Summer Changes...

Summer appears to be a time for change as the boys have shown a tremendous amount of it lately. Starting with Billy, he's growing. Still in the 75th in height and 50th in weight, he's still a tall lanky boy for his age. He's taller than most boys his age we see and a lot of people think he's 3 already, when in reality he just turned 2. While he's progressing at a solid rate from a growth standpoint, there are a bunch of other changes popping up for him. True milestones.

Billy's ability to count has improved. He counts to five with regularity now, often times on his own. You'll just hear him in the playroom counting things. He's also capable of drawing lines and circles, and while he can't draw more complex shapes yet (triangles, squares, pentagons, hexagons, trapezoids, octagons, etc.), he understands their shape and will often help you complete the shapes when you start them out. He's recognizing the patterns and completing the sequence. Soon, I want to start showing him the difference between circles and ovals, rectangles and squares, etc. He helped me put together a 25 piece puzzle of the planet the other day by picking out the pieces that matched the colors we were looking for and then putting them into the puzzle with a little verbal coaching (turn it, turn it, turn it, now set it down...)

His singing voice is improving as well. Not really, but at least he's becoming better with a couple songs. He now sings almost all the words to My Rife My Pony and Me before we put him to sleep and often sings parts before they play in the song, showing anticipation and good memory. And this kid will dance for hours on end without stopping. It's pretty funny to watch. We've sometimes put him on Skype and just turned him loose with the family watching him and he'll non-stop dance. I can't really tell, but he seems to move to beat with his hips and steps, and certainly pauses during breaks in the song.

Speaking of singing, the alphabet song is a vast improvement. He now runs through it pretty well, save for a couple key letters that we double up on or mix up. But ultimately the song is intact, which is solid for a 2 year old. He knows all of his letters at this point and now we're working on what sounds they make. He has a couple he struggles with, but that's to be expected.

Another huge change for him is the potty. Billy started potty training a couple months ago (really we had him sitting on the chair about 6 months ago, but the real actual training just started). He's been able to go #2 a couple times (a little) and #1's much more frequently. He's also stood on a stool to do a #1 in the toilet, but so far, we have not had any success with him actually going while he's up there. Just likes the feel of standing over the toilet bowl, I guess. On this front, he made quick early progress which was great, but things have slowed down quite a bit and he's less and less interested in going. We're not pushing him, but we are going to have to try some new techniques and see if they take, like Cheerios for target practice in the toilet, etc.

Billy likes movies now. He watches the Disney movies and the early Harry Potter movies (the later ones are a little much for a toddler). We limit his time watching TV, but with two little ones, it's good to know that we can keep his attention while we tend to A.J. He also likes Avatar, Transformers, Cars, etc., as well as getting into Thomas the Train and other train related things. We took the boys on the train at the zoo about a week or two ago and let them ride that around to the back of the park, which both enjoyed. Antoinette and I are probably going to be getting him an electric train set for Christmas so that A.J. is old enough to not get hurt on it (hopefully walking by Christmas).

Billy also had his birthday party in May to celebrate his 2nd Birthday. Luckily, my cousin Lauren was in town for a wedding with her husband Chris and were able to come over for a little get together. Nothing too crazy, but the kids were able to spend some time in the kiddie pool I bought them with some other couples and their kids. The boys had a great time and they really enjoyed the presents that everyone brought for Billy's birthday, so thanks again to everyone that was able to make it.

Finally for Billy, he has advanced to water wings in the swimming pool and seems to do quite well in them after seeing other kids in them. At the ocean, he is shying away from the waves this year (not sure why), but we're going right at that and walking him down there so we can sit in the waves and feel them come up and wash over, etc. We are also focusing on the seashells and fish in the waves as they wash up and that seems to take his mind off the crashing waves. We'll keep at it. Can't be nervous around waves and live in Florida.

Over to A.J., and this little guy has seen a world of changes, too. For one, he's mobile. A.J. all of a sudden took minor rolling when the mood hit him to rolling around like crazy. Then within a week or so, he was on all fours. Within a week or so of that, he was "crawling" by moving about 3-6" forward every minute or so. And today, he's a crawling machine. He'll cross the entire house in 2-3 minutes now. Put him down and he sees something we wants (like the cable box) and he's off. Two mobile babies!!!

On top of that, within a week after starting to crawl, he was already pushing himself into a sitting position at will, standing up when you put him on the side of the couch, and just today, pulling himself up into a standing position on the dog who was just laying on the floor letting him do it, and giggling away the entire time. He has to be one of the happiest babies you've ever seen. Takes just a smile from you to get one in return with laughing and giggling.

My guess is that this very quick explosion in body control and locomotion is caused by his time in the walker. Billy never really spent any time in the walker. We put him there and he just stood there, unable to really get more than a toe or so on the ground. He was crawling at 7-8 months or so and walking by 10 months. Now that A.J.'s 8.5 months old and already crawling full steam and pulling himself into a standing position, I'm guessing it won't be much more than 10-11 months before he starts taking those first steps, too.

As far as diets go with the boys, both are changing, as well. A.J. has advanced to solids now and gets his peas and carrots, apple sauce and sweet potatoes, rice cereal and formula, etc. He's no longer relying on Mom for food, as least physically, and overall, he's a very good eater. Billy on the other hand, is now a much pickier eater, and he's easily distracted at the table. If you can get him to focus on his meal, he eats it, but if left to his own devices, it'll just sit there while he waits long enough to ask to be excused ("All done, Dada..."). At that point, we have to turn full focus toward him and simply explain to him what his food is made up of. Then the old "Dada's bite, Billy's bite" game works like a charm. Give him options (do you want a piece of chicken or an onion) and he'll always pick one and eat it provided you take your turn.

Some other quick notes before we get to the pictures are that A.J. can sit up now, so there is no longer a need for any support chair in the tub. Now the boys can both take their bath at the same time and as parents, we can kill two birds with one stone. Antoinette just needs help getting them out of the tub so we don't leave one in while working on the other. The boys also play bumper cars out on the back patio. A.J. in his walker and Billy with his little push cart will run full out at each other and collide and then start laughing. Then they'll go and do it again. Pretty funny stuff to watch the two of them. A.J. laughs and smiles every time he watches Billy, even if it's just a clip of Billy doing something on the Iphone. And speaking of the Iphone, Billy's skill on it is improving still. He can now manipulate the phone, change settings to suit him, navigate YouTube, play his games, find music and other things of note, and basically do everything except navigate the internet. Pretty crazy for a two year old, but I guess that's what they're growing up with these days.

Without further adieu, here are the pictures for the month: