the prodigal grandparents return

Dennis was all over me today, saying "I want you, Mommy" whenever I got two steps away from him. He's so sweet, and I do love being with him, but it was intense today. It was so hard to get him down for his nap today, and I told him he really needed his sleep before we went back to bible school tonight. He said "we get to go AGAIN?" and I told him we did, and he said "yay!". He agreed to sleep, but it took him until 3:30 to do so. I was painting some trim at Grandma's lake house (today being the first day I was able to get over there and do some work!) and periodically checking on him, and pretty soon it was time to leave for church and he hadn't even been asleep an hour. I loaded him up in his carseat in his t-shirt, underwear, and no shoes, and he slept through our trip to town. I dressed him very quickly in the church parking lot and we headed in, though he seemed a bit shy this time and wanted me to stay with him during opening assembly. He was staring at the 'heroes', Brother Larry (our pastor) as Pizza Man, Brother Brian (associate pastor) as Handyman Mack, and one of Dennis' Sunday School teachers as Water Woman. He knows these people, but seems to totally buy into the hero thing. It's like he can't tell who they really are because he's distracted by the costume and role. Brother Larry was telling him goodbye tonight and he said "bye Pizza Man!" and when Brother Larry said "he probably is thinking, oh that's just Brother Larry" Dennis said "no, you are Pizza Man--you're a hero!".

I asked Dennis if he liked vacation bible school again tonight, and he said "Mommy, it's Heroes Headquarters!". And yes, he liked it. Our craft tonight was making magnetic notepads, and Dennis drew on his arm with a blue marker. After church, we went to visit Gran and Pop, finally home from their long cross-country road trip. Dennis kept telling me we didn't need to go to their house because they weren't home. He was SO happy to see them. He didn't want to leave when it was time to go. He showed Gran the blue marker on his arm and told her it was a tattoo of a snake and another one of a bear. He was very proud.