relay

This was a busy Friday! Dennis and I spent the morning at home, and he had just gotten up from his nap when David got home from work. I worked the evening shift at Curves while the guys headed over to Grandma and GrandBob's place to assemble Bob's new treadmill. In exchange for this, I got an AWESOME Mother's Day gift: they gave us the elliptical machine that the treadmill replaced, and David kept with the tradition of giving me fitness gifts knowing that I'd really wanted an elliptical. I haven't tried it out much yet because Dennis absolutely LOVES the thing, and he's pretty good at it. He kept pointing to the recumbent bike (last year's Mother's Day gift) and telling me to ride it so we'd be working out together.

I got an email from the church reminding me that today is the Relay For Life event, and the email encouraged church members to go out and support the team. We headed over there tonight to look at the booths and hang out, and we bought a luminary bag for the walk in memory of David's dad, and I thought I'd inquire about walking some miles with the church team in honor of him as well. They said they were staying all night and could use me, so after a while we went home and put Dennis to bed and I did my Wii workout, then headed back to the park. I walked 10 miles!

When I got home, I found Dennis in my spot on the bed. As I was getting ready for bed, he said "I don't know" in his sleep and then, a few minutes later, said "Fire, fire, fire!", all without ever waking up. He did pop his eyes open when I climbed into bed, so I asked him what he was doing there (David never knew he had company in bed). He said "I was waiting for you, Mommy, could you tuck me into my bed and read me a bible story now?". I did just that!

new treads!

The nap thing may be headed out the window. He needed to lie in bed and sing to himself LOUDLY for over an hour today before he went to sleep. He was excited over being at the lake house and seeing Uncle Denny and Gran, and we did have a totally fabulous day there. He was also excited to see his Grandma and GrandBob after their vacation. Maybe the best thing that happened to him today was when the mail lady beeped her horn and we ran out in our pajamas to collect a bundle of mail and TWO boxes. He asked her "Is that box for ME?" when she handed them to us from her car window and he thanked her. One of the boxes was indeed for him--a bundle of clothes from Caedmon and a special sheet of stickers that he immediately used for an art project that I wish I had photographed for the blog. His favorite item in the box: hiking boots, just a little big for him but completely wearable. Too bad they arrived the day after his big hike, but he is so ready to go again. He put them on immediately, still in his pjs, and said "call Gran and tell her I can hike with Gran and Mommy now--I have my very own hiking boots!". I'm glad he's as thrilled over them as I am--this is something we've been looking to get him for a while since he's starting to actually hike with us. He has some really nice shoes, much nicer than he'd have if he didn't have a cousin who was passing them down just in time. We've gotten Teva sandals each year, Crocs (which he loves), dress sandals, tennis shoes, Keen river shoes (that Mommy and Daddy would love to have for themselves), and now Nike boots! And he has a great wardrobe thanks to Caedmon as well. We have been so very fortunate in this department. Some of the things that have come from Caedmon have now clothed 4 boys: Caedmon, Dennis, Dennis' cousin Jeff, and now baby Hadden! Talk about recycling!

New favorite treat for the Mitchells: blueberry ice cream from Peach Park. Mmmmm. Peach Park is the taste of summer around here!

family hiking day

I didn't spend much quality time with Dennis yesterday, so I didn't blog about it. I can summarize his Tuesday: Library Story Hour followed by lunch and nap at Gran's followed by Daddy Time while I worked at Curves. They had already had their supper when I got home and Dennis and I snuggled for just a little while before he went to bed.

Today was a great day! I heard the weather report on the radio yesterday on my way to work and immediately called Mom to plan a hike, and hike we did! Dennis and David and Mom and I all went up to Oak Mountain State Park this morning, and the guys dropped Mom and me off at the South Trailhead/Peavine Falls area and we hiked the entirety of the Blue Trail--they picked us back up at the North Trailhead. Well, I say we hiked the entire Blue Trail, but we didn't really--there's a VICIOUS section of rocky downhill climbs at the north end of that trail so we cut over on the north red/blue connector and came out on Red, which added just a little distance to our hike. We did about 7 miles. While we were hiking, David and Dennis hiked the Treetop Nature Trail up to the Nature Center and back, and Dennis told us all about all the animals he saw (snakes, birds, etc), and they also went to a playground. It was so nice to be outside in the sun and breeze today! We all had a good time. While I had hoped very much that Dennis would nap on the way home, it wasn't to be. He talked all the way south about random Dennis things, saying he was Baby Bird Dennis and instructing me to be Mommy Bird. He referred to Mom and I as Co-pilot Gran and Co-pilot Mommy the entire time because we were in the front seats. We stopped at a brand new Publix that opened today in Calera (what a great store!) to do a brief shopping trip and then we just did make it back to town in time to go to church. Dennis got a coloring book from Publix and whenever we'd talk on the way back while he was looking at it, he would say "don't talk right now, I'm READING!". He had some nice observations to make about our day as I tucked him into bed tonight--and I asked him if he wanted biscuits for breakfast and he said "silly Mommy, we can't eat biscuits--biscuits play baseball!". I suppose the Biscuits are his new favorite team because he's still talking about that game we went to on Monday night.

biscuits fan

Biscuits are his favorite food, yes, and now also his favorite baseball team. David was able to get tickets to a Montgomery Biscuits baseball game tonight through his job, and we enjoyed box seats and some pretty good baseball! Dennis was so enthralled with it all, pointing excitedly at the stadium on our way in and asking "can we go in there?". He watched the players practicing on the field, and he really got into it when the game actually started up. He watched each batter and got excited when the balls were hit and the runners took off! We took a playground break a couple of times--it's so nice that they put playgrounds in stadiums for the little ones now. Dennis also insisted on getting a foam finger at the gift shop, so now we have one of those things to clean up from all over the house, but he is awful cute waving it all around.

