beach view

At 20 months old, Dennis has his very own oceanfront bedroom at the vacation condo. What a lucky little guy. He's enjoyed playing some on the balcony and taking in the lovely view.

Today was windy and cold here at the beach. I did a little shopping, all for Dennis, of course. I am working on his Advent calendar (nothing like waiting until the last minute) and shopped for tiny treasures to put in the doors on the house. I also wanted to hit Bath and Body Works because Mom saw an advertisement that you got a free sheep with purchase, and they had cute black ones. Dennis has 2 black sheep already, and he LOVES them, and I wanted to add to his sheep collection. I was successful. It turns out that they had LOTS of different sheep, some tiny ones, medium sized ones, and huge ones. The medium sized ones came in white (with brown face and feet), all black, and gray (with black face and feet). They were marked down to $3 each. So Dennis now has all 3, and 1 tiny white one for his Advent house.

David took him for a walk on the beach, but it was really too windy to be enjoyable. I hate that I missed seeing him walking on the beach, but we'll do a repeat performance tomorrow. I'm optimistic for better weather and bought a sand bucket and shovel just in case. We did take him for a swim in the indoor pool and he had a great time. He especially enjoyed the echo he got when he yelled and tried out half his repertoire of yelling words while we were there.

We had Thanksgiving leftovers for lunch and Bob's Famous Spaghetti for supper, plus Janet's delicious chocolate trifle for dessert. I did some serious working out in the fitness center here at the resort tonight and would have walked on the beach as well if I hadn't feared the blowing sand was so rough it'd change the prescription on my glasses lenses! Dennis was thrilled with the meals and his new sheep. He also got a new Audubon bird, a Spotted Owl, and he loves it as well. He's getting quite a collection of those birds, and he knows which call each bird makes.

We are all happy and relaxed, and it really feels like a vacation. Dennis is being spoiled rotten, of course, but he makes it easy for us to do.

to the beach!

As I write this, I'm listening to the sound of the waves crashing against the shore. I've had a workout in the on-site fitness center, so I'm feeling totally relaxed and guilt-free! Dennis actually has his own bedroom here in our suite, and his room also faces the beach. So far he's sleeping so peacefully. He had a wonderful time running around the suite and eating the pizza that came for supper (he even said "pizza", or something that sounded very similar to it).

On our way down here, we stopped to have lunch with my great aunt and uncle who love Dennis very much. He had a wonderful time seeing them and giving them hugs. He especially loved running around in their spacious home. Uncle Denny and Granny stopped by while we were there, and Dennis enjoyed playing his usual steal-Uncle-Denny's-pen-and-run game. While we were at their house, Dennis was checking out the refrigerator magnets. He identified the pigs, said "rainbow" (a word I didn't know that he knew) and "sun" and then, to our total amazement, pointed to two magnets and said "blue". They actually were blue, which means that he's starting to learn his colors. He also pointed out an "O". He's still remembering those letters I taught him. He knows "A" and "O". I wonder which one we'll learn next. On another note, he learned to open doors today. If the door has a handle instead of a round knob, he can open it. He did it first at Aunt Louise and Uncle George's place, and then when we got to our resort, he opened the door and walked on out. Thank goodness there's a chain on the door. We'll be using it to keep him in rather than keep other folks out!

I must say that I was pleasantly surprised by how outgoing he was with all the family he's seen this week. I expected a little shyness with those people he hadn't seen in a while, but even with the big crowd at our house, he was friendly and very free with his hugs. He's a real social little guy, always has been, and even though I keep expecting a little stranger anxiety to kick in, it hasn't so far. He loves the people that love him. And that's wonderful, because there are many many people who love him. He's easy to love, and every day I can't believe how much love I have for him.

Christmastime is here

Today was Black Friday, the major shopping day everywhere, and I am happy to say that no one set a toe out of this house to get to any stores at 5 a.m. As a matter of fact, the Mitchells did absolutely NO Christmas shopping today, though I do admit stopping briefly in Wal-Mart to buy a birthday gift (socks). Wal-Mart looked like the scene of the aftermath of a significant battle. The cashiers looked shell-shocked and they kept talking about the sound of all those feet in a stampede this morning when the sale items rolled out. They feared for their safety and they worried about small children being trampled. I don't care how much money I might save, I won't shop those sales. I can't be in a store where I can't clearly get to the exit and I don't have at least 5 to 10 feet of personal space all around.

Since we didn't Christmas shop and we didn't put up the tree and we didn't have to go to work, what did we do? Our last houseguests left at 11 a.m. and I was sad to see them go. We had such a good time together! About 2 minutes after their van left the driveway, Dennis went down for a nap and stayed there for 2 hours. I cleaned up what little mess was left in the house, and that took about 15 minutes. Sadly enough, once Dennis woke up, it took me 45 minutes to get us ready to leave the house! We went to the lake to celebrate Monte's birthday with Steve and Julia (Ju-Ju), Mom, Dad, Becky, and Bob. Dennis had such fun playing with the train that Steve and Julia brought for him, spending hours saying "ter-rain" and pushing the buttons that either made it roll forward or make train sounds.

We had a fish fry to celebrate the birthday, which was just what we needed the day after Thanksgiving (HA!). Dennis ate everything on his plate, and we left the table before he did. When we were clearing dishes, we looked over and saw that Dennis had pulled the serving platter of dressing (okay, that was a leftover from yesterday) over to himself and was grabbing and eating handfuls. After this he played train and had us read him books and played dress up in Julia's fleece jacket and my shoes. He partied hard, dancing and laughing, and he even posed for Steve to take a few pictures. He was so exhausted that when it was time to leave, he kept saying "bye bye go". He fell asleep immediately in his carseat, of course. Poor little guy. I wonder how many days it will take him to recover from his big holiday week! We're leaving on a beach vacation in the morning, and I hope he'll get some relaxing in while we're there (because David and I certainly hope to).

