rolling around

Having been blessed with some gorgeous and very un-November-like afternoons lately, we've been spending some serious time outdoors. Dennis has been playing on his playground, and today he asked to roller skate. He skated a bit and then rode his scooter all around. We bought some brand new training wheels for his bike. He'd been falling a good bit because the training wheels were so small and flimsy, so we bought a new set today. I installed them (which took some doing) and he rode it just a little bit to test them out. He says they're better, and I'm glad because he'd stopped even wanting to ride his bike because he was scared. Even today he would pedal and then brake, never building up any speed to speak of, and I hope his confidence will soon return. After all his rolling, he took a LONG nap. After that he alternated between cleaning his room and coming in to tell me new items for his Christmas list. He's been appropriating catalogs from the mail and searching them for ideas. He reviews the Walmart Toy Book one daily, and he's added a new Optimus Prime (fortunately the $15.97 one and not the $59.97 one) to the list. He really really wants the new Rescue Heroes Billy Blazes Fire Truck ($36), and I told him no more fire trucks were coming to this house until he got rid of some. He said, "well, I hate to do this, but I can donate one to Mrs. Nancy's class, the one with the really long ladder." I approve of his choice--I got that one for $3 at a flea market. But I'm not in any hurry to go out and get the new (very large) one. His poor Billy Blazes figure can continue to straddle his current fire trucks (he doesn't fit inside any of them) unless someone else surprises him with that particular truck. He also wants a bike basket that fits his bike (and it's hard to find a small and masculine bike basket!) and a mini pillow pet panda and about 15 other things. Whew!

Tonight he's thankful for policemen. He said he wanted to grow up and be a policeman ("the kind of policemen that sleep at the police station").