July was another month of interesting developments, an important visitor, and the beginning of some new life lessons for the boys. The month began with a visit from the boys Grandma Charlotte, who came in to spend the 4th of July weekend with the family. This year, we decided to head back to St. Augustine for the show even though the early reports were calling for 110 degree high temps during the day and low 90's at night (with the heat index, of course). Pretty hot for a couple of toddlers. With just a day or two to go until we had to make a final decision, the weather forecast was improving almost daily and it was doing the opposite in Jacksonville which had now begun calling for rain.
The 4th finally arrived and we decided that the forecasts had improved enough and it would be fairly late into the evening when the show went off that temperatures should be ok for us to make that trip. We loaded everyone up with enough water to keep a 100 people marching through the Sahara hydrated for a month and hit the road. The timing couldn't have been better. Within 5 minutes of pulling out of the driveway, the thunderstorms started. We spent the better part of the first 25 minutes of the drive at 50 MPH in a driving rain, but as we slipped out of the city heading South, the rain began to clear and in the rearview, we could see a massive thunderstorm behind us sweeping East toward the ocean. For the next 20 minutes we made our way farther South toward St. Augustine and finally arrived at the one major parking garage they have. Believe it or not, we were the final car they allowed into the massive 7 level structure. I let Antoinette, Charlotte, and the boys out to go play in the elaborate park area while I parked the car.
Before long we were making our way over to the Castillo de San Marco, a 300 year old Spanish fort built on Matanzas Bay and constructed out of coquina stone (essentially compacted sea shells). We threw down our blankets next to the fort and settled in for some dinner and to wait out the final hour until the show began.
St. Augustine has by far the best fireworks display I have ever seen. While it isn't the largest or the most elaborate, it certainly holds its own while combining a historic quality with a front and center viewing spot. The combination makes it can't miss and it is the primary reason why the city is jammed packed every 4th. Before long the show started and for AJ, this was his first fireworks show where he was old enough to pay attention. Billy was immediately engrossed, but AJ, he could care less. Now these fireworks are being launched off of a barge roughly a thousand or two feet from our face, so they are pretty loud and their explosions cover the entire sky. AJ? Not interested in the least. Even during the Grand Finale (which I'm attaching to the back end of the video), AJ only cared about messing with Mom's iPhone. No idea what we're going to do with that kid.
As for the rest of Charlotte's trip, they had a chance to take the boys around and really enjoy themselves as the weather held out quite nicely. We toured St. Augustine after the fireworks to let some of the traffic clear, they were able to take the boys to the local Mall and visit Dad at work, and even took a visit over to the beach where the funky tidal shifts left some large tidal pools that were perfect for the boys to play in, complete with some crabs and other animals in there for them to chase around. The visit was a great way to kickoff the month.
Some other updates on the boys:
Billy is learning to swim this Summer. He's 3 years old now and some of his friends can swim that are close to him in age, so we have begun a process to teach him at the pool. The first steps are where we are right now, which is allowing him to explore the steps of the pool without water wings on (and us close by with him, of course). After awhile of trying that, we have moved to practicing putting our face in the water to blow bubbles. It was a little uncomfortable with him at first, but little by little, he's coming along. By the time we left the pool, not only was Billy blowing bubbles in the water, but so was AJ (although he was swallowing more than I would like). Both boys were jumping off the side of the pool into Antoinette and I's arms without water wings on. And finally, we had just started practicing kicking the water from the side of the pool for the first time. On the next visit, we'll start with blowing bubbles with our face in the water for 5-10 minutes, followed by about 20 minutes of kicking from the side of the pool, and then add in a new component, which is placing a small toy underwater so that Billy has to put his face in the water to get it out. That should be interesting. My goal is to have him swimming by the end of the Summer.
Sticking with Billy for a minute, his math skills are continuing to improve. He can now comfortably count to about 20 and can do most math problems involving numbers from 1-10 using objects to count. For instance, "if I have 10 coins and you give me 3, now many coins do I have left?" He is also beginning to do the math problems in his head without counting out loud. For instance, if he has 3 coins on the ground and I add 3 more, he typically has to add the three new ones and then count the coins, "1, 2, 3...etc." But lately, he's just been looking at the number there are in front of him and counting them mentally, and then rattling off the answer. More and more improvement for him. He's also pretty solid at Memory. He's actually beaten me twice without cheating. It either says a lot for him or very little for me.
Speaking of AJ, he remains a little tyranical monster most of the time. Destroying just about anything he gets his hands on. The other day, he took a Thomas the Train wooden railroad track and began biting off the connecting nubs that interlock the tracks together. We're talking 1/8" thick or more wooden numbs that he's snapping off with his teeth by chewing them off. I have no idea how that happens, but we are talking about a kid who we found gnawing on the dry wall in the playroom when he was teething, so I'm not that surprised.
He just went to the doctor and came out with a clean bill of health. Doc also says he's growing like a weed. He's tall and lean like his brother. AJ comes in at the 85th percentile in height while just the 35th percentile in weight. For what its worth, the child height prediction models say he'll likely be somewhere between 5'11" and 6'1" (80% chance). The other interesting note from this visit was that AJ normally goes ballistic as soon as anyone enters the room from the doctor's staff. This time, he just looked at the girl cautiously, then took his shot and didn't let out a peep. The nurse was shocked that he didn't cry, especially with AJ's track record for hating his visits to the office and the warning Antoinette usually gives them. Have to see if that was a freak thing or if he has actually moved into a stage of just shrugging off his shots now.
Some other quick notes for AJ:
He's been tackling Billy now and dragging him to the ground. In other words, in the past 30 days, he's learned how to "fight back" and can now hold his own a little bit. He's even pinned Billy to the ground once or twice while they were playing.
He can also count to two and then tries to count beyond that, but only "1" and "2" are actually discernible as any sort of coherent language, but he does it while he's trying to count is toes or fingers. "1, 2, sajfp?, shosjd?, etc." That's progress at least.
And finally, AJ is repeating words better. I think he's starting to cross that threshold where you will really see his vocabulary start to skyrocket. He likes repeating things when you show them what they are and ask him to repeat the word and he tries it with everything when we go on walks or just around the house. This was the point where Billy went from 10-15 words to about 100 in just 3-6 months. Lots of practice.
Anyway, I'm attaching a video in a bit, and the end of the video should include the Grand Finale from the St. Augustine fireworks show.