We survived Thanksgiving. We even had fun. And now it's officially the Christmas season. The part I'm looking forward to the most? Watching Dennis look at the decorations and listen to the story of Christmas and attend the church services. And our big trip to the west coast, in just over two weeks. Being with family and friends--that's the very best thing about holidays. (and just so I don't leave the nativity report out--today Caspar the Wise Man, not yet renamed by Dennis, has gone missing and we are waiting for the search party to find him)

Happy Thanksgiving

They came, they ate, they visited, they left, and they all had a wonderful time. Watching Dennis play with his cousins Laine and Emily, all of them taking turns diving into the ball pit and laughing hysterically, was just priceless. Everyone had such a good time, and my house hasn't looked this nice in a long time!

The turkey was perfect, very juicy and flavorful, and I haven't had any reports of illness from anyone. We had four different pans of dressing to choose from (so I guess I could have gotten away with not making any)! We were overrun with food. We are still overrun with food! I'm eating less these days, and we have so many leftovers. I'm going to freeze as much as I can for later. Just about the time I got all the food put away, everyone left except for Dave and Ellen, and they stayed to help clean up and to play games and enjoy time with us. The kids loved getting to play together more, but we could tell they were completely worn out from the holiday. They started tiny pushing wars, and Dennis got his feelings hurt a couple of times. It's always so hard for me to see his little face turn into the perfect example of the tragedy mask, with those huge tears falling from his eyes and his little chin trembling. It just melts my heart. He gets over it quickly, though, and goes right back to playing. Chloe helped me clean up, bringing me all kinds of things and helping Dennis keep up with his juice cup. She looked so cute today, with her hair done up in pigtails. It finally came to me who she looks like. With her hair up in the tiny pigtails and the big blue eyes, she's nearly an exact replica of Cindy Lou Who from the Grinch cartoon.

After supper, when it was so pleasant outside, we took the kids out into the yard and ran them around. They chased each other around for quite awhile, running down the driveway and chasing their shadows, cast by the giant streetlight in front of the house. They loved being outside, even if it was after dark. And we liked all the exercise of running off some of the meal.

It was a wonderful day, and we have so much to be thankful for. We are very very blessed. As a matter of fact, I wanted everyone to think about their own blessings today. Uncle Steve gave a wonderful blessing for the meal that talked about being thankful for what we have and what our nation has. My thanksgiving decorations were very non-traditional--not a turkey or pine cone or pumpkin to be seen. I used red, lime green, and turquoise cards and wrote out the liturgy from the Book of Common Prayer, one phrase on each card, and each card also featured at the top a giant letter. Put together in order, the cards spelled g-i-v-e-t-h-a-n-k-s, and gave the entire liturgy. I also put the Great Thanksgiving prayer on one table, and the other two tables featured placards (in picture frames, on striped paper with the above colors) that said give thanks on one and be thankful on the other. We also wrote out bible verses about giving thanks on cards and scattered those on all the tables. It was very simple (and free), and I was very pleased with the effect.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and had much to be thankful for. I am so grateful for such wonderful friends and a wonderful family, and my heart is just full of happiness with the blessing that is my son. Thank you, Lord, for everything.

The Day Before

As I write this, the turkey is cooling, having just finished cooking and I am experiencing major Turkey Anxiety. Did I put the digital probe in far enough? Is it okay that it only took 5 hours to cook instead of 6, like everyone said it would take? It reached the required 160 degrees, so it did get done, right??? Will I be sending all my guests home with Salmonella?

Dennis played here all day as I worked on the last minute cleaning. I never did get to my bedroom because there were just so many other things to do. And despite my best intentions to make the cornbread tonight, I put a turkey in the oven before I realized that, hey, a turkey takes up the whole oven... The floor cleaning robots ran ALL day long, and Dennis enjoyed running back and forth between them and watching them work. The picture shows him hiding under his high chair and watching the mopping robot (an iRobot Scooba) scrubbing the kitchen floor. God bless their little robotic circuits because they worked all day in between battery recharges and did such a nice job on the floors!

Dennis was ecstatic to see the Gallmans arrive tonight to help with last minute preparations. Dave helped David hang the sheetrock in the front room, and Ellen helped me with the table decorations. Dennis and Chloe played frantically for the couple of hours before bedtime, messing up his room as fast as I could clean it and scattering Little People and accessories as far as the eye could see. They kept laughing and giggling at each other and running down the hallway after each other. Ellen and I were totally overwhelmed by the sheer amount of cuteness exhibited!

And let's not forget today's nativity adventure. A shepherd, sheep, and sheepdog arrived in the mail today to add to the set, and Dennis could barely eat his lunch for his excitement over the new additions. I found the camel in his crib at naptime, and I have no idea how it got there. And, a frog has joined the nativity scene. He appeared midday, a little plastic bath frog that's the same size as the nativity characters. I'm so glad that amphibians are represented now, and maybe they'll spread the Good News to the other toys in his room.

In 24 hours, Thanksgiving will be over and done with, and I can relax a little!

train enthusiast

I took Dennis over for another visit to Gran and Pop so I could get some painting done. He was very excited to go, and he ran up their front walk and rang the doorbell a few times. Then he actually knocked on the door, which I had never seen him do before. Funny how they will pick up so many mannerisms that you never realized you were teaching them (scary, too). As soon as they opened the door, he started saying "train". They explained that he had played with a train there the last time he visited, and he remembered right where it was and went right to it.

I snuck out to go back home and work, and later, when I was on my way to the gym, I got a phone call that Dennis might have eaten some fuses. I never did understand if they were automotive fuses or Christmas tree light fuses or what. Mom said they were tiny, and she didn't see any in his mouth, but he had brought her the box and there were four missing and he was sucking on the end of one of them. Dad wasn't concerned since they didn't have any sharp edges. I told her to call David because I wasn't sure what to do myself. Not too long ago we spent many hours at the ER because we thought he had swallowed a paper clip. These days, he mostly brings me tiny things that he knows he shouldn't eat, saying "thank you" as he hands it to me! (he loves to do this with coins) Mom called David who asked if it was a package of eight fuses with four missing, and she confirmed that it was. He was the one who had removed them, so apparently Dennis didn't eat any of them, thank goodness!

