Merry Christmas!

Isaiah had a wonderful Christmas with his mom, dad, and baby sister, Anna. He got lots of great gifts and was (typically) very excited and thankful for his gifts. His other grandfather (my ex-husband) and his girlfriend sent him a really cool kite - Darth Vader's attack vehicle. It's really neat.

We got him a K-State hat (he LOVES K-State and wants to go there) and he left it on for most of the day. A lot of his things had to be put together and I'm glad he's got an engineer dad because I sure couldn't do it.

Isaiah had his Christmas program at school last week. We didn't get to go but Amy posted a video of it to Facebook and it was really cute. It was called Cowboy Christmas and they all dressed up as cowboys. Very, very cute. They had to buy him a cowboy hat for the show. He looks so cute!

We also went to see my mom last weekend. Glad to see her as she's been very ill this winter. Sadly, I don't think GG will be around that much longer so the time we spend with her and the pictures we get to take will be memories that we can all hold onto.

Mom thought Anna was beautiful (of course she is!) and told Rex how proud she was of him. He told Mom that he was thrilled to be a dad to Isaiah and Anna. It's wonderful to have him in the family!

Amy took some pictures of the kids to make into Christmas cards. She didn't order enough so I didn't get one, but that's OK. I get the real thing... LOL!

Isaiah is doing so well in school this year! He's only coming out for about 30 minutes each day and during his IEP, Amy and Rex were told that he'll probably not be pulled out at all next year. Although Isaiah has worked very, very hard this year, I give a lot of the credit to Rex being in his life. Ron and I could provide the love and attention that Isaiah needed, but we couldn't be the "DAD" that he needed. Rex has stepped up to the plate and hit a home run.

The official adoption date is 1/12/12! Isaiah will officially be Rex's son and a "shirts" just like his mom and Anna.  He's already using his new name at school but the court date is the 12th. The loser "father" has already called the court and Amy's lawyer saying that he doesn't have to pay child support any more. He's a weed... But, we're all glad that he's dropped off the face of the earth and doesn't want anything to do with anyone but his current wife and her seven (yes, 7) kids. They all call him "daddy" so that's fine by us. (He's got a FB page and doesn't even list that Isaiah exists - he lists his wife and "their" kids' names. No mention of Isaiah at all. In fact, in one piece of correspondence to Amy he asked her if she was sure Isaiah was his. Yeah... he doesn't look anything like him...)

He's such a "sharing kind of guy."

Yesterday, I went shopping with Amy and Isaiah. Since Isaiah was still eating his lunch when it was time to leave so I drove over to their house. Thursday night, his Boy Scout troop was in the homecoming parade and, not sure how but collected some candy from the parade.

I saw the candy on the counter top and I asked him if I could have a little Tootsie roll.

He said, "Sure Grandma. I will always share with you. What ever you want - just ask for it and you've got it."

Now, isn't that just the sweetest thing?

Such a sweetie

Last night, Amy and Rex had their first "birthing class" (we used to call it Lamaze) so we had Isaiah. At about 8:00, I took him home so he could shower and get into bed. On the way to his house, he wanted to know if his mom and dad were home yet. I said no, so he asked me if I was going to leave him there. He didn't want to be left home alone.

I said that he wasn't old enough to stay home alone. Maybe when he was 12, he would want to stay home alone, but not at 8 years old. He insisted that he wouldn't want to stay home alone. He didn't like being alone.

I said I didn't either.

He said, "Aren't you glad you got me?"

Trip to see GiGi

Yesterday, Keith and I took Keith's girlfriend to Kansas City to meet my mom (Isaiah's GiGi). Since I knew that Amy and Rex had planned a day of baby shopping, I volunteered to take Isaiah with us. I knew that he'd have a good time and that Mom would enjoy seeing him.

We took her to lunch at Olive Garden. My sister, her daughter, and her two grandsons also joined us so we had quite the party. Mom had a good time visiting with everyone.

Before we left, she showed Isaiah the Hallmark ornaments she had gotten for him and he exclaimed that they were "amazing!" and that he loved them. They were Star Wars. She also showed him that she has a Darth Vader ornament coming in October for him.

He said, "Is it coming October 2?"
GiGi: I don't know. Sometime in October.
Isaiah: Well, if it comes October 2, that's my dad's birthday.
GiGi: Oh, it is? I should put that on my calendar.
Isaiah: Yes, you really should.

On the drive up, Isaiah discovered that he loves Sea Salt & Vinegar potato chips. He's had them before but had forgotten that he liked them. On the way home, he wanted to stop and get some but he was getting very tired. I promised him that we'd stop at the next rest stop and if he was asleep, I'd wake him up to get him some chips. Good thing I did...

First thing this morning he was hunting his chips (he'd fallen asleep before he had eaten them).

Home alone

Today was the first day of school for the new year. Isaiah is in 2nd grade and is supposed to go to latch-key after school. "Supposed to" is the key here.

Evidently, Isaiah was a bit confused and the person doing the buses was confused. The wrong questions were asked - and answered - so Isaiah was put on the bus home.

No one is home at his house in the afternoon. He knows the code to get into the garage, so he opened up the door and discovered there were no cars in there. He went into the house and didn't find anyone. Isaiah did know exactly what to do, though.

He went to the neighbor's house and told her that no one was home. I'm not sure exactly how it played out, but she took him back to the school to latch-key so Rex could pick him up (and not panic when he didn't find him). The principal called Amy to apologize. The bus barn people called Amy to apologize.

I bet that doesn't happen again.

Amy bought a bulletin board and put it up on the fridge with all the important phone numbers. She had him practice calling for a "just in case" situation.

Riiiinnnnnngggggg.....

Me: Hello.
Isaiah: Hi Grandma, this is pretend. (I thought he said "week 10")
Me: What is week 10?
Isaiah: Pre-tend. I'm pretending...
Me: OK.
Isaiah: Grandma, I'm home alone.
Me: Oh... do you need me to come get you?
Isaiah: Yes.
Me: You know what to do when no one is home? You lock the front door and don't let anyone in except one of us. OK?
Isaiah: OK! Bye!

Sunday...

This past Sunday, I went with Amy and Isaiah to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things. I'm working on the baby invitations and I wanted to see if they had some supplies I needed (which they didn't). Isaiah had birthday money to spend and he had a couple of ideas of what he wanted to buy.

Go-Gos. Don't ask me what they are because I can't tell you. They were $1.98 each and he got four of them. That left him a considerable amount of money.

So, he picked out a movie for himself. Rio. I haven't seen it so it will be nice to have him bring it over.

Next, he spied some stuffed "heads" from the game "Angry Birds." Amy had already seen them and decided to buy a small one for Anna's room because it was the perfect color of green.

Isaiah decided that he was going to buy it for Anna, with his own birthday money.

Wasn't that sweet? The stupid little head was almost $10 and he opted to share his money with her.

(Amy will give it back to him in some other form later, but he was insistent that he buy it.)

On the way out to the car, he wanted to show Anna her new toy. (Anna's not due to arrive until November 10.) Amy said he could tell her about it instead.

Cymbalta

Last night, I was at Amy's house because Rex fixed dinner for us. (I had surgery on Tuesday and haven't felt very good so Rex volunteered to fix enough dinner for Ron and I, too.)

We were sitting at the table talking (don't remember what we were talking about) and Isaiah suddenly put his hand on his chest.

Then, he said, "Pressure hurts. Cymbalta helps."

We just about busted a gut. We told him that Cymbalta was for depression.

He said, "But pressure hurts, too."

Isaiah sure brightens our days.