spaghetti and oreos

Have you ever watched a baby eat spaghetti? What a sweet and lovable mess it is! Tonight we had Pop come down and meet us at the lake house for a spaghetti dinner. We removed everything Dennis was wearing except his diaper and spread a large trash bag under his high chair. He, like most babies I know, loves spaghetti. He enjoyed eating it so much that he was practically silent during dinner. He got sauce everywhere, even in between his toes. And he was even more delighted when we let him have an Oreo cookie for dessert. He giggled when he saw it and giggled even harder when he tasted it. He split it apart and licked the creme inside and then ate the two cookie halves. He took his time, savoring every last crumb.

It was a pretty good day. I had a migraine this morning so David took Dennis to church without me, and apparently he was a holy terror during most of the service. David, who never wants to take Dennis to the nursery because he thinks that negates the purpose of bringing your child to church in the first place, went on a desperate search for the toddler nursery this morning but did not find it. He said he heard most of the sermon from the foyer, where he followed Dennis up the stairs to the balcony, through the balcony, and then down the stairs on the other side. Dennis was his own parade at church today!

We had a nice peaceful afternoon at the lake with overcast skies and a lovely breeze, very cool weather for August in Alabama. David and Dennis both napped a while and then we cooked supper and enjoyed it. The natural aftermath of eating Oreo cookies is a toothbrush, of course, and I had to rinse Dennis's Oreo-blackened toothbrush a few times and hand it back to him. I brushed his teeth first, and then he took over, walking all through the lake house and brushing vigorously. He loves the toothbrush, fortunately. We had intended to keep him up until 8 pm but around 7:20, he wandered into the bedroom and when I asked him if he was ready to go to bed, he crawled into his Peapod tent and curled up with his Froggy and waited patiently for me to zip him up and turn off the light. We haven't heard a peep from him since. It must take a lot of energy to parade through church and then spread spaghetti sauce from hair to toes...

mellow yellow

Another day spent mostly in Dennis's room. This is why I don't get anything done around the house. His room is the safest for him to play in with the most activities for him to do, but I don't like the idea of just leaving him anywhere unsupervised, so I spent my time in his room as well. I should just baby proof the rest of the house, I suppose. It's been easiest to play in his room because he is somewhat caged. With the open floor plan of our house, I'd never know where he was if we turned him loose! We do have lots of fun in his room, but he asks more and more frequently to go "outside" while reaching for his doorknob.

We played lots of things today, and we worked on our animal sounds. He's getting pretty good at this, reliably saying "moo" and "baa" and "quack" for horse, sheep, and duck, and he's 100% on "who who" for owl. He likes playing with his farm, and today, he carefully placed all the animals in their stalls before taking his arm and raking the entire business off his play table and onto the floor. Maybe it was a Little Earthquake for the Little People? He quickly resumed playing with it on the floor, so I don't know if he was trying to be able to reach it better or keep it away from me (since I was the one playing with it first today). Maybe he was just clearing off his table because he likes to stand on it so much.

Whatever gene it is on the Y chromosome that makes little boys drive their cars all over everything has really expressed itself in Dennis in the past week. He rolls his toy cars and tractor across the floor, up the wall, over the doorknob, on the glass on the front of the entertainment center... And the thing that tickles us the most? Now he plays with his cars while lying on his stomach on the floor, rolling them on the floor while his feet occasionally alternately kick up and down. Mostly it's the left foot, bent at the knee, that raises and lowers and waves about, and he looks so grown up when he's on the floor like that. David always plays with him like this, and we wonder if that's where he got it. Possibly. Or maybe he's just discovered that it's a nice comfy way to lie while rolling your cars around.

This morning we were reading our Hawaiian shirt book of colors, and he seems to be beginning to understand the concept of colors. I showed him blue in the book and blue on his carpet and blue on his train table, and he repeated "boo", but he really got excited about yellow. We went around his room pointing out the things that are yellow (Winnie the Pooh, his giraffes, his Tonka truck, his smiley face ball), and he walked around saying "yellow" very distinctly. He didn't seem much interested in red yet, but he can say "geen" for green. At lunch, he ate yellow macaroni and cheese (with a fork much of the time!) and green pears (though white when cut in pieces), and he loved every single colorful bite.

