Can You See the Moon?...

This blog entry begins with a story about Billy's developing artistic ability and the story that surrounds it. One afternoon, Antoinette was looking for something for Billy to do. He'd had a few tries with washable crayons and they seemed to keep his attention for a least a little while. She gave him the crayons and let him start drawing on some sheets of computer paper. After awhile, she asked him if he could draw her a moon. Now Billy has had a fascination with the Moon since we introduced it to him. We bought him a night light that glowed purple and showed the Moon and the stars on the ceiling at night and always pointed out a crescent Moon. We made a habit of pointing it out to him when he was just old enough to walk and we'd be outside. When he was old enough to speak, it was no surprise when one of his first words was "Moon", well before he was old enough to string two words together in a single sentence. His room has the typical glow in the dark stars on the ceiling and all that good stuff. But back to the story.

So when given the task of drawing the Moon, Billy picks up his blue crayon and he draws the picture you see in the middle of the page. First item on the page. Now, I'm looking at this through the eyes of a parent, so to call me biased would be the understatement of the year, but surely you can see a crescent Moon in this picture. The amazing part about this is that typically, a child will start to develop the ability to color within the lines and possibly draw or identify circles somewhere between ages 2-3. Typically, they are almost three or older when their drawings become recognizable as anything other than squiggles.

The next thing she asked Billy to draw were the stars and while their image was not quite so clear, the two blue objects to the left of the Moon is what he drew. Pretty squiggly, but still smaller than the Moon, apart from the Moon, and seem to indicate some sort of basic knowledge of what he's drawing. He then added some additional green stars, with the one on the lower right side resembling some very rough looking five point stars he had drawn a little while ago, which wasn't bad, but if you didn't know what he was going for, you'd probably not recognize it.

He topped it all off with the request that he draw the Space Shuttle. Billy then drew a curving line from the bottom of the page to the top of the page in black, and then added an object at the top of the line, pointing to that object as the Space Shuttle. At least he has it moving in the right direction, I guess. All in all, I thought it was pretty impressive as a drawing for a kid who is nearly two months from his 2nd birthday (at the time of the drawing).

While we're on the subject of Billy's motor skill, we should just stick with it and talk about some other changes since the last blog entry. On recent trips to the park, Billy is a climbing machine. He's much better at navigating the park equipment with either his Mother or I, loves the slides now, and seems to have little trouble with the steps, which are all vast improvements since the last update.

Another odd but interesting tidbit about Billy is that he refuses to get into his stroller when we go for long walks. Whether we're at the zoo, at the beach, wandering around St. Augustine, or just going for long walks in the neighborhood, Billy insists on walking every step of the way. We have a good size zoo here, but it's not insanely large. Billy will walk, non-stop, for 2-3 hours at the zoo, before we have to force him into the stroller to get a snack. Easily he's covering a good couple miles straight. We'll do a good mile or mile and a half in the subdivision and he'll walk that entire time, too. It's really quite strange.

He can also catch now, although the skill is limited. If you just toss something to him, there's not a prayer that he'll come anywhere near catching it. But if you tell him you're going to throw him something, then give him a 1-2-3, and then toss it slowly and dramatically so he sees your arm motion (from a short distance), he'll catch it more often than dropping it. His hand eye has improved quite a bit to allow him to start doing this.

On a final note for Billy physically, he actually got sick for the first time (vomiting), which lasted for about 5-10 minutes. Not realizing what was going on at first, I kind of just stood there for a second until it happened again. Then I picked him up and put him in the bathtub fully clothed to get the rest up while I explained to him what was happening. Interesting experience for us both, but I think I'll be better prepared next time. Not sure what that was all about because he was fine the rest of the day after, including an your long run to Home Depot (that had me a little nervous) in which he walked around nearly the entire time.

But let's not forget about A.J. either. That little munchkin is growing like a weed. At his last doctor visit, he was stabbed a few times for his shots, which he didn't like one bit, and weighed and measured out to be a pretty good sized kid. He's about 75th in length/height and 50th or 60th in weight for kids his age. Doctor gave him a clean bill of health and told us to bring him back for his next appointment.

