the newest friend

This is Ian, born yesterday, a much anticipated arrival in all of our lives. Chloe adores her brand new baby brother, as does Dennis. He seems amazed and enchanted by Ian's tiny, perfect person, and he was anxious to hold him and get a better look. To be honest, we were all anxious to hold him and get a better look! Ian is a beautiful baby and is already so alert and aware!

After a visit to this brand new person, we lunched with Gran and Pop before visiting a much much older special person. Granddaddy is 97 now, a miracle of his own in good health and with excellent mental acuity. He and Dennis had a fabulous time talking about the army and lightly tossing a football to each other. And after we'd left, Dennis stopped in the hallway and said "I forgot to tell Granddaddy 'War Eagle!'" and he ran back just to do so. Granddaddy was thrilled, of course. We don't know what made the idea to say it pop into Dennis' mind--we'd not been talking about Auburn or football or anything!

Tonight, we did go to a football game, the homecoming game for the local high school (where his Daddy and I attended). Dennis loved the band, stopping his incessant wiggling long enough to watch the entire halftime show. And he really loved the cheerleaders. He watched as they made their pyramids and jumped and caught each other, grinned a big and entirely male grin, and yelled "that was AWESOME...do it again, girls!". He's learning when to yell encouragement to the team, and we're trying to teach him that you only yell "GET HIM!!!!!" when the other team has the ball.

It's fall! Football games, cooler weather, jackets... My favorite time of year! The pumpkin patch is about to open, and I'm looking forward to a month of fun, fun, fun with both Dennis and my class of two year olds!

new family member

Lemonade came home tonight. He made it there before I did, actually! David and Dennis went to pick him up after Taekwondo, and I was at work at the gym. I'd forgotten how funny puppies are, how silly and cute. Dennis poured his food and water for him and accompanied us on a couple of his potty walks. He's so pleased to have a dog of his own. The best thing? Lemonade LOVES all Dennis' toys and happily picks up Transformers and Matchbox cars to carry around. Dennis decided he'd better clean up his room and he did!

The Dad Apprentice?

Tonight I heard "you'll never guess what your son is doing!". I turned around to see him crouched in a little ball, holding his hula hoop around him. He announced "I'm Saturn!". Not ten minutes later, he told David he was replacing him. Apparently Dennis had been climbing on his back (David was sitting on the bed) and jerking David's head around. David told him to stop and Dennis got mad and ran to the door to leave the room and suddenly stopped, turning his head to look back over his shoulder to declare "Dad, you're fired!" before walking out. Dennis told me "I fired him so he's not my dad anymore. Can we find a new dad?". After pointing out many of the virtues of the one we had before he was fired, Dennis announced "Dad, you're hired now--that means you're free from being fired." I'm so glad.

Lastly, after we'd put him to bed, he got right back up and walked into our room with Froggy. He told us "Froggy is mad at you, at both of you." I asked why. He said "because you're about to get mad at me." I had to laugh. We do get mad when he gets up when he's supposed to be sleeping. He and Froggy returned to bed. I hope they fall asleep soon.

yep, it's puppy love

This was a heck of a day! It was nice to be out in the world again after all the illness! Dennis and I were at school all day, and then we made a special trip to the Dollar Tree for puppy accessories. And then, we made an even more special trip out to Mrs. Linda's house to choose a puppy! Dennis picked the lighter colored male, a lab of palest yellow who came when Dennis called him and immediately commenced chewing on Dennis' shorts and my shoe. He's a cute little tub of a pup, and it was fun to watch the puppies romping around together. One of Dennis' school friends just got one of the girl puppies, and his preschool music teacher is getting the other little boy. Dennis very much enjoyed romping with all the dogs (parents, uncle, puppies) and put a new red collar on his puppy, which he's officially named "Lemonade". Lemonade will come home Thursday night. Dennis can't wait!

