surrealism

Dennis spent lots of time drawing this masterpiece featuring a pan in the sky cooking sausage by the heat of the sun. And the other 15 hours of the day he spent talking!

self-tattooing

Dennis came home from church today looking like he'd left a cheap tattoo parlor. When presented with a red (washable) crayola marker, he drew crosses on his arms and legs. I was in the children's service with him but was powerless to stop his self decoration! I felt pretty powerless for the whole service, actually. I think they might have taken in a Biblical truth, but the children were all a bit wild today! They did have fun, though. Our church is doing a sermon series loosely based on the Olympics, and the kids learned today about how Christianity is like running a race (with the prize being Heaven, and that you must practice, and you must run the race to win it). Then they all got to "run the race" (an obstacle course I set up) and win a gold medal. Big smiles all around. Later, at lunch, Dennis said "well, I should have gotten TWO gold medals because I am extra special!". Yes, he certainly is!

summer games 2012

We watched a bit of the opening ceremonies. As we turned it on, the countries that begin with "C" were marching by. Dennis watched dutifully for a while, and when the parade reached the "M" countries, Dennis exclaimed "this thing could last ALL NIGHT LONG." He retired to his room to play with his Star Wars toys. Enough world culture for one evening!

well that's fast

"Dennis, how fast can you put on your Taekwondo uniform?". "Faster than a bird pooping on a car!" he said. Nice.

a day in God's World

Oh what fun we had this morning! Our church has done a program called God's World for over 30 years, and the premise is that we show children God's love for them by exploring nature, by teaching them about the wonderful world He gave to us. Today was the first week of this year's program, and we had 32 children from age 3 through 6th grade. We went on a nature walk to collect leaves, learned about trees and fruits, made "fruit batteries" in science lab, made "berry ink" in crafts, and worshiped God together! What a wonderful start to this year's program. I'm particularly pleased about how well things went because I wrote the curriculum, planned the classes, picked the labs, and organized the next 3 weeks of classes and field trips! This is a marvelous way to use all that biology I studied in college! God has specially equipped me to do this work!

Dennis was happy about God's World because it's a real family event this year! Uncle Denny is our science lab scientist, and Gran helped out in crafts! He so loves being at our church, surrounded by love! Who wouldn't?

He completely exhausted himself today, playing, learning, helping the boys sneak the magnifying glasses outside to the playground so they could try to start fires... Good summer fun!

noise pollution

I'm learning why a certain comic strip Dennis was such a menace. Age five is not an easy one! There are moments of delight every day, and I'm finding that my own little menace has a rather well developed sense of humor. But he's also a part-time ninja, part-time superhero & bad-guy-fighter, and full-time boy! He's inquisitive and so smart, smart enough that he knows how to be irritating. He freely admits this ("I just love to irritate you, Mommy") and instinctively knows when he's pushed me to the breaking point. Often, at just the right time, he'll lean over and say ever so sweetly "I love you, Mommy" and offer up his most charming smile. I find his constant motion and constant chatter to be overwhelming sometimes, but the only wrong thing he does? Not listening. The rest of it is just happy, well-adjusted boy noise and activity. And oh, how I'll miss all his chatter once he's a teen!

Today at church they announced that I've been hired as full time Children's Minister, which I am thrilled about, but I cringed as I watched my child make a pyramid of hymnals on the pew and then sit on it. He and the other kids worshipped in our Traditional service today (because I wasn't able to do the children's service on account of having to speak in both church services), and the youngest ones were just so busy not listening to the message that I prayed for guidance. Next month: worship journals and pencils for each child, with an assignment to listen, write words, draw pictures, and be ready to talk about the message the following week at in the children's service. It will at least give them something more productive to do with their hands, which Dennis most especially needs! It's either that or duct tape...

