a giant tiki bar. Food's pretty good, too. Anyway, as Billy gets older and we visit the place, he seems to dig the music more and more. One of these most recent visits in September, we had the pleasure of listening to a young lady playing the guitar and she was pretty good. So after dinner, we head over to the stage and Billy starts bouncing around in my arms. Now this kid absolutely loves to dance, so this wasn't a big shock to Antoinette and I, so we put him down. Well he ran right over to the stage and looked up at this lady who was now looking down at him, and he starts dancing up a storm. People around him from the tables to the bar are stopping what they're doing and watching this little 18 month old tapping his feet and swinging his arms to the beat. It was so funny. The girl said she was going to take a break, but for her #1 fan, she had no choice but to sing another song just for him, so off she went and Billy starting jumping all over the place. After she was done, she got a resounding round of applause from the little guy while he was getting applause of his own from the diners.

So I mentioned that Billy was learning a lot from his cousins, which was thanks to my brother and his wife deciding to take a little visit down to Jacksonville in mid October. This was just their second time visiting Jacksonville and the first time where they were going to get some really nice weather, so it really couldn't have gone any better. We had a chance to hit the beach a couple times to let the kids build sand castles and find shark's teeth, got to visit the local museum where the kids had a chance to see automated dinosaurs, play in little water tanks, and even run around in a giant tree house, and had an opportunity to go out to eat as a big family (all eight of us) to a couple of very nice waterfront restaurants to watch the sunset while we ate dinner. To top it all off, we had a chance to take them down to St. Augustine for their first time, which is always fun. We were able to stop at the Castillo San Marco so the kids could see real cannons and a three hundred year old fort, not to mention a little walk down St. George Street before heading home and calling it a week. Overall, Billy simply had a blast with his cousins, practically trying to climb out of his crib when we told him his cousins were waiting for him in the living room each morning.

Our little dancing machine had his 18 month checkup and everything looks good. He's 100% healthy, growing like a weed, and getting taller and leaner every day. He's now in the 80th percentile in height and the 45th in weight, meaning he actually lost weight since his last visit. Doc says that's perfectly normal since he's flying around like a bat out of Hell all day long. He's still eating well and healthy foods like vegetables, fruits, chicken breast, milk, water, etc. And of course there's desert every now and then with some cookies, cake, Popsicles, etc. He seems to have dropped most of his baby fat at this point, most likely from being so active, and you can see the little guy's muscles flexing in his legs when he's running around in his diaper. Getting back to Popsicles and cousins, Billy has fallen on his face while tearing around the house on multiple occasions, splitting his lip off the tile like crazy. Give that kid a Popsicle and when he's done, it's like nothing ever happened. He's back wrestling with his cousins or dancing in the living room or trying to tackle his Uncle.

In the funny story category, we decided we would take Billy, who is fascinated with airplanes, to the Air and Water Show in Jacksonville. It's a military town with a couple of very large military bases and we've been to the air show a couple times in the past, so we figured he'd really get a kick out of it. We packed up chairs, umbrellas, food, drinks, etc. Everything you could imagine. We head out to the local base and decide to setup shop at the Target right next door where we wouldn't be limited by what you can or can't bring onto a Naval Air Station. Here's a plane and there's a plane. Billy's very excited. There goes an A-10 Warthog, flying low and keeping his attention. Very exciting indeed. So I set up an umbrella for Antoinette and while I'm putting it in the ground, Billy's about 8-10 feet behind me playing with a cooler or something. To all of our dismay, there is an F-18 sitting on the runway about a quarter mile away with his engine pointed right at us while he waits to take off. BOOM!!!!!!!! That sucker opens up and starts hauling down the runway and creates a noise so loud it scared the crap out of me. I immediately turn for Billy to make sure his ears are covered and here comes this little guy running toward us scared out of his mind. Didn't know that airplanes made those kind of noises, I guess. Well, that plane looped over our head a couple times and it was way too loud so we decided to pack up and leave. We made it over to a local park and had a picnic instead where we could see the planes from a distance, occasionally looping over our heads to make another pass at the Air Base. Might have to wait a few more years before we try that again.

And then of course there was Halloween. Billy went as a Bumblebee last year, but this year, he was none other than Brian Urlacher for Halloween. We decked him out in his onsie, threw on a pair of dark blue sweat pants, and added a little eye black to complete the picture. His basket was a little football to put his candy in and he was ready to go. To finish getting ready, we threw an orange shirt on Antoinette, put some eyes and a mouth on her and turned her pregnant belly into a pumpkin, brought out a giant wheelbarrow (more for Antoinette than Billy at 9 months pregnant) and off we went. Billy went up to a few doors with the neighbor kids and didn't really know what was going on, but got scared pretty good by one of the neighbors when they came to the door in a scary outfit. Candy seemed to be a pretty good cure for what ailed him though and by the end of the night, he was back in the mix walking with Daddy door to door from then on.

The boys' room is nearly complete now. We have names mounted over the doors to their closets, added a giant Ohio State logo on the wall, hung the Ohio State pictures, ordered some additional Ohio State items to finish up the room, and bought Billy his first toddler bed, so now he can use the Ohio State blanket that his Nanny gave him. Speaking of that toddler bed, we figured we'd buy this bed for him now, get him used to looking at it and maybe reading or playing in it, and then by January, when the baby was ready to transition to the bedroom and out of the bassinet, Billy would've taken a couple naps in the toddler bed and the transition would be a much smoother one. We were wrong. Within a week of buying the toddler bed, Antoinette already had Billy taking his naps in it. Granted, he half fell out the first time we tried this, with Antoinette walking in to check on him and finding him with his legs over the side and resting on the floor with his chest and face on the bed...out cold. Anyway, he's doing much better now and while I'm typing this out, he's already sleeping in the bed for the first time tonight. That's 18 months to transition out of a crib and into a toddler bed for naps and nighttime sleeping. Excellent!!!

On a final note on Billy, his cousin (my cousin, so his cousin once removed or something like that) and her boyfriend have just moved down to Jacksonville this past weekend, so we've had them over a couple times and guess what? Billy absolutely loves his cousin. Carli seems like she never runs out of gas chasing the kid all over the place. Most people play with him for an hour at most before he wears them out, but she was still going strong after a couple hours the first night at my house. Now that we have them all moved in and just 15 minutes from us, I'm sure Billy and his brother will be excited to see them a whole lot more.

Speaking of his brother, the new baby finally has a new name. We decided on it quite a while ago, but have waited until now to break it out. The new baby's name will be Alexander James Lionhood and we'll call him A.J. I had to get this blog update in before his arrival since he'll be here before you know it with Antoinette's due date coming up on Tuesday. I'm sure the next update will be almost entirely devoted to our new arrival and his adjustment into the house, time with his Grandma who is coming to town soon, interaction with Billy, and Antoinette's overall well being, among other things.