With improved neck strength, A.J. has moved into the jump-a-roo thing now, although his self propelled bouncing is limited (pretty much doesn't jump at all). But that neck strength makes him much easier to carry around now and his time on his belly is actually enjoyable for him since he can pick up his head and look around at everything that's going on around him. He seems to enjoy it, but won't stay there for the long term unless you're there looking at him.

We've put him on his little play mat now and he's definitely able to reach for the hanging toys now that dangle down. He concentrates really hard, focusing on the object in front of him and almost willing his hands to reach out there and grab on. If you put your face close enough to him, he's actively grabbing your cheeks now, too. He's still such a happy baby, that even looking in his direction will get you a huge smile and giggle now, before he looks away like he's embarrassed.

We're still working on rolling over with this one. He's not as eager to get all the way over as Billy was. For A.J., his side is far enough. He gets over there and really just doesn't seem interested in moving much farther than that. He'll just sit there and play with whatever happens to be within reach before flipping back over onto his back. I think by the next blog update he'll be getting himself all the way over and we'll technically have our second mobile baby.

We just started the transition of A.J. into Billy's room. I was hoping to have started this last month, but A.J. wasn't quite ready yet. He was moving from 8-9 hours of sleep to 4-6 hours of sleep from night to night, and then back again. In the past couple weeks, he's back on 11-12 hours of continuous sleep, only fussing a little once or twice during that time. He just needs a binky popped in and he's out like a light again, so it's a minor issue. Last night was the first night he slept in the boys' room with Billy, and Billy didn't mind at all. Slept right through the couple little fussing episodes that A.J. had without a problem and seems fine with A.J. being in there as long as he's in their bed.

I was thinking that by the next update after this one, in 4-6 weeks, the complete adjustment of A.J. into this room should be complete, but based on last night, I think that might come much quicker. Possibly within a week or two at most. At that point, once they are doing all right, we are going to shift our focus to Billy potty training. If they are doing well in that room together, we might have time to get Billy mostly potty trained by the next blog update, or at least make a good dent in our progress toward that point.

A.J. is much more vocal now. He's squealing quite frequently, especially if you make eye contact with him, and he'll reach up and grab your face if you get close enough to let him. Billy and A.J.'s relationship is going great at this point. They seem very happy around each other with Billy constantly wanting to give A.J. a kiss or hug (occasionally a slap). A.J. would just stare at Billy all day if he could, and he often squeals whenever Billy is laughing or doing something he likes. So far, jealousy has been kept in check. Let's hope it stays that way.

Antoinette has really been working with Billy on his alphabet and his colors. At this point he can identify and sound out about 90% of the letters consistently and the sound they make. By the next blog update, he'll be able to do them all. And with his new found understanding of these letters, he's running around and pointing them out on everything from T-shirts to news tickers on the bottom of the screen. Every now and then we'll hear "D for Dada" or "M for Momma". He has words that he can associate with each letter and it has really helped him develop an understanding of how the sounds work. And hearing him say the words "ant" and "dirt" are hilarious, because he really emphasizes that "T".

Billy's work with colors is also coming along. If you lay a bunch of colored balls or cars on the ground and ask him to pick out the green one or the red one, he can easily pick the right color each time. He knows the basics, like green, blue, red, yellow, black, white, brown, etc. But he also knows other ones like orange and purple. Some he misses from time to time, but for the most part he gets them right. Where he is still struggling is actually stating the color back to you. If you ask him to pick up the green ball, he will pick it up. But if you just asked him what color that ball was, sometimes he'll say green and sometimes he'll say blue or red. By his second birthday, I expect he'll have these down pretty good.

His understanding of the human body is very good. He knows all of the traditional parts like eyes, ears, mouth, hands, feet, belly, etc., but he also knows many of the tougher ones like tongue, fingernail, thumb, knee, shin, elbow, wrist, etc. I just wanted to see if there was a reason we focused on general features and not more specific ones. He's picked up both quite quickly.

