a very southern Memorial Day

Oh, back to reality again--all the relatives have gone home and we will be getting used to being at home again. I was so sleepy this morning when it was time to get up and take David to work, and as always, on mornings when I must get up early, Dennis slept in. We had to wake him up, actually, and I wished that we had brought both cars home last night. We might not have made it to the lake in time to say our goodbyes to everyone, though, and we did enjoy seeing them off. It won't be for long--Ju-Ju and Steve will be back for July 4th and we'll be seeing Gigi even before that.

Dennis asked me on the way home "are we going to have a Hunt Egg again, Mommy, when everyone comes back?" and it took me a while to understand that he meant an egg hunt. I explained that the next holiday would be July 4th, and he asked what we'd do on that day. I told him about fried chicken and fireworks and boat rides and eating watermelon on the screened porch (our plans thus far). He immediately said "and I can play with Mirella's James" and I had to really think back to know what he meant. Last year, toward the end of May, his cousins were here from Washington, and just after they finished eating watermelon on the porch, Granny gave them each some Thomas train cars. Mirella got the only engine, James, and Dennis still remembers that! Amazing! I had to tell him that Caedmon and Mirella would not be here this summer and he was disappointed, but I told him all about their coming move to Texas and how we'd take our camper on a trip to see them sometime.

I tried to think of a holiday appropriate activity today, and we picked up David from work and stopped to get dollar burgers (am still not in cooking mode after all that spoiling on the cruise). We had a 'car picnic' on our way to the Confederate Memorial Cemetery here, and we got out to look around at the soldiers' graves and explain to Dennis what it meant (because he asked "are these the soldiers that put Jesus on the cross?"). It's a beautiful park and he enjoyed running around and sliding down the flag poles, but later I happened to think that a confederate cemetery visit might have been a completely un-American thing to do today when we remember those who died for our country. Oh, well. They were Americans who fought and died here for what they believed was for the good of the country... And we aren't really near a war memorial... We had a nice time, anyway, and we found one tombstone that gave a name and rank and listed the job as Scout for some general that I should have written down the name of, and the stone also said INDIAN. We wonder if it was a Native American soldier. One day we'll actually visit there when the museum is open.

surrounded by mermaids

We had a big family gathering at the lake today with Ju-Ju and Steve, Gigi, Larissa, Laine, Emily, Jeff, Grandma, GrandBob, Gran, Pop, and Great-Granny (David's Granny). In between thunderstorms we had some great swim time. At one point, Allison and I were in the lake policing five swimming and jumping children! Dennis was swimming alongside lots of girls, Laine and Emily as well as Laura and Mary Beth from next door. They were all jumping and doing tricks and laughing and swimming together, and Dennis perfected his 'jumping on the noodle' technique. He leaped off the dock and landed right on the noodle several times, and he was so proud of himself! He is really getting to be quite the little swimmer. I love swim days, too, because he naps long and well and sleeps great all night.

I was surprised that he talked to us all the way home tonight, thinking he'd be too sleepy, but instead he kept up a stream of interesting chatter. "Can you see any stars, Mommy, because it's so dark outside?" and "where's the moon?" and "is the library closed now?" and "I sure would like a waffle at Waffle House". He didn't give us a moment's trouble about going to bed, though, even knowing we'd accidentally left Froggy at the lake. He slept with Back-Up Froggy and asked if Froggy would be sad and lonely. We assured him that Froggy would have a good time sleeping with Ju-Ju and Steve.

partying at the lake

We headed down to the lake at lunchtime today and Dennis couldn't wait to see Ju-Ju and Steve. He wanted to fish with them AND he wanted to see Uncle Denny. He never got down to the dock to fish (though he did escape from me and get down to the dock to visit), but he did have a nice visit at Uncle Denny's place. We had our fish fry there tonight and Uncle Denny had a houseful of us.

Dennis enjoyed spending time out on the porch with the ladies today and entertained us with about an hour of fake vomit noises (how gross!). We tried to get him to play another game, but he said "no, let's play this game" and would again make a disgusting nausea noise. We presume we have Pop to thank for this.

Now that we're back home, I'm having to get used to the constant car chatter again. He sang to me and then said his nursery rhymes. He now knows 'Jack and Jill' and 'Jack Be Nimble' and 'Mary, Mary Quite Contrary' and 'Humpty Dumpty', and today he was playing with his toes and working on 'This Little Piggy'. He asked me if Jesus was singing the song on the radio and I told him that no, it was a song about Jesus. He said "Okay, Mommy, it sounds like a man singing about God and Jesus on the radio" and I told him he was right. Then he asked 'are we there yet' about 80 times in a row until I started asking it right back to him.

big dose of reality...

Oh gosh it's hard to be home! Dennis seems pretty glad to be reunited with his things, and he was walking around the place saying "it's a great day in our wonderful house!". Ju-Ju and Steve came to visit today and are enjoying some time at the lake, and after I picked up the 180 cruise pics that I had developed at Wal-Mart today, we headed to the lake as well. They last visited on Easter and asked Dennis at that time what color truck he'd like. This time, they asked him if he remembered what he'd asked them to bring and he said "a green truck!" and he was exactly right. And he scored a new green truck!

I'm about 75% done with the laundry and unpacking... And 100% ready to have another vacation! Disney World in 3 months...

back in port

We docked in Mobile early this morning but had to wait a few hours before we could get off the ship. We had a nice breakfast after we cleared out of our rooms, and then we had to go and wait for our numbers to be called. We had a LONG wait. Fortunately we were in air conditioned comfort in a lounge, and Dennis and Chloe entertained us with their new guitars from Progreso. There were some creative disagreements about which song to sing, though, between 'A-B-C' and 'Old MacDonald'. Our favorite was Dennis' rendition of 'Row Row Row Your Boat'.

Finally we were called, and I think we might have been the last people off the ship. We had a very long line to deal with to get to the Customs line which was even longer and more excruciating. Dennis did not wait well and took a ride on top of Gran's and Pop's suitcase for awhile. He liked watching the drug dogs walking around, and at one point, he got on the floor and put his back against the suitcase and told us he was a turtle and that was his shell.