As if meeting his new puppy wasn't exciting enough, we spent the rest of our evening at the County Fair. Dennis was actually vibrating with excited anticipation by the time we got inside the gates. After he got his arm band, he was so overcome with glee that he announced to us "I just love you both so much!". He rode and rode and rode every ride he was tall enough to ride. His good friends from school were there, and he rode with them some. When he wasn't riding with them, we noticed an unusual phenomenon. Cute little blonde girls always ended up riding with him. They weren't girls that he knows, but they were certainly his type! Different girl or girls on each ride, but always cute and blonde. It's like he's a magnet for them! My favorite part was when he was riding the kiddie bumper cars with his friend Cameron, and two cute little girls were in the car behind theirs. Dennis and Cameron flirted with those girls for the entire ride, grabbing the girls' car and holding it against theirs (to be closer?). I had a preview of the coming years, I think. There's nothing like watching four-year-olds get their flirt on.

We (Dennis and I) saw our first Demolition Derby tonight--we watched the Four Cylinder division. The cars were painted in this year's theme, Angry Birds, and we enjoyed watching them bash each other.

We poured one exhaustedly happy little kid into bed tonight (after a haircut and shower). Long, long day, but it sure was a happy one!

reliving our childhoods

I happened to notice on our tv schedule that one of the channels is running He-Man reruns late at night. I recorded one for Dennis, and we watched it all together tonight. He loved it, just as we both did as kids. I had to send my mom a special thank you text for watching that one with us all those Saturdays long ago. Wow. David and I still remembered all the characters and their storylines, though, lame as they seem to us these days.

An hour after I put Dennis down for his nap, a striped pillowcase came walking through the house, giggling on the way. I know I'm supposed to be firm, to discipline. But I failed again today, laughing when I saw him (hey--pillowcase with legs--funny!). Daddy had to step in and be the heavy, but Dennis did manage a nice nap before Taekwondo. I have to say, he's learning some excellent lessons about respect and manners and discipline in his class. David reports that the kids had to hold their ready pose for 60 seconds without moving (and they are wiggly little kids!) tonight. I watched them hold it for 30 seconds in the last class, and Dennis actually told the instructor "this is just killing me dead!". He was proud of his achievement tonight, though, and demonstrated his ability to me when he got home. He also says "ma'am" and "sir" all the time now, and they've had lessons on courtesy and integrity. And he seems to really like it!

eating again!

I was dismayed last night when my stomach nightmare returned! No big events, just major discomfort, but I was in acute misery until I fell asleep. Today was much better--I have now had my first meal of actual food since Friday (supper tonight!). Dennis and David are fine and it looks like I'm on my way there too, thank goodness!

Dennis was such a funny critter today. He appeared to me this morning with his pirate gun pointed at my mouth. He announced "this is a mom-o-vator. It changes your lips from girl lips to boy lips--when I shoot your mouth, it will turn into my mouth!". Sure, whatever.

When I thought he was asleep this afternoon, I was very surprised to see my door suddenly open. A stegosaurus in Transformer underwear came crawling into my room, roaring in greeting. He did it just to make me laugh. I love his sense of humor, his silliness.

He was asking today for a baby sister, and we were giving our customary reasons for only wanting him. So he said "I'll just ask God; God, can I have a baby sister?". He waited, then asked "did he answer?". Oh, dear!

not finished with us yet

So I didn't write last night. David and I were competing for toilet time for a while. His vomiting stopped just a bit after mine started--we had a LONG night. Dennis, I'm happy to report, seems fine. He was happy to have us both home yesterday. I read about 20 books to him early in the day and watched him closely as he played outside on his playground (vigilant in case the mountain lion stopped by). We came in and had supper, but David had started to feel bad then (and then me, a few hours later). Dennis LOVED playing on his playground again, treating it as an imaginary fire station. He said his spy telescope was his "number 411 blaster" and used it to put out lots of pretend fires.

Please, Lord, let us be finished with the stomach virus!

it strikes again

New blog rule: if vomiting is happening somewhere nearby, there won't be a post. Dennis had a rough night. A kid in the church class that night threw up at story time. Same kid has been in afternoon care with Dennis all week, so it wasn't a total shock when Dennis threw up several times on the way home from church. It continued after we got home. Several loads of laundry and a couple suppositories later, he finally slept peacefully. School rules state that he must be symptom free for 24 hours before returning, so David stayed home with him today while I went to school. I was a bit irate that the kid who threw up at church last night was there today along with two other kids from afternoon care that reported their own vomiting last night. Does no one read the rules??? That's why all these kids get sick!

