a baby shower!

We started the morning listening to Dennis singing that "Miss Donna had a farm, E-I-E-I-O", so I presumed he would be excited about going to swim class and seeing Miss Donna again. And as soon as we got to the gym, he began dancing about and saying "We go swimming, Mommy, we go swimming!!". We got inside and he pointed to the pool and saying "look at the water, Mommy, LOOK! We go swimming!". And sat by the side of the pool and then he said "NO!" when we asked him if he was ready to get in. Sad. He was very protesting about everything today, but he did go underwater today and had no trouble with it at all. He even learned how to safely jump off the side (not that he did) and swim back to the wall and climb out. He could have jumped in under his own power today, but he didn't seem to want to.

After swim class, he protested his way through the grocery store and then endured a drive to the lake house. We actually had some nice conversations about animal sounds and counted together. I left him at the lake when he was down for a nap, with Dave there to watch him and Chloe. Ellen and I went off to enjoy Jennifer's baby shower with me thinking the whole time that Dennis was getting such a nice nap. I found later that this was not actually the case, that he got up pretty much immediately and ended up playing with Chloe the whole time we were gone. We enjoyed the shower very very much and I love thinking that Jennifer and Hadden will get to experience all the joys of parenthood soon! They have a double dose coming, actually, and we all had so much fun shopping for boy AND girl clothes for the new little ones. I liked seeing all the cute baby things (I can barely remember using those tiny tiny things) and watching cute pregnant Jen open everything and show it off. I heard the words "awwwwww" and "cute" and "sweet" dozens of times. I liked Hadden's running gift commentary as well, and I must admit that I really liked the cake. It's been awhile since I had cake and I really had to restrain myself from going back for seconds and thirds--thank goodness I don't weigh and measure again at the gym for 4 weeks. Baby showers are so exciting, the precursor to the most important event in a parent's life. They are going to be such good parents! They are ahead of the game already in that they are both blessed with the gift of humor, because there will be many times when they will need to laugh and many times when they will enjoy the laughter.

Dennis and Chloe played and played and played with the Thomas trains this afternoon, and we finally got them down for naps for the first time after supper. I am afraid Dennis' nap has turned into one of the all night variety and we will be awakened mighty early!