We did eventually get back into the U.S. without mishap, and we went straight to Cracker Barrel! Dennis slept all the way back to Clanton from Mobile, and he played rather quietly at home after we got there. Yes, it's good to be home, but I admit that I am really going to miss being on that ship with all those folks taking care of us!

cruise day 5

We were at sea all day today. Dennis woke us early, promptly at 7:06, when he announced "the sun is up--it's daytime now--it's time to get up, guys!". We told him it wasn't time to get up and he said "but it's daylight out there!" (letting me know that an interior cabin might be nice the next time we do this). We agreed that the sun was up but told him we weren't ready to get up yet. He climbed down from his bed and into ours to try and physically get me up but soon gave up and fell asleep between us. We spent our morning in the pool and Dennis played 'shark'. He would grunt the theme from Jaws as he chased us, and when he caught one of us, he'd grab an arm and pretend to gnaw a hand as he said "num num num num" in his best monster voice. He also practiced his swimming and blowing bubbles and monkey walking, and had he done this as asked when he was back in swim class, he'd have been the prize student. He also invented a new game where he would swim up and say he wanted to tell one of us a secret. He'd lean in and blow a raspberry on the cheek of his victim, right by the ear, and then he would giggle and say "I made you laugh!".

This morning at Camp Carnival, he apparently met Funship Freddy, the Carnival mascot, and he came out wearing a whale-tail hat and carrying a new storybook that Freddy had autographed. He couldn't stop talking about his new friend Freddy. This afternoon, we joined in a family scavenger hunt for Camp Carnival where we had to use stairs and not elevators and answer a list of questions about the ship (camp is on floor 12 while our room is on floor 4 on the other end of the ship). We were the first back, surprisingly, and we did all the little extras to get the bonus points. We had to wear our swimsuits outside of our clothes, one of us had to wear a luggage tag on an ear (me), one had to wear a men's tie (Dennis), we all had to wear mismatched shoes, and we all had to have red smiley faces on our foreheads (which I drew on with lipstick). We won, and Dennis was ECSTATIC to get the plastic gold trophy. He announced "I won my first trophy!" and showed it to every stranger we passed. He showed Gran and Pop and Gigi and Allison, and he insisted on taking the thing to dinner with us. He was so cute that we didn't mind a bit.

It's been a great day, though we got called to camp to have a talk with him about pushing the other children. He would push them and then apologize, so they let him stay after he promised to stop. I suppose he's a polite bully! We'll be picking him up soon enough, so we're glad to be able to finish packing while he plays. What an awesome vacation! I'd be afraid of major letdown afterward, but we'll have fun at the lake all weekend with Ju-Ju and Steve and Gigi and Allison, and we have Chloe's birthday party to go to, so we've still got some fun things on the agenda. I'm so thankful that we were able to do this for Dennis and for ourselves--what a nice getaway for the family and our friends, and a fantastic trip for a three-year-old!

cruise day 4

We hurried to breakfast this morning to watch the ship dock in Cozumel, most of which occurred while I was in the buffet line getting our food. Dennis got to see it, though, and he's so interested in everything about the ship and all the procedures. When we came back to our room to gather our stuff to go ashore, he walked into the room and announced "It's another beautiful day in our wonderful cruise ship!". Again, he's walking around happy, just absolutely enjoying every minute of this trip!

He had his own agenda for Cozumel but we weren't clued in to whatever it was that he had planned. He didn't want to hold a hand and wanted to shop by himself. He did enjoy meeting the pirate that was at the entrance to one of the stores--this man was painted all black and silver and let Dennis hold his sword. Dennis liked talking to him but was too scared to go up and stand with him for a picture. We killed almost two hours shopping before our Sub Ocean View tour, essentially a boat with glass sides all around the bottom. We saw the famous Paradise Reef and so many different species of fish, and I am delighted that I have seen my first sea turtle in the wild. The tour was an hour and a half (about 45 minutes too long for the kids) and a scuba diver fed fish right in front of our eyes. The kids were interested for awhile but got bored and drove us nuts for the remainder of the tour, jumping around, singing loudly, aggravating each other and such. David and Dennis returned to the boat immediately afterward, and Dennis went to Camp Carnival per his request. I shopped awhile with Allison and went to Senor Frogs with her and Gran, Pop, and Gigi (where I had a coke that cost $7!!), and we shopped a bit and returned to the boat. Dennis actually fell asleep at the dinner table tonight, sitting up in his chair. We stretched him out on his chair and mine and let him sleep. When he woke up, he wanted to go back to camp, so we let him. David picked him up later and took him back to the room while I went out with the girls to pose for silly pictures and have a fun Girls' Night. (Dave and David had their own fun--they went to bingo and a show while the kids were still at camp).

We did take Dennis to the top of the ship at the stern to watch as we left port. He watched them pull the ropes and watched the pilot boat guide us out. We stayed up top as we backed out and turned around, and when the ship's horn blew, Dennis promptly covered his ears and told us "the ship's whistle is TOO LOUD--tell them to turn it down; do all cruise ships have horns??".

I can't believe tomorrow is the last day!

cruise day 3

We docked this morning in Progreso, Yucatan, Mexico, and after a slow start packing up everything we needed to hit the beach, the Gallmans and Allison joined us and we headed off the ship. Dennis was so excited about seeing everything, and he loved the bus ride! He looked out the window and asked question after question ("are we in Mexico?"; "is our cruise ship going to leave us here?"; "will we get back on the cruise ship?"; "are we going to the beach?"). He and Chloe had the best time playing at the public beach, raking sand into buckets and spraying us and everyone around us with sand because the wind was so strong. The waves were pretty huge, too, since Progreso is a Gulf beach and is not in the Caribbean. We might not have thought our beach day through too well, but it is over now and we don't know if we have it in us to do a beach in Cozumel as well. We do have a undersea tour scheduled in a submarine-type thing.

