Day Three: Grandma Jane and her Rash Eradication Program

Isaac has this chin rash. It is just awful. And we don't know where it comes from, but we have our guesses: 1) it is a food allergy, meaning my darling son is allergic to rice cereal, that least allergenic of all foods; 2) it is a drooly rash, meaning his teething symptoms are kicking it up a notch; or 3) (which we think is most likely) his newfound love of his thumb is forcing him to continually abuse his face with his dirty fist. We have tried most everything to get rid of this awful rash -- I tried giving him a wet washcloth to chew on to try to get him to wash his face; we used Mom's Lansinoh lanolin stuff on it; we used A&D on it; we've tried frequent wiping in case of the drool; we stopped eating oatmeal, cause we thought maybe that was the culprit -- none of these have done a bit of good. So now Grandma Jane is teaching Isaac to wash his hands, since of course we cannot stop their inevitable trip to his mouth. When I try to get him to do this, I hold him in front of the sink with the water running, and it looks like a big white stick for him to touch, so he reaches out and tries to grab it. But when Grandma does this, he holds his hands out flat under the water so she can wash them. She is applying a lesson learned in the "Aye, aye, kitty" game she says Great-grandma Winkler (Isaac's Great-great-grandma) taught her when she was a little lady -- "aye, aye kitty" means that you LOVE the kitty, so you don't GRAB the kitty, but instead spread your hand out so as to pet the kitty. Isaac has caught on quite well, she says, so much so that now Isaac can apply his kitty-lovin' skills to the hand-washing arena.

Today Grandma Jane helped Isaac and I sign up for Swim Lessons for Tots at our local pool. His "lessons" start two weeks from now on Tuesday, and he gets to take them with Clayton, too. We were waiting in this relatively small entryway with hordes of other moms and dads and their little people, and Grandma Jane turns to me and says "So it begins with the extracurricular activities." So, indeed.