After we left the game (long before it ended--David has to work early tomorrow), Dennis asked if we could go to the doughnut shop, and though this sounded great to me, David turned the car toward home. We stopped off at Target to do a little necessity shopping and bought a bag of powdered doughnuts for the road, and they are SO good! Dennis popped one into his mouth and said "mmmmm... are these made from cows?". We explained that they weren't. It was such a good evening in such a pretty stadium that we are hoping to be able to go again. Dennis really had a good time! I especially loved when he would stand up and assume the batter pose with each new batter, and he'd swing just as they did. Perhaps we should let him play sports now and learn early so that maybe he can avoid the kind of ball sport incompetency that his mother has, the thing that still haunts me when I think about all those years of P.E.!

Also of note: he looked up at the full moon tonight and said "I want to go up there, Mommy, to the moon so I can meet the aliens. Can we go up there, please?".

shiny guy

Dennis nagged me about taking his bath this morning before church. I claimed the shower first since my hair takes so very long to dry and he beat on the door and worried me from the hallway until I finished. He and his Daddy took a much shorter shower, and as always, once Dennis got out of the shower, he wriggled free of the towel and streaked through the house. He was giggling uncontrollably and shouting "I'm all clean and shiny, Mommy!". I eventually caught him and convinced him to dress himself for church. Getting him to leave church was another issue as he (and the other children in his class) was begging "can we please go to the church playground now?". It must be torture to them to see the playground from their classroom window, especially on such a beautiful day. The only way we convinced him to leave was by telling him that we were headed to Gran's house for lunch and that he could play with his new toys that she has for him there. Then he RAN through the church and out the door before we could catch him--many thanks to our assistant pastor for observing our speeding child and stepping in front of him to stop his forward momentum and distract him until we could weave our way through the elderly contingent and get to the door. We didn't want to barrel through and scatter old folks like bowling pins, but we also didn't want Dennis running down the stairs and into the street!

Our day at Gran's and Pop's place turned out way more fun than I could have imagined. I didn't know that a party had been initiated and I was informed that we were having a burger grilling garden party and that my friends were coming down! I knew the Gallmans were coming so that Dave could help David work on the electric wheelchair (problem still not solved there), but Allison's idea (or craving) for a burger cookout turned into a wonderful evening meal for 10 of us! We girls tried on our cruise formals and paraded around the house and out into the garden for photos, and then it was time to get our burger eating clothes back on to enjoy a feast of Pop's expertly grilled burgers and hot dogs, baked beans, fresh tomato slices, pasta salad, and sweet potato fries, with a pan of brownies baked to perfection by Pop as well for dessert. It was a gorgeous evening, the perfect temperature with gentle breezes, eaten with good company in a beautiful garden--what more could we ask for? An added bonus: Dennis and Chloe were very sweet together today and wore each other out! Dennis still had energy left to come and run some laps at the track tonight after the meal. We had planned to walk, but Dennis stood with his hands on his hips and demanded that we run, calling each of us and shouting encouragement. He was in full Coach Mode tonight, even blowing an imaginary whistle at us. Here's hoping he sleeps LATE in the morning!

robocruisers and lava pools

After swim class this morning (the usual disaster, though this time the teacher told me she's sure he now knows how to swim, he just refuses to do the strokes on demand), we braved the major thunderstorm to get to Gran's house, where Dennis spent the majority of his afternoon. Gran indulged us with Whataburger honey butter chicken biscuits, probably because I sent her a number of text messages about craving same late last night but couldn't convince her to do a midnight run there with me. Happily she picked some up for us this morning! In case you happen to remember my posting about stepping up my workouts for the upcoming cruise, let me brag about the two hours I just spent riding my recumbent bike.

By the time I left Dennis with Gran he was more than ready for me to go so they could play. I got a few bizarre text messages about Spaceman Dennis and the Robocruiser rescuing Froggy and the spacemen from the hot lava pool, and this was followed by an urgent phone call from Dennis in which he warned me "don't fall in the lava pool, Mommy, it's very hot in there so you have to be careful." As far as I know, I told him, our house is fairly lava pool free, but I'd keep my eyes open for one and be extra careful. I used my free time to do a little house cleaning and a little working out on my Wii. I was supposed to return to collect Dennis at 3 but ran a little behind and got a text message from Gran around 3:20 that stated "cryogenic water cannons are about empty, child may burn in lava pool" to which I replied that the parent rescue team was almost there, just to hold on a bit longer! We ended up staying at her house, all of us, until well past 5 because we got involved in Dennis' first Skype video call (I think) with Caedmon and Mirella and Michael and Kristin. My favorite parts of this were when they were showing each other their favorite toy lovies, and when Mirella gave us a dance and tumbling show. Oh the cuteness! Dennis kept pointing to the screen and saying "I want to go to Washington!". When they ate their snacks, Dennis said he wanted to go to San Marcos and invited them to come. I sent him off to ask his Daddy if we could go, and he came back sad-faced and reported to us and the cousins "my Daddy said no, we can't go". Uncle Michael assured him that it was okay, that they couldn't go either what with being in Washington and all.

Would you believe that Daddy changed his mind? We turned into the San Marcos parking lot and Dennis said "are we eating here?" and when we told him we were indeed, he said "is Allison coming?". We laughed, realizing that nearly every time we'd been there in the past months, we were meeting her to eat as she passed through town!

It was nice to see the old Robocruiser out from the attic and in beautiful condition. This was a neat old toy of Michael's, and Dennis happily showed it to him via Skype. We remembered some good times playing with it!

Bedtime was not as smooth tonight. I caught him with his bedside lamp on a time or two, and the first time I went in there to see what he was doing, he was very involved in his Bible story book and told me "I am reading about Noah and the ark, can you read it to me now?". I fell for it, but enjoyed every second of it. He insisted I listen to him recite The Lord's Prayer again, and I loved that as well. As I passed his door much later, I saw the light on again, so I went in to check and he was asleep, curled up in a little comma, and as always, I said a prayer of thanks for the major blessing in our life that is Dennis.

bits of obedience

We had some nice periods of bedtime compliance today. For his naptime, he climbed into bed voluntarily and told me "I am a big boy, Mommy, and a good boy." I agreed. He didn't get up at all, just went straight to a long naptime. And tonight, he whined that he didn't want to go to bed, but when I told him it was time, he said "if you say so, Mommy" and went and climbed into his bed. He tried to convince me to stay with him ("Mommy, you are too small for your bed--you need to sleep here with me") briefly, but then it was quiet. He turned off his bedside lamp all by himself.