He's obviously growing well. Last doctor visit was great, but Antoinette has barely begun the process of walking down that road to delivery. On the next visit, we'll discuss induction dates, but for now, we're just waiting him out. Like his brother Billy, he doesn't seem all that interested in leaving the current place he calls home. We've had a labor pain or two a couple times that started the clock, but they always seem to fall away without ever getting closer together.

Like all babies, A.J. has 300 bones in his body, which will likely fuse into a more compact and efficient 206 by adulthood. He's probably in the 19-20" range in height (Billy was 21.5" I want to say) and likely weighs 7-8 lbs (Billy was 6 pounds 13 ounces, I think). His pudge is starting to come in all around him to keep his little body nice and warm, which he's going to need in order to deal with a frosty Florida winter. He should have all of his parts from eyebrows to a nose, mouth to fingernails, arms and legs. It should all be in place. While his eyes are developed and fully intact, they won't exactly work correctly until he's nearly 8 weeks old, at which point he'll finally be able to focus.

Preparation for this little guy is in full swing. We have bags packed, car seats ready, action plans in place, hospital registrations complete, work schedules sorted, call trees ready, swings and bassinets built, infant clothes and diapers stocked and ready to go, etc. At this point, it's a tying up loose ends waiting game, as we count down the time until this little guy decides he's ready to be welcomed into the world.

This is the final blog update with just three of us. For the next one, we'll be a family of four. Expect that to come in the next couple weeks and be short and sweet, and more or less an explanation of A.J.'s story. Until then, enjoy this montage of pics.

It's Football Season Again...

It's football season again and this time around, Billy is old enough to sit down and watch the games with his Dad. Of course, all we really care about is Ohio State and the Bears, but we watch them all anyway. For Billy, the games are enough to keep his attention for periods of 5 minutes at a time or so, but he'll often just run into the room and say "football" when he runs up to the screen. It's pretty funny stuff.

This football season has a lot of changes for the little guy. First, we had to properly prep him for the season, so Antoinette and I spent the better part of an entire weekend creating stencils for the boys' bedroom wall to make this 13' x 7' wall mural of the field at Ohio Stadium. Pretty much everything on the field is to scale, but we left off some non-essentials like hash marks, etc. Billy loves it. He knows where his football field is if you ask him and he loves the "Block O" in the center of the 50 yard line. He can say "Oh" when you ask him what it is, and then he'll proceed to find others just like it around the room. He's also very familiar with the words Ohio State and Buckeyes and will gladly point them out to you if you ask him where they are.

The boys' room is coming along slowly but surely. It doesn't have to be 100% complete until the new baby is ready to move in there, which probably won't be until about 8-10 weeks after he's born, so likely in January or February. In the meantime, we've slowly been adding items to the room, such as Ohio State pull chains for the ceiling fan, letters spelling out the boys' names that we can paint, some matching curtains and toy bins, and a host of other items. I have some pictures of the Shoe and other OSU stuff to hang and we'll probably pick up some kind of large Ohio State logo for one of the other walls too, which are currently an Ohio State shade of gray. Let the brainwashing begin!!!

This past weekend, both the Bears and the Buckeyes played regular season games for the first time together this season. Both were winners and Billy had a chance to try on his Ohio State onsie for that game and his Brian Urlacher Chicago Bear onsie for the Bears game. Both were seemingly good luck as the Bucks beat Miami and the Bears hung on against the Lions. Billy spent the better part of the weekend watching football with Dad when we weren't off running around mowing the lawn and fixing things. Or giving him a haircut. Billy had his first haircut this weekend, in between football games. His hair is growing unevenly (heavier in the back and on the sides than in the front or on top) so we just shaved it with a 5 blade guard and it looks much better now.

Speaking of Billy, we need to cover some of the laundry list of updates since the last blog update. Billy is doing all sorts of new things now. For one, he'll feed the dog. It's the first chore that he's been asked to do and he loves it. If you tell him to go feed Hunter, he'll run into the laundry room (supervised from a distance), flip the lid off the dog food container, go get Hunter's bowl, set it on the ground, and then proceed to get scoop after scoop (anywhere from 2-15 kernels of dog food at a time) until I tell him that's enough. Then he'll put the bowl back in the holder for Hunter, close the dog food container, and push it back where it goes. Finally, he'll "test" the water bowl for water by putting his hand in it. If it's empty, he'll bring it to me in the kitchen to refill. Very funny stuff. He's watched Dad do this twice a day everyday, but one day, we just caught him doing it on his own. So now we let him do it.

Billy's personal vocabulary is expanding, too. He now knows all of the colors (he can point them out to you), several letters (can pick them out when all are present), and several new words (such as "football"). He can also feed himself with a spoon properly now, which was a challenge to teach, but he's finally coming around. He understands basic commands now. For instance, you can tell him to go close the curtains without pointing them out and he'll know what you're referring to and go close them (you need to follow behind and actually close them right). The same can be said for getting his milk, going to get or find a bunch of different objects, identifying a particular toy by name only, locating objects in other rooms by memory, etc. He can also tell you where his baby brother is by rubbing Mamma's belly (not bad for a 16 month old) and remember the thunderstorm that occurred earlier in the day when he's talking to you hours later and after a nap. And he's adding new teeth, with what looks like a half dozen coming in, one of which has broke the surface, giving him just 5 teeth now.

Some other physical developments are learning about clothing. He now knows what pants, a shirt, a belt, socks, shoes, a tie and various other clothing objects are by name and will happily point them out to you. He unloads the dishwasher with Mom and will go and put Tupperware, pots and pans, and even some mixing bowls in their proper cupboards (about all he can reach). He loves playing basketball in his room and he'll play it with you for up to about 15-30 minutes before bed depending on how distracted he is. He'll even look for the rebound anticipating your shot, which is pretty neat. He has a new game with the dog, too. He grabs the dog's chew toy and then runs around the house laughing while the dog follows close behind waiting for him to drop it. If the dog gives up, he'll run up and offer it again before running away laughing with the dog in hot pursuit.

Between the last and this blog update, we also had Antoinette's Mother Charlotte in to visit again. While I was out of town for a weekend, she was able to come to town and stay with Antoinette, which gave her a great opportunity to spend with little Billy for nearly a week. They had a host of things planned and spent the afternoon at the beach one day, where Charlotte learned just how independent this kid had become as he ran the both of them ragged all over the beach. They had a chance to take him to the zoo so he could actually feed the giraffes himself for the first time instead of just watching or having Mom and Dad feed them. And they also took a visit to the local park in the subdivision where Billy refused to get on any of the equipment, choosing instead to just run around everything screaming and giggling at the top of his lungs.