the fake vomit chronicles

Oh, boy did Uncle Denny have a good surprise for Dennis tonight! He presented Dennis with his very own, umm, pile (wad? unit?) of fake vomit. Dennis was extremely delighted and instantly absorbed the concepts necessary to conduct a successful vomit gag (make the disgusting noise, quickly toss the vomit, solicit sympathy for fake illness, laugh hysterically at his joke prowess). It was quite funny the first dozen times he did it but lost a bit of its appeal as we were trying to get him to walk to the car and he fake-vomited onto the deck every other step and then picked it up to repeat the process. Oh, the giggles! He would hold the thing (stuff?) behind his back and try to act serious but kept dissolving into helpless laughter. I can't wait to see who he pranks tomorrow, though I live in fear of who he might try this out on at church next week!

battleship craft wars

While snuggled together all in our bed watching Craft Wars, Dennis took an intermission to run off and create something. I suppose he was inspired by the show, but he reappeared soon, holding a Lego creation and announcing "I won Battleship Craft Wars! I won a million dollars!". He held his Lego battle craft through the rest of the show, picked the craft he thought should win (and I agreed), made disgusted raspberry noises when the craft we didn't like (that Daddy liked) won, and then said "well, they've invited me back to build a bigger battleship in the next Battleship Craft Wars, and my fifty-hundred hours starts now, so I better hurry!" as he ran back to his room. He's really been funny today, had me laughing so many times! I so enjoy his sense of humor!

master negotiator

So here he sits on our bed after 11pm, trying to explain to us why he needs a new Anakin Skywalker toy. He promises to be good at Taekwondo and clean his whole room tomorrow. I told him he had so many toys that he couldn't play with them all! He considered this for a moment before saying "I could if I had 100 hands!". I can't imagine a bigger nightmare than a busy boy child with 100 hands.

the prankster strikes again

Dennis and Gigi had the best time with one of those add-water-and-it-grows toys. It was a bright red crab, and they snuck it into the bath tub at the lake, acting all innocent about it. Gran went in there and spied it and gave her very best (very realistic) screams and pretended to smash it flat (we could hear her stomping the tub). Dennis just cackled. And he laughed more when Ju-Ju did the same thing a while later. Steve really got him going when he came out (yelling) with the crab hanging out of his mouth, saying it was trying to pinch off his tongue, that all he did was lean over to look at it! Oh how Dennis adores a good joke, and he sure loved sharing it with Gigi!

power of prayer

Last night at the end of our Vacation Bible School evening, the pastors were on hand for any kids that wanted to pray with them. Dennis went up to the Associate Pastor and wanted to pray for his grandpa in Heaven (David's dad, who died before Dennis was born). He said he'd really been thinking about him and that he'd died of cancer, and they prayed together that he was healed and whole in Heaven. It touched my heart big time to see Dennis bow his head and close his eyes and listen to the pastor's prayer with a solemn expression on his face. I'm continually amazed by his spirituality. Tonight in line for ice cream after our closing program, Dennis tapped a preschool girl on the shoulder and told her "God is real, and He is our Lord!". There are these divine moments we get to see (interspersed among the Star Wars play and Taekwondo poses and Secret Agent missions), and they let us know that we are teaching him the important stuff and he is remembering it!

For thought

Tonight Dennis said "I guess we won't need our skeletons in Heaven, will we?". Profound! I suppose not.

blue hair and a sad face

It was Tacky Tresses night at Vacation Bible School, and Dennis sported blue hair and a headband with 2 bath puffs attached to it. His hair was wacky, sure, but not as crazy as some of the others. But it did break my heart to see him burst into tears as I awarded tonight's prizes to 4 kids that were not him. Maybe he will win the wardrobe contest tomorrow night!

