meow

Dennis had some sort of nightmare and came to sleep with us last night. He tossed and turned and told me he dreamed that his Daddy and I kicked him out of the house. I told him we had no such plans! He slept much better, but I had his legs and head all over me all night. I overslept big time, and he's not happy that we missed church. He did enjoy going with us tonight, playing with the younger kids while we attended our small group.

He read through five lessons in his primer today and is thrilled to discover that it gets easier each time. I'm hoping he'll master it over the summer, and I also plan to teach him to tie shoes. If he learns to ride his bike sans training wheels, well, that would just be awesome as well!

He told me this morning that there was a bad smell coming from me, and I took that as license to indulge in a long bubble bath while he played. Later, as I was telling his Gran that he'd told me I was stinky, he said, "yeah, and then she took a bath for TWO WHOLE HOURS!". For the record, it was more like half an hour (the absolute longest time I could trust him to stay involved in the Transformers show he was watching).

Tonight, after he'd been asleep for an hour, we went in to check on him. As I turned to leave his bed, I heard a loud "meow" and turned back to see his eyes closed and his mouth in a big grin. He asked "why are you checking on me?". I told him we did every night. He said "well, why did you wake me up?". Oops. I assured him I didn't mean to do so! I hope he stays put tonight.

that particular turn of phrase

Today, Dennis was very particular about what he wanted to eat. He cried when we wouldn't make biscuits for him this morning (don't feel bad for him--we made them for supper tonight). And for his afternoon snack, he asked for nuts. I managed to find a bag of trail mix and offered to pour it into a bowl so that he could pick out what he wanted. He said "no, only pour the nuts in the bowl--you need to pick out all the other stuff." I told him I'd pour it all into a bowl and he could eat the nuts. He wasn't happy. He again insisted that I do the picking. I was busy painting at the time, so I exasperatedly told him that he could pick out what he wanted. I told him "you're not a princess." Without missing a beat, he replied, "no, I'm not a princess. I'm a KING. How dare you not pick out the other stuff!". But he said this last part with a smile and happily took the bowl of trail mix.

Tonight, after reading a lesson in his primer, we talked about the antique words he was learning (lad, nag). I told him a lad was a boy and he immediately said "and a nag is a girl, right?". Laughter ensued. Then he said "oh yeah, I mean it's a horse." He might have been right the first time. The funny part was that we aren't sure if he meant to say it or not. If he didn't mean it, he DID know why it was funny.

Relay 2012

After some afternoon work in the flower garden and soon-to-be vegetable garden, we decided to go to the Relay for Life event at the park. This is the third year we've gone, and Dennis had a wonderful time (we all did). He liked visiting all the different tents and checking out the bouncy houses and hanging out at our church's tent. He made some attempts to wet some folks in our dunking booth, and he got really close but didn't quite manage it. I was very impressed with the questions he asked me about cancer today, and when it was time for the Luminaria Walk, he solemnly bowed his head during the prayer and quietly walked hand-in-hand with David and me, observing all the names on the bags. He saw the one we set out for David's dad (who would have loved Dennis) and he saw a girl that beat leukemia a couple years back as she found the luminary with her own name on it and smiled a very beautiful smile (she is only a couple years older than Dennis and I remember all the times we prayed for her at church--what a miracle!). Dennis says we should Relay every single day because "cancer is yucky and I never want to get it." He is right!

After we got home, he read to us the next lesson in his reading primer (thank you Uncle Denny!). When he finishes the book, he gets a toy of his choosing. Sometimes bribery just seems necessary! It's working, though. He was reading the words on buildings and signs as we drove through town today.

He met the principal of the elementary school that he'll be attending this fall. She was at the Relay event and she shook his hand and introduced herself. He will be going on a kindergarten tour next week with the 'graduating' preschoolers, and she told him she would see him then. He was very mature as he shook her hand and told her who he was. This growing up business is all of a sudden happening SO fast!

surprise illness

Thursday April 26

Dennis started throwing up just before bedtime, and it happened at intervals all night. He was still going this morning, so we stayed home from school. We spent most of the day cuddled up in our bed, and by tonight, he was feeling so much better. He's been able to eat supper and keep it down. He has been tired, of course, but by bedtime tonight he was almost back to normal. He was clingy, needing to be up against one of us all the time. But he was proud of himself for, as he said, "only throwing up in the puke bucket!". I'm just glad he's better!

super swimmer

Dennis finished the last swim class of his session today. He can swim the width and length of the pool. He is great at the American crawl! But he hasn't mastered treading or back-floating, so we've signed up for another swim session. He was able to get his head above water when he was treading, briefly, long enough to gasp a breath. But I want him to be able to save himself if the need arises, so we'll continue with the classes.