Dennis was a bit puny today, and he didn't change out of his pajamas until it was time for Taekwondo (which he insisted he felt good enough to do). He was slow moving while getting ready, but he did very well in class. He was so well behaved at Walmart afterward (a run for Sprite and bland food) that several folks (seeing his uniform) asked us about Taekwondo and wanted to send their own kids! While we were picking out dinner stuff, Dennis stood up in the cart and announced "Don't get mad; get Glad!". I guess he's feeling commercial-deprived again!

good day, rough night

Today was such a good day at school for both Dennis and me. He stayed for afternoon care while I went for a checkup at the doctor, and when I returned to school to pick him up, he was sleeping hard! I got some work done while he finished his nap, and then we went to visit his Grandma and GrandBob at Dennis' insistence. He and Bob went out to survey the damage on the tree they hit with the lawn mower on Saturday. Bob says Dennis was pretty impressed by it. Dennis was also pretty impressed by Bob's new haircut. When we got to their house, Dennis asked "Bob, why don't you have any hair?" and asked it repeatedly until he got a satisfactory answer!

Tonight I was struck down with major stomach troubles, the kind where it hurts so bad that I have to periodically curl into a fetal position and moan. You'd think I'd feel better after emptying my stomach contents repeatedly and in a number of ways, but that hasn't been the case so far. I hope it's something I recover from quickly!

just say "Arrrrrrrr"

Today was Talk Like a Pirate Day, and Uncle Denny and Dennis celebrated together with pirate cake and pirate jokes and LOTS of pirate talk. He went straight from pirate talk to ninja talk (Taekwondo class was tonight). Tonight he asked us to come and see something important he'd set up in his room, and he was so earnest in his insistence that we went. He'd set up his nativity set, and this prompted him to ask the question "Does Jesus shrink every Christmas?". I explained that He wasn't born every Christmas but that we celebrate His birthday every Christmas and we talk alot about when He was a baby just born.

Dennis came into our room shaking some maracas and dancing to his own beat. I was lying on the bed reading and he climbed up and held the maracas like a set of tweezers. He said "hey, let's play Operation--I'm going to operation you!". He told me "when I hit the metal on your insides your nose will light up and you'll make a buzzing sound." Eager to comply, I grabbed my keychain light (small and red) and put it in my nose and lit up my nose and buzzed repeatedly. Naturally we giggled a good bit. He left the room and came back in with his school folder, saying "I need to do a piece of homework." He was very disappointed not to have homework, but he quickly found a workbook that I'd bought for him and went off to fetch his favorite Spiderman pencil. He's working on it now, addition, and he's doing a good job!

Dennis' favorite joke of the day: "Where can you find a pirate that lost his wooden legs? Right where you left him!".

love story

I am constantly amazed at how much life force can exist in such a small person. He's tiny, really, just 41 lbs and 3 & 1/2 feet tall, but his capacity for wonder and love and delight and joy seems to so much exceed his physical size. We are totally in love with him, David and I. I know I'm hopeless, still checking on him every night, feeling all soft when I gaze on his sweet sleeping face, stealing the lightest of kisses on his slumbering cheek while I whisper to him how wonderful he is. I didn't realize David was still as mushy as I am until he came home from work today and saw Dennis napping in our bed, me reading beside him. I glanced up in time to see his face just melt at the sight of our sleeping son, and it made him love him that much more. What a joy our little family is.

We had Family Movie Night tonight and watched Mars Needs Moms. Dennis was a bit unnerved at the idea of Martians stealing mothers, but he told me he would have rescued me if they'd kidnapped me! And then he mooned me and headed off to bed. He came back shortly for giggles and kisses and to show us his shiny clean teeth. David found that he'd turned his fan on high and pulled the covers up to his nose. He won't sleep until you "turn the fan to the H, not the L or the M. It has to be on the H for me to go to sleep." We turn it to OFF after he falls asleep!

