Hey, hey, hey!

Looky! A new blog post! My last post was the day that we moved Rayler to his big boy bed, way back on April 11. After that I got fed up with my bad internet, and I couldn't figure out how to load pictures from my new phone to my laptop (I still need to figure that out), so I stopped blogging. Rayler grew a WHOLE lot, we spent months looking at houses and putting in offers and getting turned down and just lots and lots of drama. There were entirely too many "and's" in that last sentence.  But now we have a beautiful new home, and we have internet again! Different internet, so maybe I won't spend so much time arguing with it. So, I'm going to give this whole blogging thing a go again. I miss writing. I miss recording cute things that my son does. I don't miss the brain explosions from trying to load pictures from my phone to laptop, hopefully I can figure that out with minimal tear involvement. And that's that.  Hopefully the new beginning of an old blog.

Bye-bye Baby!

I will not cry. Nope. I didn't cry. I almost did. We put the new bed rail on Rayler's big boy bed last night. I decided to start him napping in his big bed today. Naps, then bedtime, then potty training. One battle at a time, right?

Checking out the new rail last night

So, all morning it's been eating at me. "He's taking a nap in his big bed today. Not his crib. He's not a baby anymore". And I'd find myself with a lump in my throat that I couldn't quite swallow. But I didn't cry.

After lunch we blew bubbles. (ie I was procrastinating) Then I changed his diaper, rounded up his sippy, Eddington Pig, and his blankie. I took him to his new bed, showed him that his pillow was on the "big boy bed", gave him a huge hug, and found another annoying lump in my throat. I sat him on his bed, kissed him, and told him to go to sleep, and not to get out of bed. Then the fun began.

The first 4 minutes consisted of him crying and trying to climb off the bed. I'd wait till his feet hit the floor then I'd pop in, put him back on the bed and say "Night-night!" and walk out and close the door again.

Minute 4

Minute 8

Laying quietly and kicking the wall

Minute 10

I guess we might need to move his basketball goal...

After that we had one or two attempts to get down and some crying.

Minute 20

Standing and shaking his bed rail. He wasn't crying at this time.

Then we had some naughtiness. He would slide off the end and just hang there. Not "technically" off the bed, but certainly not on it. He got a swat on his leg when he did that. Throw in a little more crying, not from the swats, just sitting there crying, and then he started to wind down.

Minute 24

You can't see him because he's at the very end of the bed (far left) considering climbing into his crib. I was really surprised that he didn't.

Minute 30

Not asleep, but laying down. 

Minute 38

Asleep!

Eh, he's at the wrong end, but he's asleep. In his big boy bed. That's what counts. Sweet, sweet victory for Mama!

So sweet!

All in all, it went a lot better than I had hoped for. There was no screaming or tantrums. Only "I'm 20 months old and want to take a nap. My aging and forgetful Mama put me in the wrong bed. This is strange." And then the novelty wore off and he went to sleep.

Now, let's see how much of that we have to repeat tomorrow!

Trial Run

Ladies and Gentlecars! (Sorry, we are big fans of Pixar's "Cars" around here) I gave up blogging a while back because it was so frustating/time consuming/difficult trying to get pictures and videos to load to my computer, and then twice times the frustrating/time consuming/difficult to upload said pics and videos to my blog. But I really miss documenting my son's stellar cuteness so I threw in the towel and decided it was time to see if this blog could happen via Galaxy S3. Guess what.  Looks like the ol' S3 is coming through for me! So if there are an unusual number of spelling errors in this and coming posts, we'll blame it all on the fabulously inept predictive text of ye old S3. That said...

Give me time to wrap my head around blogging again and I'll whip out an actual Rayler related post soon. This one is, as indicated in the title, a trial run.

Rayler Randoms

I love his guts.

Rayler is a morning person. Irrevocably and absolutely. When I go to get him up in the morning I just have to follow the sounds of giggling and chattering coming from his room. I try to sneak in without him seeing me, which isn't hard because his room is so dark and I don't turn any house lights on. I only have to whisper "Good Morning!" and the fun begins. He expresses his joy by jumping up and running pell-mell from one end of his crib to the other. When he has exhausted that means of releasing his energy, he turns around in circles as fast as he can until he looses his balance and crashes into the crib rails. The entire performance is accompanied by loud squeals and constant chattering. Sometime Pig is launched out of the crib for good measure. When he is finally certain that he has adequately expressed his morning felicitations, he runs to the side rail, lifts his arms to me, and gives me the most heart-melting smile. Now, how can I, *NOT* a morning person, not be instantly infused with joy and ready to begin the days adventures with that winning little face smiling so adoringly as me? I can't.

