Daddy Turns 30...

Billy had his 9 month checkup with the doctor. It was generally short and sweet. He weighed in at 19 lbs., which is nearly 3 times his birth weight. Generally, you hope for babies to grow 3 times their birth weight by their first year, so Billy is right on target for that. At birth, he was in the 25th percentile for weight, but today he's climbed and stabilized at the 50th percentile. Length is a different story. Billy is 29.5" long, which puts him in the 80th percentile for a baby. He's been relatively "tall" since birth and so far, he's maintained that height. I had been told an interesting theory about projecting your child's height in the future. Basically, the general rule of thumb was to double the child's height in inches at age 2 and you would have their real height at full adulthood. After doing a little research, I learned a little about the reliability of these predictions.

Basically, using this method is fairly reliable for boys. It is typically able to predict the height of 90% of boys within 1.6 inches either way. If your son is 3 feet tall (36") at age 2, then within an accuracy range of 90%, you can say he'll wind up between 5'10.5" and 6'1.5". For girls, its not particularly accurate at all. The error range of doubling the 2 year old height of a daughter is nearly 4" in each direction. Not particularly accurate to have a 7-8" error margin. Because of this, several more detailed approaches were considered. The one that emerged as the most accurate was called the MCS**2(1) Method, however it required a x-ray of the child's wrist in order to make the most accurate calculation. The better method was the Khamis-Roche Method. This method actually uses a fairly complex formula combining the heights of the Mother and Father, the child's height at a particular age, and the baby's weight. Based on these factors, Billy's projected height would be just over 6'0", but the most accurate predictions won't come until he is at least 4 years old (2 years old for the doubling technique). Here is the link if you are interested in pulling up your own kid's...

www.kidsgrowth.com/hc/height.cfm

Some other insights from Billy's doctor visit include the doctor giving Billy an overall clean bill of health saying that he was in excellent condition, was thriving for a child his age, putting on weight at a constant and steady pace, and is on track for all of the targets regarding diet, car seats, etc. at the age of 1 year. We rounded out the visit with a Flu and H1N1 shot for the baby, as well as for Antoinette and I. The local practice here had a pair of deaths in the past 6 months from H1N1. One was a baby and the other was a pregnant mother in perfect health. While the odds of something of that magnitude was unlikely, for $22 a pop, I won't take the risk. That's a meal on a family vacation for three. His next checkup will be at 12 months, even though there are no shots due at that time. Just a wellness visit.

We also have another tooth popping through on the top. Just the edge has busted through and that gives the little guy three teeth now (or 2.1 depending on how accurate we're really being). He has also developed what his Mother and I like to call his monster voice. For whatever reason, he drops the tone of his voice and starts talking in a real low pitched, scratchy voice from time to time. He's also begun waving back at us, but won't do it every time yet. Just when he's in the mood. The same can be said for clapping. He just started that two days ago. First to mimic his Mother and since then after climbing into his bath duck (which is now a living room toy), he just started clapping for no reason. I guess he felt the duck climb was quite the accomplishment. He's also begun standing on his own. Often without realizing he's doing it, Billy just lets go. After about 3-5 seconds, he realizes he's no longer supported and lunges for whatever is close by. Maybe by next month we'll have our first steps. He's only 9.5 months old, so we have plenty of time to get those steps in and he's walking better with assistance. The average baby begins walking anywhere from 9-14 months, so its a pretty broad range for "typical". We've taken his shoes and socks off more as we've read that a more natural grip with the feet on whatever surface he's trying to grip is better.

Another funny story. The other day, Billy took off into the kitchen while his Mother was making something in the kitchen. All of a sudden, she hears the tone of frustration in the baby's cry and turns to see what he's doing. Somehow he managed to get his diaper stuck on the fridge and was trying to crawl away on the tile floor. The result was Billy crawling in place as his pant legs were sliding all over the tile floor. All the while his diaper is being stretched out and revealing his bare bottom because his pants were firmly attached to the fridge behind him. Funny stuff.

Pushing things has become a favorite hobby of his now, and just about anything will do. We push bar stools, rocking horses, laundry baskets, toy ride-on trucks, strollers, and dinette chairs. He's also taking big boy baths now. Mom has gotten rid of that giant rubber duck we talked about earlier (graduated it to the living room), so now Billy is bathing in a real tub and he loves it. Of course, he's pretty slippery, so we need to really keep an eye on him to make sure he's not falling when he tries to stand up, but he's getting better with each passing day.

Billy also spent his first time with a baby sitter. Due to a forgotten business trip to Orlando, we wound up caught in a situation where Billy had nowhere to go for an hour and a half. Having never been with a sitter other than his Grandma in Chicago, we called our friends next door that have a boy just a few months older than Billy. Our neighbor Hannah baby sat for an hour or two and Billy could care less that his parents were gone. He was too engrossed in all of the new toys and his play buddy, Nicholas. He also spent a good chunk of another day at the same neighbor's house on a play date with little Niko. For Antoinette, it was a chance to get out of the house and spend some time with another woman who has many of the same interests and who is in the same point in their life that we are. Ultimately, everyone had a great time.

That brings us to Dad's birthday. For my birthday this year, my 30th, Antoinette decided that as a family, we would take a trip to surprise me. Our first vacation with the baby. So I left work early on Friday and we hit the road for Tampa. When we arrived at the hotel to check in, we were told that we could upgrade to a suite if one was available, so of course I asked. The girl told me they had one available but that I should check it out before I accept it. Confused, I asked why I wouldn't want it, and she said I would just have to take a look and come back down. So she handed me the room key and off I went. When I checked into the room, I understood why she wasn't so sure. The room was broken into two parts. One side had a traditional hotel room, complete with sitting area, King size bed, bathroom, closets, balcony, etc. The other half that made it a suite was a full blown Conference Room, complete with board room table. The room had a massive 55" flat panel hanging on the wall for presentations, a desk, and connection ports everywhere for a projector or whatever other form of presentation you wanted to hook up. Well, we figured we had a lot of luggage and baby stuff, so the extra space would be welcome. We accepted.

