Sandpiper, I love the idea of that journal of what you two do together...what a treasured gift that will be for him later!

One thing that I've learned from my (step) granddaughter is that while I may think of myself in one way (I'm the step grandmother, I never had children of my own so I haven't "earned" the right to a granddaughter), SHE (my granddaughter) thinks of me as her grandmother. She knows I'm not her flesh-and-blood grandmother, but it doesn't matter to her - I'm her "heart-grandmother" and she loves me as her grandmother. It makes no difference to her whether or not I've earned the right to be her grandmother, I just am, and that's enough for her. So I've stopped distinguishing between her "real" grandmother and myself - in her eyes, we're both integral and beloved and irreplaceable.