I am trying to teach Rayler the joys of hard labor. JOKING. No, I am watching him explore and guiding him in light chores that he shows interest in. So far he is learning to hold the dust pan while I sweep, stirring things while *we* cook, and his biggest success so far, helping me with the laundry. Whenever he sees me head to the laundry room, he comes running and wants to help. So I turn on the washer and start the water, then I pick him up and hand him items to drop into the washer. He really enjoys this! Then, when the washing machine is finished, I hand him the lighter items (not jeans or towels because they get pretty hefty when wet) and he shoves them into the dryer. I am crossing my fingers that he continues to find these chores fascinating and that in a few years I will have spotless floors, chef made dinners and not a laundry mountain in sight. Hey, it could happen! And someday he will make some lucky young lady a great catch. (Did I really just say that about my 17 month old? Yi.)

We are really entering the stage when both he and I wish he could communicate a bit better. He gets so frustrated when he needs help with something and squeals and hollers till I come help. I am trying to teach him to say "Help!" but it just isn't catching on yet. Other words we are working on: please, up, more, hungry, thirsty and poop. Yes, poop. The whole pre-potty training thing.

I kinda bombed on the picture and narrative thing this time didn't I? Don't worry, I have a lot of random pictures to post at the end.

I noticed this week that Rayler has started tipping his head back while I am rinsing his hair, without being asked to. He still enjoys his baths and I am looking forward to getting him into swimming lessons this spring. Such a water baby, this one.

Insert random photo...

This is what comes from being the only boy at a playdate. Although Aaron pointed out that they *could* be Batwings. :) We'll go with that.

Bugs really loves to play on our bed. He thinks it's a big trampoline. He *jumps*, runs from one end to the other, and tries to somersault on it. Until this past week, his somersault consisted of him putting his head on the bed (or floor, as the case may be), sticking his little butt in the air, and us giving him a nudge to push him over. But I saw him turn a somersault in the front room all by his little ol' self this week. He came up grinning so big I thought his cheeks would fall off. All this energy he has will have to be channeled into some kind of sport in just a few years!

Weekend before last we went to the skating rink for cousin Noah's 7th birthday party. I really wasn't sure how Rayler would do, I though he would be bored out of his mind. I needn't have worried. All that wide open space to run as much as he pleased, he was happy as a dog chasing two tails! I couldn't get my videos from my phone to upload to my computer, that stinks, but here are a few pictures I took of the fun.

Uncle Ray playing skating limbo

Bugs playing with cousin Hannah

He really liked the colored lights reflecting on the floor. When they turned the disco ball on he went crazy trying to step on the lights.

Tyler braved it and skated with Rayler. I didn't. My middle name is klutz.

Rayler had his first bloody lip yesterday. He was chasing me into his bedroom and tripped over his own feet just as he got to the tile entry way. It took a minute for me to see any blood, but he did just barely break the skin on his top lip. Fortunately it was not enough to even drip blood and I let him chew on a wet rag while we read some stories. And that was that! I am so glad it wasn't worse.

He's got a little scab today.

Random picture time!

It has a hole and the blocks fit. Therefore they blocks must be stored inside. Tyler got so tired of fishing them out that he finally put masking tape over the hole. Ha!

Enjoying a snack of cheese and crackers and dried cranberries.

*Hiding* under the table at the fire station with James.

Licking the peanut butter off his graham crackers.

We've really enjoyed the nice weather lately!

Reading to himself. Not sure why he needed to remove the back cushion from the rocking chair.

Bugs and I had a floor picnic one night.

Solo usage of the spoon!

Sleeping on the pillow using Pig as a pillow.

Happy pizza eater!

I have no idea where he found this. He came over to me, grabbed my hand, and spit it out into my hand. Apparently he didn't inherit his Daddy's love of sunflower seeds.

Serious Sunday school playing, cutting four eye teeth, missing his nap and late for lunch is exhausting!

Is it possible to be any cuter while sleeping? I think not. He's got it covered.

Blue rice sensory play

He ended up sitting on the floor and dumping scoopfuls of rice onto his pants. I ended up sweeping. 

Sleeping on top of the pillow again, using Mr. Engelbert as a pillow.

Our first ultrasound 1/17/11, Rayler 1/18/13. What a difference two years makes!

Ok, so this isn't a picture of Rayler, but I finally got my Valentine's wreath up and had to include a picture of it. :)

One more picture, and it requires a bit of a prequel. I was cleaning in the kitchen one day and Rayler was playing quietly under the table. It's a little quirk of his, finding small hidey holes under or behind things and just playing there quietly. Anyway, after a bit I turned around and promptly felt my hair turn grey.

Hey Mom. Wassup? Just chillaxin here. Oh, you're worried that I'm gonna fall? How 'bout you worry about how I got here?

I have NO CLUE how he got up there. As you can see the other chair is a fair distance away and turned the other direction, so he didn't use it as a step stool. When I first saw him he was perched precariously facing the other direction, jauntily swinging his feet off the edge of the tray. I was having an impromptu coronary, he was just chilling and enjoying the view. Thankfully he hasn't trying this again. My heart (and hair) can't handle that.

