Day +520: Happy Birthday Isaac!
Isaac usually plays second fiddle on this blog; it's his good fortune not to have been afflicted with a life-threatening disease. He's also not a real needy kid. He plays by himself a lot, or with his sister, and doesn't demand a lot of our attention. But of course none of that means we love him any less. Keri and I talk frequently about how lucky we are to have Isaac, and that he came along at just the perfect time. He's a really sweet kid, and all three of us enjoy him a lot.
Today (Sunday) is his 2nd birthday. I took him to the zoo this morning while Mina was at the birthday party of one of her new school friends. I figured I would take him to the petting zoo, because I'm still a little bit too paranoid to take Mina there. He sort of liked seeing the animals, but mostly he wanted to ride the toy tractor there and play with the little plastic rake. That came with pretty good timing, because just this morning he had said for the first time in a while that he wanted to ride the tractor with Uncle Bill.
But we didn't have time to do much celebrating otherwise. I'm actually blogging from a hotel in Portland. I have a meeting I have to attend starting at 8 AM, so I flew out at 6:30 and we're going to finish celebrating tomorrow night after I get back. He wasn't real clear on the meaning of having a birthday anyway. He's been singing Happy Birthday all day long, but putting various names in the place of honor: "Happy Birthday to Mina! Happy Birthday to Momma! Happy Birthday to Kaaren! Happy Birthday to Mikhaila!" He had memorized the answer to "How old are you?" (He used to say "Green!" or "Color!"), and was having a hard time figuring out why the answer was different now. We hadn't gotten to the present part yet, so that will give him a better idea of what birthdays are all about.
Mina's school had an optional campout on Friday night, so we went up to Point Reyes along with about four other families, including one of Mina's new best friends, Cassidy. We had a ball. The first thing Mina said as we were pulling into the campground was "where's Grandma?", remembering back to Family Camping weekend with Keri's family in July. Mina was walking around on Saturday morning in about two inches of dust and sand in her fleece jammies with the feet. She'd taken her sandals off, and the jammies were filthy about halfway up to her knees. She had her new baby in the "Baby Joey" position, and soon her friend Cassidy was doing that too. She spent a long time throwing dried pine needles into the fire, saying that she was making "stone soup" (after the book of that name). Then we went on a hike in the redwoods, and she liked finding little spots to hide from bears. A bummer about hiking with little kids in this area is poison oak. This area had lots of it, so we had to be really careful about what the kids touched.
The families seem like a really nice bunch of people, and it's been a lot of fun to see Mina interact with other kids. She rode in Cassidy's car between the campground and the hike, and had a great time. Julie, the teacher, and one of the other parents were marveling at how social Mina is. They said she's a leader, and Julie said she was a "social force." Then she told a story about how Mina rallied a group of about four kids to stop what they were doing and go out to the sand box with her. After all that we've been through over the past three years, with having to worry about so many awful possibilities, after she was on isolation for so long, to hear that she's not only adapting to being with other kids but a "social force", it's enough to bring tears to my eyes. I hope the other parents didn't notice.
Mina, like Keri and I, really benefited from Isaac's presence. He was so interactive at such a young age that she's really had a playmate all along. And we had someone to help absorb the pressure of all our worries. He's taken it all in stride and seems to be really flourishing. He loves his big sister, and more often than not he initiates the games now. His diction is so clear, he can pronounce "L" really well, but Mina still uses "Y". He obviously picks up a lot of his speech from his sister, because when he sings Baah Baah Black Sheep, he goes "one for the yittle boy who yives down the lane"
Isaac, I don't know what we'd have done without you. Happy Birthday little guy, I miss you.
Today (Sunday) is his 2nd birthday. I took him to the zoo this morning while Mina was at the birthday party of one of her new school friends. I figured I would take him to the petting zoo, because I'm still a little bit too paranoid to take Mina there. He sort of liked seeing the animals, but mostly he wanted to ride the toy tractor there and play with the little plastic rake. That came with pretty good timing, because just this morning he had said for the first time in a while that he wanted to ride the tractor with Uncle Bill.
But we didn't have time to do much celebrating otherwise. I'm actually blogging from a hotel in Portland. I have a meeting I have to attend starting at 8 AM, so I flew out at 6:30 and we're going to finish celebrating tomorrow night after I get back. He wasn't real clear on the meaning of having a birthday anyway. He's been singing Happy Birthday all day long, but putting various names in the place of honor: "Happy Birthday to Mina! Happy Birthday to Momma! Happy Birthday to Kaaren! Happy Birthday to Mikhaila!" He had memorized the answer to "How old are you?" (He used to say "Green!" or "Color!"), and was having a hard time figuring out why the answer was different now. We hadn't gotten to the present part yet, so that will give him a better idea of what birthdays are all about.
Mina's school had an optional campout on Friday night, so we went up to Point Reyes along with about four other families, including one of Mina's new best friends, Cassidy. We had a ball. The first thing Mina said as we were pulling into the campground was "where's Grandma?", remembering back to Family Camping weekend with Keri's family in July. Mina was walking around on Saturday morning in about two inches of dust and sand in her fleece jammies with the feet. She'd taken her sandals off, and the jammies were filthy about halfway up to her knees. She had her new baby in the "Baby Joey" position, and soon her friend Cassidy was doing that too. She spent a long time throwing dried pine needles into the fire, saying that she was making "stone soup" (after the book of that name). Then we went on a hike in the redwoods, and she liked finding little spots to hide from bears. A bummer about hiking with little kids in this area is poison oak. This area had lots of it, so we had to be really careful about what the kids touched.
The families seem like a really nice bunch of people, and it's been a lot of fun to see Mina interact with other kids. She rode in Cassidy's car between the campground and the hike, and had a great time. Julie, the teacher, and one of the other parents were marveling at how social Mina is. They said she's a leader, and Julie said she was a "social force." Then she told a story about how Mina rallied a group of about four kids to stop what they were doing and go out to the sand box with her. After all that we've been through over the past three years, with having to worry about so many awful possibilities, after she was on isolation for so long, to hear that she's not only adapting to being with other kids but a "social force", it's enough to bring tears to my eyes. I hope the other parents didn't notice.
Mina, like Keri and I, really benefited from Isaac's presence. He was so interactive at such a young age that she's really had a playmate all along. And we had someone to help absorb the pressure of all our worries. He's taken it all in stride and seems to be really flourishing. He loves his big sister, and more often than not he initiates the games now. His diction is so clear, he can pronounce "L" really well, but Mina still uses "Y". He obviously picks up a lot of his speech from his sister, because when he sings Baah Baah Black Sheep, he goes "one for the yittle boy who yives down the lane"
Isaac, I don't know what we'd have done without you. Happy Birthday little guy, I miss you.
posted by Arne Olson @ 11:22 PM
1 Comments:
At 7:19 AM PDT,
Anonymous said…
Many happy returns of the day to Isaac. I remember taking my son (now almost 10)around the same age to the zoo in Hanoi, and all he wanted to do was go on the train. Isaac clearly is a blessing, and it is just wonderful to "watch" him and Mina as they pass so many milestones with such panache. As ever, Arne, thanks for making us part of this amazing experience.
Prayers and love,
Hari
PS. Just to share some more happy news, my own bone-marrow aspiration results have come in, and it marks two years that I have been in remission.
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