lesser tragedy

It's true what all the books say: when you get a call that something's happened to your kid, your heart really does jump right into your throat. Let me say here that Dennis is fine, which is what I wish David had said first on the phone. Instead I listened with growing horror to a story involving Dennis wanting to ride with Bob on a riding lawn mower and doing so and grabbing the steering wheel and running them into a tree (at which point I am hysterical). His thumb was scraped pretty bad by a tree branch and David told me some nausea-inducing details about a cuticle sticking way out and skin peeling. They went to the emergency room. Is it awful that I didn't go? Maybe, but I had stayed home today for a mental health break, a bit fragile from an extremely tough week. I knew Dennis was okay and in good hands, and I just didn't have it in me to listen to him scream as they cleaned his thumb injury at the ER. David handled it like a champ, and after they got home (Dennis had a new toy car in his possession and they were bearing his favorite pepperoni-and-sausage pizza), David spent hours playing with him in his room. Dennis ran to tell me all about crying at the hospital and how he stopped crying when he found out he didn't need a shot or stitches but then he had to cry again when they cleaned his thumb. He showed me his new car (Finn McMissle from Cars 2) and excitedly announced "we brought pizza! AND we're having SpongeBob macaroni and cheese for supper!". So yes, he's a bit injured, but he's had a completely awesome day. He's been cuddled and loved, and he's gotten serious one-on-one attention for hours. I did get to read to him, but when I tried to join the two of them during their movie watching, Dennis said "THAT'S IT! That is IT! You get out of my room now--it's Men's Night!". I did. He visited me later for goodnight cuddles and kisses (and then laughingly mooned me on his way out of our room after I insisted he go brush his teeth).

We had a scare, us parents. David was pretty shaken up when they got home. We are so blessed that everything turned out okay. The two of them turned it into a very special day of father-and-son bonding, which is so heartwarming for me to see! Thank you, Lord, for the way everything turned out today.

the opposite of what?!

Here's Dennis, insisting on sitting in a beanbag chair at the library so that he could read one of his books before leaving ("we can't go yet--I always have to sit on the red beanbag to read my book first!!"). Luckily it was a short book.

I looked in his school folder today and found a worksheet he'd completed about opposites. So all day long, we asked each other to name an opposite of something. He could answer most everything I came up with, but I got into a bit of a snag when I asked him what the opposite of "top" was. He replied "bottom--HEY! What's the opposite of penis?". Quiet reigned at the extended family dinner table. I finally said "I'm not ready to tell you about that." He said "silly--the opposite of penis is BOTTOM!". Good answer. But when Gran walked out just seconds later, I told him to ask her. He did, and she stumbled over it just like I did. She was relieved when he gave her his answer.

weekend!!!!

This was the Longest. Day. Ever. I had to send a kid home for kicking, hitting, shoving, throwing rocks, and (last straw) biting! I had a crier and a kid who apparently went deaf since Tuesday (or broke her listening ears, as Dennis says). And the afternoon care kids required LOTS of behavior reminders. And then I watched kids at the gym for 3 hours, and they were climbing the walls and furniture. When the last one left my care, I took all my frustration out on the treadmill. I have now finished Week 6 of the Couch to 5K program, meaning I can run (well, jog) for 25 entire minutes with no walking. I have no idea if I could do this outdoors or not--I'm concerned about my knees, and the treadmill is kind to them (AND, my favorite ones at the gym have nice cool air blowing near them).

Dennis had an equally big day. He finger painted in his class, played Freeze Tag and Musical Chairs at afternoon care (and attempted to nap--I'm very proud!), went to the gym with me and played with other kids before and after Taekwondo, had Mens Night Out with Daddy after he left the gym, and entertained us with jokes and giggles before heading to bed.

David vacuumed and sprayed tonight (Us vs Fleas Part 3), and Dennis wandered in to tell him "don't just vacuum clean--Resolve clean!". This is especially funny given that we haven't watched TV at home in quite a while now. We nixed our DirecTV and we're going to try ATT Uverse if they can put it here, but the install date is still a ways away.

Also, Dennis watched me hobbling to the living room (what happens when you run for a while and stretch briefly and then become sedentary for the evening) and began imitating my walk. I asked him not to make fun of me and he replied "but you're so funny, Mom--it's hard not to."

No school til next week!!!!!!!! Happy me!

ever increasing our vocabulary

Guess who stayed on his KinderMat and closed his eyes for over a half hour today during Afternoon Care at school!!! I'm so proud of Dennis. This was his best effort yet. He says he even slept some. And I got lots of classroom prep done. Being a preschool teacher apparently means cutting out LOTS of things! I prefer this to handing out scissors to 2 year olds. They'll get their cutting practice at the end of this school year and in the next two years!