She even had a chance to see Billy dance. Now when I say dance, I mean dance. He's hilarious and actually has a little rhythm. He needs to be on the dance floor though, so when the music starts, he drops what he's doing and runs full speed to the tile mosaic in our foyer. From that specific location (the dance floor), he starts going nuts. His legs move 1,000 MPH, he taps his feet on the ground, turns in circles, moves his hands, and even does a little shimmy. He'll dance to anything that has a beat, including Antoinette and I singing to him or Sesame Street coming on (my kid, like many before him, is obsessed with Elmo). He went ballistic when Michael Jackson's This Is It came on the cable channel and now he seems to prefer MJ songs over other songs.

Speaking of visitors, the visitor schedule is starting to fill up again. Antoinette's Mother was just in town a couple weeks ago. My Dad was supposed to come in this past weekend, but something came up that forced us to alter the plans. I have my cousin's boyfriend in town for a job interview in Jacksonville for the weekend next. After that, my brother and his wife and kids are planning a trip prior to the baby being born while my parents and Antoinette's Mother are planning trips after he arrives.

With all of this talk about Billy, we can't forget his little brother that is on the way. Antoinette's doctor visits have been going well. The Baby and Mom appear to be perfectly healthy. No signs of any major issues at this point other than Antoinette dealing with a level of exhaustion that she hasn't had to in the past. Chasing little Billy around, especially after working a night shift, can be extremely difficult.

As for the new baby, he's developing right on track. Antoinette is coming up on 32 weeks pregnant now, which means she's about to enter her 8th month. The baby is approaching a foot and a half long and weighs in at a hefty 3.5 lbs. or so now. He has control of his head in terms of turning it from side to side and is starting to pack on baby fat on his arms, legs, belly, etc. He's moving like crazy in what amounts to about a pint and a half of amniotic fluid, decreasing in proportion to the weight that the baby is increasing. Also, his eye sight is improving, but if he were born today, his vision would be limited to 20/400 at best.

Muscle and lung development are right on schedule and his brain is exploding in neuron development. Meanwhile the baby is sucking up calcium from Antoinette's body like there's if he doesn't get it now, we won't have any. Eye lashes have developed and the baby's hiccups are in full swing now. The baby is due in less than two months, so the next blog could be the last entry before his arrival. I will get out updates on both as soon as I can.

Fireworks!!!

This entry is a little late, but even though I'm posting it nearly a week into August, it's really the July post. July was a pretty busy month for all of us, and also a month of firsts for the little guy, as well as for his little brother. First, we begin with some general updates on Billy's continuing development.

Billy's communication skills experienced a major breakthrough this month. For the first time, he's begun pointing at everything, letting you know what he wants, where things go, what he's looking for, and how he's feeling. It has become so much easier to understand what's going on in his head since this very simple development occurred. When he falls down and gets hurt, he's able to point at what hurts, and also at what happened that caused him to get hurt. That allows us to show him what happened, explain it to him to hopefully prevent it from happening again, and to watch him seem to really understand the point we're trying to get a across to him.

His language skills are continuing at a gradual pace. He continues to add words to his vocabulary, like Elmo and elbow, is beginning to get back to saying Mama, can make the sounds of several animals from growling like a lion, mooing like a cow, or making sheep noises. He's also trying out the first sound in each word when you read to him. Show him a helicopter and say the word and if he's really paying attention, he'll start saying "hhh". "Hhhheee". Basically just the first sound of animals and objects he's looking at.

Billy's physical development is continuing as well. He can climb in and out of the adult sized chairs on the patio or on or off the couch in the living room. He's able to run quite well now and chooses to do so whenever there's something that he really wants, such as his milk or to give Momma a kiss goodnight. He can cross his fingers now and he's also begun to steer the objects that he pushes, such as his little seated cart, or a laundry basket with wheels. He understands that he can go in reverse, redirect a cart that is being pushed into a wall or object to keep it going, and flip these objects properly onto their wheels to get them moving. He's also begun shaking his head "yes" when you ask him if he wants something. He hasn't learned "no" yet, but he will just stare at you if he doesn't want what you just asked him. He's also started doing "tricks", which amount to basically trying to get on all fours and then lifting one leg up, or putting his head into the carpet like he's about to do a somersault.

Mentally, he's continuing to grasp quite a few new concepts. The little plastic ball he has with nearly a dozen color coded and cut out shapes on it isn't much of a problem for him anymore. He's able to get pretty much all of his shapes into the ball each time with minimal assistance (spinning the ball for him to find the proper opening). He tries to handle the mouse when he and I watch Youtube clips, which to me is the best way to teach him about animals and objects. Show him the animal or object in action. He'll watch Youtube clips for a good solid hour straight. He also started coloring with new washable crayons that his Mother gave him.

Another interesting thing about Billy is that I continue to include him in nearly everything I do when I'm home with him. If I'm doing it, then my 15 month old son is doing it with me. If we let the dog out of his kennel, Billy can do it. He runs in, unlatches the top and bottom locks, and opens the gate door so the dog can pop out. Or he can let the dog out by helping me take care of the security features at the house and then opening the sliding glass door. He also feeds the dog by getting his empty bowl, opening the dog food, scooping the food (with assistance), returning it to the dog, getting the dog's water, and getting it all put back where it goes. He gets himself milk when he's thirsty with minimal assistance from Dad. He runs to the kitchen, opens the fridge (needs a bit of assistance for that part from me), points to his milk he wants down, gets his cup to pour the milk in, unscrews the cap on the milk and his sippy cup, then drags the milk back to the fridge so I can put it away.

At nighttime, he's mastered his routine. He'll get his own toothbrush, then brush himself (after I do the serious part first), then he turns on his night light and his fan, gets his fresh diaper so I can change it for him, opens the closet and the dresser and gets out his new fresh pajamas so I can get him into the them, turns on his "Stars and Moon" projected lights to get this all over his ceiling at night, and then goes right to bed after we practice naming our ears, eyes, nose, teeth, hair, etc. He's know most of the general body parts from his hair to his toes. Then he gets his teddy bear, a kiss goodnight, the light turned off for him, he gets asked where "daddy" is (which he always gets right), and then we leave the room and he goes right to sleep. The trick for Billy was routine. Within 5-7 days, you can get him into a just about any kind of a routine you want and it makes life a whole lot easier.

Billy had a chance to make it to his first two sporting events this month, too. We made it to a Minor League baseball game and an Arena League football game, both for work related functions, but for Billy, they were much, much more. I think the football game had a much larger impact on him. The sounds and the crowd and the cheering and fan costumes (Halloween in July night) was so exciting for him that he pretty much just sat there quietly eating and drinking and taking it all in until halftime. At the baseball game, we spent the bulk of the time on the party deck with a bunch of my co-workers and their families, so Billy wasn't really paying attention to what was going on around us as far as the game was concerned. Either way, both were new experiences for him. If possible, I'm going to try and get him to an NFL game this year, but we'll see how the season plays out.

