long Wednesday

This morning after we finished breakfast, the girls from next door were knocking again, inviting us to come and swim off their dock. We happily joined them, smiling as Dennis ran and jumped off their dock yelling "to infinity and beyond!" as he leapt into the water. He's starting to say it correctly now, and I admit I'll kind of miss his "to divinity and beyond!", which always made me smile. We swam for quite a while before heading into their house for sandwiches, and the girls taught Dennis how to putt a golf ball with a putter perfectly sized for him. It makes me want to take him to play putt-putt somewhere now.

Though he complained that he wasn't tired, he fell asleep as soon as I put him down for his nap, and when we got up, we headed to church. There were eight children in his class tonight, and David and I completely lost control of them about 45 minutes into it. We actually lost control a few times, but they took over at the end and we gave up and let them have free play time. We did actually complete an entire lesson before this point, so I don't feel too bad about it. Dennis and Joshua fought, Grace and Peyton fought, Ava Claire bopped Joshua on the head with an inflatable palm tree and Dennis pinched Joshua to get him to stop smacking Ava Claire. Grace and Maddie snuck off to the bathroom to have a girl party that I had to interrupt, and Reagan tried to teach the class when she wasn't shoving Joshua or shooting David death-ray glares. Hope (who is ten and was visiting with Peyton) was a BIG help and she kept Peyton involved and engaged, which we are so thankful for because he is the youngest in the class. Ava Claire actually remembered the two bible verses I taught last week and recited them for us. And all the children took turns praying out loud (SO wonderful) because they wanted to. It was one of the longest hours of my life!

Dennis informed us after church that he did NOT want to go home--he wanted to go back to the lake house, and he worried us about it over and over as we drove home to check the mail and our pets. He had a great day today, and he even got to visit Uncle Denny after 10 tonight, nearly falling asleep at the table as he ate his Burger King snack. He told us he didn't want to go to bed, but he didn't really fight us about it. He talked to himself for about 10 minutes to unwind before falling asleep. I think David beat him there!

I started to inflate the big kiddie pool I bought for him--do you know how much air goes into those things? I estimated 15 minutes to blow the thing up, and Dennis watched me as he wrung his hands in anticipation. I think I might have it inflated by Friday, if I'm lucky!