Dennis made a new friend today, a daughter of an old friend of ours who is moving to Alabama very soon! We are so excited about their move, and Zoe and Dennis got along famously (she turned 4 in January). He'll have a new playmate to add to his group of friends (i.e. now his group will consist of 2 friends: Chloe and Zoe, plus school friends and church friends). We had a great luncheon with them at Cracker Barrel and then the kids played some before their family had to head west again. We had thought we'd have them sing Happy Birthday to him at the restaurant, but knowing his Dad, I thought I'd better ask Dennis. He said "no, I don't want them to sing to me at Cracker Barrel--they might laugh at me and I'd be embarrassed" and so I let that idea go. Apparently, while I was in the bank, Dennis told Gran "Mommy and I had a talk at home and I decided that I didn't want them to sing to me at Cracker Barrel", so he SERIOUSLY did not want the fanfare. When Gran came over for supper tonight, we lit a candle and sang to him after supper--his face glowed with pleasure and then he happily extinguished the candle before eating some leftover birthday cake.
The highlight of Dennis' day was the trip to Walmart to spend the birthday and allowance money he's been saving. He has very much wanted a Fisher Price Imaginext Batcave (look it up--it's as cool as it sounds) for a few months now, and he used his very own money to purchase it today. He's been busy imprisoning The Joker, Penguin, The Riddler, and Mr. Freeze today or letting Batman and Robin cruise in the super cool motorized Batmobile or on the two bat motorcycles.
Dennis told us today about Spring: "the flowers are blooming, baby animals are being born, and the trees are starting to get their leaves back--that's what happens in the Spring!". He told us lots of stuff about everything, of course, all very informative and correct, spoken in extremely grown up language, and he asked very thought-provoking questions. He sounds like a little college student. We had a brief conversation about tornado danger: "could a tornado start a fire?"--"well, it could if it caused a gas line to rupture"--"oh--and that would cause a fire to start? And then it would mean that a rescue truck would have to come and take care of the fire?"--"yes, I suppose so, Dennis!". He's using adjectives and adverbs, words like 'most' and 'some' in correct context ("MOST trees don't have spikes, but some trees, like cactuses, do have them"), saying "antibiotic" and knowing what it means (sadly, this came about as a result of his latest ear infection). How did he get so fluent, so eloquent, just so darn good at conversation? His pronunciations are better, his enunciation greatly improving by the minute, it seems. He's a talented little talker!
He's been asking everyone "can you believe I'm already four?". And tonight, he learned to surf the internet and look at Fisher Price toys. I got distracted while I was helping him, and when I turned back, he was using the touch pad to scroll up and down on the screen (something even I'm not so good at), hitting the back button on the browser to return to the menu screen, clicking on what he wanted to see next, clicking to enlarge the picture, scrolling through the different pictures, clicking the 'x' to close the zoom window and return to the previous screen... He said "don't worry, Mommy, I figured out how to do it". Just wait until he discovers Google! I wonder if he'll even need me any more!
He did stay up last night until past midnight to welcome his birthday. We sang to him at midnight (we were tucking him in then), and when we asked him one last time what his favorite part of the day was, he replied "being with you, Mommy" and giving me a tackle hug. I just melted, of course, and in my mind, I was ready to go out and buy him a car or something equally huge and wonderful. David smirked as he heard Dennis say it, and told me after we left the room "man, he's GOOD" (at pushing the right buttons, I suppose) "and I haven't even had to teach him how to do that!". And so another birthday has passed, and here's where I would normally wax poetic about parenthood or write some mushy stuff about how much I love him. I feel all those things; I appreciate fully the gift he is. But I'm not clued in to my gushiness tonight, so you'll have to just take my word for it. It was a wonderful day, it's been an incredible year, so on, so forth, and good night!
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