Lows and Heighs

It's been an interesting week. Dan's been out of town (about 2 hours away) and Isaiah has been missing him! Naps and night time have been a little stressful for Za so tonight was perfect! We drove out to meet Dan for dinner and when we got home, Isaiah went right to sleep. Daddy fixes everything.

On our way out of town this afternoon we stopped at Keesler for another blood test to check Isaiah's iron levels. He's been on the maximum dose of iron for 2 months. I talked to the Nurse just after the test and the results came back really quickly. She compared them to last time (2 months ago) and his iron numbers were LOWER!! Not a happy thing. She'll touch base with Dr. Helo in the a.m. and with me after that. I'd like to take a break from the extra iron for a few weeks to see what happens, but I'm not actually a doctor, so we'll see what Dr. Helo thinks. More on this later.

Before heading out for dinner, Daniel met with the Detailer (the person who places all the Chaplains) who happened to be at the same conference that Dan's at. They chatted and bonded and talked about where Daniel would like to be next. The Detailer thought Camp Pendelton sounded like a great fit, so TENTATIVELY we're headed to California!! We might even go early - September or October 2009.

Keep in mind, this is just the beginning of what will be a 1 year roller coaster. As I've said before, we'll know where Dan is stationed next about 2 weeks after we get there. But, for today, we've got a verbal commitment on Camp Pendelton and Dan will call on Monday again to get it firmed up.

Now, I'm going to bed too. Much love from Mississippi!

Where to begin....

Isaiah is running around and having a great time. On Thursday he was so naughty!! We actually gave him his first time out! Isaiah likes to climb up the stove door when he's not getting enough attention while I'm in the kitchen. After trying everything else, I finally gave him a time out. (It was that our lose my temper.) So, into his empty crib he went for 1 whole minute!!

We've done it a few times now and we know he doesn't really understand exactly what's going on but it works! We're getting into a really good habit of staying calm and following through. And, if Isaiah goes for the oven door now, all I have to say is "No Isaiah, don't climb on the oven. Go play with your toys... do you want a time out?" As soon as he hears it, he turns around shaking his head and saying "No, no, no, no" and goes to play with a toy.

I know, I'm impressive. :-)

Tonight, after being up in Jackson, Isaiah decided it would be SUPER-FUNNY to HIT ME! We'll see if the "time out" works for that behavior too.

Fear is a silly thing...

I had a wonderful day pretending I was a grown up today. I dropped Isaiah off with Andrea (thank you again, so very much) and headed to a Conference Pastor's meeting. Had lunch with them then headed back. It was almost like having a job for the day. Except its 100-times easier to drop Zah off with Andrea than at day care.

On the way home, with Isaiah dozing in his car seat, I hear about the plain that landed in the Hudson River. I immediately started thinking, "what if that happens to us!!." I know, crazy, but all the same... I don't think we'll be flying this week or next. :-)

Fear is an odd thing.

Who taught him that!!

It's been a pretty great couple of weeks. We're all healthy and happy and Isaiah is learning stuff like crazy. We've had two rather odd things happen. First, the piano...

Dan had been talking about learning to play the piano (he and I go through these creative "learn something new" streaks every now and again) so I finally pulled out the old Casio keyboard that Dan had. Isaiah immediately started to play it and sing. Keep in mind, we have NO IDEA where the plug is, so it doesn't make any noise by itself. So, we started wondering who taught him what a piano does? How did he know it was supposed to make music? He can't see the keys at church. It was very strange. Needless to say, I found 6 D batteries and now it makes music too.

A few days before I was cleaning out the closet in our extra bedroom and found a black-and-white picture of Jesus (a rather nice piece of art for a church). Isaiah was fascinated by it and immediately started tickling Jesus' beard and hands. I said "that's Jesus" and Isaiah said, clear as day, "Jesus". This is his first S too! So I put the picture up in the kitchen. Now Isaiah points at it and says "Jesus" and walks us back to the kitchen occasionally so he can point at Him and say "Jesus." And, no matter where we are in the house, if you ask him "where's Jesus" he runs to the kitchen to point. ... these are the things written on our hearts, because we sure didn't teach him this.

We did get some sad news from River Falls. A wonderful women, Kim, died of breast cancer on Sunday. She was amazing and is missed greatly!

The Hard Stuff... The Fun Stuff

I know it's been too long since I've written... but who wants to write about being in the hospital? Many of you already know that Isaiah spent the first weekend on December in the hospital with a bad case of croup. It was 3 days that I am starting to forget. Within a week, Isaiah was 100% back to his old-self.

He did loose his Mom and Dad... now he calls both of us mom unless you correct him. They told us that would happen. It will come back.

Well, we went from the hospital to Christmas prep to Christmas to family visiting to Carston's birth (my sister-in-law and Dan's brother had their 2nd on Dec. 26th) to New Years to today. I've been sending out Christmas cards with this fantastic photo inside. See, he's perfectly fine now.

Dan goes back to work tomorrow after 4 days off. I'm starting to do a little writing for the congregation in Jackson so they have sermons for Lent. Isaiah is practicing eating on his own. Today he finally used the spoon the right way! Our life is exciting.