Isaac's Birthday

Today was (well, it's past midnight, so I guess I should say yesterday was) Isaac's 8th birthday. Needless to say, it's hard to believe that my little guy is 8. It's also hard to believe that I've been blogging on this journal for over nine years -- since January of 2002. Wow. That's a lot of words.

Isaac is just a great kid. He's funny and smart and thoughtful. He loves to be helpful and can be so sweet with his sister (though granted sometimes he can be mean to her too, but nothing out of the ordinary there). It has been so much fun lately watching him blossom -- which reminds me that I need to post more about his adventures in independence. He has now successfully walked himself to CVS and bought milk and walked back -- and the other day he and I walked there together and my mom came by in the car and picked me up (long story) and Isaac walked by on his own. It was so cute/funny to see him wave at us when we drove past him.

Isaac's birthday celebrations this year were marred by scheduling complications (to put it mildly) from Little League and gymnastics. I'll post the gory details at some point maybe, but in sum, I ended up encouraging him to skip the big party this year and instead do a small group of friends at a movie on a Friday night. He went for that, and it was a pretty big success. Five of his friends came (I invited four...another long story ;) ) and then Ruthie and Baz, so we had eight kids altogether and me and mom. It went well. Afterward, we got ice cream, and some of the kids' parents picked them up, and I drove two of them home. It was "interesting" having three 8-year-olds in the car for that dropoff excursion, brief though it was. I don't think I've ever heard that many fart and penis jokes in such a short time before, nor do I hope to again. ;) heehee.

Anyway, so that was the night before, and then on his birthday we were supposed to have a Little League playoff game but it got rained out. We did lunch at a diner and spent some time at home playing a new Wii game that I gave him, and then in the afternoon/evening there was the end-of-year performance at gymnastics, which went well too. Then we came home and watched Kung Fu Panda, which Isaac decided he wanted to see after we saw the sequel yesterday. Phew! An eventful day. I think it was a good birthday. He got some good presents and had a ton of junk food. ;)

Hmm, there was more I wanted to say about Isaac and his birthday, but it has flown from my head at this late hour. Maybe tomorrow.

More on Isaac's birthday and modern kids

Good morning! I remembered the other thing I had wanted to post about re Isaac's birthday.

My mom gave Isaac her old iMac computer. She actually wrapped up just the mouse and gave it to him with a note saying that this was part of the present and he had to figure out what the rest was. It wasn't difficult ;) and the look on his face was priceless. ;)

So we brought the computer home, and while we were setting it up, my mom pointed out to Isaac that this is a Mac, not the same as the computer he's used to, and she pointed out that the mouse has only one button. Isaac says, "oh, so how do you scroll up and down?" (because there's no scroll-wheel on the mouse either) A pause, and I said, "well, you'll have to use the scroll bar on the side of the window, like we did back in the olden days." ;)

Funny though, to think that my kids have never known a world in which you couldn't scroll with the mouse. Ha!! I've also caught them trying to do the iPhone swipe-scroll thing when viewing pictures on my digital camera's little viewscreen.

Sadly, the computer booted up fine at first, but a few minutes later it told us that we needed to reboot, and now will only come up with the little question-mark thingie and won't boot. :( Not sure what to do about this. It's been forever since I had to troubleshoot a Mac, so I'm way out of my depth. Anyone have expertise I can borrow?

Oh, Ruthie is enjoying the computer anyway though. I told her she could move the mouse and type on the keyboard while it's turned off. She says, "Let's pretend that you're the baby and I'm the mama." Me: "Okay." Ruthie: "Okay baby, I'm going to work now. If you need anything, ask daddy." And she goes off to start typing on the computer. Hmm. ;)