Billy just had his 15 month checkup and everything went great. He weighed in at about 24 lbs and 32" in length, which was good enough for the 50th percentile in weight and the 75th percentile in height. Billy still has a lean appearance with minimal baby fat on him, but the doctor says that he's doing great from a health standpoint. His early stage walking and pretty healthy diet are likely contributing to his lean appearance.

From a dietary standpoint, Billy is getting plenty of whole milk, has been off of a bottle now for a couple months, gets a well balanced diet which pretty much consists of whatever Mom and Dad are eating cut into tiny pieces, and also drinks plenty of water, which is vital in these triple digit temps we have been experiencing for the past month. We are still avoiding peanuts, hot dogs, popcorn, and raw carrots, but do cheat a bit with the grapes and raw apples (which we cut into the tiniest possible pieces without the skins to avoid choking).

Billy got a couple additional shots while he was in there, which he handled quite well, although he did develop a little fever for the first time after a set of shots, but it didn't last very long. His next doctor visit won't be until he's 18 months old, which should be in late October, right about the time that his little brother is due to be arriving into our lives.

Speaking of the new little one, there is much to discuss. The little guy is growing like a weed in there, while on the outside, his Mother and I are beginning to finalize some of the groundwork for his arrival. Potential names have narrowed to a single choice and then a couple backups, but we're not 100% just yet, so that name will sit in limbo for the time being. Once we've confirmed, we'll be happy to share it, but right now, only a couple people know what we're leaning toward. But preparation goes well beyond that. We are also planning on adding a dual stroller, eventually a toddler bed for Billy, possibly upgrading a car seat, and making some wholesale changes to the boys room (my favorite part).

After some intense debate, we've decided (ahem!) that it is in the best interest of the boys to immediately tear apart their jungle themed room and replace it with a more fitting Ohio State Buckeye themed room, complete with a hand made Ohio State quilt and pillow from their Nanny, numerous flags and footballs, a lamp, various pictures and Ohio State mirrors, and to top it all off, their main wall is to be painted to look like the field of Ohio Stadium, complete with the 50 yard line "O" and "Ohio State" in one End Zone opposite "Buckeyes" in the other. I will include photos of this project as it gets under way, but with the new baby likely staying in the bedroom with Antoinette and I for the first 8-12 weeks, there really isn't much of a rush since he won't join his brother in their bedroom until sometime after New Year's, probably closer to February of 2011.

Back to the new baby. At this point, which is 26 weeks along (nearly 6 months pregnant), he's about 9" long from crown to rump and tips the scales at a whopping two pounds. At this stage, it is common to begin experiencing pain under the ribs as the baby begins to really fill up his home now. With a what is nearly a completely developed set of eyes, he begins to open his eyelids once again. The eyes are some shade of blue as the pigment will not completely take its final color until several weeks or even a month after birth. The baby is quite lean and will gradually begin to pack on the pounds from here on out with very important baby fat. His finger and toenails have begun to grow and blood has begun surging through the developing blood vessels in the lungs. The placenta and the baby are of nearly equal size as the umbilical continues to slam blood into the baby's body with incredible force. Survival rate in case of a early delivery at this point is 70% in a hospital setting, although several months in the hospital's care would likely be required.

Antoinette's uterus should be exceeding the size of a soccer ball at this point. The baby's fingers are becoming more capable and he is now able to ball his hands up into little fists. His ears have worked themselves into the proper location, hair has begun to grow on his head, his eyebrows are fully developed, his body is covered in the very fine lanugo hair and his skin coated in a waxy substance called vernix. He is constantly inhaling and exhaling amniotic fluid as he prepares those developing lungs for his first breath in the outside world. His bones, muscles, and organs are continuing to grow at a steady pace and both Antoinette and I can feel the heavy kicks and movement inside her belly.

The pictures from this week begin with the final shots from the Washington D.C. trip, followed by some pictures of the 4th of July in St. Augustine, and the sporting events of the past month that we were able to attend. Hope you enjoy them all.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjChXYscVsM

Big News in Washington...

I know I'm late on the blog entry this time around, so this one is going to be massive!!! Lots of good stuff going on, so let's start from the top with our long awaited trip to the Nation's Capitol, Washington D.C.

I have a buddy who lives in Washington in a perfect location for visiting the City. He's about a block away from a Metro station and that station will take you just about everywhere you want to go when you're in town. You can see Arlington National Cemetery, the Pentagon, the White House, and just about anything you want to see on the National Mall. So we drove up to D.C. after making a pretty aggressive itinerary to tour the city. For Antoinette and I, it was our first time in Washington, so there was so much to see.

Our first stop in Washington on Day 1 was the Holocaust Museum. Wow. Talk about an eye opening experience. From the moment you take the elevator to the top floor and the door's open, the entire museum is basically silent. The walls are filled with historical items from uniforms to writing desks to propaganda, TV monitors running propaganda videos, flags from that particular era, etc. As you make your way through the museum, you are surrounded by images and actual items from that period. Walk through box car trains that carried people to their death, see discarded shoes and luggage from those who thought they were being relocated, etc. The museum is well worth the wait because it can change your life forever. Billy slept through the bulk of this museum until we made it out to the memorial flame at the end of the exhibits, which was probably a good thing. We expected that museum to touch a nerve, so we scheduled it early and timed it up around Billy's nap.

The next stop on Day 1 was a trip to the Washington Monument as we crossed the Mall. Of course we took what seemed like hundreds of pictures of the Monument from all over Washington, so you'll see plenty as we run through the pictures. The temps while we were in Washington were in the mid 90's with a constant heat index approaching 100 degrees just about every day. With Antoinette being pregnant with #2 and all of the walking we had planned, we stopped frequently. Our first stop was on the lawn in front of the Monument. With little concern for fire ants, off came Billy's shoes and we let him run around in the grass all over the place. Took some great pics of him with the Monument in the background.

Once we were ready to move on, we loaded up and were off in the direction of the Museum of American History for a couple hours taking in everything from trains and planes to the Ruby Slippers worn by Judy Garland in the Wizard Oz. Billy even got to sneak a peak at the original Kermit the Frog and for us older folks, we had a chance to see the massive American Flag that inspired the writing of the Star Spangled Banner. Due to its fragile state, no flash photography was allowed for that part though. At this point, Antoinette had enough when came to the walking part as lunchtime was approaching, Billy was fussing, and Paul and I were just wrapping up the last section of the Museum. From there, we were off to the International Trade Building and their very expansive eatery for a bit to eat. It was also time to take a well needed rest before we took off and made our way about 3/4 of a mile to the west side of the National Mall.

For both of us, this next part of the trip was likely to be one of the most memorable. We began our trek to the far western end of the Mall by making our way to the Washington Monument and then heading down the middle of the Mall. Before long, we arrived at the World War II Monument, which is basically a massive fountain complex that you can take your shoes off and dip them in the water while you rest for the next lengthy section of walking. Even though the WWII Monument was not on our primary list, it was pretty impressive and wound up being one of the more interesting parts of our trip. Before long though, we had to be on our way as something special was waiting for us at the other end.

