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.