A lot has happened the past couple weeks, so let's start with little Billy. Billy's personality is beginning to really develop. There are some very noticeable changes in his demeanor. The first signs of temper tantrums are beginning to pop up. If he wants your cell phone and you won't give it to him, he drops to his backside and just starts crying abruptly. Antoinette and I just ignore it when it happens and go about our business. Usually it takes all of a minute or so for him to realize it isn't working, then try and get up, and make another attempt at trying to swipe it some other way, but the tantrum remains his primary weapon in the battle of wills.
We're also starting to see a little shyness work its way into the picture, as well. Billy, who has been so open toward strangers, has become wary of anyone he doesn't see very often. We've been around a couple of our friends lately and normally, he's fine, but now he just stands there and starts sobbing. I have to admit that it is hard not to at least smirk at him when he does this because he freezes like a statue before the crying is triggered. After a bit, he's fine, but that initial phase is all new to his personality and the start of a new developmental phase.
Billy's understanding of the world around him is starting to change, too. He's beginning to understand how things work, trying to reach for doorknobs, hitting light switches, trying to operate the knob on the box fan, and even learning which button on the remote turns the TV on and off. He's routinely shutting the TV off and even working the DVD player. While its unintentional, I'm sure, he's also been changing the DirectTV to the Game Channel, which has to be a button on the remote somewhere that he's hitting. The computer has also not escaped his attention. After watching for a little bit, Billy has come to realize that the mouse has buttons, moves around, has a red light on the bottom, and also realizes that if he hits the buttons and waves it around in the air, he can make changes occur on the actual computer screen. The association between the mouse and the monitor definitely seems like a leap in his ability to comprehend his actions.
He's much better at understanding the word "no" and also at seeming to understand the general point you're trying to get across when you just talk to him in simple sentences. For instance, "don't take that out of the garbage can" or "leave Hunter's ears alone". While this doesn't seem to stick for very long, you don't need to raise your voice when speaking to him, and he will retain this correction for at least a little while and stop doing whatever you were asking him to stop.
His understanding of object/container relationships is dramatically improving. He's often trying to put things into places he feels they need to go. The phone on the charger base, the remote on the sofa arm, anything he can find into a small basket he has, and has even developed an understanding of what shape needs to fit in the proper hole on his plastic ball. He's not the best at getting them in there the right away, but he knows what shape goes in what hole. Block stacking instead of block stack destroying is also something he likes to do. He will even sit on the floor with you and roll a ball back and forth. As for handedness, we have no idea at this point. He does nearly equal amounts of things with both hands. Sometimes I think he's right handed and other times left handed. Statistically he has only about a 6-1 or 8-1 shot at being left handed and with Antoinette and I righties, I'd guess that's most likely.
From a language standpoint, we're still working through the Mama and Dada stuff. We're very solid with baba, too. Most of the language development we're seeing at this point is in his understanding of objects names, such as phone, fan, Hunter, door, chair, nose, eyes, ears, hair, mouth, etc. He can point to these things when asked and then not point after looking if what you asked for isn't in the room. So he understands quite a bit more than he's capable of verbally relating back to you, but he's not translating what he knows into meaningful speech other than a handful of words just yet.
As far as mobility is concerned, he went from 20% walking in the last update to 70% walking within two weeks. Now he's up to about 90-95% walking. His primary limitation has been trying to stand up from a seated or kneeling position in the middle of a room, still often requiring something to climb up to get into a standing position, but he's recently had a little success getting up from this position, too. I'm guessing by the next update, he'll be 100% walking with that final piece down pat. You can see he can now control his movement much better, making sharp U-turns when he walks now and most amusingly trying to run when he gets excited. That doesn't typically last more than a few excited steps followed by a face plant into the carpet, but its certainly a step in the right direction.
One interesting thing about Billy is that he doesn't seem to like saying hello and goodbye. He knows how to do it and has for a couple months now, but when you say goodbye, he just stares at you like "you're not really leaving, are you?" Lately he's been running after me to the door, which is quite a bit more heartbreaking than leaving for work when he's in his high chair. I don't think he cries when I leave, but I have forgotten something and come back in the house to find him standing at the door a couple minutes after I've left.