On we walked along the Reflecting Pool edge until we made it to the Lincoln Memorial. But it wasn't time to visit the Memorial quite yet. First, we had to make a stop at the top of the little hill just to the north in order to see the Vietnam Memorial. This famous wall stretches hundreds of feet and has the names of the soldiers who died during that war etched into it. We took dozens of pictures here and many are fantastic photos of Billy standing at the wall and looking at the names written there. After spending about 30-40 minutes at the wall, we had to double back to the Lincoln Memorial for the highlight of our evening.

We arrived at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial where we took dozens more pictures of everything from the front steps to the view from the top looking out over the reflecting pool with the Capitol and the Washington Monument in the background. Once inside, we took the elevator to the top and took quite a few photos of the massive statue of the seated Abraham Lincoln. When we were ready and we were as close to a Washington sunset as we could get, Antoinette and I walked to the very edge of the Memorial and took a seat. We put Billy in our laps and handed the camera to our friend. Then we pulled out the envelope given to us by our doctor before we left and prepared to find out once and for all the gender of the baby we are about to have in November. Antoinette opened up the envelope and we found out we are having a...

...BOY!!!!!!!!!! That's right. Antoinette and I are having another baby boy this Fall. A baby brother for Billy. We were absolutely elated and immediately the discussion about names began. That's going to be quite a process. We had narrowed a list of girl names down to about 10, but boy names we were not prepared for. Even when we arrived home from Washington and went for a walk with a list of 500 popular boys names, we were hard pressed to pick three that we liked the sound of. So Baby #2 will be a boy, but his name is yet to be determined. "It" has become a "he" and "him". And the moment has been captured on camera forever in a place that Antoinette and I will never forget.

Having saved the best for last on Day 1, we spent the rest of the day heading back to Paul's apartment making phone calls and sending text messages along the way. We sent as many as we could before we had to get on the train and then we figured the rest could find out with this blog posting. Off to bed as Day 2 would have an early start.

To start Day 2, we took Billy on a morning tour of the Capitol Building. Due to restrictions at the White House regarding strollers and baby bottles, we felt the Capitol Building was a little more conducive for babies. The tour was outstanding. Once inside, the Capitol Dome Rotunda was immense. The tour led us into some of the older chambers of the building including a quick peak into the old US Supreme Court chambers in the building, and several other quality photo op locations. We let Billy run around in there once we were away from the tour and were able to take some great pictures of him on the lawn and in front of the Capitol.

After lunch, we were back on Capitol Hill for a stop at the US Supreme Court. The Court was closed that day, but we were able to wander about the outside of the building with minimal interruption. This was another great opportunity for Billy to run around on the steps of the Supreme Court, check out the fountains, the massive pillars, and even the massive wooden door that leads into the building. Billy also needed a diaper change at the courthouse, so a nice shady area next to one of the fountains proved to be an ideal location for a quick swap of Huggies. Now, how many babies can grow up to say they had a full diaper changed on the steps of the US Supreme Court? Seriously.

The next two stops were quick ones. We were able to visit the Library of Congress, which is absolutely amazing inside, but the areas you are allowed in and that you can see up close and personal are limited. So without staying long, we ducked over to the Museum of Natural History. Absolutely the worst stop on the entire trip. This Museum was so packed and claustrophobic with hordes of people that it seemed like the entire place was shoulder to shoulder everywhere you turned. We wandered through a couple of the exhibits, but eventually the massive crowds and the long day of walking got to us and we decided to head upstairs to see the Hope Diamond and then get the hell out of there. We all agreed that we'd rather be outside in the stifling heat than inside and crammed together with all of those people.

With some extra time to kill, we tried to get over to the National Archives to see if we could take that off the list, but when we arrived, the lines were spilling out the door and halfway down the block. So instead, we took a few pics of the outside of the building (cameras are not allowed inside anyway), and then decided to get back to Paul's apartment, stopping for dinner along the way, and then just watch a movie until we all passed out. As was the case with the end of Day 1, we had to get to bed early on Day 2 due to a very busy Day 3 that was scheduled.

Day 3 had some early morning adjustments and pretty much started out where Day 2 left off, which was standing at the front doors of the National Archives waiting for it to open. What a difference a day made, as we were basically one of the first ten people in line. Once in and through some crazy security screening, we were able to enter the main rotunda and get our shot to take a peak at the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution of the United States. There were several other documents on display, but these three were the home runs of the Archives.

After the National Archives, we wrapped up our tour of the National Mall with a visit to the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum. Probably my favorite of all of the museums on the Mall. This museum was Billy's favorite also. We walked through countless exhibits with all sorts of planes from the Wright Flyer to the cockpit of a 747. There were Apollo Moon Landers and ICBMs capable of carrying nuclear warheads that were the size of a six or seven story building. Planes hung from the ceiling from every period of flight up to and including the new military UAV's, a host of simulators to ride in, and a room full of high definition photos of nearly every planet in the solar system. By far the most interesting and the most entertaining of all of the museums. Billy also learned a new word here. "Airplane", which sits comfortably behind "Dada" and "Mama" as his third favorite word to date, was a fixture in the Air and Space. And while waiting to get a chance to walk through Skylab, Billy's photo was taken by no less than twelve teenage girls who intended on putting his pictures on MySpace and Facebook pages. That's my boy!!! Making friends early and all he was doing was waiving and practicing the word "hi" over and over and over and over again.

After leaving the museum, we jumped on a Metro over to the White House and dodged a few raindrops from a heavy downpour that forced us under a small building on the White House grounds. Once it let up, we were able to make our way around the White House with pictures of the family garden and the front gates and fountains. Unfortunately, those pictures were taken in between additional heavy downpours, so there are pretty thick rainclouds over the White House for nearly every one of those pictures.

The second half of Day 3 took us on a Metro ride out to Arlington National Cemetery where we had an opportunity to walk through the seemingly endless well manicured grounds that are the final resting place of some of the greatest heroes our country has ever seen. We took a walk up to the JFK Eternal Flame and topped the entire visit off with a chance to see the Changing of the Guard, which was absolutely fascinating. The marble monument behind was incredible. Basically a giant arena made out of white stone with what appears to be a single throne situated right at the front facing the crowd.

The final stop of our visit was the rooftop of Paul's apartment where the views from the 17th floor of the Capitol Building, the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Pentagon were breathtaking at night. Luckily we had a great night to enjoy it all and pack our stuff up for a morning departure. During the trip to Washington, we took nearly 500 photos with our new camera, so hopefully the images will turn our better with our 14 megapixel camera vs. the 4 megapixels in the last camera. Since this trip, we've probably taken another hundred or so, which means I have about 600 pictures to get on here. I'll probably break them up into groups of 300 or 350, so you won't see all of the Washington pics this week. You'll get a bunch more in the next blog update in a month, that should also have Father's Day pics and 4th of July pics.

