The
kid has always been cute.  But lately, he’s added so many new things to
his repertoire, and each time I turn around, he’s doing something even
more adorable.  He’s discovered a million new ways to crack us up. 
Although, that isn’t his intent.  He is pretty ernest about his new
tricks.  For example, he has been so fascinated watching us our
cleaning lady (Melinda) sweep that I bought him his own little broom. 
He sits with it on the floor, watching Melinda intently, and mimics the
sweeping motion.  Serious stuff.  He has a similar level of intensity
when playing with his hockey stick, but is less sure of what to do with
it just yet.  I think Grandpa needs to come back out for a month this
winter.

He’s
talking up a storm.  “Mum”, I’m happy to report, was his first word,
but he now calls Mike Dad.  It usually comes out in a stream,
“dadadada”….but once in a while it’ll be shockingly clear:  “Dad.” 
He says a million other nonsense words, in his deep little voice, but
he often says them with such adult inflections, “bo BO BO no no la du
da. SEE SEE SEE la.”  He also knows (and signs!) the signs for “fan”,
“light”, and more recently, “nurse”.  Which is a relief.  When I first
started breastfeeding, I didn’t expect to go as long as I have….so I
would refer to nursing as some variant of “boobs”.  As in, “Raines, do
you want some boobs?  Some boobs?  Yummy boobs?”  Partially because
those questions KILLED Mike, who knows my huge breastfeeding boobs are
strictly off limits.  Asking about boobs is fine for a 6 week old, but
less fine if you have a two year old mimicking you.  Even worse, right
after he started calling me “mumumumum”….he started saying something
that sounded suspiciously like “boo boo boo”.  Good Lord.  My son’s
first word was almost “boobs”.  I quickly switched to using the word
“nurse”, but it was hard to break the boob habit.

Raines
is turning out to be a pretty physical kid.  He’s mellow, but can hold
his own.  He hangs out primarily with 3 other babies (their Moms are my
good friends who I met through my mom’s group) and it’s been funny to
watch the 4 kiddos grow up together.  The two girls, Sophia and Meara
are the oldest by a few weeks, the most advanced, and the most
physical.  The two boys, Raines and Huck are both more on the mellow
side.  For months, they boys would sit there in confusion while the
girls would literally crawl circles around them, taking their toys,
pushing them over.  Finally, Raines learned that he could either hang
on to the toy or grab back, and a few wrestling matches ensued.  I was
at the Denver Public Library for Book Babies  a few days ago, and after
the reading program, they bring out toys and lets the kids play. 
Raines was intent on some toy, and to my horror, pushed a couple of
babies out of the way on his way to get the toy.  One of the moms
chuckled and remarked, “he must have older brothers at home.”  Nope. 
Just two little girl friends. 

Raines
got a walker wagon from my parents for Christmas, and yes, I opened it
early!  He loves it.  He either rides around while we push, or he walks
it everywhere (I’ll post some movies to the movie page – it’s pretty
funny).  He is cruising along walls with very little support, and, I
think, probably can walk just fine — he just hasn’t realized it yet. 
He’s taken a few steps in the last week, but only when he’s not paying
attention.  I just hope he waits until the holidays are over — I’m not
quite ready for a walker.

I
keep getting asked if Raines is eating.  Ahhhh…no. Not really.  Or,
if I’m honest, not at all.  A really good day is if Raines eats 3
spoonfuls of food.  He’s not interested.  At all.  He’ll turn his face
away, push the spoon away, and has learned that no matter how funny Dad
is, when Raines is in the highchair, the best jokes will only get a
closemouthed smile.  He is certainly no dummy.  He will put everything
in his mouth….except for actual food products.  It’s funny how he can
tell which things are food.  Once in a while, he gets confused.  Green
sprinkles showed up in his diaper the day after I made cookies.  He
clearly didn’t consider sprinkles to be actual food, or he wouldn’t
have touched them.  He’s probably right.

The
thing I love the most about this age is how much they love everything. 
They love you, they love life, they love small specks of dust.  I don’t
think I get excited about anything as much as Raines gets excited over
the tiny little stuff.  We went to a birthday party with helium
balloons.  Raines spent a good 25 minutes hitting himself in the head
by jerking on the string of the balloon and shrieking with glee.  And
he is just the world’s biggest lover.  I was nursing him down for a nap
and he pulled off, looked me in the eyes, and reached up an stroked my
hair, and then my cheek.  Twice.  Ahhhhh.  Bliss. 

At
the risk of going on and on and on about how cute my son is….one
final story:  Raines had croup a bit ago.  When he’s sick, he has
trouble napping, and wants to continually be in your arms.  So I end up
carrying him around the house all day.  It was one of those days, I was
running out of things to do, and he was getting fussy – almost a
constant, whiney cry.  Poor little man – so miserable.  I turned on
Christmas music and danced around the dining room for a while.  Josh
Grobin’s “Joy of Man’s Desiring” came on.  We listened and danced, and
I felt Raines relaxing.  The music and chorus swelled for the finale,
and above the chorus I heard a new little falsetto singing along, “Ah
Ah Ah” Raines sang.  OMG. (He pulled that trick out again a few days
later when Mike was trying to get him to sleep.  Mike melted into a
puddle on the spot, picked him up and delayed bedtime for at least an
hour.   Total sucker.)