pre-labor day

I should mention that we bought Dennis the baby doll that he wanted, and he's been caring for it sweetly since it came home. Today we fixed a baby bed for it out of a basket and some of Dennis' old burp cloths. He likes to lay the baby down and say "it's time to go to sleep, baby" and "night night, baby, do you want some covers?" (at which point he will gently tuck the baby in) or "want to ride in the shopping cart, baby?" and when the baby has an 'accident' "are you okay, buddy?" and "you are a sweet baby" (which he follows by kissing the baby's bald head). Today he told the baby "you don't need to go to the lake house--you need to get some sleep", so it stayed home while we are here.

Allison came down again today to party with us at the lake, and to help us accomplish a tiny bit of work at Uncle Denny's place. Last night we played dominos and The Game of Real Life for hours, and we had planned to do the same tonight, but it got so late that Allison left before the gaming began. Today might have been our last lake swim of the season, we thought, and we enjoyed a little over an hour of floating and paddling around on our pool noodles. Dennis didn't join us again today because he was napping, and for this reason I hope there's a little time tomorrow when we can get him into the water. He keeps asking about swimming, and talked about it when we were in the car on our way down here today.

Today he put puzzles together while we grilled a FEAST for supper that included salmon, chicken breasts, beer brats, and mushrooms done on the grill plus black-eyed peas and corn from the stove. YUM! We marinated each meat in a different sauce concoction, and then we all ate like kings and queens. Dennis enjoyed a bit of everything as well. Mostly he wanted to get back to his puzzles. I'm impressed with how well he's doing at putting them together! There are four wooden puzzles in the box, each is 12 pieces and each depicts a different mode of transportation: airplane, ship, motorcycle, fire truck. The pieces are all stamped on the backs with a different little shape so it's easy to separate the different puzzles when all the pieces are mixed up in a big pile. I think Melissa & Doug toys are some of the best out there, and a very big thanks to Aunt Kristin and Caedmon for sending these puzzles our way--Dennis LOVES them. He opened the box from them this time and did a happy dance when he saw the puzzles inside. I love watching his chubby little toddler hands working the pieces around until they fit, that serious look on his face while he's concentrating. I spend all day every day with Dennis, and I never tire of looking at him and admiring some feature of his nicely put together toddler self. I look for the traces of baby that are rapidly disappearing, and I look for traces of the developing boy that will soon take over. I am completely head over heels for my child, and though everyone told me it would be this way, I had absolutely no idea I had this much ability to love another being. And it increases all the time! Sometimes my heart is so full it could just burst. And sometimes I would donate a kidney for two hours to myself, but those times are thankfully very rare. David let me sleep gloriously late again this morning while he breakfasted and played with Dennis, and now I feel refreshed and like I can totally enjoy being a Mommy again (hence the warm fuzziness of this post). I am enjoying this holiday weekend so much, and I just can't figure that out. After all, many people would consider most of my days to be holidays! Maybe it's because David is off work and I have child care help in him and Mom and Dad, who are also here at the lake for the weekend. At any rate, it's a good Farewell to Summer time that we're having.