Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head

I bit ago, I promised to tell you about Shan!  So here goes!  Shan was born 2 1/2 mo. after we arrived in France.  If you read his birth story, you already know that!  He was born precocious...NO LIE!  That boy woofed down an 8 oz. bottle from the time we brought him home from the hospital! 
By the time he was 3 mo. old, he was tearing around in a walker.  Walkers, then, were a different breed!  They consisted of a cloth seat between two X bars with wheels...very collapsible...not really safe at all.  But he needed to move.  He followed me all over that house and that was a problem because the basement door lock didn't work.  When I would go down to wash, he would take a running start and hit that door.  One time, he actually ended up hanging head down between the steps..with concrete below. 
He was crawling and also called me Mama and Don Dada and said bye bye by the time he was 4 mo. old, had 7 teeth by the time he was 6 months old, and had learned to climb out of his crib by the time he was 6 mo. old.  His bed was by the door, which opened right on the top step of very old, very slick stairs.  We knew, if he was to survive, we would have to find a safer house!
We found a nice 3 bedroom, American designed, unfurnished house for a reasonable rent, and we moved, just after our first Christmas.  Our furniture consisted of a bunkbed, a portacrib, and a rocking chair.  Friends loaned us an old mattress for us to sleep on.  We had no curtains, no appliances, no table and chairs, no couch.  It was embarrassing, because we could see the "oh my!" looks of people passing by, but we took advantage of "no interest for 9 months" credit and ordered the cheapest couch, kitchen appliances and chairs.  The only problem was, back then, you had to wait forever and a day for it to get delivered!
One day, our immediate neighbor asked if it would offend us if they gave us a clic-clac sofa.  This would open up to a comfortable double bed...clic clac!  We thanked them and said we would love it!  In the meantime, some missionaries on their way to Africa came through.  They were expecting a baby and they said how much they really wanted a portacrib, so I gave them ours...I mean, after all, Shan had been getting out of it for 3 months...he could just start sleeping on the bottom bunk!  Don's mouth was gaping!  But he knew me...he has said from the beginning he lives in dread of the day someone says they like what I'm wearing and I will end up bare!
So, Shan moved to the bottom bunk.  He never fell out of bed...we just had to fight to keep him in it!  That boy!
One night, Don had gone to a late prayer meeting, and all of a sudden, here came Shan down the hall!  He was smeared in red and looked like he was bleeding to death.  He wasn't!  He had opened a screw top jar of burgundy shoe polish cream and eaten it!  Then he drooled it all over kingdom come and himself, too!  I was hysterical!  Was that stuff toxic?  There was absolutely nothing on the label to say either way.  I made a frantic call to the church, which was a good 20 minutes away.  Don and Paul Dédéyan came tearing to the house, grabbed him up and rushed him to the hospital...where they were told, "Wrong hospital, we don't treat children!"  They went to 2 others before they found one that treated children! 
When they got there, the young intern looked at Don and said, "Take all his clothes off."  Don left his diaper on, but was told that must go, too!  Now, Don was an experienced dad...he knew what would happen to a stripped down 9 mo. old boy laying bare on a cold table.  He stepped aside, still holding on to Shan, but out of the danger zone.  Paul wasn't as quick on the uptake.  Shan did the expected, and it rained down on Paul's head!  Not realizing where the moisture was coming from, he looked up, as if to see if it was actually raining.  Then it hit him just what was happening!  He leaped back hollering, "Oh, Oh!"  Don couldn't help it!  He laughed!
Alexis, Paul's wife, told us he never wore that suit again!  Every so often, I tease Paul by singing the following song...http://youtu.be/OT1HCQcSHW0

Have a great day!!!