Tonight's nativity report: Mary went missing and was found later on a journey with one of the wise men. The black sheep has abdicated from the farm playset and has now joined the nativity characters. We returned him to the farm several times, but Dennis keeps bringing him back to the nativity set. He doesn't really belong to either set since I bought him separately, and wherever Dennis wants him is fine with us (as long as it isn't the toilet).

thank you, McDonald's

Mom and I traded off workout times today. I brought Dennis up to the gym while she was finishing her workout, and she took him shopping at the flea market next door while I worked out. She brought him back over to the gym as I was finishing up and she told me how tired he was and that he was probably ready for a nap. It was lunchtime and we were down to a crucial number of diapers, so despite his exhaustion, we had to do the Wal-Mart run. Poor little guy. He was so sleepy that he laid his head down on Froggy (who was on the handle of the shopping cart) for the ride through the parking lot into the store. He cried when I got him out of his car seat to go in. I felt just awful but needed to run the errand while I was out (lest the unthinkable happen and we run out of diapers).

He whined a bit and then laid his head down on my arm as I pushed the cart to the back of the store where a McDonald's is located. Dennis just looked a bit glazed as I placed our order, but once we were seated and he saw his milk and hamburger and apple slices, he was one happy toddler. He smiled and laughed through his lunch, taking nearly 40 minutes to eat it. I would think he was finished and would start to take the tray away and he'd quickly grab handfuls of food and start stuffing his mouth. I finally convinced him to take his time after the third attempt to remove the tray. I had to wait until he physically pushed it away. At that point, he'd eaten all the meat from his burger (pseudo-beef?), all his apple slices, and half the hamburger bun, and he'd finished his drink. And he very happily played with the talking hippo toy that came with the meal.

He got a little fussy again as I shopped. I told him we were there for diapers and he got rather upset at me when I detoured through the window treatments. He was fine once I got back on track and went to the diaper section. And he was pretty sweet when I decided to get the disposable dinnerware for Thanksgiving. I know I'm trying to be greener, but I just can't see myself washing dishes after 24 people eat a meal and dessert. I'm going to toss it all. And I didn't even buy recycled this time (scandalous) because I don't know where to get it here, and my budget was $20 for diapers, napkins, plates, cups, dessert plates, and eating utensils. I accomplished my task under budget, loaded Dennis, Froggy, and the groceries into the car, and before I left the parking lot, he was asleep.

He took a two hour nap! And then he got up and helped me do the housework. I was baking pear cakes today at the same time I was cooking dinner (NOT easy), and he kept running into the kitchen to grab my legs and then butt his head against them. He climbed up in the chairs to sit at all the tables today. I guess he's previewing everyone's dining experience beforehand, giving me his expert opinion on how to set up for Thanksgiving.

so much help

The theme is the same--more house projects (thank God this will be over in less than a week) and not enough time to devote to Dennis entertainment. He's managing to keep himself amused, though. Today he discovered my guitar and though I returned it to its stand five times, I kept seeing him walking around with it. It's taller than he is! I ran a dust rag over it and strummed a few chords for him, but he was already off doing something else at the time.

He could not stop talking about trains today. He was playing with his toy trains and he enunciates very carefully: "trr-rain", and he uses a very high pitch to say it. He also says this whenever he hears a train whistle in the distance or whenever we cross the bridge over the tracks in the car. He just loves trains! Too bad he hadn't discovered this passion before we rode the Halloween Express, but he'll get to enjoy the train ride in Washington next month.

Today's nativity adventure: I was unloading the dishwasher and reloading it, and when I turned back from the sink, the stable from his nativity set was sitting in the dishwasher on the bottom rack. He was standing there watching to see what I'd do, and I asked him if it was dirty! He laughed, and then took it back out to the living room. I suppose it was a baby prank. He was helping me load it, bringing me his little fork from wherever in the house he took it earlier today and putting it in the silverware basket.

The picture shows how I found him a number of times today. I kept hearing him say "down", and went in the den to discover him on top of the table. He is quite the climber these days. I'd get him down and he'd climb right back up and demand to be gotten down again. I left him for a bit, watching him and not getting him down, and he just sat there looking around. Eventually I figured out to push the chairs farther under the table. Duh. He stayed safely on the ground after that.

short but informative

Dennis spent a large portion of his day at Gran's and Pop's house while his Daddy and I worked on house projects. He reportedly had a fabulous time there, playing at the park, playing in his playroom, singing, reading, and getting all kinds of attention that he would not have gotten at home today.

This morning, when I went in to get him up, I was greeted at the door by an awful stench. I know it was awful because I am completely clogged up and I could still smell it. I lifted him from his crib and laid him down for his diaper change. He looked me right in the eye and said "I poo poo". I told him he was exactly right, and I was proud of him for knowing the right word to describe the action. That's one step closer to potty training!

Tonight when I was on my way to pick him up, Mom called and told me he was walking to the front door and holding his jacket, asking for Mama and Da-da. She said that whenever the phone rang, he asked "Da-da?". He was ready to come home, but she said he never complained. He had a great day.

Once we got home, he had a merry old time playing tag with the vacuum robot. He chased it, and then let it chase him, then he tapped it with his foot, and then he climbed up in a chair to get out of its way. I left the room briefly, and he screeched and came running out of the room, and I turned around to come back and see what upset him. He smiled at me and said "hi". I suppose it was the fact that I left him alone, or that I left him alone with the Evil Vacuum Robot running amok in the room. Who knows what goes on in the minds of toddlers?

oh the mischief

My goodness Dennis was busy today. He had a lot of things on his personal agenda (many of which conflicted with ours) and he meant to accomplish all of them. Despite the work we're doing on the house to make it safer for him and nicer for our guests, every time we turned around today he had a grip on something dangerous. While I was cooking, he walked to the knife drawer, opened it, and pulled out the longest, scariest knife in the bunch. He held in up in a kind of awe and walked toward me with it clasped in front of him. He looked like Chucky.

David has been reorganizing his tools, and Dennis keeps escaping with tools. He gutted a filing cabinet and took the metal apparatus from inside and ran with it. We found it later by the front door. He swiped the broom from the kitchen, and if I hadn't been right there to catch the stuff, he would have cleared the kitchen counter of all dishes with the broom while he was on his way to the other areas of the house with it. He must have grown an inch last night because the pens that were on the table were safely out of his reach yesterday. Not so today, and I found myself running through the house after him twice trying to get the pens before he wrote on our freshly painted walls.

I heard a terrible scraping noise in the living room (where the hardwood floor is) and went running to find him pushing the nativity set stable across the floor. I asked him what he was doing. He replied "boat" and kept navigating the stable through the oceans of our living room. I didn't know quite how to reply to that.