He's developing a better sense of "me" and "mine", which can lead to its own issues when Mom or Dad need to take something out of his hands. Pretty much just a boundary issue that needs to be established and set in stone. Part of normal child development. He also knows most of his clothes from shirt to shoes, pants to socks, hats to buttons. He knows that his clothes need to be hung up with a hangar, what a belt and tie are, and often helps me pick out my clothes to wear when I get home from work.

His language skills are accelerating quickly, as he's already moved into 3 and 4 word sentences, such as when I ask him what Rule #1 is and he'll respond "no whining, Dada". Or Rule #2, which is "no thumb, Dada". On our walks, pretty much every four steps we hear, "Momma, Dada, a street light" You can fill that in with a mailbox, stop sign, palm tree, sewer, grass, airplane, the Moon, a truck (insert color), motorcycle, dog, cat, house, grass, rock, flower, tree, bicycle, etc. Now that he knows what things are, he really wants to prove that to us and be a part of the normal conversation on our walks, so because of that we're also working on some manners, such as "hold on, Billy, Momma was talking." Other three and four word sentences are "Momma boo-boo owie, Awwa", which translates into "Mom, I got a bump or bruise from Hunter" in Billy speak. Or "Dada work, Dada car, Dada bye bye" which translates into "Dad is going to work in Dad's car" as he's pointing at the car out the window.

He's also using phones like they are supposed to be used, actually holding them to his ear while others are on the phone and talking to them, which is something we've practiced once or twice with Antoinette talking to him from another room on her cell. He knows how the phone works, but will put anything with buttons (calculator, etc.) to his ear like a phone. He's still a master on the Iphone, using it to search for his videos and songs, playing all sorts of learning games that Antoinette has downloaded, and even helping me find the planets that we're learning about now, which I'll tell you about when we get into his night time routine, which has changed a bit.

Kicking off the period between the last blog update and this one was a two week visit from Billy's Grandma, who took an early vacation to Florida to see the boys. With work schedules and a desire to escape some pretty intense snow storms back up north, the visit was pretty laid back and relaxed. But we did have a Super Bowl Party for the kids where quite a few people with little ones came over, ranging in age from newborn to 3 years old (probably 8 kids in all throughout the evening). Made for an interesting evening to say the least. On top of that, Charlotte bought Billy his first ever remote control car, and while he quickly understood the concept that the controller would make the car go and stop, the fact that his Mother kept the antenna down so that he wouldn't poke his eye out meant that the car was only working about half the time. Go figure.

Another big change has been the boys' new babysitter, my cousin Carli. Carli is absolutely fantastic with the kids and while A.J. isn't real sure what's going on when we tell him that Carli and Heath (Carli's boyfriend) are coming over, Billy is another story all together. For one thing, Carli = playtime. When she's here, there's a good bet that Billy will probably not stop playing. For another, Heath has a motorcycle, which Billy can't take his eyes off of. All we hear after they leave is "Heet Mo-Mo, Dada. Bom, bom, bom, bom, bom, bom." Translation = Heath has a mortorcycle, Dada and it sounds like this "bom, bom, bom..." Funny.

Finally, we had an opportunity to get the kids out of the house now that A.J. had his shots and the weather started to warm up a bit, so we took a warm spell of 75-80 degree temperatures and converted it into a couple trips out of the house. We took a beach visit with Heath and Carli, which turned out to be fantastic. No wind off the water, roughly 75 degrees, and just a perfect February day to be down by the water. We even took one of the kids little tents that you saw in the Christmas pictures and brought that to the beach. The idea was that we could use it to block the sun and put the kids in, since it has windows of mesh to allow a breeze to blow through it. Instead, it turned into a nursing station and actually was perfect for that purpose.