This morning, Dennis was scratching his foot. He told me "I have a bug bite on my thumb toe!". I love his cute turn of phrase!

plodding along

Thanks so much to the jerk who knifed David's tire in the parking lot of his job on Friday. We were so busy that we couldn't take time to get the spare patched until today. Dennis helped him roll wheels around as we took two of them (he'd had 1 going flat already thanks to a nail in the tread) to get repaired. Add that to a swim class, a library trip, and a Taekwondo class, and we had a full day. AND, we registered him for Kindergarten before doing all that other stuff.

He can swim wonderfully. He cannot, however, tread water or float on his back, so he'll be taking a second session of swim classes to begin next week. I had hoped we'd finish up with the last class this week, but it's important that he learn to be able to breathe when he's tired of swimming!

He seems excited about school. He peeked into a few classrooms, but we weren't near the Kindergarten classes at all. Luckily, he will go on a tour next week with the other 'graduating' preschoolers. I wish I could go along, but it's a no-parent thing (at the elementary school's request, for safety reasons not wanting a large crowd of adults milling about). Oh, he's growing up! I told him today I needed to put a brick on his head and he asked me, "why in the world would you do that? It would hurt!". I explained what the phrase meant and he said "well, it still sounds ouchy." David had never heard it either and gave me that look he gives as I told him what Dennis had said. Not that a brick would keep Dennis from growing!

His reading is improving daily! We have promised to read him 2 books for every 1 he reads to us, and he was reading one from the library today. He was stumbling through a couple of tough words when he suddenly asked "how long is this book, anyway?". He finished it later tonight, wiggling the whole time I hope he can learn to read while sitting still!

climber

Dennis celebrated Earth Day by climbing a tree! He managed to make it a good way up in the small dogwood tree at the lake. He's very proud!

I celebrated by teaching a Sunday School lesson about God creating our world and how He wants us to take care of it. And, later, I helped plant some things!

Dennis has concluded a busy week. He went to 2 birthday parties and hung out with Uncle Denny yesterday, and today he went to church and back to the lake. After all our crazy running around for the past several days, he fell asleep before 6 pm. We let him nap, and he spent the rest of his evening lying around. Maybe we can all catch up on our rest tonight. Dennis slept in our bed last night and I don't think any of us rested well. He's talked nonstop the past few days, so much that I can't believe my ears haven't reached critical failure by now. Tonight he was in full info-mercial mode, telling me "the first toothbrush ships free!" as he brushed his teeth. This was something he made up. He also came to me earlier, very sweetly, and made a businesslike presentation of his case. "Mom," he asked, "is there anything you need help doing? I need to earn $55." I asked what he needed to purchase, and he replied "a mouth breaker." I have never heard of such and was about to tell him so when he added "it's my invention--it breaks bad guys' mouths." I wonder how he calculated his production cost to be $55.

I can't believe I'll be registering him for Kindergarten this week!

spring cleaning!

Chilton County's newest green belt little ninja and I spent our day at Gran's. I cleaned their house and detailed their van, and it took me eight entire hours to accomplish it. I have 2 more cars to finish over the weekend (and possibly my own at some point), and my big round of spring cleaning for extra cash might be coming to an end.

We are so proud of Dennis for earning his green belt. Now we have to order protective gear for him since he'll start sparring with others (all bigger than him!), and this is a big part of the cleaning-for-cash thing. Protective gear is a tad more expensive that we imagined it would be! I'm also proud of him for reading a book to his Daddy and taking the time to sound out all the words even though he was getting really frustrated. I told him tonight in the car that he just needed to realize that he knows what he's doing! He said "yeah, I know what I'm doing except when I played with Daddy's Epi-pen! Then I didn't know what I was doing. But I'll never play with an Epi-pen again!". Good to know! Here's hoping he'll never need to have one on hand!

treading water like a brick

The swim classes are going mostly well. He can tread water perfectly, but he does it with his head about 3 inches under the surface. So we're going to work on that! He isn't a fan of swimming on his back either. But his American Crawl is getting really good, so we are encouraged!

Today he learned to play Leap Frog at school. Mrs. Nancy lined all the kids up in the hallway and had them leaping over each other. She was dismayed that none of the kids seemed to know how to do it, and she was constantly reminding them to keep their heads down when being leaped over! I hate I missed it, but I only had to be at school today for the staff meeting at noon. During the staff meeting, I learned that Dennis will have a speaking part in the preschool closing ceremony. I'm very proud for him!

