gotta go build something

Today was a busy one. First thing this morning, we dropped Gran and Pop off at the airport to fly out to Washington to visit Dennis' cousins and their Mommy and Daddy. Dennis understood that we were going to the airport and was very excited about it. So excited, in fact, that he barely tolerated the detour of stopping by to see Grandmother and Granddaddy, insisting that we were going to the airport. We had a nice but brief visit with them and then headed on, and I cannot describe how crestfallen Dennis was when he found out that he was not going to be getting on an airplane. I heard about it for half the way back home. I pacified him with a stop at Wal-Mart, telling him about it 15 miles before we got there so he'd have something else to anticipate. He's a big fan of shopping at Wal-Mart these days!

After our airport run, we went over to Dennis' Grandma's house to enjoy a nice fish fry/cookout lunch with the extended family. Dennis' cousins Laine, Emily, and Jeff were there and he had such fun playing with them that it was like torture to get him to stop playing and eat (until he saw that his cousins were sitting at the table eating). They played together mostly harmoniously for a couple of hours and I wondered how I'd get him out of there peacefully. He solved this problem for me--he picked up his plastic hammer, slid it into his pocket, and announced "I've got to go to the building site--I go say bye to everybody". I told him we couldn't go to any construction site without his diaper bag, so he went and got it. Then he hugged everyone and announced "bye everybody, I've got to go to the building site!". We got out the door with no fuss, which was WONDERFUL given his problems with leaving places lately without major drama. He told me all the way home about going to the construction or building site (he alternated words for it), and I just agreed with him. He was miffed to find us turning into our own driveway, of course, and started to protest big time. I happened to notice a box that UPS delivered sitting on our front step and I told him about it. He 'helped' me open it to find the rain boots that were my birthday present from the Gallmans. He was as excited as I was about them and insisted on trying them on (though I did it first), and he was not put off at all by the large pink polka dots on them! As a matter of fact, he tried them on so many times this afternoon that I was forced to stow them up out of his reach. They were over thigh-high on him, and he kept tripping and falling as he tried to put his whole legs into them. I'm very excited about them, myself, having wanted a pair for a long long time. Can't wait to go splashing in puddles with Dennis!