He opened cabinets, grabbed the cat food and tried to open the bag for a snack, opened drawers, and chased the dog all over the house while yelling at the top of his lungs. He was certainly entertaining, enough so that he was retired to his room a little early tonight to watch a movie before bed. And if we weren't still so busy putting stuff away, we might have celebrated his confinement with an adult beverage. Perhaps I should not have been so generous in sharing the chocolate teacakes that Mom baked for me yesterday with Dennis. The chocolate went right to his mischief gene and clicked it into overdrive.

the wise men

Three wise men, three magi, three kings... They came from the East, they saw the star, they followed it, they found Jesus. Traditionally, their names are Balthazar, Caspar, and Melchior. The Fisher Price nativity set has three wise men, and they are well traveled little guys. Today, I told Dennis their names, and he just looked at me with that "whatever, Mommy" look, picked up the black one of the three and pronounced him "Yo." He called the figure "Yo" for the rest of the day. I can't wait to see what he names the other two.

one more week

Thanksgiving draws ever nearer, and my to-do list isn't really getting much shorter. Dennis was so cute today that I had to take lots of time to play with him. He's cute every day, yes, but he really wanted the attention today. The nativity figures have ventured into all parts of the house now, and I need to round them all up tonight before I go to bed. I'm thinking that's going to happen real soon, actually, as I feel very run down. Yes, I'm doing too much, but I thought I was over that little cold I had. My body has let me know otherwise today, and I should have gotten more rest. Dennis slept with us last night as he had a nightmare around 2 a.m. and wasn't easily consoled. He slept just fine, but David and I had lots of luggage under our eyes today.

He says so many new words every day that I can't even count. And he remembers so much! When he knows he's right, there's just no arguing with him (sound like a Mitchell to anyone?). For instance, last night we had dinner with Gran and Pop at their house. Dennis was heartily digging into the black-eyed peas, which he loves, and every time he picked up a pea, he said "fish". I kept telling him they were PEAS, but he kept adamantly insisting "FISH". Upon closer inspection, there were fish on his plate, and whenever he picked up a pea, he uncovered one. I apologized for my error and told him he was right. He gave me that smug look of his Daddy's, the one I get whenever I have to admit that David was right and I was wrong about something. Sometimes it happens.

the most important story

I am very holiday minded as of late, and this week I got out Dennis' Fisher Price nativity playset and put it in the living room for him to play with when he's in there. This way, he has a nice playset in there, AND the camel and sheep and cow and donkeys that came with this set won't get lost in the toybox or end up mixed in with his farm playset, which is in his room. He knows the nativity set is in there on his table, and when he gets up in the morning he points to the door and says "go chair" and "table". He does love his table and chairs, a gift from Gran and Pop last Christmas that he has lately really grown up enough to use.

When he first sets up the nativity the way he likes it, usually the cow and camel get the stable and the other characters huddle outside. Today, though, I showed him the characters and told him their names and told him a brief version of the story. He struggled over Joseph, but can say "Mary" quite clearly, and does a decent job saying "Baby Jesus". He smiles whenever he looks at the baby. This afternoon, he was tired of my cleaning on the other side of the room, so he put Mary, Joseph, and Jesus in the creche and brought the whole thing over to me so that I'd play with him. The animals stayed behind. Usually the sheep gets top billing, but he was left on the table. And the camel and cow were on an excursion to the kitchen at the time.

Tonight at evening story time, I pulled down his Bible story book from Uncle Denny, a very nice gold-edged paper page book with beautiful illustrations that I don't keep down on the shelf where he could reach it. He's good to his books, but I don't want to take the chance of him suddenly deciding not to be. I read him the Christmas story, and he listened closely, and when we were done, I told him to go and pick out another book and I would read it to him. He went to the shelf of board books that are within his reach (after taking the first book back to the shelf--hooray!) and chose his board book of Bible stories. I read him the story of Moses, and when I finished, he grabbed the book and turned to the Christmas story. So I read it to him again, a slightly different version from the board book. I also let him spend some time 'reading' on his own, and he chose the same Bible story board book. The picture shows him really concentrating on it. I am beyond glad that he's so interested in these stories. I can't wait to take him to the live nativity this year!

mr. clean

Dennis has been driving me bonkers playing with our broom, 'helping' me clean the floors, and so I got out one of his Christmas presents early, a tiny broom and dustpan set of his very own, red and black with Dirt Devil printed on it (very manly). He could not have been more ecstatic about his new toy and immediately went to work sweeping every surface and toy in his room. They have a vacuum in that same line, but he's still a bit afraid of the vacuum. Or maybe he's just smart enough to pretend that he's afraid of the vacuum. So now I'm thinking maybe I'm a little afraid of the vacuum...

I do admit to being a bit terrified by the antics of our Mafia Cat. She's taken out a number of chipmunks lately, leaving their carcasses strewn about the front walk. Yesterday I told her she was doing a good job, but it would be so great if she'd take the body elsewhere, since this particular one was right on the middle of the front step, just outside the door. The next time I went outside, it was gone, but this morning when I went out, she'd left a severed chipmunk head, a tail, and some random organ in a little pile on the front step. Creepy. Very creepy. It feels like we're living in some cat version of The Godfather. I feed her regularly and she gets attention. This could be retaliation for me not letting her move into the house (as she's clearly let me know she is ready to do), but I don't have any desire to fool with a litter box. I take care of Dennis' 'litter' so to speak, and I don't need another provider of such inside the house. But the cat doesn't understand all that, she just looks in through the window and sees the dog reclining on one of her dog beds (or the couch--she knows she's not supposed to be up there but I find hair on it that gives away her dirty little secret). I know the cat would like that kind of life as well. Honey has a hard job. She has to put up with Dennis climbing all over her and petting her very exuberantly, exclaiming "DOG!" while he pets (smacks) her head and grabs her ears. Somehow I don't think Marzipan would be quite as patient. She's nice to Dennis when he's outside, and she cries outside his window whenever he's crying, but I don't know that she'd take too well to tail-grabbing toddler antics. Dennis looks just fine without cat scratches on him.

a real sentence!