I asked him tonight what he wanted to do tomorrow even though his day is already planned. He said "Hmmm. I want to go on the cruise!". I told him we did as well! Less than a month to go now (note to self: must beef up exercise routine). This morning Dennis told me we needed to work out, so we put in his Elmocize video and Elmocized our hearts out. While I was walking this afternoon with his Gran, David took Dennis to the playground and burned up some more energy. I wonder if all the activity is connected to the easier bedtimes... Something to ponder.

earth day again

We had thought about doing big things for Earth Day but they didn't really pan out. We did take our reusable bags to the grocery store today, and we've sorted the cans to be recycled but haven't taken them yet. We watched some Earth Day programs on our television and have been conscientious about turning off all the lights we didn't need. Our biggest contribution to the health of the earth this year is potty training Dennis! He doesn't even need training pants any more. We still have a handful of them and will probably use those up, but after that I don't foresee buying any more and hope that I won't have to! There might be a bit of laundry increase, but no more landfill mess. We have made more smart choices in the past year as well. We don't drink bottled water, we have begun storing our food in glass containers instead of plastic, and we have REALLY decreased our paper towel use. My favorite toilet paper is the 100% recycled Scott tissue that comes in mega rolls--as soft and nice as the Angel Soft we used for years--but it isn't sold here in town so I only get it on trips to other places. All of our cleaning products are environmentally friendly now, and we've even planted our own garden.

This morning after I finished my breakfast (the usual healthy cereal and cranberries), David got into a creative cooking mood and made bacon wrapped egg rounds. He lightly sauteed bacon, put it in our muffin pan around the edges of the cups, broke 1 egg in each cup, baked this with herbs and spices, and served it on toast rounds that he'd made using a cookie cutter. I tried a bite of Dennis' portion and it was both attractive and DELICIOUS. The funniest thing about it--while the bacon was cooking, Dennis appeared from the other end of the house, sniffing the air and announcing "I smell good things to eat! What are you making for me, Daddy?". He pronounced it "tasty like ice cream" and ate a good bit of his portion.

Dennis got his own little watering can today at Wal-Mart and can't wait to start watering the plants. We saw our pastor at Wal-Mart as well, and Dennis walked right up to him and said "Hey, Brother Larry!". He knelt down to Dennis' level and asked him how he was doing, and Dennis said "I'm fine. You got me baptized when I was a baby--you put the water on my head!". Our minister agreed with him and told him how smart he was and asked him how old he was and he said "I'm three--it happened on my birthday, but now my birthday is over!". He's been talking about his baptism lately, and I find this amazing because it happened three years ago this month. He was a tiny infant. He has seen one picture of the event! It has meaning to him, though, that's for sure, and it was nice that he was thinking of it today especially since his Daddy and I learned about the sacraments last night in our 'What It Means to be a United Methodist' class at church. We didn't tell that to Dennis though. We sure are enjoying the class, which we thought we needed after both having been raised as Southern Baptist. As a matter of fact, our class is comprised of nearly 90% recovering Baptists like ourselves! In future years when Dennis takes confirmation classes, we'll have learned what they will teach him. Very nice. And very insightful.

remembering the errands

As we were heading to church tonight, we told Dennis that we had a couple of errands to run afterward, a stop by the store where David works and a quick trip to Grandma's and Bob's place to see if a package came. Once we left church and got into our car, he asked where we were going, and I said "home" because I of course forgot that we had other places to be! Dennis and his Daddy informed me "no we aren't going home!" and I remembered. We headed to David's workplace and Dennis and I stayed in the car. Dennis talked about all the people going in and out of the store, asking questions about them, talking to some of them through the window. He told me "look, that man is talking to that other man, and that girl is buying groceries" and other narrations like that. When David finally returned to the car with the cookie dough he'd purchased from another employee's child's fund-raiser, Dennis said "now are we going to see Grandma?" and we told him we were. About halfway there, he recognized the part of town we were in and announced "I want to go to the library!" and we told him it was closed. He said "oh. Is Wendy's closed?" and we said it wasn't, so he said "we need to go to Wendy's and get ice cream!". We told him we had to go to Grandma's and he said "I can play with her!" and we explained again that she and Bob are out of town. He asked "is Grandma's house closed too?". He got over his disappointment when we had a Cookie Picnic in his room just before bedtime.

is it a miracle?

This sleeping thing has gotten out of hand. This morning Dennis woke up at 5:45. His bladder woke him up, and the first thing I heard was him yelling "I NEED TO GO TO THE POTTY!". I'm never sure why he doesn't just get up and go, which is what I yell back to him to do, and he yells "OKAY, DON'T COME IN, I WANT TO DO IT BY MYSELF!". So why even wake me up? He brought me his pants and underwear after the event so I could help him back into them, which is a nice change. Usually I have to go into the bathroom and admire the pee in the toilet, which I am happy to do, happy because it's in the toilet and not elsewhere. And this morning wasn't so bad because I had the alarm set for 6:30 so we could go and help Gran roll Uncle Denny in his wheelchair down the hill for the transport bus to pick him up at 8. I could have used those extra 45 minutes, though, and I tried to go back to sleep. Dennis kept bringing in toys to my bed, and he used me as the road for the trucks to drive on or as the mountain for the little people to climb. There's not much sleeping through that.

We returned home for a bit and then went to the library for Story Hour and some Thomas Train Table time, and then we had a lunch date with Traci and Zack. Afterward, Dennis kept telling me in that whiny tone that he didn't want to go home, and I knew why. I put him straight to bed and David called me later and informed me that Dennis had slept until 5. That's nearly FOUR HOURS. It never happens when I'm at home to reap the benefits, though. Think of the cleaning I could have done, or the working out, or the reading... Wow. I am working at the gym today, though, so I'll get my workout in, and I imagine I'll be going to bed pretty darn early tonight!