Tonight after his bath, Dennis appeared in our bed, dressed in his pajamas and ready to sleep. He snuggled in under the covers and his Daddy told him he wasn't going to sleep with us. He replied (with a heavy sigh) "I KNOW, Dad." I think there might have even been some eye rolling. He wiggled around a bit. David said "so stop wallowing in our bed!". Dennis replied, "but I'm full of wallowing-ness tonight!". It wasn't long before he took his wallowing to his own bed. He fell asleep nearly immediately! These are long days we're having. Today was school then Afternoon Care followed by an hour at the gym in the child care room (so I could get in my run) followed by supper at church and then AWANA and playground time. And still we had to drag him away crying. He was mollified when I told him we were returning to the building in just 12 hours. I'm glad he loves the church! Tomorrow marks another marathon day for us (school, afternoon care, gym child care because I am working there tomorrow, Taekwondo...) before our weekend begins. It's busy, sure, but it's a GOOD busy. So fulfilling for all of us!

doesn't want to miss anything

This is the best reason I've heard for why Dennis won't nap! I even, at a low point today, attempted a bribe. He wants an Optimus Prime mask (and costume, but especially the mask) very much, and I told him he'd get one if he'd nap at school. He informed me, "I'm going to wait until I'm a little bit bigger like the other boys--then I'll nap at school like they do." The other guys are four, also, but are about to turn five. This meant nothing to him because they are physically bigger!

Since he didn't nap, I spent the afternoon wearing him out. Lots of playground time (because NONE of the kids napped today, so I took them all back outside) followed by time at child care at the gym while I worked out, followed by a special Dennis-and-Mommy swim (we were fortunate to have the whole pool to ourselves) and hot tub (not very hot) time. By the time we made it to dinner (Uncle Denny's birthday dinner), he was nearly wiped out. He expired after an hour (big tears), and I carried him away crying. But I remembered something special about today. Dennis' class has something called a Chain of Kindness, loops of construction paper (like a Christmas chain) with children's names. If you perform an act of kindness, a loop is added to the chain with your name on it. His teacher hopes to surround the room. Dennis added a loop today for moving some chairs out of the way to keep anyone from tripping. He was very proud, and so was I. His tears dried up when I rewarded him with a Dollar Tree selection of his choice for his kindness (because we talked on the way to school this morning about doing kind things and he did it!). He was happily asleep within a half hour of our arrival home tonight.

I had to include the pic of him in his brand new Taekwondo uniform last night!

Sports Dennis

Dennis went bowling for the first time today. We'd bought Groupons at the beginning of the summer and were facing their imminent expiration, so we met up with Gran, Pop, and Gigi and headed out for lunch and bowling. He's actually pretty good at it, as it turns out. Luckily for us, they put out the bumpers to prevent the balls from going in the gutter (greatly improving all of our scores). Dennis' technique evolved from rolling the ball between his legs to hurling it a ways in the air before it hit the lane and rolled to the pins. He bowled a 68 and then a 71, I think. Gigi won the first game, David the second one, and we all had so much fun! We were carrying our handy dandy Clanton coupon books, and we stopped to use a coupon at the Delicious Bakery (very aptly named) in Alabaster, where Dennis sugared up on a strawberry/caramel muffin before heading back to Clanton in time for Taekwondo. He got his uniform tonight and it vastly improved his performance. I went and got my own workout while he was in class, and David thought he'd stay to watch until Dennis informed him "I'm grown up enough to do this all by myself--you need to leave!". David did just that, but we much preferred this to the last class when we had to beg him to participate! It's all about the costume for Dennis!