After watching the kids play in sand and taking them on a couple of excursions in the water, we took advantage of their needed potty break to pack up and head back to the ship for lunch and to change clothes. The dock is far from anywhere and is a significant bus ride from town! Dennis enjoyed the bus ride back even more than the first one, and he stuck his head out the window and sang Old MacDonald for most of the way back. Onboard, we got into dry clothes and ate lunch, and then we dropped him off at Camp Carnival per his request. Allison, David, and I got back off the ship to do a little duty-free shopping, but there wasn't too much to see. Dennis did score a new guitar (he picked it out on our way back from the beach) and a little Mexican nativity set that we got for him on our second trip out. We weren't gone long before we had seen all we wanted to see, and we returned to the ship to pick him up from Camp to take his nap. When we got back to the room, he delightedly strummed his guitar and sang the alphabet song, then unpacked and played with his nativity figures. After about 10 minutes, he asked "can I take my nap now?". He sure didn't take long going to sleep.

After his nap, he spent some time with the Gallmans while the rest of us were at a Past Guest Party, and we all met up again at dinner where we celebrated Chloe's birthday. She actually licked her cake when they brought it! The waiter cut our her licked part and served it to her, and she went face-first into the cake, enjoying every molecule of chocolate in so many different sensory ways... They went back to Camp right after that, and the thirtysomething crowd spent a couple of hours hanging out (I see you cringing, Ellen, but you'll be thirty soon enough to be included!). We wandered the top deck of the ship until it was time to fetch the kids (paid babysitting starts at 10 pm at $6 per hour, and we haven't taken advantage of it yet). We let Dennis hang out on deck for a while, and we met up with Gigi. We all sat in lounge chairs and listened to the music by the pool, and Dennis and David explored the uppermost deck. Dennis yelled at us and we turned around to see him up above, saying "LOOK! I'm up by the whale tail! Do you see the smoke coming out?". He came down and told us all about it.

I cannot believe how much Dennis is enjoying his vacation. He is so agreeable to most everything we've wanted to do, and he is just walking around with a smile on his face. He loves talking to the ship personnel, and they've all been very patient with him and he gets high fives all around. Tonight we let him go to the all night pizza place because he said "I think my tummy is trying to tell me something--I think it is telling me that it's time to eat pizza!". He ate a slice of pepperoni pizza and had some ice cream as well (24 hour pizza and ice cream--do they know late night cravings or what?). He saw the sous chef standing nearby and said "sir, are you the chef?" and he told him that he wasn't, and Dennis said "do you know the chef?", so he explained what he did. Everything about this ship and Mexico just fascinates Dennis, and he's so engaged and involved and so eager to talk about everything he's seeing.

cruise day 2

This morning I was awake before Dennis was (not usual), and when he woke up, he asked "can I go to Camp Carnival today?". I told him it was closed until after breakfast and asked if he would like some pancakes. He said "let's go to breakfast and have pancakes and sausage and roast beef, and then we can go swimming!". And that is what we did, except for the roast beef part. Allison and the Gallmans joined us at the pool and we had a great time swimming and sunning. Dennis jumped in a number of times and tried to convince Chloe that it wasn't scary ("come on, Chloe, it's fine, you'll be fine--come on, Chloe, let's jump in together!") but she wasn't having any of it. She was in the water, sure, but she felt safer when she could hold on to someone. She very cutely showed off her princess bathing suit, and then, after we got out, carefully spread out a towel for herself on the lounge chair. The Daddies took them up to Camp and we girls got some chat time, and when they returned, we had a nice time visiting with each other and with Gigi. Dave and I took some turns on the Twister waterslide--very fun--and then it was time to dry out and change and go get the kids and have lunch. After lunch, the Daddies took the kids up to camp to a build-a-bear event, and when they met back up with Ellen and Allison and me, Chloe was clutching a frog in a cute dress and Dennis was holding a dog dressed as a pirate. He says the dog's name is Bogey (presumably named for Uncle Kim's dog). We all took an afternoon siesta before getting dressed up for formal night.

Dressing for formal night was challenging. Both David and Dennis were wearing tuxedos and we had the usual last minute "does anyone have a safety pin?" panic moments (thank you, Ellen, you ROCK, and I have never seen so many safety pins in one place!). My hair apparently does not love salt water, sun, and wind, and it took gobs of conditioner to make it behave at least as well as usual. But we got all dressed up and posed for pictures and enjoyed lobster and prime rib, stuffed mushrooms, cherries jubilee, etc (not all of us ate all dishes, lest you think it was a gorge fest...), and the kids had their favorite chicken nuggets and fries and 'white' ice cream (Chloe's term; Dennis used to call it 'vanilla'). They were so cute at dinner sitting next to each other and talking, and the waiter picked up Chloe and carted her away for a dance when the waiters did their dinner show.

They went to Camp Carnival while the rest of us went to a show and afterward Chloe came to play with Dennis in our room while her parents had a mini-date. Oh, the conversations they had! "Look, Chloe, I have a new cruise ship playset and you will have so much fun playing with it!" to which Chloe replied "where did you buy that? I want one, too." And, when she spied Dennis' bed asked "Does Dennis sleep all the way up there in that bed with the ladder? My bed doesn't have a ladder." Dennis was concerned, asking "your bed doesn't have a ladder? How do you get up there?" to which she replied "well, it's a little bed and it doesn't really need a ladder." They talked and played, moving the aforementioned cruise ship playset to the top bunk, then to our bed, then to the floor--well, they actually asked David to keep moving it for them--and they were so well behaved! They were enjoying looking at the digital pics from tonight on the computer and kept asking me to take pictures of their toys, so we got out Dennis' camera and taught Chloe how to use it. She was fascinated, saying "look! It took a picture!" and then closely examining it and saying "I don't have a camera yet" (the 'yet' tickled David and me). Dennis said "you'll probably get one". They said so many cute and wonderful things in such a short span of time that I wish I'd been video taping the whole visit, but I was mainly impressed at how grown up their conversations were compared to just a few months ago. Gosh they are growing up so fast! Chloe will turn three tomorrow! Tomorrow we'll be in Progreso, Mexico, where Allison says we'll get soup (ha ha).

