A Day's Adventures with Isaiah

Yesterday, Isaiah and I spent about 5 hours out together. It was a rare opportunity for some one-on-one time with my 5 year old boy. I thought I would share our day with you to give you a glimpse into the energy of this little man.

Before we could even get out the door, we had 2 incidents to deal with. The first, he poured out all the body wash from his Lightning McQueen car into the bathtub. Thankfully, it was in the bathtub. It got quiet in the house. I should have known he was up to something. Then, he decided to remove the baskets of DVDs and unplug all the TV equipment. We couldn't figure out why the TV wasn't working. I don't even know what made him think to do that. If it is quiet for even one minute, I have to frantically search the house for him.

Our time began with a visit to the doctor's office for his 5-year checkup. The roads in our neighborhood were still very slick and in my mega-mama truck I came very close to having an accident. I was going down the hill out of our neighborhood and there was no stopping that thing. We had to turn right into traffic. Isaiah was talking in his usual mega loud voice the whole time as I am trying to maneuver in such a way to miss the oncoming car. It was quite the adrenaline rush. When it was all over and he was just continuing to chat away, I had to say, "Hey, buddy, can you just be quiet for a minute while Mommy recovers from that near death accident?" He had no idea what had just happened. He did tell random strangers several times throughout the rest of the day in his loud, booming voice, "Our truck doesn't stop on the snow very well!"

Once we got to the doctor's office, there were a series of questions I had to answer regarding his development to see if he was on track. I have never really thought much about these questions with my 4 bio kids, but with Isaiah and Laila, I am particularly interested in knowing if they are on track developmentally. There was one question in particular that I was supposed to ask him:

Me: Isaiah, What city do you live in?

Isaiah: Colorado?

Me: No, that is the state we live in. Do you know the name of the city?

Isaiah: (thinking intently and scrambling for an answer) Jesus?

Me: No, that is usually a good answer to try, but it is not the right answer in this case.

That just cracked me up that he tried the "Jesus" answer for this question.

We found out what I suspected. He is small for his age. It wasn't shocking since Laila, who is 18 months younger than him, is the same size as him. He is in the 15 percentile for height and 50 percentile for weight. Who knows for sure, but I have to wonder if that is due to poor nutrition for the first 2 1/2 years of his life.

After the doctor's visit, we headed to Sams to do some of our Christmas food shopping. He is always entertaining(mostly to others, not so much to me) in stores. He feels the need to talk to everyone. He sings and shouts and comments on random people's actions, clothing, or food choices. In line, he decided it would be fun to wink at random women. He is such a charmer. We affectionately call him "Ladies Man." O how I wish I could find a shirt that says that for him to wear. We made it out of there fairly easily with smiley faces on our receipts(a must every time).

Next up: A bday date with Mom and Dad at Red Robin

Sorry about the light in these pics:

He literally wanted to spend EVERY minute

playing games on this little computer at our table.

He watched the trailer for the new Sherlock Holmes movie at least 5 times.

We got a free appetizer! Yay for free stuff!

He ordered his usual ketchup with some chicken tenders and french fries on the side.

On our way out, he asked for a purple balloon. That balloon lasted for almost 24 hours before he popped it with the star from our Swazi Nativity Set. I think that is probably a record.

Next stop, Dollar Tree, so he could do his Christmas shopping. This boy is funny when he shops. He was determined to find just the right gifts for his brothers and sisters. At one point, he said, "I can't find just any gift, it has to be the best gift!" He knew what he wanted to get for Cody. I tried to deter him, but that wasn't happening. We had to leave the line to go back and get the thing he wanted to get. The store is pretty small and his voice could be heard throughout the store. When we were standing in line, this conversation occurred:

Lady in line: Wow, he has quite the vocabulary(that is nice way to say, "that kid never shuts up, does he?")

Me: Yeah, you wouldn't know that English is his second language would you?

Lady: What was his first language?

Me: Siswati.

Lady: Oh, I want to hear him speak in Siswati. (To Isaiah)Can you say something in Siswati? Can you say, "Good Morning."

Isaiah: Good Morning.

Lady: No, say it in Siswati.

Isaiah:(with an annoyed look on his face)"GOOOOOD MOOORRRRNNNNIIIINNNGG!!!"

Me: Yeah, he doesn't really remember Siswati.

Our next stop was Walmart. I didn't want to go at this point, but knew that I would be glad to get the shopping done with only one child in tow. We did it!! We survived it. He talked loudly the whole time. You know, the usual.

On the way home, we listened to Christmas music. His favorite song, "Fleas Navidad"(Yes, I know I wrote it wrong. That is how he says it.) came on the radio.

To most people, he is just funny and energetic, but he runs at this level all day EVERY DAY!! I love him, but he exhausts me and the work of training him and teaching him patience and boundaries takes just about all I have in me. Oh, and did I mention that I have 5 other children. Yeah, so you get the picture!