crazy slinky day

Today was Crazy Slinky Day at church, of all places. It was the kickoff for the fall programs for Children's Church (or as they call it SPLASH for the Pre-K kids and SURGE for the bigger kids). Dennis happily decked himself out in Dollar Tree slinkies, one for each arm and one for each leg. He wore them throughout church and kept them on when Gran and Pop took us out for the lunch he picked (Chinese buffet--"because they have good Jello"). Then we joined them on their shoe shopping expedition, where Dennis was ecstatic that Pop bought Nikes that are just like his! Happily for me, he took a nice long nap after we returned home. After David got home, we had Dennis' favorite macaroni-and-cheese-and-hot-dogs supper, and then we had a Family Game Night. It was wonderful to be home together. It wasn't really our choice--my migraine nixed any desire I had to leave the house, and Dennis asked if we could just stay home and play as well. He beat us at Candyland and one round of Ugly Dolls, and his wiggling caused the Jenga games to be pretty short. He played Operation for the first time. The batteries were very old, so the Operation victim's nose lit up, but it didn't make the horrific buzzing sound that so unnerves me when I play the game. But the batteries must have gotten warmed up, because midway through the game, Dennis was attempting to extract a wishbone and bumped the edge with the tweezers, and there was the buzz. Dennis didn't want to play any more, said the game made him "too nervous". Just like Mommy in that respect!

Harvest Day at the zoo

Beautiful day. Stellar weather. It was a great day to visit the Birmingham Zoo with Ellen and Chloe on what was most likely our last such outing before baby Ian arrives later this month. The kids enjoyed the petting zoo, some carnival games, face painting, playing on the splash pad, the carousel, a train ride, and animal watching. A highlight was getting to see the FIVE baby lion cubs recently born at the zoo, happily wrestling each other while their proud parents looked on (sleepily). Ellen, being nearly all the way through her pregnancy, and I, suffering a bit of migraine, didn't make it through a tour of the entire zoo, but we think the kids had sufficient fun! We attempted to take them shopping afterward, but they were running crazily through Ross, lying on the shelves, hiding in the clothes racks, and not listening to anything we said. We cut short our shopping experience. As soon as Dennis got into our car to go home (after hiding from me in the parking lot, darn him), he closed his door and said "I'm sorry I was so bad today, Mommy." I got a bit of revenge (not intentionally) when I got off the interstate one exit early and came home a back way. He was certain we were lost and begged me to turn around several times. He was relieved to see our driveway. Tonight he came in my room to tell me "I lost my listening ears, Mom. I left them in my cowboy hat and now they're gone." I will mourn their loss!

piracy

Dennis wandered in, hobbling strangely, legs spread wide. I asked what was wrong. He glared at me and presented a hand, finger curled in a hook. He said "nothing's wrong, Mom. I'm a pirate. I have a peg leg. This (indicating his hand) is my hook!". Very nice.

afternoon care disaster

My class of two year olds did just great this morning--at the end of our morning, all 8 of them were sitting and watching as I did a finger-puppet story. As psyched as I was over the success, my confidence took a beating during the second half of my day. The twos left at 11:30 and I straightened up my classroom before heading to lunch with mostly 4 year olds (1 girl age 3). Lunch was fine. Playground time was almost fine--one boy was angry at the other 5 kids and was very melodramatic and kept screaming at them to leave him alone. Harmony prevailed when I suggested something they could all play together. Naptime was a disaster, though. Everyone finally stopped wiggling and giggling (and Dennis stopped inventing reasons to get up and tell me things), and then the youngest one started wailing loudly for her mommy. This set off Grace (who is old enough to know better) to start doing the same, and then the boys complained "all that crying is keeping us awake." The wailing continued for 20 minutes until I gave up and read them stories. David picked Dennis and me up after the others left, and we went home to survey the effects of the second major flea bombing. The air was toxic, so we spent a lovely night at the lake. Dennis and I were so exhausted that we spent our entire evening crashed in front of the televisions. We were so fried, in fact, that we forgot all about going to Taekwondo! I think we're almost over our colds, thank goodness.

Dennis picked out a pizza (sausage and pepperoni, of course) for supper, and laid himself out on the couch for hours! It was a nice, low key way to conclude a tiring day!

biology of a blister

David returned to work today, able to limp fairly proficiently--thank goodness his knee injury was so minor. He wore his brace, and when he got home, he carefully removed it and saw large blisters where it had been. When Dennis woke up from his nap, he found David in the bathroom wrapping his wounds in gauze and tape, and he wanted to know why. David told him about the blister, and Dennis asked what a blister was. David let him see it, and Dennis looked at it. Soon I heard, "Ewww--it's SQUISHY!" and he came to find me and tell me all about squishy blisters.

