the longest night

Today was the shortest day of the year. And if Dennis continues to get out of bed and come into our room and ask for stuff, it will most assuredly be the longest night of the year. We were home all of today. David finished putting the slate tiles on our fireplace (grout tomorrow!) and I spent most of the day trying to cough out a lung. I sure would like to be well by Christmas. Dennis seems to be lots better and even cleaned up most of his room today. By himself, even. Without us asking. I am very pleased!

He wants to sleep in our bed, and he's been negotiating to do so. When I told him that I didn't want to cough on him all night, he said "you can just turn your head the other way and cover your mouth, like this--it's easy!" and he demonstrated for me. He and David spent part of the day fighting a fight that I was sure was still a few years down the road. The volume of his radio was rather significant, and David yelled at him to turn it down, and he would for a while. Then they'd repeat the cycle ad nauseum. In fact, they just did it again while I was typing that. He loves those Little People Christmas songs!

We caught the elf tangled in a small string of battery powered Christmas lights this morning, apparently attempting to festoon our toilet lid for the holidays. Yesterday we found him camped out in the bathroom in his new sleeping bag, having drawn all over the bathroom mirror with dry erase markers. Whatever will he think of next?