Brothers...

As A.J. continues to get older and become more self aware and begins to understand what's going on around him, his relationship with Billy is beginning to take off. The two of them really enjoy each other's company and it shows in their typical interactions. From waking each other up in the morning with some light conversation (basically whispered jibberish we can hear on the baby monitor) to all out wrestling and giggling on the couch to just laughing at each other when they look at one another, it's really interesting to watch them. It makes me wonder how similar things were with my brother and I at a similar age and what bond is forming that will last a lifetime.

We'll get back to these stories in a bit, but with so much to tell you, let's just take them one at a time. First up is the boys' physical development. Both of the boys have had doctor's visits since the last update (and A.J. has another this week), and as of the last visit, they both came back with a clean bill of health. Both of the boys are similar in size for their ages, in the 75th percentile for their height and 50th percentile for their weight, give or take a few percent. Billy's just under 30 lbs and A.J.'s just under 20 lbs. Both boys had their shots and Billy didn't even cry for his, more interested in what the doctor was doing than anything. The doctor said he was very impressed with his behavior and that he was one of the most well behaved 2 year olds he's had in quite some time. He even gave Billy a high five and when they were leaving, Billy kept saying "more doctor, more doctor" to Antoinette. His Aunt Tina and Uncle Rick just sent him a doctor kit for his birthday, which he loves. He knows what sound a heart makes "bum bum, bum bum" and likes to make it when he puts the toy stethoscope to his or your chest.

For A.J., the doctor said his head is still shaping itself and will continue to do so for some time. He OK'd us to transition him to cereal, which we've tried, much to A.J.'s dismay. He's not a fan. Doc said it was great news that A.J. had been sleeping through the night since he was about 3 months old without much of an issue. He's also old enough for sun block, which is great news considering we're starting to consistently hit the low 90's down here in Florida already.

The doctor also said that Billy was far ahead with his understanding and comprehension of letters, shapes, and colors. Doctor said typically sometime before the age of 3 is when kids should know these things, but Billy is already doing them. He can count to three and sometimes five or six and the doctor said the goal is to have him at 10 within a year. He's already drawing circles and straight lines, can catch a ball if he's paying attention to you (which is the hard part because he has a tendency to get distracted when the ball's in the air), and can hopefully speak in 3-5 word sentences. Billy is doing 5 and 6 word sentences pretty consistently now...not counting the 47 "dada's" that come before he says anything, just to ensure that he has your attention. If he's still not convinced you're listening, he has a tendency to come down by your face, and with two hands he gently lifts your face to make eye contact with him and then speaks to you. It's pretty funny.

Some more physical changes with the boys takes us back to A.J. Finally, about a month ago, A.J. decided to roll over. Soon after, he was rolling over the other way. While he's proven he CAN do it, he simply chooses not to more often than not. Instead, he's moved on to other things, such as sitting up, which he can do for about 10-45 seconds before he wiggles himself over to one side or another. Usually his excitement gets the better of him and takes over. He's also jumping like a maniac in the Jumparoo, walking backwards in his walker, most recently in the last week or so, started to scoot on his belly, which is the first prerequisite for crawling. So apparently, A.J. felt that rolling over was overrated and we were just going to skip ahead to sitting and crawling.

The little guy has started waving at you now, which is pretty cool to see him do, but what he is most famous for is his spitting up. We had hoped this would subside when he was 4-5 months old like it did with Billy, but unfortunately, A.J. appears to be a spitter. Word is that he probably won't stop doing this until sometime in his second six months of life, which is not good news. I'm surprised he's still gaining weight because the kid spits up like a little volcano. He's like a Yellowstone geyser, popping every 30 minutes like clockwork.

Handedness is something that hasn't truly shaken out with Billy yet. I have an idea that he's going to be a righty, but at the moment, I'd estimate that he's only about 60/40 right handed when he throws things. He writes more with his right hand and eats with his right more, but he still does quite a bit with his left. This isn't uncommon and true handedness is likely to work itself out by the time he's 3. He's also learned to do somersaults and although it looks like he's about to break his neck sometimes, he just flips right over with out a problem.

Billy is getting better and preparing himself for bed. He gets his diaper and wipes ready, brushes his teeth while standing on a stool using the sink like a big boy, has started helping to get himself dressed by getting his own pajamas out of the drawer (sometimes they match, sometimes they don't) and even starting to try and put them on. He also puts his shoes on and is learning right from left, which is a crap shoot at this point (wrong feet).

He's getting more confident with his body, jumping off of things, wrestling the dog (95 lbs), and still insisting that wherever we go, he be allowed to walk. He hates being in the cart and hates being in his stroller. His preference is to hold onto the side of the cart/stroller and walk beside it, regardless of if the walk is 100 feet or a mile and a half. Billy will walk it without complaining. Pretty crazy stuff.