Quote of the day: "Mommy, ask me what we're having for dessert." "What are we having, Dennis?". "BOOGERS!". I would think he'd be over this by now, but no such luck.

feeling welcome

I enjoyed being home with Dennis today. It seems like his conversation skills improved exponentially while I was gone--he had so much to tell me about his weekend. He also sang me Twinkle Twinkle Little Star a few times, and he tried to negotiate with us about doing the things he wanted to do today. "Dennis it's time to take a nap" or "Dennis, you need to eat your lunch" we'd say, and he'd replay "okay, and THEN we can play fireman" or "and THEN we can go to Wal-Mart and look at the toys". He was very cuddly today, giving me lots of hugs. And he knew I didn't feel all that well (I have never taken the time to rest and get over this cold), so he took it easy on me and attempted to doctor me up. He brought in his stethoscope and applied it to my heart and said "do you hear your heart, Mommy?" and then he said "deep breaths, Mommy, deep breaths". He said "you need a shot now" and went off to find his toy syringe. He brought it back and said "be sad, Mommy" and so I made a sad face. Then he directed me "open your mouth" and stuck in the syringe and pushed the plunger (just like the way we are giving him his antibiotic right now). Then I smiled and he said "now you are happy--I am a good doctor!". It's good to be home!

David Junior

It's good to be home, and Dennis was full of things to tell me about his weekend. He had a wonderful time with Emily and Grandma and Bob, and he had fun at his Teddy Bear Tea at church today, even bringing home a pink carnation that he gave to me. He told Pop all about his bed tonight when he and Daddy came to pick me up from Gran and Pop's place as we arrived home from Florida, saying "I'm not tired, but I have my own bed--it's at my house, in my room, it's not your bed, it's my bed, it's a Handy Manny bed." He took a breath and then said "you have your own bed, Pop, it's in Gran and Pop's house, it's in there--you're too big for my bed." He gave us hugs all around and then we came home and put him in bed. I tried on the dress I found for formal night on our upcoming cruise once we got home, to show it to David, and then I happened to think that Dennis might like to see it. I asked through his door if he was still awake, and he said "I'm sleeping!". Knowing that it had only been 5 minutes since we put him to bed, I opened the door and turned on his light and went in. I asked him if he liked my dress and he said "no, I don't like it." Surprised, I asked why not, and he replied "because I'M SLEEPING!". Just like his Daddy!

while Mommy is away

Dennis spent the entire day yesterday with his Grandma and his cousin Emily while I've been playing in Florida and his Daddy was at work. I've gotten a very short summary of his activities, and I can tell you this: he played dress-up with Emily this morning. He found the dress up clothes and told her to dress as a princess for him. Then she dressed him as a princess as well. I would have loved to watch the two three-year-olds at play! His Grandma sent me a cell phone picture of him in his costume. He makes a pretty darn cute princess. She told me he only kept the outfit on long enough for the photo and took it off immediately afterward. When he told me about his day later on the phone, he didn't say anything about the princess stuff. He told me they played fireman and with the Barbie car.

This morning I heard about him being bad at swim class (as usual) and spitting water at the other children. He had a special lunch with his Grandma at his favorite Mexican place, and then he got upset when she wouldn't take him to Wal-Mart and buy him a toy. I assured her that he didn't really want a toy--he just wanted to delay his naptime. He knew he was tired, knew he was due for his nap, so he started making any excuse to stay away from any beds! He has started doing this to me a good bit lately--saying he doesn't want to go home and wants to go to Wal-Mart. He even said it to me when he was actually asleep in the car on the way home one night! I talked to him on the phone tonight and he told me he'd had so much fun playing with Emily. I miss the little guy and I'll be happy to see him tomorrow.

happy 96th

Today was Granddaddy's birthday and Dennis and I had planned to go up to Birmingham and take him out to breakfast. Dennis quizzed me on our way north this morning, asking if Jake and Nate would be there (they had school, much to his disappointment), asking if Granddaddy would play with him, and asking me what each particular piece of construction equipment on the road was. Now, he knew what each machine was, he just wanted to know if I knew--he told me when I was wrong!

We had a very nice breakfast at the restaurant closest to his home, and Granddaddy ended up treating us even though it was his own birthday. He insisted. We also accompanied him to the post office to mail his tax returns, and while we were there, Dennis rolled down his window and leaned out to talk to the man getting out of the car next to us. He yelled "hey" and the guy walked over and said hello, asking him if he was going to grow up and be a boy scout. Dennis said "nope" and the guy asked why, so Dennis said "I'm going to be a police officer when I grow up--how about you?". On the way back to the house, Dennis sang Happy Birthday to Granddaddy and the two of them sang a chorus of Jesus Loves Me. We had a wonderful time with him and Dennis didn't want to come home. He kept insisting "I want to stay and play with Granddaddy!". He fell asleep on the way home and continued to sleep even after I transferred him to his bed.

Tonight I am in Florida on a Girls' Weekend with Gran and Allison and Gigi, and I have talked to Dennis on the phone. I hadn't told him I was going on this trip until today, and I feel a little bad because he's been telling me lately how he needed to go and see Gigi and play with the toys at her house--he even described the toys. He seemed pretty happy during our phone conversation, though, and asked me "What are you doing?". I told him we were playing games (workout games on the Nintendo Wii) and he said "what are you doing after that?". I told him we'd go to bed, so then he said "are you driving back home tonight?" and I told him I would be home in a few days. He said "Oh. Okay. Good night, Mommy, I am going to my own bed." And he told me he loved me, and I marveled at how wonderful he's become on the phone lately.

I just remembered this: in our car conversations this morning, he started talking about musical instruments because he wanted me to turn off my music and I was trying to get him interested in it by describing what instrument was playing in each song. He said "Uncle Michael has a guitar" and I told him that was correct. He said "Uncle Michael played the tuba and Aunt Kristin plays the piano and they sing". I don't know where he got this info, but it is correct and I told him so. Then he said "I wanted to play with Uncle Michael's guitar but Gran said 'no, just touch it' and I was sad and my eyes got water in them and I cried and I'm very sad". I told him I was sorry he was sad, and he said "It's not your fault I'm sad, Mommy, it's all Gran's fault." He got over it quickly and said "Remember when I said I wanted boogers for lunch?" and then laughed all over again. He reminded me of several of the funny things he's said lately, each time saying 'remember when...' and then laughing hysterically at his own humor in review. It was like being in the car with a much younger Michael, and I LOVED it.

little joker

Me: "Hey, Dennis, you sound kind of sniffly; would you like some cold medicine?"

