Isaac...AKA...I-Man...AKA..I y'I

Here I am again, this time to properly introduce (as properly as it can possibly be on a blog) the youngest Knight! Here he is: Isaac Yonas Joshua Knight!!!

Isaac: Another name that we simply just liked. The name sounds appropriate for all ages, for a boy or a man of Ethiopian ethnicity and it started with a vowel! Teehee! Sorry, so superficial on the last criteria, I know! There were other first names that we were throwing around, but this one was thrown out and it stuck...fast!

Yonas: We also informed Isaac's birth mother that we would be keeping his birth name and she was grateful, but I don't think she ever expected us to change his name anyway. She looked almost shocked, in my opinion, that we would even consider changing his name. So, I guess I would have to say it was a look of relief on her face and in her body language. She didn't say anything about it. I'm okay with that.

Joshua: Named for his Daddy, of course! Named for the sleepless man who wakes each and every night, every 2-3 hours to feed this hungry little thing! Named for the Daddy who never thought he would have a son to raise but seemed so proud to say for the first time, "That's my son!" Gives my butterflies every time I think about that...yet!

Who is that Little Boy with the Dimples and Curly Soft Hair????

Okay, you have to admit, no matter how much your child poops, projectile vomits, cries during the day or plays in the middle of the night, DIMPLES make everything better, right??? Well, Isaac has some of the cutest dimples carved into his brown little cheeks that a little boy could ever have. Not to mention some of the most amazing soft curls of black hair on top of that little head! Oye, he's a heart breaker! I just could eat him up! MMMM, MMMMM, MMMMMMM!

You may have caught the fact that this little cutie is no little angel...he is one of the worst sleepers in the hemisphere; he has a temper of a rabid beast. I mean, this little boy will turn on the water works for the simple reason of walking out of a room without him, a toy isn't turned the right direction, or he's having a diaper change. I mean comm'on...Isaac...I saw how the caretakers changed your diaper at Enat Alem...I know for a fact that they tied that cloth diaper so tight that it literally almost made your belly button pop back open. Now that's something to cry about. I'm gentle, I'm caressing, I'm soothing, I'm helpful...don't cry, scream, turn, fuss, and create a scene! Really now!

Playing

I y'I has a few little things he likes to do that we would consider playing.

• Sitting on the trampoline and letting his big sisters bounce him. Good times for any 18 pounder!
• Zooming cars down a little race car track...a bit repetitive, but still fun for him after, oh about 1,600 runs down the track. More good times!
• Anything outside...he's an outdoors man!
• Folding clothes. Actually he enjoys taking a quick ride on top of the warm laundry in the laundry basket from the dryer to the spot where I'm gonna fold. Then he "folds" the clothes by throwing up a handful and doing a quick crawl-dash under them so the warm (once-clean) clothes land on his head and back. Yeah, it's cute...his sweet giggle adds to the joy!

Bonding and Attachment

We're attached, bonded, stuck, glued, forever a trio! Isaac has great eye contact, hates when we put him down, cries when we leave, and has some stranger anxiety. Bonded...period! YEAH!!!! And I'm completely bonded and attached to him too!

Sleep

He doesn't get enough, thus we don't get enough. The boy enjoys his time awake in the middle of the night...what can I say. We've tried so many things. You all could post your comments about, "try this" and "try that". I'd reply, "been there", "done that". Because we have. He doesn't sleep well nor does he nap well. He's like a robot...a feisty little robot!

Eating

Because Isaac came home so incredibly anemic and with that awful virus, he is on both iron supplemented as well as soy formula. So he gets this when he signs for it and on a schedule! Yes, he tells us he's hungry using his sign language!!! He's amazing! We did try baby foods for him too, so we were sure to balance his diet and nutritional intake. Bah! This muncher needed real-man food! Haha! Ix-Nay on the baby foods! He's all about whatever is on the table for the rest of us!!! AMEN! This is sooooo much easier! Leah and Logan were on baby foods for sooooooo long and this is cake in comparison! He's a machine with food! Starting at 4:30 or so, he'll eat an hors' devour (snack), then dinner, then a post hors' devour (some of our dinner), then a bottle before bed. Oh yeah, he's gained some weight...and grown some hair and his nails are growing, and, and, and!!!! (as you'll see in the pic below, he also likes to do his feedings on his own...aka spaghetti face)

And that is Isaac in a nutshell! He's a typical fun-loving baby boy with a bit of a temper! The temper will serve him well some day...it could cool off this early in life, but we can handle anything! Clearly!!!!!