On Father's Day, we had a chance to take Billy to the zoo. As he gets bigger, each visit to the zoo seems to have him more and more engaged than the previous visit. He had a chance to see the stingrays swim in an interactive tank and to once again get within a couple feet of a giant giraffe head. Then we walked down to the gorilla enclosure where they have gigantic panel windows separating you from the silverback. Billy was able to walk right up to the giant ape and touch the glass. Unfortunately, some rather "rural" fella showed up with his wife and began banging on his chest like Tarzan. You could tell the gorilla was getting irritated as it glared at him out of the corner of its eye. Then in one quick move, it slammed its fist off of the plexiglass partition and took off running into the enclosed area. Scared the hell out of all of us, since we were about two feet away when he did it. Before we left the area, this interesting fella was at the other end of the enclosure Tarzanning it up over there. The gorilla gradually made his way over, slowly narrowing the gap between him and the guy, and then in one quick flurry, he raised his fists and ran on two legs the last 10-15 feet and slammed both fists right at the spot where that guy's face was and then took off into the enclosure again. Crazy to see just how fast and explosive a 400-500 lbs gorilla can be. Especially when you can just see that he's basically made out of solid muscle, but Billy loved it.

The 4th of July holiday weekend meant our buddy Paul was going to return the favor and come visit us for a couple days. We spent the first day at the pool and then Antoinette and I took Paul and Billy down to an oceanfront restaurant where we had a chance to get over the beach. Saturday was another trip to the beach during the day, and the beach we went to was pretty secluded. That meant we were able to just let Billy walk around and pick up seashells (never more than about 20 feet from us). We also spent the day building sand castles with the little guy so he could smash them and occasionally sit on them. Saturday night had us running up to a local fort on one of the islands down here where we they have a candlelight walk through. If you like history, this is right up your alley. People in era appropriate attire are spread throughout this fort that is lit up only with candlelight. You wander around in there and they talk to you about what life was like there over 150 years ago. Billy had a chance to touch some cannons and wander around in some pretty old barracks.

On Sunday, we marched down to St. Augustine and spent the day wandering around the Castillo de San Marco, a nearly 300 year old completely intact fort right on the bay, followed by some quality walking up and down the St. George street, bouncing in and out of some of the local shops. Later that evening, we were back at the fort to set up our blanket right at the base of this stone monument, which is made out of a compact seashell material known as coquina stone. From there, the fireworks are lit off right over the bay from a barge about 300 yards out in front of you. It is quite an amazing show and for little Billy, it was his first ever, since at about 2 months old, he was too little last year to go see fireworks. When they went off, we weren't really sure how he was going to handle them, but he just leaned back against my chest and stared at them mesmerized while I covered his ears occasionally for the really loud ones (you sit pretty close to the action and the concussions are enough to allow you to feel them deep in your chest).

On Monday morning, Paul's last day in town, we were back up at the pool for a late morning swim. This was the first time I had a chance to take Billy into the pool myself this year and he loved it. We were practicing swimming (basically holding him out while he kicks his feet) and before we left, we even got an arm to paddle at the water. One thing is certain about this kid. He sure loves the water. Something we're going to have to keep an eye on now that he's mobile. He even took a little jump off the ledge of the pool into his Mother's waiting arms. That's impressive to me since he's only 14 months old right now. Daddy's little fearless tough guy.

Since we're going a little long with this blog update, I'm going to run through some of the latest changes we've seen in Billy since the last blog update. I'll probably get into a bit more detail with them in the next blog entry. Billy is physically getting stronger and it's quite noticeable. He's starting to climb on things, beginning to run, and even giving jumping a try. His language skills are still developing, but so far the one word he has down pat is "Dada". Of course he knows "Mama", "Airplane", "Baba", "Hi", "Bye Bye", and several others that seem like only his Mother and I can make out. His understanding of body parts is also improving. He can point to his nose, eyes, ears, tongue, teeth, hair, belly, feet, toes, and belly button. He is beginning to learn how to dress himself. He tries to put his shoes on and take them off when we get home. He tries to put his hat one, puts his legs in his pajamas and shorts, and puts his arms in all of his shirts once you pull them over his head. We're still not sure if he's right handed or left handed, because he is still using both equally the same. He throws things with both hands and started drawing with crayons, also using both hands for that, too. There are improved dancing skills and he has now incorporated some sort of running in place into his dance routine when you play any song with any sort of a catchy beat. And lastly for Billy, his comprehension is continuing to increase weekly. He brushes his own hair (and yours), his own teeth (when you wet the brush and hand it to him), and uses a spoon when you give him a scoopful of anything. He even used the potty for the first time this past month, although he didn't like it and was not very pleased about the situation. We have yet been able to get him to duplicate that one. His ability to understand you shows that his vocabulary in terms of words and phrases he understands is probably about 50-75 words. Everything from going out to getting shoes, getting in his high chair to putting his bottle on the table, letting the dog out of his kennel to picking things up and relocating them where he's told to, all just by being told are all examples of ways in which you can tell that he's picking up what you're saying.

As for Antoinette and #2, who is yet to have a name other than being able to call him "he" and "him" instead of "it" and "baby", there are tons of updates. The last ultrasound we went to since we came back from Washington went great. The doctor said that he's growing like a weed in there. Heart beat and all tests are perfect. Baby is definitely a boy after the second set of confirmation images on the ultrasound. The little guy's soft cartilage is beginning to turn into bone and his umbilical cord is now thicker and stronger. He can move his joints and his sweat glands have begun to develop. The increased muscle tissue in the arms and legs are allowing him to flex them repeatedly and his boy parts are readily apparent (as used to determine his gender on the ultrasound). The hairs on his scalp are sprouting and sensory development is in overdrive. The brain is partitioning off areas for smell, taste, hearing, vision, and touch. He can also hear his Momma's voice now, too. He's beginning to swallow more, as practice for the development of his digestive system, and that more well developed system has begun producing meconium. Antoinette feels the little guy kicking on a regular basis and I can clearly feel him through her belly now, too. His eyebrows and eyelids are present, and his lips are becoming more distinct. His tiny little tooth buds have begun to develop in the gums and his eyes have formed, even though the irises still lack pigment. His body is covered in fine hair called lanugo and his skin is mostly wrinkled. His pancreas is beginning to kick in the production of important hormones. At this point, the baby is nearly a foot long and weighs in at just over a pound, and Antoinette has zoomed past the halfway point in this pregnancy.

We'll cover a bunch more of this in detail on the next entry, so for now, just enjoy the pictures coming shortly.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kDWyr7O1pM

One Year Checkup...

