Well, it's been two months since I've had a chance to get a new blog update on here, but I've been all over the country on business and haven't had a chance to take a weekend to put something together. Because of that, we're going to have a lightning round, both to play catchup as well as to get as much info out there about these two as possible since they've both made tremendous changes. The order I'm going to do this in is first talking about things they've done together, and then talking about Billy, and finally talking about A.J. So, with that out of the way, here we go...
Over the course of the past two months, we had a chance to take the boys to Seaworld. With eventual vacations coming up sometime in the next 6 months, it was important that we have a test run on how something like a lengthy drive would go for the boys. Seaworld was about 2.5 hours of driving, so that seemed like a good test. First, in order to pull that off, we had to buy a new car seat. A.J. had outgrown the old one and despite it claiming it was still OK for a baby his size, he just didn't look right in it anymore. So we upgraded car seats, gave Billy the new bigger convertible car seat, and gave A.J. the car seat that Billy had, which is a larger car seat in its own right. Car seats worked pretty well on the drive down, but A.J. was clearly uncomfortable on the car ride back. The problem was that we had put the car seats together instead of separating them in the back seat and allowing Antoinette to get in between them and preventing the boys from tormenting each other. That became an issue when our 2.5 hour car ride back turned into 4 hours thanks to massive thunderstorms moving through the area.
As for Seaworld, great time for the kids. Pretty warm when we were there, which was not too much of a challenge considering Seaworld had plenty of indoor air conditioned or covered rides and shows. Overall, the boys loved it. Definitely a better idea than taking a 2 year old and 1 year old to Disney. Won't be able to remember any of that, but for some reason I feel like they will retain more of Shamu and the Dolphins, etc. We broke the trip up into two days, found a giant house rental in Orlando for $49/night (50% discounted rates), and booked it. The house rental we had was in a resort which also had a massive lazy river complex (didn't know you had to bring your own tubes) and a large park and water slide. The water slide was fun for Billy the first time down, but he didn't go down again after that. Overall, a great little extended weekend with the family.
Some other things the boys are doing together these days include wrestling, fighting over toys, punching each other, biting, and knocking each other over things. Basically, now that A.J. gets around a little better (he's walking, but we'll get to that in the A.J. updates), it's turned into a free for all. They constantly wrestle with each other, laughing 95% of the time...and then someone gets hurt, crying starts, we break them up, tell them to stop, and then 10 minutes later, they're wrestling again. Now that A.J. can get to Billy's toys, nothing is safe, so that has led to some new lessons about sharing. We don't make either child give up their toy if they have it already, but they can't take the other one's toy from their brother if they are already playing with it. Works fairly well so far. Keeps playtime fair and still teaches them to share. Punching and now Billy with his biting is getting out of hand. Dad doesn't deal with that too well since A.J. can't defend himself yet. The other day I came home from work and A.J. had four bite marks on his body (3 on the arm and 1 on the leg). We had a very lengthy discussion about that one. It has slowed down now that we have daily reminders about punishments for biting.
So let's talk about the boys individually. First up is Billy. Billy is definitely stronger and more capable than before. Now he can climb the rock wall at the park, which is a skill he's been using to scale the back and sides of the couch instead of getting on the normal way. He grabs the back of the furniture and then pulls himself up and over it. At two and a half, I didn't expect this yet, but here we are. He runs everywhere now and his insistence on walking is as strong as ever. Still refuses to get in a stroller or cart no matter if he's been walking 5 minutes or 5 miles. Doesn't care. He's also taken to trying to ride Hunter like a horse, which has translated into playing horse with Mom and Dad around the house.
He's also become a much better helper with his Mother. He understands much better and can take a traditional sentence and know pretty much what you're saying. No Baby Talk, no gibberish, no "baba" or "binky" talk with him. Just flat out say it in plain English and he gets it. Because of this increased ability to comprehend, we've been testing him. No cues or pointing. Just ask him to do something, such as "go in my bedroom and into the closet, find Daddy's belt, and bring it to me. Make sure you close the door and the light when you're done in there." And then we see if he does it. He usually does everything you ask him to. Antoinette has started teaching him how to cook (he watches and tries when he can to help), and Billy has been helping her pick up the house, get things for A.J. when Antoinette can't (like when she's changing a diaper and realizes mid change she forgot something), etc.
Billy is learning how to dress himself now. He understands the concept of arm through a hole, pants on one leg at a time, etc., but the actual practice of doing it is still a work in progress. We are also learning our left from our right and covering them each time we put on pants, shoes, or socks. Easiest to just put him on your lap and then show him from his vantage point, this is left, and this is right. We also practice when we are driving home from somewhere to see if he can remember his way home. Where do we go here, Billy? Right or left? He gets some streets right most of the time, so he must remember certain landmarks at the intersections. The more obscure turns he struggles with.