I think you can click on the pictures to see them larger...

cruise day 1

We finally made it through the line to park in the deck and get onboard the ship. Dennis was excited to see the pool and kept asking me "are there toys on this ship?". After lunch, we went and found the toys. I took him up to see the room where they have Camp Carnival (for 2 to 5 year olds), and I happened in on the open house. He went right to the toys and found several of his same Fisher Price toys there, most notably the same fire station and truck that Santa brought this past Christmas. He was delighted and played happily while I finished his registration and picked up a phone. This is the nicest service! They gave us a free cell phone that works all over the ship so that they can call if we need to come and see to Dennis, and the fringe benefit is that we can call our room or any of our other cruise buddies' rooms to arrange meet-ups. This is awesome, especially given that Dave and Ellen got one as well when they signed Chloe up, so we've been calling each others' phones as well. This is saving us a bundle because the cell phone charges aboard are exorbitant and we've all turned them off.

Getting Dennis to leave Camp Carnival after I signed him up wasn't easy--it wasn't actually open until 7 tonight, and he cried buckets having to leave the toys. All the rest of the day I kept hearing "can I go to Camp Carnival now?". I ended up taking him after supper, just after we'd celebrated Gran's birthday with singing and cake. Chloe was there this evening as well, and we all went together to pick them up and take them walking around the ship before bed. As Ellen and I stood at the door waiting for our kids to finish in the potty, the teacher told us "both of your children are VERY active--we had to speak to them about it a few times". They were both a little short on naptime today, and we are hoping they behave better tomorrow.

Dennis loves his upper bunk, most especially because he gets to climb a ladder to get into it. He introduced himself to our room steward and then said "Captain, I really like my fireman bed!". I don't know why he calls the room steward captain; it must be the uniform. After we picked the kids up from camp, we all hung out on the top deck on the putt-putt course watching the kids run and jump on all the greens. We were all headed to the rooms by 10:00, exhausted from our long day! Dennis was delighted to find the pig towel animal waiting for us in the room.

battleship fun!

We finally got on the road on our vacation at 1:00, and we headed straight for Mobile. It was after 4:00 when we arrived at the USS Alabama, so we decided to just walk around the park and look at the ship and planes and submarine and tanks without going inside either ship or sub. I think we were too late to buy tickets to get in anyway, but it was a beautiful day, sunny and breezy, and we enjoyed the walk. Dennis LOVED looking at the planes and the missile and sub and ship and tanks, and we even got to head out on a pier over the water. This particular pier was guarded by a pair of Canada geese and their five young offspring (goslings?), and the waddled way out of our path, hissing their displeasure.

After this, we headed to our hotel and then David, Dennis, Allison and I met up with an old friend from high school that we haven't seen in a decade or so (thank you Facebook!). Christine brought her husband and three children, and her younger two kids are four and five and Dennis was ecstatic to meet them! We all had a chaotic and fun dinner together before we headed back to our hotel and jumped in the pool. Dennis' routine was jump in, climb out, repeat, and Allison, Gigi, Gran, and I occasionally took turns jumping in with him. Our favorite was when he announced "I am Daddy Chick! And you are all my baby chicks." A few minutes later when we were talking to him, he said "don't call me Dennis--call me Daddy Chick" so we started peeping at him. He was thrilled!

It's so great to be on vacation!

ant parade

How bizarre. We got home last night, in a hurry to finish our packing, and Dennis apparently headed to the kitchen while we went back to the bedroom to pack. A few minutes later, he told me "I'm going to be needing a snack, and I might like something to drink." I went into the kitchen and was shocked at what I saw. There were smashed ants on every part of the floor, at least one for every fake linoleum 'tile' (and they are about 4" X 4"). Dennis said "there were ants, but I smashed them all". He'd gone in the the kitchen and merrily stomped hundreds of those big fat carpenter ants. We don't know why they were in our kitchen. Later, after we'd cleaned up and found another kitchen floor full, we observed that they were all fighting. David deduced that two rival ant tribes were fighting it out in our house. I hate when my kitchen goes all Discovery Channel (some of you may remember the baby snake by the trash can a couple of halloweens back). I was doing the last night of my Wii Sports Active 30 Day Challenge (level HARD, thank you very much) and every time I stepped back from a lunge, I smashed an ant in the den. It was kind of satisfying. Who knows what we'll find when we get home from vacation... Scary!

car door mishaps

Two car doors inflicted their wrath on Dennis today, and both incidents occurred at Grandma's place. The first time, she was opening the door for him and he walked into it (he has a bad habit of doing this), and it apparently left a big knot behind his ear that was practically gone by the time I arrived to pick him up. When we left there to head to the church picnic, I closed the car door while his fingers were in its path. I saw what was going to happen as the door was swinging shut, and I immediately opened it again and administered profuse apologies and hugs and kisses, and it appears to have left no permanent damage. Poor little guy.

It's not a long drive to get from Grandma's and GrandBob's place to the park where the picnic was held, but when I got out of the car to let Dennis out of the backseat, he had fallen asleep. I transferred his sleeping form to his stroller and enjoyed the Ladies' Night barbecue put on by the Methodist Men. Delicious chicken, slaw, and baked beans, hot dogs for the kids, pound cake, strawberries, and ice cream, all free for women and children, and all so yummy! David decided to work this evening and we missed him being there. I let Dennis snooze in his stroller and enjoyed a peaceful meal and visited with fellow church members. When I was finished and after he'd gotten an hour of sleep, I woke him up. He was so pitiful--I fed him his meal for a few minutes until he was good and awake. He is very sad that he missed seeing the other children, but he slept through their time there.