Saturday morning, we took off for the Tampa Zoo, which being from Chicago, I had heard compared to Brookfield Zoo and we had seen where several publications had listed it as one of the top zoos in the nation. We got there and started with our traditional zoo trick which is to arrive around the time the zoo opens and then head straight to the back. If you work your way forward, you miss 75% of the crowds and complete the bulk of the zoo before you run into everyone else working their way toward the back. First stop at the back of the zoo was the Stingray Bay exhibit. They have this at our zoo, too, but you have to pay extra for it. Its basically an opportunity for kids to get their hands in the tank and pet stingrays who have had their stingers removed. The stingrays are of all different shapes and sizes and we weren't sure how Billy would like it, even though he does love water. Well, he didn't waste any time. He got those hands right in that sucker, grabbing, squealing, touching, smacking, and even got splashed by a stingray or two. Ultimately, he loved every minute of it.

Next stop was the Florida river system exhibit complete with an up close and personal visit to the Manatee tank. Billy was just floored by the size of the manatees who were quite active, swimming right up to the glass. The way the exhibit was set up, he could stand there and lean on the glass. He absolutetely loved each time the big twirling sea cows would spiral through the water right in front of him. Another awesome experience and we quickly took note as to how much fun he seemed to have with the fish and other faster moving animal exhibits.


Billy got to see monkeys and birds and all sorts of animals, but the next stop that was one of his favorites was the petting zoo. Billy got to get in there and pet the goats, see chickens running around, see cows and llamas, a donkey and a mule. Not really your more exciting animals, but based on their activity level, definitely one of the favorites for the baby.

Then it was back to the hotel room to get cleaned up and get ready for dinner. After a very long nap (like hours), we decided to head over to the Cheesecake Factory with the baby. He's really pretty good at restaurants. No major problems on this visit either. They brought Billy out a plate of diced up bananas and bread to munch on while Mom and Dad had a nice dinner, and of course he had his bottle, too. We even slipped the little guy a taste of some limes, which we thought he would make faces at. He didn't and actually couldn't get enough of the limes to suck on. Pretty funny.

After dinner, we were back at the hotel for the night. First thing in the morning, it was time to get ready to head to the Aquarium. After the way Billy responded to the manatee tank and the other fish at the zoo, we figured a lot of fast moving fish at one of the nicest aquariums in the world would be a fitting end to our trip. So after a morning bottle, we all got up and started to get ready for the day...except Billy. Apparently, he was telling us how unsatisfactory he considered his crib at home to be. And while we were at it, we could have his Pack 'n Play back. It seemed that he had settled on this King size bed with overly fluffy pillows and mattress pad. Basically, he just refused to get out of it or even to move very much. I guess this was our punishment for letting him sleep with Mom and Dad both nights, which is something we don't allow him to do at home except if he's sick, fussy in the morning and maybe we want to try and catch an extra hour, or to take a nap here or there. So the King William just propped himself up in the King size bed and refused to move.

Then of course we had to get his picture as the Chairman of the Board about to host his executive board in a short meeting before heading to the aquarium. The morning of the aquarium trip was freezing cold for Florida. Highs of 51 degrees meant morning temps of 37 and strong winds. Not a great recipe for a long walk from a parking lot to the front door of this aquarium down on the Bay.

Once inside the exhibit, there were plenty more tanks of fish to see, sting rays to peak in at from above, and even a giant grouper to get a picture next to. We spent a good 30 minutes wandering around the aquarium before we realized that the penguin show was starting soon. We high tailed it to the show, not really knowing exactly what to expect, but knowing that Antoinette's favorite animal list includes the little tuxedo wearing birds and that they are certainly active enough to probably keep Billy's attention. Once at the room where the penguin show would begin, we took a front row seat. Behind the carpet in front of us was a 20 foot high walled aquarium filled with sharks, sea turtles, a thousand different fish swimming in schools, and even a couple people inside cleaning the glass. After a minute or two, out comes a guy from a backroom pulling a wagon with glass walls. Inside of the wagon is a little penguin. He pulls the wagon onto the carpet and invites everyone to get right down onto the carpet to form a little "cage" to prevent the penguin from escaping. Then he takes the little guy out and puts him right on the carpet right in front of us. Literally, this penguin was no more than 2-3 feet away from Billy's face. He was in awe. Staring at the little bird as it plucked away and groomed itself. The whole time the trainer was answering all sorts of questions for us and even throwing out facts I didn't know like the fact that 75% of penguins live in climates that are warm or even hot and that only a few of the birds live where its cold or freezing. Our little penguin was an African penguin who lived just a few hundred miles from the equator and when the temps dropped in Tampa into the 20's this winter, they had to bring them inside or they would've died. Crazy...

All in all, there were all sorts of fun stops in the aquarium and we had a blast. Since this entry is running on a bit long, I'll wrap it up here. Hope you all enjoyed the pics and the updates on the little guy and what's going on in his life lately. I'm sure we'll have all sorts of good stuff next time. I'll try and get the next blog in before Billy's Grandma visits with his Auntie Laura in March. That way I'll have more about their visit in the following blog update. We'll see how it goes from a time standpoint.

Later...