Oh, that child of mine

My silly child. I love him to pieces, and he keeps me on my toes.

One night, sometime between putting being put into his crib and going to sleep, Raeford stripped out of his footsie pajamas and chucked them overboard. He was a bit cold when he woke up.

He really wants to dress himself--and has some success. We bought new shoes, slip-ons, which he's been sporting every chance he gets. I bought them a little big (because I don't want to go shopping again in two weeks), so he gets into and out of them pretty easily.

One night at dinner, Raeford finished eating and decided to stuff a raisin in his ear. We could only see a little bit of the raisin and he was pushing another one into his eye. Mr. Graff retrieved the tweezers but  I got that ear-waxy raisin out first. I won.

I tried teaching Rae to wipe his hands on his pants. He doesn't like dirt, mud, mulch, etc on his hands

and frequently asks me to wipe them off for him. I demonstrated by wiping my hands on my pants, gesturing and explaining. The next time he needed to wipe his hands, he wiped them... on my pants.

Grandma taught Rae to blow air through his veggie straws. Veggie straws have just enough vegetable puree in them to make me feel better about his diet and just enough potato and grease to make Rae inclined to eat them. So, to convince the boy to eat his straws, I blow through the first one. He thinks it's great fun and proceeds to play and eat. One point for Grandma.

Rae loves his wookie slippers. It's fun watching him stomp around the house with a huge mass of fur on his feet. Mr. Graff put one of his green shirts on Rae, over his pajamas, and as he walked around, the green shirt looked like Jedi robes. Priceless.

Rae loves all things "grown-up". He wants to cook, so he'll pull over a kitchen chair and starting making something at the counter. The spice rack had to go because Rae kept using all the spices. The worst was seasoned salt. I wanted to rub my eyes all day. 

We have to keep Rae and Joe separated during feeding time because of all the medical equipment. Baby gates are my friend. Rae tries to lift his leg over the rail. 

He figured out the screwdriver. 

He's taking a butter knife to the dishwasher. 

And he's sporting Jedi robes with his wookie slippers.