Tonight on the way home, he realized that he missed my trip to Uncle Denny's place, his having been at Grandma's most of the day. He told me "we have to stay away from our house--I don't want to go home now because I have to go to Uncle Denny's house and play with him and my toys." He didn't get his wish. He also made this interesting observation: "Mommy, do you know what? This Tracker looks a lot like Grandma's car." He's right. Her Suzuki is newer and a little longer, but the vehicles are very similar in style. Maybe he noticed the similarities because both cars attacked him today...

pizza party bribery

Dennis has a new set of construction toys and playmat--we picked it up at Ross and designated it specifically as Uncle Denny's House Only. I wanted him to have special toys there, something he'd love and look forward to playing with whenever he visited Uncle Denny. We did too well. He LOVES those toys and cries big tragic tears when we have to leave them behind. He talks about going to visit Uncle Denny every morning when he gets up, and every night before bed he says "can we go see Uncle Denny tomorrow? I want to play with him!". Tonight was no exception--he cried buckets when it was time to leave, and the only way we could get him to leave the lake was to tell him we were going to have a pizza party at Grandma's house. On the way there, he kept saying "are we going to Grandma's house NOW, Mommy?" and "is the pizza party NOW?". We left him there tonight to spare Grandma and GrandBob and Dennis all from having to wake up terribly early. He practically pushed David and me out the door so he could play Fire Hydrant with Grandma. He is blessed to have two grandmothers who love to engage in imaginative play with him!

Also on the way to Grandma's, he asked "will Bob be there?" and I told him he would, and Dennis said "is he like a Grandpa?". I told him that was exactly right, so Dennis said "I can call him GrandBob" and we all hope the name will stick. He has used that name on and off for a while, but now he seems to have worked out the mechanics behind it and likes it. We'll see.

Thank you, Lord, that David's incident with the saw this morning resulted in a relatively minor cut into his calf, not deep enough for stitches and not large enough to cause permanent damage. What a blessing!

confession

Two cute things to report from bedtime tonight--first, I asked him how he was feeling and he said "I am pretty fine, Mommy" and then asked me "are you sick, Mommy?". I told him my throat was a little funny but I felt just fine. He then burst out into fake 'hahahaha' laughter and I looked at him strangely. He said "I'm laughing at your throat, Mommy, it's funny!".

During our prayers, he recited the Lord's Prayer and the night-night prayer ('now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, Your love be with me through the night and wake me in the morning light'--a less scary version of the one I grew up with), and then he said he wanted to talk to Jesus in his room. He thanked the Lord for his family and other things, and then said "I need to tell you, Jesus, I snatched a toy at church and I'm sorry". I told him all he had to do was ask Jesus to forgive him, so he said "please forgive me for snatching that toy and help me to be a good boy" and David and I kissed him goodnight and left his room. After we closed the door, we stared at each other and asked "did he just confess a sin and ask forgiveness at age 3--WOW!". He constantly amazes us.

giant leaps

I had every intention of spending my afternoon packing for our trip when I got a text message from Allison asking what my plans were. As always, that turned into an afternoon of fun at the lake and grilled hamburgers and hot dogs for supper. We started our summer days early this year! It looked like rain and we heard some thunder about the time we had gotten into our swimsuits and gone down to the dock. We were sitting out on the dock, hoping the weather would improve or the sun would come out, and poor Dennis kept begging to get in the water. He was all suited up and couldn't STAND not being in the water and swimming! Finally we decided it wasn't going to storm and we'd be warmer in the water than sitting out in the wind, so I got in and Dennis followed.

Not long after we'd gotten in the water, the girls from next door came over to swim with us, and they are excellent swimmers! They were jumping off the dock and doing flips and dives and tricks and pretty soon Dennis was saying "I want to jump in, too!". He got out and jumped off the ladder a couple of times, then climbed onto the dock and did a real jump while we were all shouting encouragement. Pretty soon he was running and jumping off just like the girls (though without the tricks). He was wearing his puddle jumper life vest with the arm floaties on it, and he just swam and swam, for nearly two hours! He'd jump in, pop up to the surface and swim, catch his breath and get his vision focused and then yell "I want to go and jump again!". He'd yell to the girls "come on, y'all, let's all jump! I'm the leader--y'all follow me!". He had the most fun I've ever seen him have in the water. He was leaping off the dock in joy!

appropriate wedding commentary?

A friend from Curves (the current owner) got married today, and we took Dennis to the wedding. We talked to him all the way to the church about how he needed to be super quiet during the service. We got there and got inside and found seats in the last row (in case the talking to didn't take effect), and he settled in as much as he could. He whispered commentary while the slide show was going on and everyone was coming in and greeting each other. The lights went down and the music started and things were about to begin. Everyone got quiet, and just then Dennis couldn't stand it anymore. He stood up in his chair and announced loudly "Ladies and Gentlemen..." and I clapped my hand over his mouth before he could say anything more. Laughter filled the auditorium. Some ladies stopped me after the service and asked me what he would have said next and said they wished I hadn't stopped him because it was so cute.

As we were leaving the auditorium just after the wedding was over, he asked me very loudly "Mommy, can I talk NOW?" and I told him he could. Again, laughter was all around us. He was most assuredly the entertainment for us!

fish in a life jacket

I got a text message this morning while I was at work at Curves asking me if I'd like to have some ice cream from Durbin Farms. While this would have been great, and the club had no one working out at the time, I knew that if I'd said yes, ladies would have come in to work out and I would have felt so bad eating ice cream in front of them. After all, that is my BEFORE picture posted on the back wall, and I am trying to set a good example. Dennis and Gran enjoyed their ice cream and a nice long time at the playground at City Park. Just after I'd turned down the ice cream, Allison called to see if I'd like to meet for lunch at San Marcos. I told her to call Gran and ask if they wanted to, and Gran said that Dennis had just asked if they could eat lunch there. After I got off and Dennis got up from his nap, we did eat there, and Dennis danced in his seat the whole time.

We swam this afternoon at the lake, and I was delighted to see that Dennis remembered all his swim moves. We put him in a life jacket and after bobbing nervously for two or three minutes, his lessons took over and he swam all over the place, loving every second of it. He wanted to 'jump' off the dock, and this mostly involved Allison lowering him by his arms over the side and letting him go when he was almost in the water. We also took an awesome boat ride around to look at the lake, and I loved watching Dennis pick up leaves and let them go, interested to see which way they'd blow in the wind. He stood at the bow of the boat and announced in full pirate voice that he was Captain Dennis and he was in charge of this boat. It's going to be a great summer!

knighthood

Dennis accompanied me to Uncle Denny's today, and Uncle Denny kept him well entertained while I straightened things up and did a bit of housekeeping. At first, Dennis was all over and into everything, but it didn't take him too long to settle in and enjoy his visit, and I'm glad because he's been asking me for a week to take him to see Uncle Denny. I was very amused when he told us "I'm NOT Dennis" and when we asked him who he was, he said "I'm a KNIGHT." So we asked him if he was 'Sir Dennis' and he said "yes, I am Sir Knight Dennis." He renamed Uncle Denny 'King Uncle Denny' (and who wouldn't like to be King?). I was terribly impressed when King Uncle Denny picked up his grabber tool and actually knighted Dennis!