And the last milestone to report today: he learned to dip his nacho chips! We met Pop at a Mexican place for dinner tonight, and while we waited on our meal, I put a few chips in front of Dennis to appease him, and he held up a chip and waved it. I told him he could eat it, and again, he raised and lowered it while looking at me. Suddenly it occurred to me that we were dipping our chips in salsa and he wanted to do it too. So I passed the salsa and he dipped his chip, and then he sucked all the salsa off the chip and dipped it again while David tried to explain the policy of double dipping and why it's wrong. The chip ended up serving as a salsa and cheese dip spoon and was a soggy mess when he finally got around to eating it. He had a great time at the restaurant, which is decorated much like the Small World ride at Disney's Magic Kingdom (VERY colorful). And he was happy all the way home, trying out an extensive range of vocalizations which included grunts and screeches and many syllables (some even English ones). He kept us entertained, for sure, and we couldn't help but join in when he giggled. He was pleasant today, and fun, and the day was mostly tantrum free. No big fusses, but a small one when we insisted on holding his hand in the parking lot while he wanted to run free, but he didn't fight us too much and was happy once we got inside. It was a good day. It helped that he was so sleepy from last night that he took two and a half decent naps. I am still tired and cranky, but he's just fine. I can't wait for him to wake up tomorrow (as long as it's past 8) and discover the toy shopping cart I assembled for him tonight, complete with toy groceries, all sitting beside his bedroom door and waiting for him to wake up and see it.

8-8-8

It's triple 8 day, 8/8/08. Babies born today will have a really easy job remembering their birth dates. Last night, after I typed the blog entry, I went in and looked at Dennis sleeping. He was sleeping perpendicular to the length of the bed, smashed up tight along the end of the bed (and the newly washed crib bumper), and I straightened him out and turned him lengthwise in the crib without waking him. I watched his legs and toes stretch out gratefully. He does this often, so I imagine it will be difficult to convert him to a toddler bed when the time comes. He'll keep falling off the end.

As I watched him sleep, I reflected on how toddlers really attack life with gusto, and I intended to write a long post about toddler emotions and toddler joy over the simplest of things, and it was going to be a good one, kind of flowery and sweet, but still good. And then, at 7:03 pm, we embarked on a Real Adventure, which I will have to write about instead. The actual real time right now is 2:20 am, and we have just arrived home from the Real Adventure. I could be suspenseful here and build up a big story, but it's way too late at night for that, so I'll just state it like it is. At 7:03 pm, while we were waiting for Pop to come home so we could have dinner with him, Dennis walked over and put something into his mouth, and I ran to see what it was, and then his mouth was empty and I saw what he was playing with... I was convinced he had eaten a paper clip. I wasn't all that worried about it--it was a small paper clip, and after he coughed a couple of times, he was absolutely fine and acted normal (for him). David paged the pediatrician. I didn't understand why he was so worried until I let my train of thought really get going. Paper clips have sharp points on the ends and one swallowed might puncture something important on its journey through the digestive tract of Dennis. The doctor called back as we were taking turns eating the barbecue sandwiches Pop brought for us without letting Dennis see us eat. He was hungry, but we didn't want to do anything to disturb the Paper Clip, which had suddenly become pretty important--much more important, in fact, than the average paper clip ever manages to become. The doctor confirmed what David said, and asked us which emergency room we'd like to go to. So tonight's Real Adventure involved FOUR HOURS at Shelby Baptist ER, because lots of folks were trying out Stupid People Tricks today and we shared a waiting room with many injured people. We waited one hour for triage, an hour and a half after that to be put in a room (see photos), half an hour for the doctor, half an hour for the x-ray machine, fifteen minutes for the result, and then fifteen minutes for our discharge papers. Turns out he did NOT swallow a paper clip.