End of randomness.


~My house isn't messy. It's been custom designed by a one year old interior decorator.  

Hello again.

He's been thrilled to get to play outside the past couple of days.

I am going to try out this whole regular-ish blog thing again. We'll see how it goes.

The little man has changed so much since I last blogged! Where to begin? Lots of randomness coming your way.

His current favorite food is cottage cheese. He'll never turn it down. And right now he likes to think that he hates veggies. Except he accidentally eats a bite or two before he remember that he's supposed to hate them. Ha.

I don't have a picture of it yet, but he's really taken a liking to this little watering can he got for his birthday. He carries it around everywhere. But he's always done that. Latches onto one small toy and carries it around for a couple of weeks before moving onto another.

He's getting pretty good with using a fork. At first I had to help him poke the food and then he could get it to his mouth.

Yes, that's a big fork. Heavy supervision required.

But tonight he was doing all the poking all by his little ol' self!

I'm really not sure if he's right or left handed! He seems to favor his right, but as you can see, he's handling his fork pretty well with his left here.

I also let him use a spoon to eat yogurt, although more ends up on him than in him. And just a bit ago I had to wipe up pink splatters off the floor from a seriously misdirected spoonful. We're still working on that.

He's still not terribly interested in talking. At least not in English. Oh, he can say stuff. He just chooses not to. Earlier he stopped me and very seriously asked "Nano mama?" Yeah. I haven't the slightest. He likes to sing along to the Super Why theme song, and at the end of the show when they sing "The Super Readers saved the day!" he yells "Ah duh duh duh AH DAH!" It's cute. Other words he can say when he so chooses:   bubble, ball, all done, sit down, no, Super Why (although he says "dupa eye") and Pig. Of course he says Mama and Dada consistently and with the correct distinction.

Speaking of Pig, Eddington Pig to be exact...

Pig is the perfect combination of fluffiness and squishableness. 

He really LOVES Pig. Back at Thanksgiving we were leaving my sister-in-law's and I realized that we didn't have Pig. Tyler and I were looking around and Rayler was calling "Pig? Pig?" He makes my heart smile. Big. Toothy. Grins.

We have fun play dates on Wednesday's with his little friends from church. He's the lone ranger in the crowd of girls but he still has fun. We have to bump his nap time back a few hours for the play date so he gets pretty exhausted with all that not sleeping and all that playing.

Unfortunately his 5 minute car nap meant that he wouldn't nap when he got home. Not fun.

We have been having some trouble with him soaking through his diapers at night. Until last week he maybe did it once a month. I even put him in a diaper size one up at night from his day time size. But this week? Wow. Sometimes I have to strip down his bed and change his pj's twice a night! I told him he'd better stop that because it doesn't bode well for potty training! I broke out the waterproof pads today, maybe now if he leaks I'll only have to switch out the jammies. But, I can see why he pees so much at night. He takes after me and gets super thirsty at night. I drink 2-4 glasses of water during the night, and he goes through at least one sippy cup full. I started putting his sippy in his crib a couple of weeks ago so that I didn't have to keep getting up to give him drinks. That made nighttime marvelous! But of course, he wore out that sippy and his new one, that is EXACTLY the same as the old one, leaks. So I can't leave it in the crib. Can't have Rayler and the cup soaking the sheets. Up and down I go again, it's not like I'm not up and down getting myself a drink anyway...

Sunday morning, just before we walked out the door to go to church, I picked up Rayler to put his shoes on him and noticed that he had blood on his face. I gave him a quick once over and saw blood on his arms and hands too. Somehow, he had sliced open the pad of his right index finger and it would not stop bleeding! We got it cleaned up and a band aid on, and it promptly slid off that tiny digit. So we slid it back on and taped it on with medical tape. That had no stick. Some help. He managed to keep it on until church and then I took it off and was surprised that it was still oozing blood. That sucker wouldn't stop! I bandaged it up with a better sticking band aid and we left that on for a couple of hours and that seemed to do the trick. He was so funny with his poor little finger all bandaged up. It was as if he thought his hand was broken and he couldn't do anything. Funny boy.

His poor little finger. And look! There's the aforementioned watering can that I thought I didn't have a picture of. I was wrong. It happens.

More random pictures.

Taking advantage of blue skies and not having a runny nose. This is a new game called "Fetch, Mama!"

He remembered that Tyler had raked all the leaves into a pile in the back of the house and he wanted to play in them. 

This was before I realized that the new sippy leaks. He REALLY needed a drink and I wasn't fast enough on the draw.

I finally packed away all his shoes that he has outgrown. I did not cry. I did not cry. I will not...but these will look soooooo cute on baby E someday!

One year ago this week...

I do NOT like green beans Mommy! (He never has. No matter what form I serve them in. He HATES them.)

It always amazes me how a baby can take a normal adult and turn him into a babbling idiot. ~ Col. S. Potter ~ M*A*S*H