Dennis: (considers this for a minute) "No, Mommy, I want some HOT medicine." (laughs)

Dennis had a LONG day today. We started out early, headed to the lake to help Uncle Denny get down the hill to the handicapped transport bus that came to take him into town to the eye doctor. While he was gone, Dennis 'helped' me clean his house. He actually was a decent help this time, staying put and playing nicely with his toys, doing a little sweeping and Swiffer-mopping as well. He asked to take a nap, so I took him down the hill to the lake house and settled him into bed. When I checked on him later, he was watching movies and jumping on the bed. He fell asleep when we left the lake house to head home, but when we got home, he woke up as I was getting him out of the car and refused to go back to sleep. This came back to bite us--he was a little bit bad at church tonight. It's never a good feeling when you pick up your kid and hear that he pulled a girl's hair. He apologized very sweetly and the teacher told us "he seems tired tonight". And we kept him out even later, going over to clean up a house for Mom and Dad, one that's coming out in an ad tomorrow for sale. He fell asleep in the car before we got a block away from it coming home. He finally got to his bed at 11:15. Too bad he can't sleep too late in the morning--we have a breakfast date with Granddaddy for his birthday.

doing his own shopping

A belated birthday card for Dennis came in the mail today, and when I got back in the car from checking the mail, he said "does that say 'Dennis Mitchell' on it?" and I was happy to tell him that it did! He opened it to find a fire truck card that he loved, and a twenty inside that made him yell "I got money!". Since we had confiscated the rest of his birthday money and applied it to swim lessons, I decided to let him spend this how he pleased. He chose two trucks at Wal-Mart, a police truck and a garbage truck, and also picked out his first watch, a Spiderman timepiece that he's especially thrilled to have. I let him put the money in the self checkout and bag his own toys. I can't tell you how much time he spent trying to decide what to get--he deliberated for a very long time! He showed his new purchases to Uncle Denny when we delivered the groceries, and he took his new garbage truck to church with us when we went to have our picture made this afternoon for the new church directory. When we left the house, the garbage truck was picking up our garbage, and we had to stop and wait for them to get out of our driveway. Dennis held up his new toy garbage truck and compared it to the real garbage truck. He was very excited. He wanted to show the garbage men his truck. Instead, he showed it to everyone we passed at church!

I had hoped he'd nap before our picture session, and he did fall asleep in the car on the way home from the lake, but he cried pitifully when I tried to put him in his bed after we got home. His nose was running and he was so sad and upset and insisted he didn't need a nap. I left him in the bed and took a shower, and when I got up, I found him happily watching Bee Movie while lying in his bed. He knows how to turn on the TV and DVD player, and he knows how to wait through the previews and how to press the play button when the menu screen appears. Pretty impressive. David says he conked out hard after the picture session, so he's getting his nap in now--I'm spending the afternoon at Curves, working out and working!

It was extremely difficult to get my child to smile at the portrait session today. The photographer was all but standing on her head and so was her assistant, trying to get the elusive Dennis grin. About halfway through the session, I revealed the magic word: boogers. So we spent the next half of the session discussing boogers with Dennis breaking out into big giggles. It didn't even shock the photography people, thank goodness, and I'm very glad the older church members weren't standing around in the hallway today!

sometimes we stay home

We had scheduled another Romantic Date Evening for ourselves tonight, intending for Dennis to stay with Gran and Pop, but when the time came, we just wanted to stay home. And we wanted Dennis to stay home, too, with his snotty nose and little cough. We had separate-but-equal family night. I cooked pizza, and each of us ate our pizza in front of a different television, the height of debauchery for us. Dennis was watching Bee Movie in his bedroom and he ate his pizza and drank his milk in bed, thrilled to pieces when I brought a tray in for him to use in the bed. David wasn't feeling all that hot either, so he was happy to eat in our bed, watching one of his crime shows on the bedroom tv, the one that usually only gets turned on so that we can check the weather channel. And after I got them all set up with plates of pizza and drinks, I settled down on the couch in the den with my own supper and watched some shows I'd recorded for myself. Most of the shows I follow are about weight loss (yeah, all 3 shows), and it gave me a moment to be watching these while eating pizza instead of my usual watching while biking.

Tonight while we were putting Dennis to bed, I asked him if he wanted to pray about anything in particular, and he said "I want to say thank you to God for Jesus on the cross." He is STILL so focused on this. I heard him talking later after we thought he was asleep, and I went in to see what was going on. When I asked what he was doing, he said "I'm just thinking." I asked what he was thinking about and he said "God and Jesus. I love them. And they love me. And I was thinking about Grandpa." I don't know who he's talking about since he doesn't call any of his relatives 'Grandpa', but I did tell him that he had a Papa and a Grandpa that he never met but that are in Heaven, and he said "are they watching me?". I told him we'd know one day!

