big dare

We had a good chuckle when Dennis suddenly burst out with "Hey, Garrett owes me a hundred bucks because I kissed my teacher!". We asked him if Garrett had dared him to do it and he said "yep--and now he's my BFF!". Oh, these are the days to remember!

funny sass

As Dennis wolfed down his corn dogs tonight at supper, David remarked "I guess you really like those all beef hot dogs." Dennis rolled his eyes and looked at his dad, then remarked "thank you, Mr. Obvious." True, I should not have laughed, but I absolutely couldn't help myself. David was less amused. I couldn't help but appreciate the genius of his comedic timing. I'm going to have to work on that. My sass threshold is a bit more generous than David's!

sharpened to fine points

Dennis has a nasty habit of resting one or both of his elbows on me, and they are sharp little pain implements! I usually make some sort of noise when he does this, and it never fails to make him laugh (bruising Mommy is high comedy). I saw him rubbing his elbows across my bedposts and also running them across his play sword. He leaned elbows on me a short time later, and when I yelped, he said "this time I sharpened my elbows first before I poked you with them, ha ha!". Ouch!

storm heroes

We got so preoccupied with storm preparations last night that I didn't get a chance to write before I fell asleep with Dennis draped all over me. I did not sleep well, as you can imagine. I got up tremendously early to travel an hour to a teacher training that took most all day. I am completely exhausted. Dennis is not.

He invented a new hero scenario to play yesterday, one in which he wears his Green Lantern cape and declares himself "Potty Man". I am his trusty sidekick "Toilet Paper Girl" and his dad is "Evil Professor Flush" and Lemonade is super villain "Dr. Poop". He invented all this while I was in the bathroom (wishing for privacy but getting entertainment instead).

The storm avoided us this time, thankfully, and we didn't spend much time huddled under our mattress in the hallway. Lemonade huddled with us this time, in our faces, on our laps, etc. He (the dog) felt the need to dance on us and lick us profusely, so we're glad our confinement didn't last long. Dennis amused himself with reading the Grinch on the iPad and was happily surprised when we told him it was safe to go to bed (and that he got to sleep with us). He watched the weather reports until late in the night (I kept the television on so we could hear any warnings about our are), long after David and I had dozed off ourselves. He was so tired, David reported, that he put himself down for his nap today. That always happens when I'm not around! He sleeps late only on days I have to get up early. It's not the correlation I would prefer!

sports fest

Today was Dennis' first soccer practice of the season. His coach is the pastor of the church at the end of our street and remembered Dennis from Vacation Bible School last year. Dennis was delighted to find out that his uniform color will be red this time. He suggested a team name of "The Red Hammer" which was almost voted in but is under further consideration until Monday (because the girls on the team wanted to be the Barbie Team). He had a great time playing soccer and trash talking the girls when they all lined up for drills until I reminded him that they were on his team as well!

Immediately after soccer practice, we headed to the gym for Taekwondo, where he worked on his kicking and earned his 4th stripe. He went on to the child care room afterward while I went to a Zumba class, and we were both pretty worn out when we got home! It was an energetic day, for sure.

sneaky, sneaky

Dennis has been practicing his sneaking lately. As we were leaving the bank yesterday, I heard him giggle and turned to see him holding my wallet! He'd opened my purse and grabbed it while my head was turned. He happily turned it over to me, proud of his prowess and stealth. Tonight I went into his room about a half hour after we tucked him in. I was pretty certain he'd be asleep or close to it but was surprised to see an unusual glow coming from his bed. He was lying on his stomach with the covers pulled up around him, playing a game on the iPad with the volume turned very low. More sneakiness!

He's brewing another ear infection, and we get to fight him 3 times a day for the next 10 days as we treat him with ear drops. I hope he clears up soon!

music lessons

Dennis talked about learning about the harp in music class today. Uncle Denny gave him a more thorough lesson on his own instrument--the clarinet. Dennis was delighted to get his hands all over it, learning how it's assembled and cleaned, what the parts are, etc. I bet he will always remember what a clarinet looks like. The other highlights of his evening included a reading of The Lorax (read by Uncle Denny) and hearing the first two chapters of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe (the newest book we are reading to him at home--we finished the first Harry Potter last night).

Dennis has been loud and wild today--my ears are enjoying the break now that he's finally in bed! And speaking of ears, his seem to be suddenly unable to hear. He will be seeing his ENT tomorrow afternoon. I hope it's nothing to worry about, that maybe a simple solution will help him.