moving right along

I'm amazed at Dennis' memory. Tonight we went to the gym for Taekwondo, a mommy workout while he played with friends in child care, and a swim with Gran. Now that he's an Orange Belt, he has to learn a new form with 17 steps. He learned the first 10 steps tonight. And he demonstrated the steps he had to learn for his current belt again and thus earned 2 stripes on his orange belt. Tonight was his first real class since the testing. Last week was the bring a buddy deal, and he acted as assistant instructor. He was back to his class of one tonight. I'm so proud of how well he's doing!

As we were changing out of our swim clothes, he saw the t-shirt I'd brought him to wear. It was his Camp Carnival shirt from our cruise (almost 2 years ago). He said "Mom, I'm ready to go on another cruise. And I want to go back to their child care thing, I think it was called Camp Carnival. Can we do that again?". It sounded good to me and I told him so. Then he said "I don't think there is a cruise ship in Mobile anymore. Where will we go to get on the cruise ship?". I named some other nearby ports, and he seemed satisfied. I'm left wondering how much he remembers about the cruise and how he remembered that the ship no longer docks in Mobile. I've always been I pressed with his memory, but it was nice to hear his Taekwondo instructor tell him that he was a very smart, very cool kid.

Tonight I got an email notifying me that I'd won a contest that I entered. We'll be getting a package soon with 4 new figures from the new Space Toy Story line along with Buzz Lightyear's Command Center. Dennis is very, very excited. He already claimed my prize for himself. He saw me looking at the picture of Woody and Buzz in their astronaut gear, and he told me he wanted them. I told him that I had won them in a drawing from Disney, and he jumped up and down on our bed for 5 minutes singing "I'm getting new toys!". I told him that I was the winner so why aren't they going to be mine? He laughed and told me that his birthday is the closest to when they are coming (it ships in the next 2 weeks). And then he told me I was "the best mom anyone could ever have, ever." Yep, he's a charmer. And he'll be getting my prize. After he fell asleep, David went in to check on him and noticed his toy rocket ship in bed with him, all ready for a mission. I suppose he's brushing up on his space play before the new toys get here. I love that he does that kind of thing. He's so meticulous about his playing that it's often comical (but I don't let him know this). And, he cleaned his room tonight without being asked. I caught him in the act and praised profusely! Now I have to figure out where the new toys are going to fit in there...