We did have some together time, his Daddy and me, watching Food Network just before we fell asleep. Now we both want to have a crawfish boil, and we both want to eat at a diner on Bainbridge Island off Seattle that was featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives--food looked incredible!

confessions of a guilty Mommy

Why is it that trying to get out of the house on Sunday morning turns a normally easygoing Mommy like myself into a monster? Poor Dennis got a taste of my temper this morning that he really didn't deserve, and I was happy to confess my sin at church before communion this morning. I am forgiven, of course, and Dennis hugged me when I told him I was sorry, but I still feel a little bad about it. We got to the church parking lot, Dennis and I, before 10 this morning (a little late, but not too embarrassing), and I looked back to see snot gushing out of his nose. I'd had to pull over 3 times when he asked for a napkin, and I decided that he didn't need to be in his class to spread whatever it is around. We went back home to take some cold medicine and syringe out his nose, and while I was putting something in the car, Dennis got into some mischief in the bathroom. I came in the house and didn't see him right away and when I got to the bathroom, he was spraying water onto his shirt with my spray bottle. I asked him what he was doing, and he proudly announced "I am cleaning the Coke Zero off my shirt--I spilled it". Instead of realizing that he was trying to help, I grabbed the bottle from him and yelled at him and demanded to know what he was doing with the Coke Zero in the first place, and then I tossed the can into the tub. He burst into tears, and I felt so bad. I am the one who left the drink can on the bathroom counter. He spilled and was trying to clean it up. I was frustrated because we were going back to church for the service and now his clothes were all messed up and I had to change him. I kneeled down to hug him and apologize and thank him for trying to make things right by cleaning off the Coke stains, and he hugged me back and said "it's okay, Mommy, I'm sorry I made a mess" and my heart just broke. I am going to have to learn to be more patient on Sunday mornings. This would not have rocked me had it happened on any other morning. When we got to church, his medicine had taken effect and he wasn't sniffly any more and went to his own little church service rather than coming into the service with me, and when church let out, I discovered David had gotten off work and picked him up, and we all went to the church luncheon together. He told his Daddy "Mommy lost her temper, and I've got to help her find it." Dennis is upset with me again now, but it's because I insisted he take a nap this afternoon when he insisted he didn't need one (in that whiny I-really-need-a-nap tone that kids get).

I don't know what it is about the bathroom. A couple of days ago, David went in and found that Dennis had spread a line of toilet paper from the tub to the doorway (all the way along the length of our whole bathroom, right down the middle) and was spraying it down with the same spray bottle (I can't seem to find a place where he can't reach the thing). He told us he was working.

Last night as I was putting Badger Winter Wonder Balm (like Vicks Vaporub but all natural) on his chest, I left his room to do something, and he yelled a few minutes later "Mommy, I am rubbing my belly" and I yelled back "that's nice" until I spent a minute thinking about it. Sure enough, I'd forgotten to take the balm can out with me and I could see his bare stomach shining as soon as I opened the door. His belly button was full to the rim and the scent of eucalyptus was everywhere. I wiped him down with a warm wet washcloth and laughed along with him. Fortunately there wasn't balm on the bedding or wall or anything! Why is it that they can find and get into EVERYTHING? I'm with him all the time--why can't I remember to put stuff out of his reach? Where exactly is out of his reach since I've seen him dragging chairs and stepstools all through the house to get to what he wants? How can parenting be so overwhelming and so wonderful all at the same time?

naptime mischief

After swim class (chaotic as usual--I had to duck out a few times because Dennis was being a little troublemaker and I wanted the teachers to be able to deal with him as they felt was necessary without worrying about me, and he got in the Time Out Chair but wasn't the only kid to do so, nor was he the first), Dennis was to stay with Gran while I went to a meeting, only my meeting was canceled. We lunched with them and then tried to get Dennis to nap. He wasn't in a napping mood. He kept yelling and talking and needing to go potty and once I went up to check on him and found him hobbling along beside the bed on the floor. He had gotten Billy Bob the doll's overalls off him and had put them on his own legs, only they are quite small overalls and only came up to Dennis' knees. There he was hopping along with his legs essentially tied together, yelling that he needed to use the potty. I helped him as much as he would let me (lots of "I WANT TO DO IT BY MYSELF" around here lately), and when he got into position on the potty, he grabbed the necessary organ, pointed it in the appropriate direction, and yelled "LET 'ER RIP!!!" and did just that. He did finally get to sleep, thank goodness. The allergy medicine we're treating him with is making him wired, hyper, impossible... But at least he's able to breathe.

Tonight's bedtime took a long time as well, with him begging me to sleep in the bed with him: "here Mommy, try my pillow, it's snug and cozy, you'll like it" as he gently pushed my head down onto it. As I was turning off the lights and checking the doors much later, I heard "Hey, Mommy, come in here! Please!". So I did. He had apparently been thinking about Jesus and the cross again and I spent a half hour listening to him tell me how angry he was at the soldiers who put Him way up on the cross. He told me "Pilate said to please let him go and the people said 'no, we can't' and then the soldiers put him up there and hurt his arms and his legs and his head". I told him that was right. Then he asked "was Jesus bad? Is that why they put Him on the cross? Will they come get me and put me on a cross?". Wow. I explained to him that the difference between us and Jesus was that Jesus never did bad things, and sometimes we do bad things. And then I told Dennis that he wouldn't have to go on a cross because Jesus did that for us. He said "I would go on the cross to help Jesus, to be with Him there". Wow again. This was heavy stuff for 11 pm from a 3 year old. We need to go to seminary along with Uncle Michael to be able to answer his questions as he grows up!

nose party

Bedtime is becoming more and more drawn out these days. Tonight he said "don't you want to snuggle with me, Mommy?" and I told him I loved snuggling with him. He said "you are too small for your bed, Mommy, you need to sleep in my bed with me." I told him I would love to snuggle for a bit but then I'd go to my own bed. I climbed up beside him and we watched a little bit of Bee Movie together (he told me "this movie is all about bees and how they make honey, Mommy, you should watch it with me"). He grabbed my face for an eskimo kiss and then he laughed and said "we are having a nose party!". Since we are both sniffly, I wondered what he could possibly mean by this and he said "it's a party where we get all our boogers out together." How many of you can say you had a Nose Party tonight? And if you can, don't tell me, I really don't want to hear about it!

thinning the herd

The church nursery is in need of toddler toys, and boy do we have those to spare! I spent the morning culling the things he doesn't play with any more, things that are really baby toys, and I have some boxes full to donate. Dennis didn't seem to upset by it, though he did grab a few things and take them back to his room. He has more than enough. And I left all his Fisher Price Little People stuff in his room. Though he is getting a little big for it, he still LOVES the stuff and we have a fortune's worth of it. His Uncle Michael and I played with our little people for YEARS. I figure in 5 years when he stops playing with it, I'll pack it up and save it just so that he'll have the delight of watching his kids play with it years down the road (much as I was thrilled to unpack our old stuff at Granny's and watch Dennis play with it). His room doesn't look much better, I'm sorry to say, but there are more places to store what he does use every day. And we culled out a giant box of Happy Meal toys. We will use these for future geocaching excursions, trading a crappy toy for whatever crappy toy Dennis chooses from the 'treasure boxes' we find. I hope to do more geocaching this spring and summer--David loves it and Dennis likes finding treasure, too, though he doesn't know how to work the GPS as of yet (I barely know how myself). If you've never heard of the sport, visit geocaching.com and read up, and imagine us tromping through woods, often off-trail, looking for tupperware and ammo boxes hidden in fallen trees and the like.

