once and future camper

Dennis and I had a whole lot of fun together today. I was the substitute teacher for his class this morning, and we had a great lesson about dinosaur bones and fossils. In his cubbyhole this morning, there was a calendar for February and a note about Tuesday's upcoming Pajama Day. He needs a sleeping bag, pillow, flashlight, toy to sleep with, pajamas, slippers, and shoes to play outside. Wow! I knew that I needed to get the sleeping bag TODAY if all parents got the idea that I did. After all, there aren't many places to get child sized sleeping bags here in town, and Walmart was sure to have a limited supply (since 2 classes have already had a Pajama Day). A sleeping bag for him was actually on the Christmas list (my list, not his) but got forgotten in the scores of other purchases. Gran and Pop called from Walmart while I was home and he was napping, and we had almost settled on blue camouflage. After all, that would grow with him and was cheaper, but in the end, I caved and went for the big thrill: the Buzz Lightyear sleeping bag. Gran and Pop picked it up for me and bought him a red camping pillow themselves. He jumped up and down when he saw them and spent the evening in his sleeping bag. He cried buckets when we left their house, wanting to go camping and not home. I set up our old backpacking tent in his room, put down a thick comforter, and we set up his new bag and pillow. Oh the joy! I actually got a "Mommy, I just love you--you ROCK! You set up a good tent!". He might sleep in it all night, who knows?

We are also heavy into our Valentine's Day preparations. We looked at cards and he picked the Toy Story 3 ones that come with pencils (big surprise), but he said that "Valentines are supposed to be red hearts!". So we are making some. Well, actually, he is making them. I traced a big heart shape onto red paper and that's all. He cut it out ALL BY HIMSELF (two of them so far), glued on his classmate's name and picture (the teacher sent these home for the purpose of labeling their Valentines), selected and glued on a Toy Story Valentine with pencil, signed his name, and added stickers. After he finished the first one, he said "Wow! I'm so proud of myself!!". We also made some pink sugar cookie dough for heart cookies (his idea). He stood over the mixer and added all the ingredients. He saw me sifting salt and flour together and said "I've never seen that before. I'm not sure how that works." He mixed everything, though, and was thrilled to taste the dough when it was made. It's been chilling in the fridge and will remain there until we have free time to roll it out. He can't wait. He's already lined up the rolling pins. He insisted we wear our aprons during the mixing process (good idea, actually).

He wants to camp outside tomorrow. And eat heart cookies. I think we'll plan a camping trip pretty soon, maybe tents in our very own woods. Cheap, convenient... Perfect!