My Other Grandson

Boy, what a great weekend this was!

Okay, the weather wasn't all that fantastic -snowy, roads a little slick off and on, stuff like that. But even so, I finally got to meet my "other" grandson and that was great!

Here he is -in all his glory. Isn't he just the cutest little fella though?

No, he isn't really MY grandson but his Mommy refers to me as "Grammy J" for him and I'm fine with that deal.

This is Peyton, son of my son's former girlfriend, Amie. They live down near Gettysburg and Amie brought Peyton up this weekend so we could meet him and also, so we could spend a nice long weekend with Peyton and his Mommy, Amie, visiting with us.
Here's Amie holding Peyton. The headband on him -that was courtesy of Maya who decided he needed a little bit extra trim -or bling, maybe -so she put the headband on him this morning.

He's gotta be about the most good-natured baby I've seen in a long, long time. Very friendly, very happy, very fast in the crawling department too, I might add.

Maya totally enjoyed having Peyton here for a visit. Kurtis -well at first, you could tell he was a tad jealous that Peyton was getting a lot of attention that Kurtis was accustomed to that coming his way. But, by the time Amie and Peyton left this afternoon, Kurtis was making friendly overtures to the baby and he had definitely become quite enthralled by Amie. So much so that when they were ready to leave, Kurtis even gave Amie a "be ha" -translated, that means a "Big Hug" -something he isn't usually all that generous with most of the time.

Although Amie and my son broke up almost five years ago, she has remained good friends with him and with my daughters and me as well. She's quite a character -very much a liberal, feminist too, quite politically active with respect to women's issues as well -a card-carrying member of NOW!

When Amie and Clate were living in Nevada and Arizona back in the late 90s, for a time, they lived next door to Clate's dad -my ex -who is pretty much a male chauvinist. Needless to say, Amie and Frank frequently had some go-rounds as she had no qualms about voicing her opinions to him. Before I ever even met Amie, the kids had called here one night and were telling me about how difficult Frank was being, etc. Then Amie mentioned a few things she had said to Frank and I just cracked up. I told her then that the reason he was having so much difficulty adjusting to her was because he no doubt was feeling like he was living next door to his ex-wife -me!

I will say this much to Frank's credit though, a couple years back when he was here -for Mandy's wedding as a matter of fact -we were kind of on edge how things might go because of past differences between Frank and Amie, but he made a point of calling her and Clate one night a few weeks prior to the wedding and apologizing to her -well, as much as Frank ever apologizes to anyone -but we all knew that was what he was trying to do at any rate. Amie was very surprised by that action on his part (so was I too) but we were all very happy that things eventually were ironed out there so there were issues flying around at Mandy's wedding that way.

Amie, like me, is a Penn Stater too. Back when she and Clate were together I used to love to tell people that my son's fiance graduated from Penn State two years before I did. I loved watching the expressions on people's faces then as they were trying to figure out why on earth I would like the idea that my son was apparently dating and engaged, no less, to someone two years older than me. However, that only worked with people who weren't aware that I was a returning adult student when I went to college and I graduated about 28 years later than I would have, if I had gone to college in what is considered the normal time span -right out of high school -instead of waiting 28 years to even start taking classes towards my degree! Yes, I am evil that way - love to catch people unaware of things, ya know.

But this weekend, I have to say was so much fun having Amie and this little guy with us. He will be a year old on April 2nd but, like his mother, he's a little guy and light as a feather to pick him up too! He weighs about 18 pounds now -a weight I think Maya and Kurtis sort of breezed by when they were maybe 4-6 months old! Neither Maya or Kurtis is fat, but they are both quite tall for their respective ages. Both of them though are pretty solidly built too so they have weight there that you wouldn't realize until you try to pick them up. Then, it hits you. Like picking up a big box of rocks sometimes ya know!
Here's Kurtis today as he was looking around the room for something to get into -obviously!

Mandy and Maya had a meeting this afternoon at the local school here where Maya will be starting kindergarten in the fall. Most of the groundwork for her IEP for school had been done in previous meetings but today, she got to see the classrooms, meet her teacher for next year and the last of the details were recorded. There had been some discussion as to whether or not she would or should have a TSS (Wrap-around aide) and thankfully, the young lady who had been Kurt's TSS but is now his BSC was present at the meeting. She recommended that Maya would need a TSS, at least to be with her for the first year -possibly beyond that but that all depends on how well she does in the basic transition. She was able to base her opinion on having seen how Maya and Kurtis interact and judging from that, she felt -as do Mandy and I -that Maya does need a TSS to keep her on tract, to help redirect her back to the tasks at hand.

Mandy also asked about transportation for Maya for the coming year too and it was a good thing she did that as the school was planning on having her ride the elementary bus. This was something we were very concerned about as neither of us feel she is mature enough to be left to her own judgement and devices of riding a bus with kids between the ages of 5 and 11 years old all together. And, after the BSC (formerly Kurt's TSS) spoke up again stating it was also her professional opinion that Maya was not ready, not mature enough to handle that aspect of attending school, that it was then agreed she will continue to ride the special ed van to school then.

This is something -the wrangling aspect, dealing with educators, administrators, etc., -that we really haven't had to do much along those lines before -for Maya or for Kurtis. But now that Maya is transitioning over to the public school system, everything that she needs, anything that Mandy wants for her has to be all approved and authorized -something that really should be not that big a deal but, if you miss something, if it isn't written in that IEP and because someone overlooked it, then come fall, the IEP stands unless it can be re-evaluated and redone. So, I guess this is the beginning now of many hassles to come in dealing with school administrators and the like.

Time to get the supper dishes taken care of and now, an added problem here too. Kurtis just woke up about 20 minutes ago -throwing up all over himself, his bed and bedding. Mandy stripped the bed and I stripped him, tried to clean him off, wash him up, Marine style, ya know, but I think he's gonna need another bath tonight now after all just to eliminate the sour smell.

Poor little guy! I think something just upset his stomach though as he isn't feverish or sick, not in that vein anyway. But, just to be on the safe side, Mandy called Amie to give her a heads up as to what happened, in case he is coming down with something so she can be on the lookout then in case Peyton starts to get sick too.

I have a video too I want to post but it's not finished uploading and doing the YouTube set-up as yet. When it's completed I'll post it -it's Maya "playing" with little Peyton -or actually, to put it more accurately, it's more like Maya bossing little Peyton around a bit.

She's like that at times, ya know.

People who know me probably would say "Just like her Grandma!"