there's just no arguing with him

Several times he got me today. As I put him down for his nap, he was doing his best to come up with creative reasons to stay awake. We recited The Lord's Prayer a number of times, once he did the entire thing in his best Dinosaur Voice, and I suppose this qualifies as a 'joyful noise unto the Lord'. When we had exhausted this, I said it was sleeping time. He said, misunderstanding me, "no, it's not SLEEPY time, it's WAKEY UP time". How do you keep a straight face through this? And how about at lunch, when he finished his meal, looked over at me, and simultaneously quirked one eyebrow and fake burped, just to test my reaction. I have failed as Mommy. I did not discipline him because I was laughing too hard.

Tonight after church, we let Dennis choose a special activity to celebrate two perfect potty days in a row. He immediately said he wanted to go to Wendy's. We don't know why, but we are glad that SOMEONE in the family can now make an instant decision on where to go (David and I can never come up with a decision so quickly, trying to out-defer each other to death). When we were at Wendy's, we sat in a booth near a uniformed police officer (Dennis was super impressed). Dennis had brought a fire chief car and police car with him and was rolling them along the table. I reminded him that the cars were not clean because he'd just been rolling them on our car tires before we got in the car to go to Wendy's. He said "well, you need to go to a tire wash, Mommy". Didn't know what to say to that. And finally, I asked him right after that what he was going to be when he grows up, knowing for sure he'd say a fireman or a police officer. Instead, he said very matter-of-factly, "a man. I'm going to be a man when I grow up." The police officer overheard and had a good laugh about it with his dining companions.