Dennis played so nicely alone in his room for long stretches of time today. I was able to get some housework done, and I enjoyed periodic visits to his room to play or read with him. On one such visit, I went in and he brought me his Moo Baa La La La book and announced "Sheep go baa!". I told him he was exactly right. And then I called his daddy and his gran to brag about his brilliance.

He wanted to wear hats all day and traded off between his red cowboy hat (which was David's as a child) and his park ranger hat (a souvenir bought from his first national park--the Great Smoky Mountain National Park). He's equally cute in both. I also surprised him with a new shirt that Gran had purchased a few weeks back, part of an entire outfit with owls on both shirts. He was so thrilled to see the shirt, and he proclaimed "who who" several times as he was helping me put it on him. At random intervals for the remainder of the time he wore it, he pointed to his chest and said "who who". I'm glad he was so thrilled with it. I think I can remember loving an owl shirt of my own when I was very young.

He loves the new arrangement of furniture in the living room, which I finished tonight before I headed to the gym. His table and chairs and in there, and I set up his Fisher Price nativity set for him. It's almost the season for it, and it's never too early to hear about Jesus, so we talked about the characters and he played with them, tucking baby Jesus into the stable along with a camel and a sheep (Mary and Joseph watched from the sidelines). It's going to be a wonderful holiday season this year. I'm so excited!

looking up

Today was a good day. Despite yesterday's big drama, Dennis seems to feel pretty good. The house was filled with the sounds of happy baby chatter and delighted screeches, gleeful shouts of discovery emanating from his room on a regular basis as he undid the good cleaning we accomplished in there yesterday. He is reunited with all his toys and has them arranged to his liking (scattered across the floor where he cannot walk without stepping on something and then saying "uh-oh").

He attempted sentences today. One actual word in a sea of gibberish, spoken with authority and accompanied by a waving finger and a tap of his foot. He was so serious that I just agreed with him (so I may have inadvertently promised him a car on his 2nd birthday). I'm just glad he's feeling better. He was happier today than he's been in a week, despite yucky antibiotic-related diaper rash rearing its ugly head (or butt, as it were).

My day was somewhat lessened in joy by the fact that I seem to be coming down with Something Yucky myself (not diaper area related). David took one look at me this morning and told me to go back to bed and stay there and he'd provide meal service. I dreamed of this kind of day, but not when I still have so much to do to get the house ready. And I stayed away from the mirror, since I must have looked completely dreadful to warrant such fabulous treatment. Dennis came to the door of our bedroom and I heard him whispering, so I came out from under the covers and he delightedly ran to the bed for a cuddle. Goodness I love that little guy! Maybe we'll both be feeling great tomorrow.

David has reminded me to report that Dennis has started 'reading' aloud along with us, chanting random syllables as we read the words on the pages of his favorite books. He talks along with us and seems to know when to stop talking and turn the page. I feel a big language breakthrough coming on, and I can't wait! I wonder what he'll be telling us at Christmas time. And I wonder how I'll feel when he starts telling me "no". They really do grow up too fast.

Saturday fun

It's always fun to spend a Saturday afternoon in the emergency room!

We were relieved this morning when Dennis showed no signs of fever, so David left to do a few odd jobs. Dennis spent the morning playing in his room and then watching an Elmo movie, and I heard him crying a bit and thought it was probably time for him to eat his lunch. It had been a few hours since breakfast. I put him in his high chair and gave him some raisins to snack on while I prepared his lunch, and he started shaking/trembling a little, and then he laid his head down on his food. I would have attributed it to exhaustion, but the shaking worried me. So I took him into his room and even though he was plenty cool to the touch, I took his temperature. It was around 103, so while he cried, I frantically packed a diaper bag with necessities and two books, and we headed to the ER here in town. David was an hour away at the time, so I called my mother and she met us there. Dennis was excited to see his Gran even under the circumstances, and it was such a relief to have help distracting him and holding him for the hour and a half we were there.

His temp reached 103.8 when we arrived, and after checking his other vitals and swabbing his throat to check for strep, a nurse gave him tylenol on top of the motrin I'd given him on the way in. He cried his way through his checkups, cried at everything from the heart rate check to the blood pressure check (I have never seen a BP cuff that small!) to the weight and temp checks, and most especially the throat swab and ear checks. He has an ear infection, which I began to suspect, and David has just arrived home from having the antibiotic prescription filled. So we'll start him on that and everything should be fine pretty soon.

On a more positive note, we read Mr. Brown Can Moo and Moo Baa La La La each about 12 times while in the hospital, and Dennis happily identified each animal and made the noises along with us. He also enjoyed a rousing game of "Wheeeeee" on the spinning doctor's seat that was in the room. It could have been much much worse. And now we know why he's had the fever. And now we can get him all better.

20 months old

Oh, my goodness! We're just 4 short months away from having a 2 year old! Wow, time flies as fast as everyone promised it would when I had a baby.

I'm certainly proud of our little 20 month old. He gets smarter (and cuter) every day. Right now, books and trucks are his passions. And frogs. He adores frogs. His great granny sent him a plush frog hand puppet, which ribbits 3 songs. He was so thrilled when I first showed it to him, running over and saying "Frog!", and then I made it croak at him. His smile faltered and he took a step back to observe, and then he laughed and came forward to get it. It's almost as important as the Original Froggy and has been carried from room to room to room. He looks like a little hobo running through the house with his juice cup tucked under his arm and two big stuffed frogs in his hands.

