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.