It seems Dennis has developed a certain taste in girls. Last night in his church class, a little blonde wouldn't let go of his hand and insisted on wallowing in the corner on pillows with him. Later, I wasn't able to find him on the playground, and I would have panicked, but I saw little Olivia watching me out of the playhouse window. She would look at me and then poke her head back in and do something in the corner and then check me out again. It didn't take me long to realize that she had him trapped in the corner in the playhouse, and I had to go and rescue him (big tears on his face). She came out of the house as well, and she immediately grabbed his hand and they rushed off to play on the big structures. He wasn't free of her until her mother took her home, but he didn't seem to mind all that much other than the trapped-in-the-playhouse moment. It later occurred to me that Olivia was the class drama queen, loudly crying when we needed to use the chair she was using to prop her leg for another child to sit in, and bursting into a major tantrum when she couldn't be Line Leader for the 3rd week in a row. I reported all this to David later, and he turned to Dennis and said "Son, we need to have a talk about your taste in women! You seem to really like the strong-willed little blondes." Dennis said "Olivia wouldn't let go of my hand, Daddy, and she trapped me in the playhouse."

Bedtime is becoming more and more of an issue as of late. He doesn't want to nap or go to bed at night, and I keep catching him with his lamp lit when he is supposed to be sleeping. During naptime, he repeatedly turns on his TV and starts a DVD playing. But at night, I often catch him with his light burning, and when I open the door, there he sits, propped up on his pillows with his bible story book in hand, and he smiles and says "Hey, Mommy, I was just reading my bible stories." I just can't bring myself to discipline a child who was a bit scared of the dark so switched on his own lamp and turned to his bible for comfort. Tonight he asked me how to pray for Gran and Pop and Uncle Denny because a boy in his class last night said a prayer out loud and thanked God for a number of things (many of them twice), and Dennis was very impressed by Joshua's prayer and wanted to learn how to do it himself. I heard him talking to Jesus long after I left him and turned off the light and closed the door.

countdown

This not being able to get on the internet from home business is driving me insane. Darn AT&T. See if we renew our contract next time. I think NOT. I'll be posting 3 blogs tonight, written daily and saved in Notepad, waiting for that brief moment when I might connect with a cell tower. It hasn't happened in 3 days, so I will probably drive somewhere tonight and upload. *insert frustrated noise here*

Dennis and I have had such fun today. I think he's going through a cute spurt, every thing he says and does is adorable. We have cuddled and read books today, and we played with his word flash cards and talked about letters. He gave me a fire safety lesson as well, which is always appreciated. He also was digging around in his Daddy's night table today and found a battery-powered back massager that I bought for him long ago and had forgotten about. Dennis asked me what it was--it looks kind of like a three-legged alien--and I told him it was to massage a back, and he wanted to know what that meant. I demonstrated and he squealed with giggles, insisting that it REALLY tickled, and then he said "Give it to me, Mommy, and I will tickle your back". I had not gotten out of bed yet this morning when all this transpired, so I was very pleased to roll over on my stomach and get a back massage! Where was this on Mother's Day? How awesome!

We are getting very close to our cruise departure date, and I'd love to go ahead and pack, but that's a little excessive even for me! I usually never pack until the last minute. I'm just so darn excited about the trip! We leave in 10 days! All of us who are going are busily sending each other text messages about this or that. Dennis is very excited as well, talking about Chloe's birthday party on the ship and building sand castles and swimming. He knows he is going to Mexico, but I don't know if this means anything to him. Mexico will be his second country to visit other than the one he lives in--we took him into Canada during a visit to Washington. His passport photo was taken when he was barely a year old! He's pretty well traveled for a 3 year old, and I love that we have been able to do that for him. It may be years before any of us can afford to go out of the country again!

weapon aggression

At one point, Dennis stood over me on the couch, pointing a bright orange plastic gun at me and yelling "you are a BAD person, Mommy, and I'm going to POW you." I take it he's lost patience with having a sick Mommy. I do feel some better today but still have a horrible, deep, gross cough, and it wears me out when I do it.

We had a nice day today, playing some in his room and taking a mini nature walk tonight when we watered our garden. We found honeysuckle and wild blackberry plants, looked at clover, pointed out rosebushes, checked for lightning bugs (but he didn't have the patience to wait for them to come out), and successfully avoided any snakes that might be around. When we came back inside, I insisted that he clean up his cowboys and Indians, tiny figures that were covering the rug in the den, very painful when found by bare feet. He brought the Indians to me and asked about what they were carrying, which were bows and arrows, shields, and spears. I had to explain what each was and what its purpose was. In his room, he aimed his wooden rifle at me and said "I am going to POW you, Mommy" and I explained that we did not shoot people. He said "do we shoot animals, Mommy?" and I said 'hunters do', to which he immediately replied "I am a hunter and you are an animal, and I will pow you!".

On one of his visits to the bathroom while I was in there (I have discovered that motherhood means a COMPLETE surrender of your privacy), he said "I remember when I was an Indian--I said 'woop woop woop' (said while tapping his open palm over his mouth) and I got the arrow and I let it go!". I didn't ask when it was that he'd been an Indian.

duck parade

The rubber ducks have had a series of major adventures of late. I have not observed their movements myself, but they've been showing up in a remarkable number of places. It started last week sometime when I watched Dennis marching around in the hallway with his butterfly net full of bath toys. He informed me "I went fishing, Mommy, and I caught lots of big fish". Cute. Then a couple of days later, I went to put on my Nikes to go for a walk and found that they were both stuffed full of rubber ducks. Dennis saw me cleaning them out and asked "did those ducks take your shoes, Mommy? Maybe they wanted to go walk too!". I'll just bet they did.

