circus bound

All day Dennis was excited about going to the circus and delightedly reported to Grandma and Bob where he was going when they stopped in for a visit this morning. After his nap, I asked him if he remembered where we were going and he said "on a cruise ship!" and I said that yes, we were, but not today, and he said "I don't want to go to the circus today--I want to go on the cruise ship" and I agreed with him! I'd rather be cruising too!

He loved the circus. He loved seeing Chloe at dinner beforehand, and he was so excited as we walked up to the civic center. When we got inside, he wanted to touch all the astronomically priced for-sale toys at the vendor booths, but we soon took him inside the arena. Before the circus, everyone is welcome to come down to the floor to see the clowns, watch a few acts, try on costumes, get a temporary tattoo, etc. Dennis was completely overwhelmed, in totally sensory overload. I think he was a bit freaked out by it all, clowns, stilt walkers, loud music... He had a blank stare after we'd been there a bit and wouldn't talk. Things were better when the elephant came out. He was sitting up on my shoulders and the elephant began painting a picture. Dennis was so excited about this and excitedly yelled "LOOK, THE ELEPHANT IS PAINTING A PICTURE WITH RED PAINT" and began bouncing up and down on my shoulders. He narrated the rest of the colors as well and yelled "GOOD JOB ELEPHANT!" when she finished. He liked most of the acts in the main show as well, sitting on my lap for all of it and having me cover his ears with my hands when it got really loud. He got bored during the trapeze and high wire and contortionist acts, but he liked the pirates and cowboys and horses. And he LOVED the elephant acts, had to stand up in front of me and jump up and down and yell cute things to the elephants. It was a terribly expensive evening--we used all our Christmas money from Granddaddy to go--but it was a fun one. I caught an action shot of Chloe giving Dennis a big bye-bye kiss! On the way home, we talked about the circus and a sleepy little voice piped up from the backseat "we are NOT going to the circus now--we are going home and go to bed". That's how tired he was.

Today Dennis' cousin Caedmon turned 4. We hope he had a happy birthday! And I hope to get the card and present off in the mail soon. Bad aunt!