It's been a long time since the last blog update, but we were waiting on something that we'll get to a little later in the update. For now, we start with Billy's One Year Checkup. His next checkup won't be for another two or three months. Billy measured out at 31" and weighed in at about 22.5 lbs. That equates out to the 70th percentile in length and the 50th percentile in weight. So he's still a little tall for his age at this point. He also had another round of shots on this visit, which needless to say, he was none too pleased about.

On the diet front, Billy's diet now includes cow's milk with all of the fats that come with it for adequate brain development. He'll need to be on whole milk until at least age 2. Juice is only for snacks and since he doesn't really seem to like juice very much, we primarily stick to milk and water for him. He does love ice water from a sipper cup though. Speaking of sipper cups, we wanted him off a bottle at one year, so we bought him these sipper cups that have straws out of the top of them. Work wonders. He seems to struggle with the idea of tipping the cup to get what's in it out of it, so the straw cups have become ideal and give us more time to get him used to the sipper cups, while at the same time, completely eliminating the bottle, which Billy is off at this point. He's also improved his skill with a spoon. Not quite able to get the food on the spoon, but if you help him with that part, he's good to go on getting it to his mouth with relative success.

Billy's down to three meals a day with a snack or two in between, and a pair of evenly spaced naps. He pretty much just eats what we eat, like chicken breast, vegetables, fruit, etc. With only four teeth still, he's still getting his food cut into relatively small and manageable pieces. We still avoid the serious allergenic foods like peanut butter and shellfish, and also the choking hazard foods like hot dogs, popcorn, grapes, raw carrots, and raw apples. The grapes and apples need to be cut into tiny pieces, not just small ones, if we give him those to eat.

When it comes to physical development, we are constantly seeing changes. Billy has been able to stand himself up in the middle of the room since just after the last update, so for the past month, he's graduated to walking 100% of the time. The only time he crawls is if there's a problem with his shoes. He's even started running to some degree, but that is still pure danger since he's crashing into everything, including the floor. Boys will be boys, I guess. Also, when he's walking, he's dropped his arms to his side, showing much better balance. Gone are the arms out zombie walks. He's tested out his ability to climb, but other than climbing over the dog and over Mom and Dad, he's really not had much luck with it. Doesn't mean he's not still working at it though.

On car rides, the DVD player has been great. Billy's been watching the Toy Story and Shrek series and they've kept him pretty content so far. He won't fuss at all on pretty much any trip within about an hour. We haven't had much of a chance to venture outside of that except for a little trip down the coast to visit some friends that was about an hour and a half away. He managed fairly well the whole way and pretty much slept the whole way back. With vacation season coming fast, it'll be good to have the ability to keep him occupied in between stops for gas.

The last part of his development that has really taken off, and to me the most important part, is his language comprehension. While his language skills are not there yet (still limited to a half dozen words or so), he's shown dramatic improvement in his ability to grasp more complicated, but common phrases, such as "go get your shoes" or "take this to Mama". He knows to run for the door if I ask him if he wants to "take Hunter outside", but won't run for the door if you ask him anything else related to the dog. It's really funny because if you tell him that Hunter needs to go out, so he needs to find his shoes if he wants to go, he'll make this noise that sounds like a gasp, and then high tail it to the kitchen/dinette area to try and find a pair of shoes somewhere. While mowing the law the other day in 90 degree heat, I came into our screen room to get some water and take a break and there was Billy. He sat there and smiled at me for a little bit, banging on the door every now and then, and then turned and walked away. I thought, I guess we're done now, amused by the abruptness. Two seconds later he came back to the door with his shoes in his hand because he wanted to come outside with Dad. It was so funny, and quite amusing. So of course, we had to bring him outside after that.

When asking him to go get his book, he'll go across the room and pick it up and bring it back. The same applies to about 40-50 other objects or words, from cups to spoons, chairs to tables, several key body parts like fingers, toes, feet, hands, eyes, nose, teeth, tongue, and hair. He knows what "watch your head means" when he's under the table and will immediately look up slowly to avoid a bump. Obviously things like "come here", "hello", and "bye bye" are there. Long story short, he's reached a point where he really seems to beginning to grab onto most simple concepts through repetition provided that Antoinette and I keep it simple and don't complicate it. We talk to him like he's 12 and dump as much of the baby talk as possible. The only baby talk he gets are Mama and Dada in stead of Mother and Father, but that's more out of selfishness as we are both loving it when he says these easier to pronounce words. I guess he can blame me for it when he's older.

He still loves watching the History Channel, Discovery, and the News with his Dad. He gets a little Sesame Street, but he's so active now that there isn't much time for things like cartoons. I'm sure he'd be engaged if we had them on, but so far, there really hasn't been a need. He's also giving high fives, low fives, and double fives, which is funny because he gets a kick out of giving them.

Time for a handful of Billy stories for the week. We start with The Wedding Incident. My boss gets married a couple weeks ago and Antoinette and I luckily get placed near a side exit up front. Good thing. Billy's a huge hit in his little suit and vest and he's hamming it up for the ladies at the table getting smiles and laughs, etc. Your typical baby effect on most women, I would think. Then at some point, Antoinette picks Billy up and finds out that Billy has another surprise for us. Upon further review, we discover that his surprise appears to have exploded his diaper and is running down his pant leg and onto his dress shoes. Oh joy. Quickly, we slip him out the back way, down some steps at this Yacht Club, and out the side door, since it turned out the Yacht Club did not have a place to change a baby. Antoinette is holding him like Superman so she isn't getting any of his backdoor business on her dress. Across the parking lot to the water's edge where we parked, we throw open the back of the truck and change the little guy right there. His clothes are destroyed, so it's time for his spare outfit, which is totally not suited for a wedding at this venue. 15 minutes later, we're back in the reception with what appears to be a different child. This one is wearing a plaid shirt and Khaki cargo pants and no shoes (didn't have a spare). Hilarious. We only stayed to pay our respects to the bride and groom for another 20-30 minutes and we took off and called it a night on that one.

Story #2 is a little more light hearted. Last month, Billy would see me pick up my work bag, put on my sport coat, and head for the door. He knew these were signs that Dad was leaving and he tried to beat me to the door, seemingly hoping I would be taking him with me. Of course I couldn't and while he wouldn't cry, as I wrote about in the last blog entry, I would come back in, forgetting something, and find him still standing at the door 3-4 minutes later. Very tough to deal with. Well, the other day, I was coming home from work. I had just had a real tough day with some employee issues and was about as stressed out as I get. When I came through the door, just like any other day, I hear a little voice squeal "DADA!!!!" at the top of his lungs, and then hear the pitter patter of little feet as around the corner comes my boy moving about as fast as his little feet can carry him with arms outstretched. With parenting, there is always something your kids do that just melts you, and each time you think that nothing will ever top this. Like the first time your child really looks at you, or the first smile when they see you. There's the first time they laugh and the first time they say "mama" or "dada", but to date, nothing tops knowing in your soul that your baby was truly missing you while you were gone and couldn't be happier to see you when you come home. Unbelievable.