I have concerns, of course, about his growing up. We weighed and measured him yesterday, and his weight hasn't increased since the doctor checkup (thank goodness his little appetite has finally leveled off), but his height is not progressing like we'd like. He's only in the 10th percentile. The doc is not concerned yet--it's something we'll reevaluate at the 2 year checkup. She says that he could be one of those kids who have big growth spurts. She asked if David had grown any taller after he got out of school, and he certainly did! I haven't grown a millimeter since puberty, but he kept growing until at least age 20. The doctor says Dennis could do the same. If he doesn't, he might only reach a height of 5'7", and while that's really just fine, I think it'd be easier on him if he made it to a little taller than that. Clearly, Chloe will be towering over him through their childhood years--she's all leg! And girls usually grow faster... I'm not staying up nights worrying, though. We do mark his height on a piece of painter's tape hung vertically on his door, and we mark it every month, and there has clearly been growth every month. And he grew out of his 12 month pants a couple of months back; they are too short now. So I'm probably concerned for nothing. I need feedback on those mythical foods that are supposed to make you grow tall. That's what our parents always told us when we had to eat something we didn't like. Perhaps it's time to start preparing those things for Dennis! (we can skip those foods that'll "put hair on your chest", which we could all certainly do without)

So, he's still feverish, and it got up over 101 today, despite our vigilant dosing of tylenol and motrin. I foresee a long night of baby in bed with us. It's still manageable, though, and we aren't to panic until 104. I can't wait til he starts feeling better. I HATE when he's sick. I feel so helpless and worried. So I will keep praying, and I will keep watching him sleep while working his little hands over Froggy's plush skin like he's got a braille message of comfort engraved in his velveteen. The fever tonight seemed to break before I went in to soothe his little cries and bring him into our room, and now he's resting a little more comfortably and isn't burning up anymore, so I have hope he'll be well tomorrow.

construction and destruction

As usual, the night before he turns another month old, I find myself consulting the upcoming milestones to see if he's on track. He always is. This time it said he might even be able to build a tower of 6 cubes, and this is a skill I haven't seen. We've seen him do 5 blocks, but that's it. So tonight, as we were killing time in that last hour before bedtime playing with him and his toys, he found his box of big wooden alphabet blocks (a great gift from Gaynell and Jim King). He dumped them out and began maniacally stacking towers with a skill and speed we'd had yet to see. Pretty immediately we noticed a few towers of 8 blocks. I guess he's been reading the milestone charts behind our backs... I wonder if he's been working on washing and drying his hands and kicking a ball and putting on clothes, as those are coming up in the next few months.

He's coming down with something. I was afraid he might be, but hoped the general crankiness might be due to teething. But he's suffering fever and he's tired, and his nose has been runny for a week. We're considering calling the doctor, but it's a low fever thus far, not enough to worry about. It's probably just a cold. I hope it runs its course quickly.

so November

As I write this, I can hear the wind and rain outside, ushering in the usual November weather. I wonder if tomorrow will be gray and dreary. I wouldn't be surprised.

Veterans' Day was yesterday, and I remembered my beloved Papa (he would have loved Dennis) and also prayed for his wife (my Granny) to safely make it through her heart catheterization. She did and is home and all is well there in Dothan.

All is not so wonderful here. I am in a major frenzy of house cleaning, trying to clean ten years of accumulated STUFF that was piled in the third bedroom so that I can move the STUFF that has accumulated elsewhere in the house into that room on the soon-to-be-built wall shelves. We are overrun with books. We are complete bookworms, all three of us, and the darn things are EVERYWHERE. I'm trying to minimize their spread through the house by confining them to at least the three bedrooms. I'm setting up a kind of library in the spare room, one that all of us can enjoy.

It's timely, my library project. I've spent hours reading to Dennis this week. He's brought me book after book after book, plopping down in my lap and opening them to the first page. I'm happy to comply. Every time I left him alone in there for a few minutes, I'd return to find him happily ensconced in his board books, turning the pages and 'reading' aloud to himself.

Due to a rather staggering amount of technical problems, rabid housecleaning, and a teething and very grouchy toddler, there was no post yesterday, and since he's crying now, there won't be much more of one tonight before I go check on him. Only one more set of molars to go...

Bear with me... I'll try to keep up.

helmet day

Again it was one of those days when he felt safer walking around his room in his bicycle helmet. He wasn't wearing pants, but a helmet was necessary. He has a strange fashion sense! Or maybe I'm not dialed in to how hip it is to wear a helmet with a diaper.

We learned our first alphabet letter today, the letter "O". I pointed to it on a block and told him what it was, and he found several other blocks that also had "O" on them and pointed them out. He pointed to the "O" on his bed sheet as well, and to the "O" on his alphabet wall hanging. I didn't know if he would retain this at all, but when David came home, without any prompting other than my silently holding up a block, he started pointing out "O"s (and saying "O") to his Daddy. Wow. Wonder what letter we'll learn tomorrow.

As always, we did our 'cow says moo, sheep says baa, owl says who, horse says neigh' conversation tonight with Gran on the speakerphone. She asked him what a snake says and he said "apple". I guess he's been reading Genesis at night when we think he's asleep!

a peaceful Sunday night

Since we spent the night away from home last night, it was necessary to disturb Dennis at 2 AM, to move him from the room where he was sleeping into the room where we would be sleeping. Usually this is not a problem, but this morning it was a disaster. We finally went to sleep at 3:30 AM (or that was the last time I saw when I looked at my watch), with David snuggled with Dennis on the floor on an air mattress and me sleeping on one very comfy couch. Dennis cried for a long time before we finally were allowed to sleep, and I was so grateful to get up from my half-crouching position on the floor beside the air mattress where he decided to finally fall asleep with his head under my chin. He head-butted us for quite awhile before settling on that position, and I sat there, silently begging for him to fall asleep (while listening enviously and disgustedly to David's snoring from the other side of the air mattress) so that I could get up and go to the bathroom and take my contact lenses out. Once Dennis rolled over toward David, I RAN down the hall before he could start crying again and delay my necessary errand one more time.

We were very bleary-eyed at 8 AM, which is when a little Dennis head popped up and happily declared "Fee" (which means fish) while looking at the aquarium in the room where we were sleeping. He was up and exploring after that, and we packed up and headed home. I napped away the rest of the morning and then got some major kitchen cleaning done, some with Dennis helping. We're all glad to be home and in our own beds, two of us already asleep. We were so blessed to have such a wonderful weekend.

most beautiful hike

Dennis went to his first tea party today, a fall themed picnic in a beautiful old pavilion at Oak Mountain State Park. We grilled hot dogs and had potato salad and baked beans, chocolate chip cookies, and caramel apple pie, and most of all shared the meal with some of our very best friends. Jennifer brought Peanut the Chihuahua, and Gran and Pop came as well. Much thanks to the Gallman family for hosting such a fabulous meal.