Today I was sick, very sick, with the same upper respiratory goop that has plagued Dennis these past weeks. I spent as much of the day horizontal in bed as Dennis would allow, and this was a surprising amount! He was very good today, and very patient, and he would bring books and toys in to join me in bed and keep me company. We alternated between the bed and the couch and he didn't really get into much that he wasn't supposed to get into. I'm very pleased by this. He did, at one point, march into my room and announce "I am the teacher and the children are all following me" and proceeded to line up several toys at the foot of my bed.

Tonight when I went to tuck him into bed, I noticed that the rubber ducks were all in a perfect line behind the largest one, marching along the rug in his room. Maybe they had plans to join him in the bed?

the actual Mother's Day

Dennis made the cutest Mother's Day card at Sunday School this morning, and I asked him about it, eagerly anticipating my very own card made by him. He told me "I made it for Daddy." Oh, well. I hope David is having a happy Mother's Day. They took me out to eat at the Chinese buffet today and we had a nice meal there. Dennis was pretty good while we were there. He put his fingers up over his eyes and said "look, I made my very own sunglasses!". His fortune cookie was EXTREMELY appropriate (weirdly so).

We headed to the lake again to deliver the cards Dennis made for his grandmothers. Becky had just finished making a batch of banana pudding, and we enjoyed some refreshment on her screened porch. Gran and Dennis gave each other fencing lessons with fly swatters, and Dennis asked if he could go fishing and for a boat ride (he sensed the approach of nap time). It's a perfect day, sunny with temps in the high 60's (maybe actually 70, but it feels pretty cool).

We talked a lot about mothers at church this morning, how one of the closest things to God's love that we experience here in our lifetime is a mother's unconditional love. Our sermon was from Corinthians, the love chapter, and I remembered again that I have a lot to learn about loving the right way. Being a mother is the most wonderful experience of my life, and I want to learn how to be more patient and a better example for Dennis to follow.

When asked what he learned in church today, Dennis replied "I learned about snatching toys!". He wouldn't elaborate. The teachers said he'd been good, though, so perhaps he was the snatchee instead of the snatcher. Let's hope that's the case.

Mother's Day Take 2

More Mother's Day celebrating went on today: we met up at the lake house today and grilled hamburgers and hot dogs for Gran and Grandma. Allison had the idea to do this, and we had the first swim of the season (though we deemed it still a bit too chilly for Dennis having just recovered from the ear infection and still having a lingering cough). We had the nicest meal together, delicious food, good company, excellent dessert (cake from Edgar's Bakery, Becky's homemade spice cake).

Dennis was a bit wild today. He cavorted around, refusing to eat supper, climbing onto everyone's lap, and he ended up spending long sessions in Time Out. On the way home tonight, he announced "look at all the beautiful stars!" and we took the time to notice the especially gorgeous night sky. Then he said "I sure wish the moon would come out again" and we told him it would. Just before he fell asleep in the car he said "I hope the sun comes up tomorrow!". We did our best to assure him that it will!

Mother's Day in Dothan

We had the idea of packing a picnic lunch and taking it to Dothan to celebrate Mother's Day with Granny and Aunt Louise. We just drove down for the day and we got to listen to Dennis talk nonstop on both the way down and the way back. He picked out his own snack at the gas station, choosing candy corn and bug juice (a combination only a child could love). He was excited to see Granny and eat the picnic lunch at Solomon Park, and I was scandalized to discover that all the playground equipment has been removed from said park. We grew up playing on that playground, and we took Dennis there as a baby and couldn't wait til he was old enough to play on it himself. Now that he is, it's gone.

We had a nice lunch on a shady table and then we went to the oriental rug store to take lunch to Aunt Louise and Uncle George. Dennis then got to experience another time-honored grandchild tradition--playing in all the rugs! He jumped from stack to stack, played Magic Carpet, lined up firetrucks around a rug, played Avoid The Lava Pool, and played hide-and-seek among the large rolled up rugs on the floor. Watching him dance around on the rugs brought back lots of memories of my own childhood of doing the same, and he was SO excited to be there. He got so sweaty from running around full force for an hour that we didn't even bother going to a playground later.

He kept us entertained on the long car ride back. We stopped at Target to pick up Chloe's birthday gift and I bought a couple of pairs of socks from the dollar bin (Lightning McQueen socks and Oscar the Grouch socks) for Dennis as a surprise. He was thrilled and put them on his hands and began to use them as sock puppets. He sang songs to us, told us nursery rhymes, told Pop and me "Don't bother the driver!", and begged to go to Cracker Barrel (he got his way--we went there for supper). It was a long day but we had a good time!

Mr. Trainer

Today Dennis was feeling SO much better. And it's like he saved all his energy from his sick days and used that excess energy to get into all kinds of mischief! He ran around like a madman at the church this afternoon, refusing to come to me when I called until I threatened to leave him there. My arms were full of the church library books he wanted, so I couldn't just scoop him up and go. He continued his Festival of Wildness when we got home, tearing around the house and climbing up everything. He worked out for a number of minutes on our elliptical machine, telling us we needed to get up and work out too. He said "it's my job to work out on this Ee-wiptical machine and to make you work out, too."

He's picked up a new phrase or two lately, and it tickles me to hear him reply to me when I tell him he needs to eat more of his dinner. He says "No, thank you, Mommy, I have had plenty." He also says "fortunately" often and uses it in the correct context.

Dennis met the preschool director today at the church, and she brought us a scholarship form to fill out for him. Maybe it will work out that he'll get to go this fall!

sicko de mayo

Another Cinco de Mayo has passed without us celebrating at a Mexican restaurant--every year I think we will do this and every year we don't. I did have my own little celebratory party tonight as I was baking brownies for a church function--I dipped a few tortilla chips in the brownie batter and they were delicious!

I thought we'd hit the height of pitiful yesterday, but I was wrong. Dennis felt awful today, and every time I asked him a question (such as 'do you want something to drink?'), he'd burst into tears and begin wailing. He took a long nap, but it didn't help much. He was still miserable for the rest of the day. He did enjoy a brief visit with Uncle Denny which yielded the highlight of his day, a toy ice cream truck. When we got home, he was running around the house between crying spells and happily announcing "I am the Ice Cream Man and I drive the Ice Cream Truck--would you like some ice cream? Come and get it!".