I honestly thought he did. He was playing in some paper clips, and there were two really wet ones on the floor, and I saw him put something in his mouth and swallow and nothing was in his mouth when I checked it. I didn't know he had found paper clips until I saw something go in his mouth, and then I found the slobbered on ones and looked for one in his mouth. I was horrified that he'd apparently eaten one, and while I watched, he picked up another one and stuffed it in his mouth, and I promptly removed it. He giggled. Scary. I am sure he swallowed something but maybe it was a piece of dog food or some other surprising non-metal office supply that will show up in his diaper over the weekend. His x-ray was clear and the doctor said not to worry about a thing.

He was so good at the ER. Not a single tantrum, even when I wanted to throw one for having to wait so long. He chatted up the other patients and occasionally asked us for "eat" and "juice" which we couldn't give him. When we left the hospital, we went straight to the nearest drive-thru and got him a kid's meal, but the line was slow and he was crying for juice so I hopped out of the car and walked to the gas station next door to buy juice for him. David said he'd almost cried himself sick while I was gone. Poor little guy. He hadn't eaten in twelve hours and I know he was starved. He ate for pretty much the entire drive home and fell asleep one mile from the house. He didn't wake up when I changed his diaper or put his pajamas on, and he stirred briefly when we picked him up to put him in the crib, but then he rolled right over and went to sleep clutching his beloved Froggy (who almost got x-rayed tonight as well since Dennis didn't want to let him go). We are all home safely now, none the worse for our adventure. Here's hoping he eats only food items from now on...

stormy day

We played happily in his room this morning, as always, and when he woke from his morning nap, Daddy was here with a great lunch. Dennis was ecstatic and eagerly munched on green beans and chicken until he discovered that we also had macaroni and cheese. He kept asking for "more cheese" whenever he'd eaten the macaroni that was on his plate. We ran errands after lunch and then went to the lake.

He got bored in the car, an increasing problem we're having, and we kept him occupied by pointing out the various places and things we were passing. He learned to say truck and Wal-Mart today, and I think he actually learned what a truck is, because he repeated the word whenever we passed one after that.

Right now I just heard him over the baby monitor. He said "whoa" and then "juice" and then it sounded like he rolled over and went back to sleep. The only sounds I hear now are the pounding of the keys as I'm typing, the chirping of crickets outside, the hooting of our resident owls, and the sounds of David's computer game. Oh, now Dennis is talking again... I heard "hi".

At the lake this afternoon, a great wind came up and blew down a tree limb as I was watching. The wind chimes were a cacophony of noise, and David rushed about trying to secure his tools before any blew into the water. It was a scary wind, and Dennis could hear it so well from his pack and play (we forgot the pod!) that he didn't nap. When the wind died down, I stepped outside to water the flowers, poor parched things, and as soon as I poured the first bit from the watering can, it began raining. And we all know that if I hadn't watered, it wouldn't have rained...

Dennis "cooked" me a meal in the pretend kitchen at the lake and brought it over and served it to me in all seriousness. He served it in a colander with a spatula as my eating utensil, then thought better of it and brought me a knife and casserole dish as well. I "ate" my fill, and he took the dishes back to the kitchen, stirring with the knife as he walked. We left the lake as the rain really started to pour, and just when we got back to town, Becky (Grandma) called to see if we wanted dinner. Of course we did, so we stopped over there to eat and run, enjoying her yummy chicken and dumplings. Midway through the meal, Dennis discovered his reflection in the large pot and began waving at it. David announced "Yes, Dennis, there's a baby in the pot." I hadn't been watching Dennis wave at himself, and when David said there was a baby in the pot, I stopped eating to stare at the chicken on my spoon for the few milliseconds that it took me to process what he meant. He watched me do this and laughed when I said "well, it's delicious" as he realized what thought process I had been through just then. Becky was afraid I'd lost my appetite, but I decided I'd tell Dennis that the baby he was seeing was ON the pot and not IN it. Big difference.

