Eeples and Baneenees

Anyone my age out there remember Raffi? The pre-Wiggles pre-Baby Einstein pre-Elmo childrens' music sensation? I adored that guy as a child. He was right up there with Mr. Rogers and Captain Kangaroo. My favorite song was always "I like to eat Apples and Bananas" where he'd replace the vowel sounds throughout the song with different ones, like "Opples and Banonos" or "Upples and Banunus". Sadly I'd forgotten all about him until this week when Benjamin was running amok in the library and started emptying the cd shelf of all its contents. As I was frantically trying to maintain order, I happened upon a Raffi's greatest hits cd. Oh the memories! Benjamin and I have been dancing and clapping joyfully every night since. I play it while I cook dinner and it's been a blast. He requests songs from it during the day too and we'll sing together in the car or at the store. Nothing like singing "An Octopus's Garden" while walking down the aisles at Target.

When Benjamin isn't rocking out to Raffi, his other hobbies include swiffering (much improved now that I've shortened it by removing a couple sections of the handle) and attempting to eat with a toaster cover on his head. I tried to get an action shot of him swiffering, but as usual the camera hog stood still and posed the second he heard the camera power on. The toaster cover thing was classic. Every night while I cook he puts the cover on his head and laughs hysterically at himself. However, last night he was torn between trying to eat his corn and peas and putting on his nightly act and so he was jamming corn into the cover in an attempt to reach his mouth. Of course just as I got the camera, he figured out the secret - lift, eat, replace cover. What a funny kid.





Not so funny: smearing dinner in your hair. I wasn't feeling well tonight at dinner. I was suddenly dizzy and lightheaded and not in the mood to deal with his exploits. Benjamin knew how to take full advantage. Within 2 minutes he'd managed to fling his veggies and yogurt all over the floor, table, chair, and into his hair. Literally, this entire episode was no longer than a couple minutes. Normally I would have removed the items much sooner, but I was busy trying to keep from falling over and somehow the flying food just didn't seem as important. Sidenote: doing much better now. I have no idea what the problem was. It resolved itself after an hour or so.
The yogurt was strawberry so the extent of the disaster isn't easily seen, but despite my illness, I had to capture this moment before I hosed him down. Somehow you can't stay as mad when you're taking pictures like it was a slice of birthday cake he smeared.