This afternoon, Dennis and I spent an hour cuddled on the couch watching Looney Tunes and Tom & Jerry cartoons together. I just love his big belly laughs!

weapons proficiency

Well, Gran and Pop and Uncle Denny are skilled with their guns, as is David (who also is handy with a slingshot), and tonight we learned where Dennis' weapon skills lie. It was a scheduled Weapons Class at Taekwondo tonight. Normally Dennis would not have attended this--he's in the earliest class of the evening and is the only student in his time slot. Because he was supposed to have a soccer game today, we had made arrangements to attend a later class. Soccer was cancelled because of the rain, and we arrived somewhat early at the gym. His instructor offered him the chance to go ahead and have his class or wait and take Weapons with the bigger kids. He chose to wait, so he went and played in the child care room with the other kids while I squeezed in a workout until class time. He was handed, for the first time, a Bo Staff, which is the staff that you see martial artists twisting about. He and two other students learned a beautiful form using the Bo Staff. His instructor watched closely as Dennis picked up the technique very quickly. So quickly, in fact, that after I saw his teacher shake his head in amazement, I had to ask "has he really never done this before?". He hadn't. And his teacher told me Dennis learned it faster than he himself had. And then he took out his phone and recorded Dennis doing his routine so that he could, he said, show all the other 5 year olds that he teaches what Dennis can do! We're so proud! And Dennis promised his teacher that he wouldn't destroy anything with a broomstick at home.

our flower garden

This afternoon, Dennis, David, and I planted our first flower garden beside our porch. Dennis picked lots of very colorful flowers: delphiniums, petunias, begonias, zinnias, marigolds, daisies, coreopsis, and some I forget the names of, but we have every color and it looks beautiful!

We enjoyed being outside on this very gorgeous afternoon. Gran joined us and we did some porch sitting (sure do love finally having a porch!) and watching Dennis frolic (and waiting on the PVC glue to dry on the pipe we broke when digging for the garden). Dennis learned how to taste honeysuckle today, and he also had a lesson on pipe repair!

Since he pretty much immersed himself in dirt, he had a nice long bath. He told me "I am watering my penis so it will grow" as he stood up and dumped a cup of water over that part of his anatomy. Later tonight, he and I are planning a slumber party in his room--his trundle bed is still set up from Chloe's visit, and I'm going to at least start the night on it!

taekwondo, car washes, and seminars

What a busy run we've had! Last night he tested for his green belt in taekwondo. He did really well, and the highlight of the testing for him was when his instructor called him to sit at the judges' table and give permission for Mr. Hayes to break his boards. All the instructors were needed to hold the boards, so Dennis got to preside over the board breaking. He is by far the smallest person there, and all of the other students and parents think he's just adorable (because he is, of course), and he seems to like the attention.

At swim class he's been promoted to a crawl stroke, and I wanted to take him today to practice, but it didn't happen. We've been very busy washing Gran's and Pop's cars the past 2 afternoons. The insides are due for cleaning sometime this weekend. Dennis liked washing cars, mostly because he loved to work the hose. He gets REALLY wet, of course, and yesterday he got pretty chilly. It's been good car washing weather, pleasant out with no mosquitos!

Tonight we went to a wonderful marriage conference at our church. When we picked Dennis up from the child care, he was happy to see us. He announced "we've been in there for a hundred hours!". It was just 4, but that was quite a while for him!

asserting his humor

Dennis was a sassy, funny critter today. He had a dentist appointment this afternoon, and we ran a couple of errands afterward. While we stood in line at a checkout counter, he announced "I have a spiny butt" and pretended to poke us with his hiney, giggling the whole time. Later, as we were swimming at the gym, he called to Gran, asking her to come over to him because he had "a big surprise" for her. When she got to him, he kicked his legs hard on the pool's surface, making a big splash all over her. She laughed big time. On the way out of the gym, he announced "I sure do like to ask 'why' all the time!". Gran agreed and asked him "Why do you like to ask 'why' so much?". He replied, "I just like to. Why do you ask?".

Tonight we watched a few minutes of a documentary about the Titanic. He was full of questions, of course, and wanted to know "will we see all those people who died when we get to Heaven?". I assured him that if they had believed in Jesus, we sure would.

so much of the sports

Dennis had a swim class at 1, a soccer game at 5, and Taekwondo at 6. He did wonderfully at all 3! He also learned a very valuable skill at home this afternoon. He learned to wash a car! He probably should have had more nap, but it was a gorgeous spring afternoon and I wanted to wash my car and he wanted to help. So we did. And he did a wonderful job, scrubbing the car and rinsing it (and himself and me) with the hose. He pronounced it "just like a new car but it's the same car we had before!".

He was a paragon of wonderful behavior today. True I did bribe him with a new iPad app if he'd be good and listen to his coaches and instructors. Not only did he do that, but he also got through the day with no negativity, no whines, no complaints. He's not a bad complainer most of the time, but what a relief that he was just so darn agreeable all day, even with all the tiring stuff he did!