Instead of driving back down the mountain from Peavine Falls, we decided to hike on the Green Trail and come back via the falls on the White and Blue trails. This was a spectacular idea from Dave, and we were fortunate enough to hike through some of the most breathtaking fall color I've ever seen. Ellen and I couldn't take enough pictures, and the pictures just couldn't do justice to what seemed like a cathedral of vibrant color towering over us as we walked through the valley.

It's hard to say what the best part of the hike was, as each of us liked different things. On the drive up the mountain at noon, we got to see the sun illuminating red and yellow and orange leaves, giving them a warm glow of color. On the hike, seeing all the colors all around us and all above us made me constantly pray "thank you" in my mind to the Creator of all the beauty I was experiencing. It was a heaven for the senses, beauty all around, peace and quiet, and a spicy woodsy aroma that we churned up as we marched over the soft carpet of thousands of fallen leaves. The temperature was perfect, with sunny and breezy weather, and we could not have asked for a more perfect fall experience.

The guys liked when we did a little bushwhacking between trails since the connector had long since grown over, and Dennis liked this the best as well. He became very animated, chatting and reaching out from his spot in the backpack to grab the trees and feel the nature that he was wandering through.

And our family and the Gallmans were having such a wonderful time together, we extended the fun to a game night at their house that turned into a two-family slumber party. So much laughter, and so much fun, and such happy babies enjoying spending time together--these are some of the very best moments in life.

Assistant Dennis

What do you write about a little fellow who was grouchy AND hyper all day? Suffice it to say that 19 month olds are not the best sewing assistants and aren't too helpful when cleaning the kitchen. All day long I was removing sharp objects from his grasp and dealing with the crying spells that followed.
He has learned to get angry when you take something from him. He wanted a banana, and we gave him one. I took it back to peel it so that he could eat it, and he got so furious and upset that, even though I handed it right back, he had to take several minutes to calm down before he could eat it. Big, fat tears, and red, splotchy face...the whole works! Welcome, Terrible Twos.

The Real Dennis the Menace

I have a small tradition that I want to keep up for Dennis. I'd like him to have newspapers from significant dates throughout his life. I had someone purchase one on the day he was born, and we drove all over Chilton County last night to find a paper about the presidential election--a little piece of history for him to read in future years. Today I went to put the election paper in with the paper from the day he was born. I decided to flip through the paper from the day he was born, a day that passed for me in a haze of epidural and morphine and the totally overwhelming feeling of new parenthood. Ok, so I didn't really read the paper, I flipped straight to the comics to see what Dennis The Menace was doing the day our Dennis was born. What a shocker! It turns out that Dennis The Menace was celebrating HIS birthday on the day Dennis was born. I did not know the connection until now, but they share a birthday.

So I did a little research and found this quote about the comic strip:
"Dennis the Menace began on March 14, 1951 (four months after Ketcham's friend and colleague Charles Schulz started his own historic comic strip). He went on to become the second most popular cartoon kid in the world — after Charlie Brown, of course. Dennis the Menace first appeared in 16 American newspapers; by the end of 1951, he was appearing in over a hundred. The reason for Dennis' success is easy to figure out: It was one of the most brilliantly observed and empathetic comic strips about childhood ever drawn. Ketcham captured the mischievousness, rambunctiousness, and anarchy of a kid's world better than any other cartoonist. The strip appeals to both parents and children — while parents shake their heads ruefully at how accurately Ketcham caught the essence of children's natural zest for mayhem, children identify with Dennis and the chaos that he leaves in his wake — just a hop, skip, and a jump away from their own fantasy of themselves! Ketcham was a cartoonist with a vivacious line that was exquisitely suited to depicting adults and children. His gags were funny, subtle and touching. Ketcham drew Dennis the Menace from 1951 to 1994, when he retired and let his assistant take over the strip."

I have always loved the strip myself, never thinking that he was a menace, but just a typical little boy. I especially agree now that I have a little boy!

What a fun discovery to make! I'll have to find a nice vintage Dennis the Menace strip to frame for his room, one that personifies that little boy essence.

working hard for the money

Not much to report from Dennis Land today. He took a nice long morning nap and apparently got into a big caffeine stash somewhere, because he was rarin' to go for the rest of the day. Lots of happy screeches, running wherever he needed to go, and constant words. Gran and I took him shopping with us this afternoon, and he was good as gold in the stores but kept up a running commentary on the way back home. He wanted juice, and we finally stopped to get him some. When we arrived back home, I opened the back door to find him soaked with juice. We'd been wondering what the new word was that he kept chanting. I thought he was asking for Coke, but it looks like he was telling us he was cold instead.

I got him dry and warm, and played with him in his room and read some books before he gladly went night night. The picture shows him sitting at Pop's desk, where he had been using the pen to 'write' checks. In case you're wondering about the green dot on his head, it's a smiley face sticker. We took turns wearing it all afternoon until the sticky gave out.

election day

Gran kept Dennis this morning while Mommy and Daddy voted. And after that, Dennis and I spent the majority of our day with Gran. He took a couple of small naps at her house, and we did some shopping at Wal-Mart. We had 'high tea' together, where Dennis enjoyed some Cheetos with his tea. Dennis loves Cheetos. We were in a store on Halloween, and he picked up the bag of Cheetos as if he knew what they were, and he finally finished that bag today. He was orange when he finished, and as I went to retrieve the baby wipes, Gran gave him a marshmallow candy eyeball to eat. He was a sticky mess but cleaned up easily enough.

We also had a nice afternoon visit to the park. We strolled Dennis for the first mile we walked, and after that, Gran played chase and hide-and-seek with him while I walked a second mile. We're unclear who got the better workout! Dennis enjoyed climbing on and off the picnic tables, and pointed out the train as it went by. He was so excited about the train that he walked the walking track in the direction it had gone, saying "bye bye" to the train for several minutes after it was out of sight.

After the walk, we came home to cook dinner, and it was a real struggle to keep Dennis awake until bedtime. He still hasn't gotten used to the time change. He was, however, extremely happy to take his bath tonight, and he was so tired after that he sat still through an entire reading of One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish. Afterward, he went to the bathroom to have his teeth brushed, and then demanded "night night". I hope he sleeps well. Tomorrow when he wakes up, we'll tell him who won the election. I'm sure he's thinking about it right now.

magnets and sticky-ness

We had fun with magnets today. It was Block Day in Dennis' room, and most of the playing we did together today involved blocks. We dumped out all the colorful foam blocks and built towers out of the ones Dennis wasn't chewing on, and we talked some about colors but I don't know that it meant anything to him. The blocks he played with the most today were the G-Baby Magnetic blocks. He liked turning them around and around to find the ways that the magnets were either attracted or repelled. He was very absorbed in the magnet play, and stayed in one area of his room for quite a long period of time for him.