Dennis was so cute playing in his clean room with his Daddy tonight. He's been playing car race lately. He found a toy trophy, Little People sized, that came with a horse farm playset, and he staged the Wood Valley 500 on the rug. He got the name of the race from the Handy Manny special that we watched on movie night last week. After he raced the winning car across the finish line, Dennis presented the driver with the trophy. I didn't see any of this, as it happened when he was playing with his Daddy, so when he asked me today if we could play car race, I wanted to just so I could see his imagination in action. He asked me just as I was readying him for his nap, so I told him I had to clean up the raceway so we could race after his nap. He went right to sleep, miserable as he is with spring allergies (today we watched clouds of pollen blowing around outside--we are all sniffly and sore-throated), and when he woke up a couple hours later, the first thing he said as he was opening his eyes was "did you clean our raceway, Mommy, so we can have our race?". I had been doing laundry and forgot all about it, but I said yes. Somehow the race with me never happened because he discovered that his Daddy had gotten home from work while he was sleeping, and we all cleaned and played trains, and tonight David built a big and extravagant race oval outline out of the multi-colored and multi-shaped foam blocks (and Dennis helped), and they had races in there while I was cleaning other places. We just enjoyed being home together tonight, and I know these are the times I will remember fondly in future years, how we all love being together. He gave us lots of hugs and kisses and "I wuv you"s, too, and he was just so darned sweet today. I hate that he doesn't feel well. He asked for medicine a dozen times and even learned how to use the bulb syringe on himself, sticking it up his nose and suctioning it out. Each time he pulled it out, he looked at it carefully and yelled "Ewwwww--I got more boogers out!".

no fooling

We were attempting to get Dennis interested in grocery shopping after church let out tonight. He wanted to go to the park and was pretty adamant about it, but it was dark out and we were trying to convince him that it was in fact too dark to climb on playground equipment. I told him he could pick out whatever food he wanted at the grocery store--he could decide on his lunches and dinners and breakfasts. I mentioned that we could even buy waffles. This was my downfall. He said "waffles?" and I said yes and then he said "we can go to Waffle House and have waffles. I don't want to go to the grocery store--I want to go to Waffle House. Let's go to Waffle House!". We grocery shopped anyway, suffering his displeasure at first, but then he got interested in it and pointed out all the foods and told me that we didn't need any of it. Nothing like shopping with your self-appointed personal trainer and life coach.

what a welcome

I love that when I came home from Curves tonight, I could hear big belly laughs and baby chuckles coming from the house before I even opened the door. David and Dennis were playing chase, sort of. David was chasing Dennis and trying to get him into his pajama pants and Dennis was escaping and running full speed, giggling madly at his success. He was running toward the living room and noticed me standing there inside the doorway and stopped suddenly. He yelled "Mommy! You're home!". I joined in the chase and we caught him and got him ready for bed. We spent some time doing his reading flash cards with him with pretty much no success, and this is what let us know how tired he was. He couldn't be still. When we tucked him into bed, he coughed and I asked him if he was okay. He said "I need some Airborne." I went and fixed him some--no fever, thank goodness--and asked him what was wrong. He said "I'm sick!". I asked "what feels bad?" (hoping he'd identify the problem) and he said "me". Not much help! When David mentioned allergies, I thought of the bright yellow dusting of pollen that's all over the surface of everything, and I remembered Dennis' favorite hobby of running his hands over the car and saying "eww it's dirty". Yes, he got into some serious pollen today. No wonder he's a sneeze factory! Daddy and I are a little drippy as well. Antihistamines for all! I hope his prescription holds out for a few more doses for him since you can't buy ANYTHING for kids under 6 anymore over the counter. And maybe the predicted rain will take the pollen down a notch as it lowers the temperature. We've had a summer preview here the past few days, and I'll be glad to get the spring weather later this week!

spring fun in the sun

Dennis told me this morning he wanted to go to the playground. I happened to think that there's a playground at Peach Park, not as nice as the one he was referring to at City Park, but with excellent proximity to ice cream. I gave up ice cream for Lent, and now Lent has ended with the joyous celebration of Easter! Dennis was all for going to Peach Park as well, and we called up Gran and Pop who suggested that we have lunch there together. When we pulled up in the parking lot, I got a text message relaying that they had just left the lake house, so Dennis and I sat there a few minutes in the hot car. He rolled down his window and leaned out, talking to random passers-by. He yelled "HEY PEOPLE WALKING! It's ME, Dennis! I'm talking to you!". This brought back fond memories of my brother at this age, who often did the same thing.

Dennis ate some barbecue, visited the potty, picked out peach ice cream (I was relieved, fearing I'd have to share Tutti-Frutti or banana flavors with him, though I was hoping he'd choose blueberry), shared it with me, and then headed out to the playground. We played in the sun together and then another little boy showed up and Dennis recruited him to play instead. After the playtime, when Dennis was pink and sweaty, we headed down to the shade and just as we were leaving the final trail, he tripped and fell and skinned up his knees and one elbow. I doctored him up but noticed I was down to one Snoopy bandage in the first aid kit because he had unwrapped the rest and stuck them random places a few weeks back. I assured him that I would refill the kit with Transformer band-aids from home. He asked if he could ride in Gran's car home, and he ended up going home with them for the afternoon. When I came to pick him up later, he was asleep. I went in to watch him sleep the last few minutes, when I knew he'd already been down 2 hours, and he was wiggling in his sleep. He raised his arms and clapped his hands, still asleep, then yelled out "BOO MOMMY!", still asleep, and when I laughed out loud, he woke up. He blinked and looked around, and when I asked him how his nap was, he looked me in the eye and fake-burped. We both had a good laugh. Then he asked "did you bring my Transformer band-aids?" and I told him I did and he asked "where are they?" and I told him my purse, and he said "I need to get up and go get your purse."