We are having a veritable plaque of skin troubles here. David's blister is bad, but Dennis' flea bites are worse. We've bombed the house and sprayed, washed the bedding repeatedly, and still the tiny buggers are torturing us. Dennis is covered in bites, and he's a bit allergic to them, so that means he's covered in red bumps. We applied natural bug repellent to him tonight before bed, and tomorrow David will treat the house again. We are desperate to get rid of them. If the bug balm doesn't work, Dennis will have to sleep somewhere else until they're gone (which means one or both of us will as well). The pets haven't been inside in weeks, so I'm sure this hasn't come from them (but they are getting treatments as well). Such misery. Such tiny, awful creatures.

firsts day

After the lovely lazy day we spent yesterday, we were back to the serious grind today. Dennis and I had our first day of preschool for the day. He says he had a great time, loves his new teacher, and loved reuniting with some of his good buddies from last year as well as making some new friends. I had a good day as well, getting to know my 8 tiny charges. They are so quiet compared with last year's bunch, and they seem SO young! It was a good day--no tears of much significance. After lunch (my class dismissed at 11:30), I kept the 5 Afternoon Care kids, playing with them in the gym, and wishing they might nap instead of all lying on their Kinder Mats and gossiping!

We celebrated a special evening in Dennis' honor tonight, a back-to-school dinner at the restaurant of his choosing (San Marcos), taking the car of his choice (the Blazer), sitting in the chair of his choice (the red one), ordering the meal he wanted (chicken fingers), and then shopping at Walmart to look at whatever he wanted. He reveled in his decisions, listing all the choices he'd made, so proud of his power! And we came home with a new Transformer to celebrate.

I've been banished to my room so that he and Daddy could have "Men's Night". Works for me! It's nice to have some kid free time after today!

technicalities

What a wonderful day of fun, family, and friends at the lake! Oh the swimming and water-gun-fighting and watersliding we did, and the food and fellowship--what a blessing of a day it was! Dennis had a gaggle of girlfriends to swim and play with, and he was the fearless leader on the neighbor's water slide. A highlight for him (among many): feeling baby Ian kick in Ellen's stomach. He remarked "you know, when they cut him out of your tummy, they'll need to use superglue on it. Or duct tape." We all agreed. After all, Ian is a scheduled c-section baby unless he decides to make an early appearance. It will be nice for Dennis to have another boy to play with in a few years. Hadden is going to be a great playmate very soon (he likes action figures, too), and then Ian will be coming right along to join them.

running shoes

I decided to return the super cool Nike running shoes I bought on sale extremely cheap a couple of days ago--they were just too big and they didn't have the smaller size. As it turned out, we had to leave the house anyway and be gone a few hours. We brought fleas home from a cleaning job we did recently but didn't realize we'd done so until Dennis started waking up covered in awful bites. We saw maybe three or four of them this week (fleas) and decided to bomb/fog the place tonight. As David was leaving after setting off said bombs, he twisted his knee fiercely and limped to the car (while thinking about the loose mountain lion in the neighborhood). Our first stop: Grandma's place. I missed my treadmill run yesterday and attempted to catch up at home today. I was past my warmup and into my run when my treadmill flipped its breaker and stopped dead. I nearly had whiplash! I didn't trust it not to do it again and so did my session on Bob's super nice treadmill (I can now run, well, jog, for 20 consecutive minutes! Hooray for the Couch to 5K app). David still couldn't put weight on his knee when we left there to go have supper at Burger King (chosen for its superior kids meal toys). After Burger King, we took David to the Emergency Room. He has stretched a ligament (NOT torn, thank goodness) and has to stay off it and ice it for 3 days. While David was at the ER, Dennis and I returned the shoes (Dennis doesn't do so hot in hospitals). At the store, he found the kids' shoes and started pulling shoes down, holding them up sole-to-sole with the shoes he was wearing to see if they'd fit. He impressed a woman that was sitting there watching him while waiting for her husband to finish up his on shoe-trying session. He wanted to know where the right shoes were--there were only left ones on display. He told us "I guess you buy one shoe and get the other one free!". Then he took off with a shoe he loved and ran up to the cash register and said "I need the box of these shoes in my size, a size 10". I told him they were very nice running shoes, and once he got them on his feet, he ran a dozen laps around the store while I paid for them. So he ended up with super nice Nike running shoes on sale instead of me (but his cost lots less). And he ran them around the Dollar Tree as he assembled and took to the register a knight shield, breastplate, and axe. He told the cashier "I've got a sword and knight helmet at home and I can't wait to wear it all together!". I heard her ask him where his mommy was and he said "oh, she's over there looking for stickers for her class." I reminded him that he'd wanted socks to wear with his new shoes, and he said "oh yeah!" and ran to me. He told me "I was just keeping that nice lady company!". He showed off his running shoes to her and the others in the store and then to his Daddy when we picked him up and then to his Grandma and GrandBob when we stopped back by there. He showed them off by running around and around in them.