Once he had dumped out the fabric crate full of blocks, it became a fun 'box' for him to sit in. He had to really step high to climb in, and at one point of the climbing in and out, went in head first. I hate I didn't have the camera phone ready at that time. I started putting the blocks away, thinking it might be close to nap time, and when I did, he climbed in the crate again. I would toss the blocks in, and he'd toss them back out, and we ended up racing each other to fill or empty the crate, and we both found ourselves giggling at our silliness. I won, of course, and he sat in the crate full of blocks and played with them, having a great time.

We went for a walk again, at a wooded park with a nice walking track, and Dennis enjoyed pointing out all the squirrels, telling us each one was a "cat". He also said "hey" repeatedly to the other walkers, starting his mantra once he spotted them and continuing to say it until they were out of sight. Most waved back at him, which he loved. Since he tolerated the full two miles today, Gran and I got a pretty good workout. And then we let him out of the stroller to run around in the center of the track, where there is a nice grassy shaded area under the pine trees. We pointed out pine cones and tried to engage him in a game of chase, which he doesn't entirely understand as of yet. He just ran around giggling, and he would hide from us behind a brick grill in the picnic pavilion and then scream-laugh hysterically when we would find him. He had so much fun that he started to cry when we left, but he was having a major Stinky Diaper Moment and it was time to get home and start supper. He got over it quickly enough when we got home and I let him have one piece of his Halloween candy. He had a lollipop tonight (one of those Dum-Dum tiny ones), and it was a sticky disaster, but he finished it successfully. It took many scrubbing wipes to keep everything from adhering to his skin, but I think we managed. His hair was even kind of hardened on his forehead. Think what you will, but I was able to get dinner all ready while he worked on that lollipop in his high chair without a complaint. We convinced him to not eat the stick, so he gave it to Honey instead. He called the lollipop a balloon despite what we said it was, and I suppose it did look like one, a round ball on the end of a white stick...

He is not adjusting to the new time. He woke up WAY too early this morning and he didn't nap all day. I hope he sleeps tonight, because we're sure planning to go to sleep early!

Sunday in the park

We used the majority of the day to wind down from the big weekend, but we did manage to get Dennis out to visit his grandparents and visit the playground. He was delighted to climb up and slide down until it got too dark for him to see very well. Other than that, it was a usual day, lots of playing in his room and all.

He did have the first Halloween candy from his pumpkin today, one Reese's cup and two Smarties (not two packs, just two pieces). He loved it, of course, and he didn't want to eat his lunch after that. I had to hide the pumpkin in the pantry, but he knows it's in there. He points to the pantry and says pumpkin. It's adorable, but so far it hasn't worked and I've stayed strong in the face of an immense cuteness-for-candy campaign.

We talked a little bit about Thanksgiving and watched the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving dvd, and he enjoyed snuggling with me in the chair while we talked about what the characters were doing and talking about. He loved watching Snoopy, Woodstock, Charlie Brown, and Linus making toast and popcorn, and he pointed excitedly to the screen and said "cooking" and "bread". He loved Halloween so much that I want to get him excited about the next holiday coming up. There will be a houseful of people here to celebrate with him!

walking in the woods

Today's major highlight was a hike at Oak Mountain with Gran. Dennis learned to say the words "hike" and "hiking", but they were not entirely correct for him since I was hiking with him in a backpack on my back. He didn't do much actual hiking himself.

It was another perfect fall day, with peak leaf color deep in the state park for us to enjoy. We met a few people leaving when we started out on the trail but otherwise had the trail to ourselves. Dennis was happy to identify the trees to us, not that he knows any genus or species, but said "tree" a few times. When he got a little bored, we ran through his animal sound vocabulary and he had a good time with that. He played some with my hair, since it was right in front of him and oh-so-convenient, and I finally was able to discourage him but fear that I might have a serious bald patch if we continue to do this on the regular basis we are intending.

We hiked to Maggie's Glen, but we didn't stop there. We had sort of planned to, but then thought better of it. We had a good momentum going, Dennis seemed happy enough without running around there, and if we headed back to the North Trail Head immediately instead of stopping, we'd have time to stop on the way out and see the Treetop Trail owls and other birds of prey. Dennis sensed that we weren't going to let him out to walk right about the time we turned around to head out, and he was incensed, but calmed himself when we told him about seeing the owls. Dennis, Gran, and I spent the next 10 minutes of the hike hooting at each other, and the time passed quickly. We learned about pine cones and showed him how we followed the colored blazes on the trees to help stay on the trail. We listened to the crickets and an occasional bird call. The temperature was in the 60's and very pleasant under the trees, and the low sunlight coming in made the newly turned yellow and red leaves glow almost magically. What a beautiful day for a hike. Two and a half miles of pure enjoyment, with a possibility of sore shoulders for a couple of days. Totally worth it.

We saw the owls and one vulture on the Treetop Trail, and instead of continuing on to the end of the boardwalk, Dennis (who was leading the way) turned around after the second cage and headed back toward the car. He walked down the stairs himself, ran across the bridge, got almost to the crosswalk and then turned back to go to the trail again. I scooped him up and told him that he was the one who decided he'd had enough, and it was time to leave. He started to fuss a tiny bit, but then he heard that we were stopping to have supper with Pop on the way home, and he was all smiles again. We had a very nice meal with Pop and Dennis fell asleep on the way home from the restaurant. He didn't wake up for the transfer between Gran's van and David's Blazer, and he continued to stay asleep until we zipped him into his pajamas. Since the time changes tonight, we had thought we'd try to keep him up a little later, but that wasn't to be. He's still a little overcharged and sleep deprived from yesterday (ditto for us), so maybe he'll get a nice full night's sleep anyway (and maybe he'll let us do so as well).

Since I wasn't able to carry him on my back AND snap his picture, I'll post a random cute one from yesterday. I'm sure no one will mind!