He was again stuck in the car as we ran more errands after supper, and he announced his displeasure at frequent intervals, prompting me to get more and more creative with distractions. First we sang several songs. Then I began handing him things that were not baby toys. First, a calendar, and it prompted "hee hee hee" chuckles as he realized that it was not a baby item. The best distraction was the set of keys I handed him, and he giggled and giggled the way he always does when he's getting into something that he shouldn't be getting into, and the giggles escalated into big chuckles and the word "key" over and over. He must have played with them for ten or twelve consecutive minutes before he flung them to the nether regions of the backseat. We had to laugh, too. He's just so funny when he gets that mischievous giggle going.

drink bandit

Today was a fun day. Most of it was spent playing in the room with Dennis. He had a great time playing while I completed a much needed reorganization. Admittedly it was sad to pull the clothes that he's too small for out of his closet, concrete evidence that he is growing up so fast. I am saving everything in the event of another baby boy in the family or born to a close friend, because who knows what the future will bring. He still has a ton of clothes that I had to find space for, so I imported a small chest of drawers from another part of the house, and he delighted in opening and closing the drawers. I probably have another two days or so before he figures out how to open them and empty them.

Not so many tantrums today. There were a few, especially when he thought he needed to leave his room and go play in the bathroom and I thought he needed to stay in there where I could see him. I can't let him go in the bathroom unsupervised. There are a whole lot of safety issues, true, but last night I caught him in there trying to toss a Turbo Tax cd into the toilet. I guess he doesn't have a future in accounting... Or he is trying to keep from being like Pop, who reads tax books for fun and entertainment.

He ate four meals today. An hour after he finished a decent sized meal of hot dog pieces, cheddar cheese, orange slices, and milk (and this sounds nauseating even to me), he demanded "eat eat" again. David brought us home some burgers for supper, and we had a picnic in Dennis's room. He ate a quarter of our supper, at least, and stole David's drink from him and downed about a third or more of it.

Now we are on our way to pick up Pop from the airport, returning from their weeklong journey of driving a car to Washington. Gran will be there two more weeks, and Pop will be flying back next week to join her and spend time with the Carroccinos. Mobile blogging is pretty awesome, since I am able to use this hour commute to update the Dennis Report, and I can go to bed when we get back home around midnight. Dennis is alternately snoozing and partying in the back seat, and I know he'll be thrilled to see his Pop when we pick him up.

emissions (warning--GROSS!)

Imagine my surprise when Dennis did not wake me up until 8:10 am this morning, even though he went to bed at 6 pm last night. I was pleasantly surprised by the lateness of the hour and went in to see to him, still rubbing my eyes and trying to quickly restrain my hair into a ponytail so he wouldn't grab hold of it and use it to pull himself up while I was lifting him from the crib. Something wasn't quite right. Why was a diaper in the crib with him, lying open? What was that brown stuff on his eyebrow and his hands? OH MY GOD. Did he actually TAKE OFF HIS OWN DIAPER and then POOP in the crib? Yes, he did. I realized this just as I was lifting him, saw he was standing in just his t-shirt and that his bottom was bare. There was brown matter on the crib sheet and crib bumper. There was a huge, adult-sized turd in the crib. I wanted to call for help, but David left early to work today, but then I called him anyway because the carnage was so awful. He was headed back home anyway, having finished his errand. I told him he'd find us in the bathtub. We washed the baby, me, the t-shirt, the crib sheet, the crib bumper, the waterproof mattress protector, the crib rails, the crib sides, the pacifier, and Froggy (who fortunately survived a ride in the washing machine with absolutely no damage, just significant poo removal). I was horrified throughout it all. Dennis didn't seem to mind so much.

We got all the washing done, and we ate breakfast (though nothing with gravy or chocolate or anything brown), and I thought maybe the grossness quotient for the day had been met.