We took Billy to the zoo recently and with our annual pass and the zoo close by, it has turned out to be a great investment. $65 gets all three of us into the zoo as often as we want. We can get there every other weekend, if we want, and we don't feel obligated to see everything in the place. We get there early when there are no crowds, pick the two or three things we want to see, take our time getting through them, and then leave when we feel like it. It's great. Well, this was the first time we went to the zoo since Billy was fully capable of walking by himself, and we didn't realize all that they had for him to do since the last time we were there. Billy had a blast in the petting zoo running around with the goats, all just a little bit shorter than he is. And after that, we had a trip over to the kiddie water park that amounts to whales and dolphins and things like that on some slip proof outdoor carpet and water coming out of everywhere. Sprinklers, bubbly pools, fountains, and waterfalls. Billy threw his swim trunks on and spent about an hour in there with the other kids (and an adult supervising). I think I'll have plenty of pictures of that in the montage that's attached to this eventually. By itself, seeing his face was worth it. I think we'll have to stop there every time we go to the zoo from here on out.

To wrap up the Billy stories this week, we'll cover some beach stuff. With this nasty oil spill in the Gulf, and the likelihood increasing they won't be able to cap it for another two to three months, the chance that the oil eventually makes it over to where we live seems inevitable to some degree. So we are taking every opportunity we have to get to the beach before they close them all down. Billy is getting much more comfortable at the beach now. About a month ago, I took him out in the water to go boogeyboarding. Funny, right? I put him on the board in about thigh deep water for me. He grabbed on for dear life and I put one hand on his butt and one on the front of the board. With each 8-12 inch wave that got close to us, I'd push down on his butt and pull up on the board, and boom...Billy was riding the waves. He would laugh and giggle each time he went up and down on a wave and loved every minute of it. He actually took a couple little splashes in the face and didn't seem to care. Just laughed right through them. So the water baby that is my son continues to this day. The other day we were down at the beach and Billy just started running around chasing birds. Now, Antoinette and I usually pick a spot on the beach where there isn't anyone within a 100-200 yards of us, so Billy can run around a bit, but it was still interesting watching him explore the beach. Chasing birds and picking up seashells. Before long, he came back to our blanket with a couple shells that he had found. The first two shells he had ever picked up to keep from the beach. Each trip gets him a little more bold and sometimes we just sit on the edge of the water and let the tide come in and hit us with little waves and he just loves it.

But there are two children in this family and this is a BABIES Blog, not just the Billy Blog it used to be. So on to #2. Antoinette and I have been hotly debating (can be read as "arguing" if you want) about when and how to find out what we are having this time around. Antoinette wasn't sure she could wait and with the latest ultrasound scheduled for May 28th, the deliberations were increasing in frequency and intensity. I, on the other hand, wanted the doctor to put the news into a envelope so that Antoinette and I could open it in a special place of our choosing. A way to create a memory and separate the moment from a traditional doctor's office visit so that we'd never forget it. Well, at the peak of the "discussions", when I had finally relented unwillingly, Antoinette changed her mind while sitting in the room waiting for the doctor. Instead, we decided to both watch the ultrasound, but still have the doctor put the verdict into the envelope so we could decide where we would open it that weekend.

So the doctor comes in and performs the ultrasound and we watch the whole thing. Neither of us are ultrasound technicians, of course, but in the process of making Billy's Ultrasound Video, the two of us had seen his ultrasound about 50 times. We can pretty much tell you what we're looking at, in terms of legs, arms, hands, feet, head, spine, ribs, rear end, etc. So, of course we knew what we were looking for, the existence or absence of which would mark what we were having. By the time the ultrasound was over, we had the doctor write it down and give it to us in a sealed envelope. When we got to the car, we both felt comfortable after seeing the entire ultrasound, including the doctor getting a good look at the general area of interest three times, whether the "primary indicator" was present or not. We agreed that we would tell each other what we saw, provided that we didn't open the envelope until a later date of our choosing at a location of our choosing (one that we were previously debating). After sharing, we decided that we were both in agreement as to what we think this baby is going to be. Of course, we can't share that until we get confirmation for or against from the doctor's note, which should be in time for the next blog update. And we are not 100% sure to say the least. I'd say I would put our confidence level at 70%. So, by next month's update, we will be armed with our opinions, followed by the doctor's note, followed by another full blown 18 week ultrasound that should confirm or deny. It should be noted that the doctor isn't even 100% on this based on an early 16 week ultrasound, but he feels he has a solid idea.

Antoinette is now full swing into the 2nd Trimester. The baby's heart beat was pounding away during the ultrasound and according to the doctor, sounds healthy and strong. This is the beginning of the time when Antoinette's uterus will no longer fit in her pelvis and the continued expansion will not only result in ligament stretching and discomfort from time to time, but also organs beginning to be relocated to new locations. Additional symptoms that are already kicking in include sciatic nerve pain, which Antoinette didn't have much of in the first pregnancy, continued sleepiness, increased appetite, and skin tone changes. All of these are temporary and will subside after delivery. All of Antoinette's tests have come back in a positive fashion, including all of her blood tests.

For the baby, there are an equal number of changes occurring. Antoinette is feeling the gaseous feeling that typifies the early movements of the baby, akin to butterfly fluttering. She is wrapping up her 17th week of pregnancy this week, which is crazy to think that next month's blog update will mark the half way point for Antoinette. At 16 weeks, the baby becomes sensitive to light and is seeing major changes in terms of size. Currently, the baby is about 4.5" long, or about the length of a typical avocado, weighing in at just 3.5 ounces.

The baby now has fingerprints on its tiny fingertips. If the baby is a girl, she would have over 2 million egg cells already existing in her ovaries. The baby's critical development wrapped up at about the end of the 1st trimester, marked by a huge drop off in the rate of miscarriage. The baby can now squint, frown, grimace, suck its thumb, and pee as the kidneys are producing urine. The developing brain is cycling the baby's face through various facial expressions as muscles and nerves continue to grow. Its ability to grasp has dramatically improved, as well.

As the baby continues its development, amniotic fluid will continue to move through the nostrils and upper respiratory system triggering increased development of the primitive air sacs in the lungs. Legs and pelvis growth are allowing them to catch up with the head in terms of proportional size. Despite being only about the size of the palm of your hand, the baby has every part that it will need to survive in the world. Eyelids are still fused shut, but light passes through these thin skin membranes and reaches the eye.

Finally, over the course of the next few weeks, the baby will nearly double in weight, climbing to about 7 ounces. The baby's head is more erect at this point, and the ears and eyes have migrated about that head much closer to their final resting position. The baby's heart is pounding away, pumping 25 quarts of blood through the fetus each day.

Next week, we'll lead off with the gender and then start kicking around some potential names so I can stop referring to this kid as #2.