We were also able to take the boys to the zoo again, which of course Billy insisted on walking the entire length of. He's absolutely fascinated with the animals and can identify and point out most of them (in generalities). Giraffe, elephant, bear, lion, tiger, zebra, snake, etc. If you ask him to point out certain animals, he's pretty much on the money with that, but we're gradually getting better at actually saying their names. The most recent visit was with a buddy of mine from work, also named Bill, and his wife and little boy. They had never been to the zoo here before, so it was a great opportunity to get out and go for both of us and another 70+ degree day.

The last little trip we took was down to St. Augustine with Antoinette's friend's parents from back home, Steve and Rhonda. They were in town to take care of some business and we decided we would meet them halfway in St. Augustine so they could see the boys, we could walk around a little down there, and we could get some dinner at a very nice Cajun restaurant. Billy absolutely loves this couple. No shyness at all. Right into Rhonda's arms, almost like he remembered her from the last time he saw her about 6 months ago or so. And poor Steve had Billy playing games at the table during dinner and grabbing onto his shirt sleeves (which were white) with dirty hands (covered in macaroni and cheese).

For my birthday this year, Antoinette bought me a hammock to use this Summer. We are in the middle of a pretty extensive landscaping project that we're doing ourselves and which involves basically tearing out all of the old landscaping around the house and replanting palm trees, plants, palm bushes, some spot lights, several tons of stone (7 tons which I'm not looking forward to shoveling), hundreds of feet of edging, some patio stone, paving sand, and relocating some stuff around our yard a bit. Should be fun, but when it's all complete, the hammock should be great with the wind blowing between the palms during afternoon naps. Can't wait. Apparently neither can Antoinette, because the first person to use my hammock was her and the kids. I come home and find out that they're using the hammock as a swing and sitting in it rather than laying in it, just looking out on the pond one afternoon. Turns out the boys like swinging with their Mother. I tried to take a nap with Billy one afternoon, but the bottom line is that we're outside and trying to get him to take a nap when he could be playing outside is simply not going to happen.

Getting the boys ready for bed has settled into a routine, but every now and then the routine needs to change or it loses it's ability to control the situation. I don't believe in bribing or begging my kids to go to bed and I don't think it's necessary to yell to get it to happen either. They should want to go to bed and that's what our nighttime routines have always tried to accomplish. The most recent version of the nighttime routine goes like this. At the end of Billy's bath, Antoinette will brush his teeth while he's still in the tub. Once he's out and she has him in his pajamas and a fresh diaper, Billy is allowed to stay up for just a few more minutes while we get A.J. situated. Then I'll grab the Iphone and turn on a song. Any song, as long as it has a beat will do. Then I just walk into his bedroom and like the friggen pied piper, Billy will typically be right behind me. Once in his room, I'll close the door and start getting stuff ready for him while he dances around the room to whatever song I have playing. When we're ready, I'll turn the light off (the Iphone screen becomes the only light in the room) and I'll go to Youtube and find whatever movie we're on. Right now, we're watching Antz. These are broken into 10 minute segments on Youtube, so Billy gets 5 minutes to watch a bit more of the "AnnnTTTTTTTTTTT" movie, with special emphasis on that "T" when he says it. After the five minutes is up, Billy will say "planets", only it doesn't sound that good. More like "panutz". So I'll lay the phone down next to him on the bed and from the main screen, he'll find the category for Education, pick on the Sky Safari app, and pull up a picture of tonight's night sky. Then I'll pick the next planet (we're doing them in order) and ask him to repeat its name. Then I click on it, click on info, click on description and pull up a very detailed description of the planet. Then I turn the phone over to Billy. He'll scroll down the screen using his finger looking for the blue links, knowing that clicking on them will produce an image of the planet. When we've seen all for that planet, we exit the app and call it a night. Works like a charm.

Finally, in the next update, I'll have more updates on the boys moving in to the same room with each other, a potty training update for Billy, some updates on Antoinette going back to work and what impact that's having, and a new change as we begin converting our weight room into a giant play room for the kids that could take 3-6 months to actually complete it.