Billy has started painting with water books (whatever those are) and speaking of water, we also had an incident where he pretty much drove his trains right across the desk, knocked over a water that was sitting there, which dumped all over our keyboard for the computer and killed it. Weren't planning buying a new keyboard, but I guess sometimes it is just that time. Can't really blame him because I shouldn't have had the water there, but it did create a good opportunity to explain to him that water and electronics don't mix. We'll see what memory retention on that is, but at least he hasn't tossed anything valuable into the toilet yet (referencing Iphones here).
For Halloween this year, Billy is going to be Buzz Lightyear. Nothing is funnier than explaining to him that A.J. is going to be Buzz Lightyear and he is going to go as Woody because he's taller (just messing with him, of course). Oh Lord. You would've thought his head was going to explode. He doesn't like that one bit. And now that he's speaking in coherent sentences of 4-10 words (at least to people that see him a lot), you are going to hear it if you even suggest something as silly as A.J. being Buzz Lightyear. Anyway, Antoinette bought their costumes already and Billy got the inflatable Buzz Lightyear wings, so he's running around the house in those things pretty much daily at this point. I'm sure I'll have some pictures of that in here somewhere.
Finally, one negative change for Billy is his eating habits. The kid has become the ultimate in picky eating. This is a phase that all 2 year olds go through, but sometimes the only way to get him to eat is for Antoinette to double his plate portion and then have me eat with him. If Dad does it, then he'll do it because of course we have discussions about "what gives you big muscles, Billy?" to which his typical reply is "chicken". Bingo. Now eat it. He's packing on weight now and is currently in the 60th percentile for a 2.5 year old at 30 lbs. He's also getting taller, coming in at 37" now, which is 75th percentile in height.
Oh, one funny story I forgot to tell you. We are teaching Billy about the big wall clock and how to tell time. So everything he has to do (bedtime, brushing his teeth, football coming on, etc.) is tied to a time on the clock. "When the hour hand, which is the little hand, is on the 8, then football is on, OK?" He acknowledges and then two hours later, he comes flying into the room and starts yelling, "Dada, Dada. 8 on the big clock. Football on big TV!!!" Very funny stuff. Gotta love it. At least he has his priorities right. Both of the boys love watching football with Daddy.
As for A.J., a world of changes for this little guy. He's also growing taller, coming at the 80th percentile for his age, but from a weight gain standpoint, he's still in the bottom 1/3 of kids his age. He's basically tall and skinny. The biggest change for A.J. is no doubt his walking. A.J. took his first steps at right about 9 months on the dot. Within a month, he was walking pretty consistently and crawling over to the wall or couch to climb up it so he could take another 10-20 steps in a row again. Now at 11 months, it is his primary mode of movement, and he's added the ability to stand up on his own from anywhere in the room without any help to do it. He's a walker now, period.
But it turns out that Billy isn't the only dancer in this family. A.J., about a month ago at 10 months, just started swaying his whole body to certain beats. He seems to really enjoy upbeat music of any style and will start swinging his hips to whatever is playing. Time will tell just how much rhythm this little guy actually has. That ability to walk has also translated into an ability to climb. We found A.J. in the playroom about 3 steps up the slide on his own one day. This was before he was even walking consistently. He seems to have little to no fear and often does things that he has to know are going to hurt. Like climbing onto and off of Billy's bed. He knows he's going to fall off of it, but he's on and off, on and off, on and off all day if you let him. Speaking of getting hurt, the kid's head is a magnet for injuries. He falls and hits his head on something about 10 times a day. It's crazy. But each time, he rarely cries and shakes it off and goes right back to whatever he was doing. Must be used to taking flak from his brother.
His appetite is still playing catchup from his heavy spit up days. The spitting up has basically subsided entirely. He's lucky if he spits up once every couple days now, which is a far cry from the 30-40 times a day that he was doing it. And with that change has come an increased appetite. A.J. eats everything. And I mean everything. I haven't found anything he doesn't like yet (although I'm sure Antoinette has). We'll see if he becomes a picky eater like Billy in time because Billy used to be a good eater when he was younger, but not like A.J.
A.J. is a little behind on his clapping right now. Doesn't really like to do it. But what he does love to do is kiss. He's a kisser. And amusingly, he's not a sloppy kisser like most kids are. He's a closed mouth kisser. It's pretty funny when he does it. But clapping is not his thing. As for speaking, A.J. is really starting to say Momma and Dada much more, but still fairly infrequently. I'm pretty sure he's behind where Billy was in terms of speech, but many kids don't even start speaking until they are 14 months old, so he has plenty of time for that. He's incredibly vocal, but not really words coming out. But he's very interested in your words and will intently watch your lips when you're speaking, especially if you go slow and enunciate, so I think it's only a matter of time until he's talking a bit more.
Anyway, that's it for now. I'll try and get another one up before Thanksgiving, so until then, enjoy the pictures as soon as I get them up there.
