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.