Gran says he asked if they had any Easter baskets when he got to their house. He told me he shared Peeps with Pop, saying "we ate them all up and they were tasty like ice cream!". And then he said "I got my hands all sticky." He was full of coversation all day, and when David came back from their evening bath, he looked exhausted. I figured out that all the talking wears us out! We do our best to respond to everything he says and answer all his questions, and it just exhausts us, but in a good way.

Happy Easter fun

We were wakened this morning with a "LOOK WHAT THE EASTER BUNNY BROUGHT US!" yell followed by a happy little guy arriving in our room carrying two baskets of goodies! He said "look at all our candy and goodies!". He gave us our basket after swiping one Tootsie Roll Pop from it and settled in to show me everything he'd gotten. After consuming two of his chocolates, we insisted he needed to eat breakfast and suddenly we were in a whirlwind of church preparations. Dennis had a good time at church and his class was completely packed!

As we were driving, we asked Dennis what he learned at church today and he said so seriously "We learned about God and Jesus. The knights put Jesus way up on a cross, WAY up there." I told him that was right and he said "and Pilate was there, and Jesus got boo-boos on his hands and on his feet, and his head hurt--they hurt Jesus". He told us about an angel coming after Jesus went to sleep on the cross and that he woke up again. And then he said "and now I want to go to the playground." I'm pleased that he has learned so much about the real meaning of Easter this year!

We spent our afternoon at the lake, sharing an Easter feast with Ju-Ju, Steve, Gran, Pop, Dave, Ellen, Chloe, and Chloe's Grandma Diana. When the last bite was taken, we hid eggs for the kids to find, and Laura and Mary Beth Hall came over to hunt the 55 eggs with Dennis and Chloe. A great time was had by all, especially when the Halls' dog Holly found an egg and took off with it! It was a perfect hot and sunny day, and we went for a wagon ride to the marina to buy ice cream, and the kids played and played. We've sure enjoyed Ju-Ju and Steve being here and we will all miss them, most especially Dennis who has said for the past two days "I want to go and play with STEVE!".

swim scare

At swim class this morning I decided to stay and watch the children so that I could encourage mine to follow what the teacher said instead of insisting "I can't!". After 10 minutes of watching Dennis splashing the other kids and disobeying, I put my head in my hands and considered the big waste of money this class is turning out to be. He wouldn't move his arms on his first turn with the teacher. But then, they decided to show the kids how to tread water, and Dennis did GREAT, and this was fortuitous because immediately after he did this, he was disobeying the 'stay on the steps' rule and slipped off and went completely underwater. As the teacher and I were racing to get to him, he kicked hard and popped up above the surface of the water and treaded water until he could grab the pool edge (at which point the instructor grabbed him as well). After that, he did everything he was told and did great with all of it, and the teacher told me at the end that he was so much better this week.

We spent the rest of the day at the lake with Ju-Ju and Steve and Dennis' grandparents and Allison, and we enjoyed the most delicious fish fry and another campfire on the dock with marshmallow toasting. He practiced casting with Laine's fishing rod for a nice long time. Late last night as we drove back home, Dennis began negotiating reasons to stay out of bed. "I don't want to go home now, Mommy and Daddy, I'm not tired" and "I want to go to Wal-Mart and buy a new fire station" and "no, don't turn left, TURN RIGHT so we can go to Gran's house--I DON'T WANT TO GO HOME!". Once we got home, he tried to convince me to sleep in his bed. He said "you are so little Mommy that you can sleep in my bed with me!". While I was extremely flattered, I told him that I wanted to sleep in my own bed. He said in that sweet little Eeyore voice "Okay, Mommy, good night."

campfire fun

JuJu and Steve are here visiting today. After the Good Friday service and lunch at church and Dennis' nap, we headed down to the lake for a family visit. Dennis sat on the dock and practiced casting and reeling in and then we enjoyed a grilled burger feast, topped off by a marshmallow roast down on the dock using the outdoor fireplace.

Dennis got a late birthday present today from JuJu and Steve, and one of the things was a water cannon like thing that you draw up water into and 'fire'. He LOVED this, treating it like a fire hose and spraying water out over the lake. He aimed for Bob, saying "I'm going to wake you up, Bob!" but falling short of actually hitting him with the stream of water. He also got a toy monster truck that he promptly named "Monster Max" and said "look at my cool truck!". He brought it into the house and rolled it and yelled "is that neat or what?". He was really chatty and active and wild tonight, playing blocks with Steve and knocking down their creations. He had so much fun today that I worry about how I'm going to get him to go to sleep!

Also of important note: this was the 4th perfect potty day in a row. He's now wearing real underwear out places, and he learned tonight to pee off the dock into the lake. They grow up fast.

some April fools here

Today passed in a whirlwind of activity, but I am hard pressed to remember what we did! Dennis and I were home all morning, playing fire station and police officer, and tonight we went to the Maundy Thursday service at church. We were delighted to discover that child care was available this year, but Dennis was dismayed that he was the only child there. He wanted to go to his "Snoodleburg class" he said, but the only child care was in the infant nursery. Luckily he brought along his favorite toy fire station to keep himself busy.

He did make me feel like a bit of a fool tonight. I walked into his room and he was watching a movie on his little TV, and it was something I didn't recognize. I asked him what it was and he said "that's my TV, Mommy" in that tone of voice that implied my total idiocy. And he got his Daddy, too, who heard him say something that he didn't quite understand and as he was saying "I heard something..." Dennis piped up from the backseat "it was me, Daddy, you heard ME talking!". We didn't play any pranks on each other except for Dennis asking us "what are we having for dessert, Mommy?" and replying "BOOGERS!" when I asked him what.