Billy celebrated his 1st Birthday on the 22nd of this past month. This being his third birthday party so far due to visitors coming and going, the little guy got his fair share of presents. I bought him a basketball hoop that he is clearly 6 months away from using properly as one of his gifts, but I figured "why not?" Billy doesn't seem to like putting the big basketball in the hoop, but he will drop one of his litte plastic balls in there after seeing Dad shoot a couple shots here and there if you pick him up and get him into position to dunk. His Mother made him a homemade cake, which was one of my favorites, but it was so big it took 4 days to eat the whole thing, so he got into about once a day until it was gone, with a little help from Mom and Dad.
Among the other benefits of turning a year old, Billy gets a slightly expanded diet including just about everything we can eat except peanut butter. While most people say its all right to start on peanut butter at a year old if there are no signs of other allergies (and there haven't been), we have also been told the longer you hold off with peanut butter the better. So we are going to listen to the doctor on this one and wait another 3-6 months before we start him there. We also had to drop his crib another level (the lowest), so the next step from here is a Toddler Bed (hopefully not until the new baby is ready to move from the bassinet to the crib). We also had a chance to turn his car seat around and face it forward, so maybe we can take advantage of the DVD player in the back of the truck now. At the very least we can see Billy better and he gets a whole new view of world in front of him rather than the one he's leaving behind. His face just lights up when we cross over a Florida bridge that are so common in this State. Watching him just stare out over the water at the top is neat to watch. There's so much to take in that he's never seen before, even though we've crossed that bridge 100 times since he's been around.
Now on to the new baby. Antoinette had some issues with the previous doctor so we switched over to a new doctor and this guy's solid. He's my kind of doctor. Instead of 47 visits to do 47 different things, this guy was all about efficiency. We went to the first appointment, filled out our info, sat in a waiting room for about 10 minutes, went in back, took Antoinette's vitals, gave her another pregnancy test, took a hemoglobin blood test, had a consultation with the doc, she had a physical exam, and then knocked out an ultrasound, too. All in the same visit. At the first doctor, it would've taken us 10 visits and 3 months to cover all of that, with an equal amount of paperwork and probably 100 extra costs.
Regarding this visit, all of Antoinette's vitals came back solid. She obviously tested positive on her pregnancy test, and then came the ultrasound. That is the picture you see leading off this email. The first picture of the new baby. We're at 12 weeks now, but a recap of previous weeks first.
At 9 weeks, the Baby was nearly an inch long or about the size of a grape and weighed in at a mere fraction of an ounce. Its humanness was becoming apparent with most essential body parts accounted for. The heart divided into four full chambers and the valves began to form. Tiny little teeth began to pop up and the embryonic tail almost entirely disappeared. Organs, muscles, and nerves all began to function. If we're having a boy and you could peek inside, you could tell, but from an ultrasound, 9 weeks is way too early to distinguish gender.
At 10 weeks, the baby had grown to the size of Kumquat, or a bit over an inch long from crown to rump. Weight gain puts it at a quarter ounce. The embryo should have transitioned to a fetus at this point, marked by the completion of the critical portion of development and the explosion of growth in the tissue and organ systems that began to occur. Tiny little nails would be apparent on finger tips and peach fuzz hair begins to grow all over the body.
By week 11, the baby is an inch and a half long and about the size of a fig. Hands are beginning to open and close into tiny fists, the tooth buds are beginning to appear on the gums themselves, and skeletal hardening is beginning. Kicking and stretching is the baby's first trick, but Antoinette is unlikely to feel it until sometime around mid to late June or so. Hiccupping has also begun with the development of the diaphragm.
And now, in week 12, the baby is beginning to develop reflexes. Opening and closing of fingers becomes more apparent, as well as curling toes. Eye muscles will begin to clench for various reasons, the baby's mouth will begin the sucking reflex, and the baby has grown even further in size to over 2 inches and weighing about half an ounce (the size of a lime). Since the last blog entry, the baby has more than quadrupled in size, the intestines have begun migrating back inside the abdomen, and the kidneys begin to produce urine.
In 6-8 weeks, Antoinette is due up for another ultrasound and this one should be when we find out what we're having. Whether or not we're going to share when we find out is the interesting question. We'll see. We might make you all wait. I will be attaching another montage to this in the next couple days.
No comments:
Post a Comment