Surely he'll feel better soon. We are watching this oil spill coverage with sinking hearts. I hate the thought of the environmental destruction that's happening, the animals that are being affected... And truthfully, I am excessively worried about my cruise ship not departing from Mobile on the 22nd as scheduled. There's nothing we can do to change the course of it, so we are hoping for the best.

too pitiful

I thought he was feeling much better today, but things kind of went downhill for him tonight. He clearly doesn't feel too well. He didn't get a very long nap and this compounded the problem that started when he didn't go to sleep until after midnight last night. His attention span is less than that of a gnat, the way it always is when he's this tired. He begged me to let him eat his supper while sitting on the couch under a quilt and watching Caillou, and I let him. I set up a TV tray for him and when I put his supper on it, he took a bite and said "thank you, Mommy, for this supper". I just melted, of course. How sweet he is. I can't stand looking at his red eyes and listening to his awful cough. He's been so bad today, so distracted and unable to focus, so busy getting into things that we've just told him not to touch. He's fallen off the bed (because he was climbing and jumping), off a stack of boards that he was walking on, backward on the couch to hit his head on the wood frame (because he was jumping just after we told him to STOP), backward off the side of the couch and onto the floor (climbing)... He didn't have any bad falls, thank goodness, but he was just so accident prone today and I can probably attribute some of that to his balance being affected by the ear infection. The rest is due to mischief, and the amount of mischief is based on the level of exhaustion, which is extremely high. Poor little guy. He fell asleep at 8 tonight, 10 seconds after he told me he wasn't ready for bed.

The pictures are from earlier, when he was feeling pretty good. What says summertime is approaching better than eating popsicles on the screened porch at the lake house? We also enjoyed a walk, tossing rocks into a stream, and a golf cart ride where he helped me take trash to the dumpster. He was cuddly and pitiful for much of the day. Gosh I hope he feels better tomorrow, that the antibiotic will work quickly and effectively...

ear yuck

Dennis' fever abated somewhat--he woke up a normal temperature this morning--but we are still concerned about the cough. I took him to the pediatrician after lunch and it turns out that his ear infection either didn't completely go away or is back but in a lesser degree than before. Fortunately his lungs are all clear and the doc just thinks it's upper respiratory stuff that's bothering him. So he's on another round of antibiotics for 5 days. He doesn't seem to be feeling all that bad, but he sounds AWFUL. His voice is all scratchy and his cough sounds painful though he says it isn't.

This morning we were snuggled up watching the Sprout network, and they are running little Mother's Day tidbits between shows. One was a little girl from Bellingham, WA, who was telling what she loved about her Mommy (things like my Mommy plays with me and tucks me in, etc.). I asked Dennis what he loved about his Mommy and he said "I love your boogers, Mommy!" and then gave me a big kiss. Lately he's been more of a Daddy's boy. He wakes up looking for Daddy and wants him to be home so they can play. (I still get bathroom duty for whatever reason.) Tonight he said "Daddy, you are super strong and you really know how to do things". I'm glad David is his hero--that's the way it should be!

As I was tucking Dennis into bed, he said "Do you know what I'm thinking about, Mommy?" (this question tickles me), and I asked him what. He said "I was thinking about when Daddy and Gran and you and me were in the woods and you and Gran were lost and we were waiting on you and then you came out of the woods and weren't lost anymore" and I presume this is a reference to last Wednesday's hike, so I assured him we were glad to see him and David waiting on us when we came out of the woods!

The pic shows him posing in his new shirt that I picked up for $4 at the Cracker Barrel sidewalk sale. They had such cute stuff that I wish I'd had about $20 more to spend! He loved the crane on the shirt and insisted on wearing it right away, but I have plans to save it for fall's cooler weather.

make way for Santa

Dennis was way too sick for us to go to church this morning, and David was at work, so that meant I stayed home with him. We got the word that we were going to get a fireplace from a demolition project at a rental property, and Dennis got very excited. He said "we are getting a fireplace?". "Then Santa can come down the chimney to a real fireplace and bring us presents! Daddy we need to go get a fireplace right now!". You've got to love the mind of a three year old!

I got a lecture about sun safety from Dennis this morning. I had asked David to put lotion on my back where I acquired a sunburn on Friday from lying out in the sun in an attempt to give myself a bit of color before the cruise. Dennis said "Mommy, you got to use sunscream when you go out in the sun so you don't get burned." I was glad to hear that he'd absorbed this bit of wisdom from last summer!

He is still pretty sick today, fever and yucky cough, so we'll be heading to the doctor tomorrow. I hope it's nothing major.

Happy Birthday Pop!

Dennis had the idea to make a video to sing Happy Birthday to Pop. I took one with my cell phone so we could send it right away, and I think it made Pop pretty happy. Dennis didn't actually see Pop today--he woke me up standing beside my bed saying "there's something wrong with my nose, Mommy". He was just a little stopped up, has been for the past few mornings, and it suddenly occurred to me that today was Saturday and though I'd been looking forward to a slow morning at home, I remembered that we had to go to swim class. He woke me up at 9:19 and swim class starts at 9:30. We were only 8 minutes late. Unbelievable! I was out nearly all night doing Relay For Life, so thank goodness he woke me up, and thank goodness he slept late himself!

He started feeling pretty miserable a few hours after swim class, congestion and bad cough being his chief symptoms. I took off to do some shopping with Gran and to have supper with Pop, and when I got home, we put Dennis to bed. When I went to check on him an hour later, he was not breathing too well with all the drainage--he would stop breathing and swallow a bunch of times and then kind of gasp. It freaked me out, so I brought him to our bed and took his temperature, which was 102 under his arm. David was not as concerned, so I dosed him with Tylenol (the Motrin didn't work) and watched him for an hour then set the alarm to check on him through the night. He seems fine now, no more gasping, and the fever went down to 99.5. It looks like we'll be visiting the doc on Monday!