Praise God for His Greatness

That was the theme of tonight's lesson at Vacation Bible School, which has become a family event for us! Gran and Gigi helped in crafts, Gran and David did LOTS of decorating, Uncle Denny helped at supper time, and David helped lead Dennis' class. And we all had FUN! As exhausted as I am, I'm almost too energized to sleep. We ministered to 110 children tonight. Dennis said his favorite part was the skit at the opening program. I loved it all!

like having a sibling

For most of the afternoon, I had the joy of listening to "I have a better life than you do"; "no, I have a better life." And "he's not sharing" followed by "she bit me!". And there was some "but that's the one I wanted to play with now" and "hey, I had that first!". And I wasn't even at work. Zoe and family spent the day at the lake with us. Dennis and Zoe are most assuredly both accustomed to their Only Child status and fought like cats all afternoon. Chloe's arrival this evening helped calm things down a bit. We are reminded how thankful we are that we don't have to referee like this all the time!

Good food, great company, gorgeous fireworks... It was a near perfect day!

a rank upgrade

We are celebrating Dennis' promotion to Ninja Camo Belt. He will be attending Vacation Bible School next week and won't get to attend the awards night, so his instructor presented him with his belt at the end of class tonight. Dennis was beaming with pride--not only did the instructor give him the belt and certificate, he also went ahead and put the new belt on him. Dennis checked himself out in the mirror and kept a big happy grin on his face!

Tonight we finished watching Star Wars Episode 2 (Attack of the Clones), and he was really checking out Padme/Amidala. I mentioned that she was very brave. Dennis said "yes, but I don't like her because she's brave--I like her because she's thoughtful." I hope he remembers this bit of wisdom when it becomes time for him to date!

freedom fun

Happy 4th! Dennis celebrated with swimming, sparklers, food, fireworks, family, and FUN (and some mid-day green bean picking)! He developed his own rating system for the fireworks, and when he saw one he particularly liked, he yelled out "that's the cherry on top!". We are tired out from all the goings on. The dogs, cat, & guineas are fed and we are all in our beds!

patriotism, summer learning, and birds

What a day! We were happy to attend a reading of the Declaration of Independence this morning outside the courthouse. And Gran and I took Dennis to the summer camp workshops at Bass Pro Shop this afternoon where he was delighted to earn 5 pins and practice archery and casting. Then he went to a birthday party with his daddy while Gran & I went to pick up our new roommates. There are 8 baby guineas in a crate in our garage. Apparently they are going to rid us of ticks and bugs and provide occasional eggs without a lot of hard work. Dennis has already named one Zippy and plans to name the rest tomorrow. I wonder how our free range guineas will like the neighbor chickens!

more Star Wars

I happened to catch Spike TV's "Force of July" Star Wars marathon. It started yesterday with The Phantom Menace (Episode 1) and will have one per day through Return of the Jedi. We started Dennis with Episode 4 because that was the first one made (and also because we own the original Star Wars trilogy on VHS). Tonight we finished watching The Phantom Menace, which Dennis loved. I'd forgotten what an awful movie it is (acting, characters, etc). Sadly, Dennis has a new favorite Star Wars character. He has thrown over R2-D2 in favor of Jar-Jar Binks. Oh the horror.

Thank goodness for DVR. While Star Wars may be PG, the commercials on Spike most certainly are not!

Tonight, Dennis took care of me as I suffered a headache and stomach cramps. He covered me with a blanket, brought me medicine and a cup of water, wet a washcloth (well, actually he picked a hand towel) and put it on my head, brought a music box to soothe me, brought a plastic bag in case I needed to throw up, and gave me a big hug and kiss and told me to feel better. Then he asked "so am I acting like a nurse?". I told him he was the best nurse ever! I'm so fortunate to have such a thoughtful child!

slugs

Yesterday we hibernated. David went to work, but Dennis and I holed up in our own bedrooms and watched movies all day. This was preferable to getting out in the heat, for sure. I was wondering if the 4 hours at Peach Jam were a bad idea, and Dennis told me "I am so tired after all my hard work at the Peach Jam that I just want to rest today." And that was all I needed to hear! We stayed indoors. We rested. When David got home, he did the same. And it was awesome!