Resurrection Day celebrations

This morning, Dennis was over the moon to discover that the Easter Bunny had brought him the backpack water gun that he'd been wanting (so he can play Rescue Hero and put out fires with it) along with filling his Easter basket with candy. He was less excited about attending church, and at his request, attended my Sunday School class with me and went to "big church" instead of the children's service. He did join the other children (before Sunday School) in bringing flowers and putting them in the big wire cross that stands in the sanctuary every Easter. I don't know why he chose to worship alongside adults today, but he behaved very well and was interested in everything.

We partied at the lake for the remainder of the day. Chloe and family joined us and the neighbor girls for what's become our annual egg hunt tradition. This year we hid 255 eggs (plenty for 4 kids). All but a handful were found, and one hidden last year that was never found showed up in the batch. Fun was had by all! Dennis and Monte decorated cupcakes together, and Gran, Dennis, and Chloe made Resurrection Rolls after the egg hunt. We feasted on lots of deliciousness from the grill.

The whole day was wonderful, but I especially loved when Dennis and Chloe took her Resurrection Eggs into a room and told each other the Easter story. Oh how blessed we are, having such wonderful friends and family members to share this most special day of all!

it's not all about the eggs

This morning, Dennis and I went to the big egg hunt and Easter festival at church. The Easter Bunny arrived on the back of a convertible and spread the gospel message to each child who visited with her. Dennis and Chloe found lots of eggs, enjoyed the big inflatables, had their faces painted (they each decided they wanted a cross painted on their cheeks in honor of Easter), played on the playground, visited the booths, drove the roller racers...oh, what fun they had! Later, we stopped by Walmart and bought the necessary supplies to dye eggs. As we were driving to the lake, Chloe was telling Dennis about her beautiful new Easter dress. Ellen and I chuckled approvingly (and quietly to ourselves) when Dennis told her earnestly "Easter is not all about your beautiful new dress, Chloe."

The two of them dyed some very artistic eggs at the lake this afternoon, and she and Dennis played together and fished some, touching the slimy fish and worms and exclaiming over their cool grossness.

Dennis fell asleep on the way home from the lake tonight, and he's in bed now, probably eagerly anticipating his visit from the Easter Bunny. He has gathered his flowers for the church's flower cross that he will help decorate in the morning. We are ready to celebrate the holiday with our friends and loved ones!

Maundy Thursday service

Tonight we took Dennis to the Maundy Thursday service at church. He was mostly reverent, and he enjoyed participating in Communion, though he was nervous when we went up to do it, so I had to return to the line and take him back up so that he could have the elements as well. He watched as they stripped the altar and asked thought provoking questions, much as he usually does during Easter! He wanted to know if the cross is still there. He listened to the message given by the youth minister and he asked me if it was all true (because he related some anecdotes). I am amazed at how well behaved he was, especially considering he hadn't napped AND he'd had a Taekwondo class just beforehand. I'm also amazed at his Taekwondo skills--he hadn't been in 2 weeks and he remembered all the steps for his forms that he'll be tested on next week. I'm so proud!

Scary quote of the day: I heard him say "I want to make a baby!". I immediately turned around to see him dressing one of my classroom's baby dolls. I am almost positive that's what he was referring to. He had a very good day with the school Easter party and egg hunt and church tonight. We all did!

bunny day

I got such a charge out of looking into Dennis' classroom every time I walked by it today. Today was Bunny Day, and every kid made rabbit ear headbands and had their faces painted with pink noses and gray whiskers. Most kids had taken off their headbands after a short while, but my kid was a bunny all day! He was such a cute little hopper!

My heart was happy tonight as I heard him share the Easter story with his classmates at church. Tomorrow is their party at school and egg hunt, and I know he's excited, but there's been a lot more talk about Jesus than about the Easter Bunny. I'm pleased that his priorities are straight, though the Easter Bunny might ought to get on the ball, now that I think about it...

home, finally home

After a very long drive from Panama City Beach to Pensacola on Saturday, we spent a couple of hours very much enjoying one of our favorite museums: the National Museum of Naval Aviation. Dennis loved climbing in cockpit after cockpit, posing and pretending to be a Navy pilot. He spent a nice long time at the indoor playground, too, forming a command unit with two other boys, the three of them ordering all the other children around on their imaginary mission (until we managed to extract him so that the others could play on their own terms). Then it was home to Alabama, where I spent the next 48 hours plagued by one of the worst migraines I've ever experienced. Thanks to David and Becky for helping me with Dennis care as I was completely unable to handle it. And I certainly hope I continue to improve tomorrow as I return to preschool, where light and noise are assured to be in plentiful abundance.

Dennis has slept a good bit since our return from Florida, but he's been feeling just fine. So it's back to our routine this Holy Week!