Mental development is also moving forward by leaps and bounds for the boys, but Billy's are manifesting themselves in very distinct changes in his abilities. On top of what we've already discussed, he's also naming many of the continents, understanding the concept of "me", using expressions like "oh man" in the correct context, better comprehending your requests and therefore becoming more helpful around the house (close the curtains, get A.J.'s binky, find your shoes, get your pajamas, let the dog in, put this in the garbage, etc.), and even starting to sing. He sings "My Rifle, My Pony, and Me" at night to help him sleep, which is from the old John Wayne movie Rio Bravo. He's also started singing other songs he hears on the radio, but they sound more like a mumble until he sings out a key word that he remembers in the song. And he's still watching the news, namely Brett Baier and Bill O'Reilly, and knows both my name, often demanding that we turn them on instead of other traditional shows that kids would watch. I have some videos of him doing this which are pretty funny.

In the "we're still working on it" category, Billy is starting to act out a bit more as his combination of physical freedom begins to intersect with his inability to always communicate exactly what he's thinking or doing in a clear and distinct way. This can lead to frustration and the little guy can reflect that back to you with a tantrum. We don't tolerate tantrums in this house and have created two primary rules that Billy has to follow. If you ask him what those rules are, he'll tell you. What is rule #1, Billy? "No whining, Dada." Are you whining Billy? "Yes", and at this point he stops whining to dialogue. Why? At this point, his response will be some 3-7 word explanation which you either understand or you don't, but either way, the reply to that is, "OK, are you done whining?" His response is always "yes", and then he stops crying/whining/etc. Tantrum stops. Period. Rule #2 is no thumbs in case you were wondering.

The other "Work on Progress" category is potty training, but the doctor says not to sweat it as most boys don't actually start potty training until they're 2.5 and Billy just turned 2 (A.J. is about to be 6 months old, by the way), so we're a bit ahead of schedule working on that with him. He seems to have everything down to warrant starting to learn how to potty train though. He tells he when he has to go more often, understands the importance of wearing "big boy underwear", flushes the toilet for Mom and Dad demonstrating no fear of it, and sits on the potty without much fuss...most of the time. We'll see. Maybe by next update we'll have a little headway.

While we're on the psychological changes, it is interesting to note this funny little story. About a month ago, we decide to head to this oceanfront restaurant on an island out here that has a play area for kids in the sand surrounded by tables for outdoor eating. Super nice place called Sliders. Anyway, Billy will go up the stairs and come down the slide right in front of him (there are bigger kids up to age 9 all around him), but he won't cross the bridge and go down to the other slide no matter what. Almost no matter what. All of a sudden a little three year old blonde girl shows up and tells him she's taking him up the stairs, and without the slightest hesitation other than a quick glance back in my direction, off he goes. At the top, she simply walks him to the other slide right across the bridge that I couldn't get him to budge on. Bam, right down the slide he goes. At the bottom, she meets him after going down herself and up they go again. About two dozen times these two were up and down the slide, sometimes with Billy getting a little push to assist him in getting down the slide quicker. You'll see some pictures mixed in of this little interaction once I get them posted. All it took was a lady to persuade him to do something he really wasn't that interested in doing. Nice.

Also during this time, we had two little events. The first was Billy's second birthday. We had two parties for him. The first was on his birthday in which we just invited family over (Heath and Carli) and watched Billy open his presents here with a video camera, had Antoinette make him a cake, etc. Fun little event. Billy's bigger party will be this upcoming weekend and will have quite a few more people there including my cousin Lauren who is coming into town that weekend. For Billy's birthday so far, we got him a table and chair set for the playroom, a slide for the playroom, some toys for his cars that Heath and I spent an hour putting together, a chalkboard, and a standing umbrella covered sandbox for the yard that is a combination sandbox/water station.

The second event was Easter Sunday, and again we kept it a family affair, having Heath and Carli over for dinner with the boys. We had a visit from the Easter Bunny who did his thing, dropping eggs all over the house, and Billy got up to run around looking for them. But there was one straggler egg that the Easter Bunny decided to put on a shelf about arm's reach off the ground. When Billy found this egg, he decided to pull himself up for a better look and just tore the entire shelf off the wall. Freaked out, he then started crying which caused me to give a sideways glance at the "Easter Bunny" for the decision to place an egg in this spot. I guess you learn something every day, right?

Some other quick notes to wrap up the blog this month, Billy got a chance to sit on Heath's motorcycle. Took a long time to get him convinced he could sit on it, but when he finally did, we couldn't get him off. You'll see some pictures of that when I get them up on the blog here by Friday. We also had a chance to get A.J. to the zoo, the beach, and the pool for the first time. Also, we are in the process of converting a room in the house to the playroom for the boys with all of their stuff in a single central location of the house to make sure we don't have toys laying all over the house in every room. I'll let you know how that works out.

Anyway, I'll try and get the pictures up tomorrow. I'm going to attach a song that Billy loves, but you'll probably find slightly annoying. It's a song that's sung by a cartoon green gummy bear and basically sounds like techno, but Billy loves it. Probably because the bear is dancing around while he's singing. Anyway, you'll hear it soon enough.