When we finally got back home, a heavy fog of flea spray permeated the air. We opened windows and headed to Sonic for ice cream and to Walmart for flea spray for the Tracker (their method of transport from the job house to our house). We returned home, expecting to change the bedding and go to sleep, but the chemical in the house left a burning in my throat so bad that we quickly packed up and headed to the lake for the night. Imagine, if you will, loading all your clothes, food, and necessities in a car with one adult on crutches and one child in brand new running shoes that he thinks give him super powers, all the while mindful that a cougar is loose nearby and (according to the website that I stupidly checked today) will eat anything it can catch AND that prefers to attack by "ambush". Exciting times we're living in, maybe even a bit too exciting!

laid low

It was inevitable. The snotty nose that the kid at preschool was sporting last week passed on to Dennis and so to me, so I spent today in bed (mostly). I had to muster some strength to attend an important Firefighter Staff Meeting in Dennis' room, and we had walkie-talkie training ("HOLD THE BUTTON, DENNIS"---"What, Mommy?"). Maybe this means I'll get over the back-to-school ick before we actually go back to school. There were a couple of runny noses at orientation and one kid dripping like a fountain at child care at the gym last night, and I'm hitting the vitamins and hand sanitizer like an addict. Please, Lord, let my immune system handle my being a preschool teacher! They say the first year is the worst, and I was sick a good bit last year. Maybe I'll get over it quick. I sure hated to miss a day at the gym but it was necessary.

We talked to some wildlife experts. Yes, we've had reports of a cougar in the area. No, they can't do anything about it until we have actual evidence (i.e. photograph of said animal or photograph of damage). We're thinking of a wildlife camera. Or getting what they told us was a predator light, a kind of light that prevents them from coming over to see us (looks like eyes of a predator to them). And I'm trying prayer, of course. We're told he won't stay in the area long (he might be the same cat that was in Jemison a while back) unless there's a good food supply. Like chickens (next door), sheep (behind us), and goats (a couple houses up), I guess. Scary stuff! There are no reports of him attacking a person yet, but who wants to be the first? Not us.

pick up requests

I was on my way home from the gym tonight when I called David to let him know. Dennis commandeered the phone and asked "Mom, could you stop and get me a cup of vanilla ice cream at Sonic and bring it home?". I agreed, though grudgingly. Do you know how hard it is to go through the drive-thru at Sonic and see the sign for the all-new, limited-time-only Pumpkin Pie shake and NOT get one? I stopped there for water yesterday and had to remind myself that my calorie budget for the day did NOT extend to a milkshake (since we had Mexican for lunch), despite the fact that I'd just come from my run and was about to walk at the track with Mom. So I had to wrestle with myself tonight (looking up the calorie count on my handy-dandy iPhone helped me resist) once again, and I ordered his vanilla cup and my own ice water. Ice cream wasn't his only request. I asked him on the phone if there was anything else, and he said "could you get me some bigger feet?" and I had to repeat it to confirm that he did indeed say "bigger feet". I asked him what he needed bigger feet for, and he replied "so I can take bigger steps!". Oh. Duh.

I admire his sense of humor. Today after orientation at school, the teachers all went out to lunch and Dennis joined us. He told us jokes and said our blessing, and his teacher for this year remarked that he was really going to keep her entertained this year. I hope he does so in a GOOD way!

I love how Dennis freaks out when we turn the car in a different direction than he's used to, how going down a new road has him often remarking "I think we're lost!". He gets this from me. I am no longer like this, but I was in my early 20's, and it's funny to see him get so concerned and so dictatorial about giving directions to where he wants to go, the way he knows how to go to get there!