This afternoon we went for ice cream, and the picture shows him eating and enjoying some banana ice cream from Coldstone. On the way home, he napped, and then he woke up and discovered he was still in his car seat, still TRAPPED in the moving car, and he got furious. He cried and cried, and we could not pacify him. He cried so hard that he threw up all over himself, his car seat, and the vehicle carpet below his car seat. More clean up. More stink. More grossness factor. He of course calmed down after barfing up half the ice cream and a couple of hot dog pieces from way earlier in the day, but MY nerves were certainly shot! Once we got home, he crawled into my lap and leaned his head on my shoulder and just snuggled. I could tell he didn't feel well, and cuddled him for a while before putting him in his crib to nap. He slept for almost 3 hours before waking up belching loudly, and we wondered if we should feed him or not. He cried for a while, then perked up, walked out his bedroom door, demanded juice and went to his high chair and said "EAT!". We gave him chicken and rice, and he ate it hungrily. He was in a great mood after dinner, oozing cuteness instead of grossness, and we enjoyed playing in his room and reading books to him for a while before bed. He was acting like he felt tons better, and I'll admit that we did sneak in a tylenol dose when he was so upset after waking up. We're due for a major teething event, and though he won't let us look in his mouth to check, I think we are getting some incisors. Or we're getting a stubborn and angry little toddler asserting his independence, or maybe a little of both (though the latter wouldn't have been cured by tylenol, so we still have hope that it's the former). Who knows what tomorrow will bring? Long ago, I wished for a Plastic Parent Suit, back in the breastfeeding and explosive diaper phase, and again today I thought about it. They don't make a baby-poop-and-barf cleaning robot. But they should.

cave time

Dennis is becoming more and more like his Daddy. Today he needed some alone time and he crabbed at me for the longest until I put him in his crib and went away and left him alone. Then he was happy as a clam. I know he wasn't sleeping because I could hear him on the baby monitor chatting away. My assistance was required when he (accidentally?) THREW his Froggy onto the floor and then wanted him back in the crib with him. I heard a little voice say "Froggy?" just before I heard major crying, so I went in and rescued Froggy from his terrible fate and handed Dennis back his best buddy. He immediately laid down and rolled over, clutching his frog to his chest, and he even pretended to go to sleep. When I left the room, I could hear him talking again. It was a party of one--I wasn't invited. David needs cave time, too, so I shouldn't be surprised.

Dennis did let me play with him this afternoon, and when the phone rang, he screeched at me for answering it (and diverting some attention from him?) until he figured out that it was his Daddy, and then he was all smiles and wanting to talk on the phone. We played with his blocks and with his animal train, and we read his Cookie Monster's Cookies book that has buttons for him to push that add sound effects to the story. When his Daddy was on speakerphone, I mentioned the irritability issue, and David asked if he was hungry. Dennis heard this and said "EAT! EAT!" and headed for the bedroom door. I asked if he wanted a snack, maybe some cheese, and he walked to the kitchen chanting "EAT CHEESE! EAT CHEESE!", and eat cheese he did, but I also added some dry cereal pieces to his snack, which he's eating in the picture.

We discovered a new favorite song. I began to sing the alphabet song to him while he was playing with his blocks and he began crying! Perhaps I need singing lessons? So I switched to "if you're happy and you know it clap your hands..." which he loved and clapped madly and sang gibberish syllables along with me between clapping sessions. We never really got to "stomp your feet". And yes, you're welcome, no thanks needed for me putting that song in your head for you to keep thinking about in all its irritating repetitiveness.

When David got home, Dennis ran to the door and yelled "Da-da" and gave him a hug, and then repeated the performance. David said it was a very nice thing to come home to. Then he tried to get him to give me the same treatment, and he at least said "ma-ma" a few times, but no hug. I got some hugs earlier, though, for when I sang the aforementioned song, he was so gleeful that he practically jumped in my lap to help me clap my hands to the song. He attacked me with happiness--imagine if you will a sweet, slobbery baby bear hug/tackle. I loved it.

He went to bed so early tonight. We had intended to play with him and wear him down for two more hours before putting him down, but he was so sleepy after dinner. He had eaten himself into a stupor, pretty much, and when we went to his room, he grabbed his frog and walked over to the crib and stayed there. So we let him go to bed with the intention of letting him nap and maybe playing with him later. It is now later, and we tried to rouse him an hour ago, but he gave me one of those nasty Daddy looks and rolled over to go back to sleep. Looks like it'll be an early morning here. Ugh. I suppose he's still exhausted from his big weekend and has important beauty rest to catch up on... I can only hope that beauty rest is at least 12 hours tonight! 6 am is EARLY! And for you 8 to 5'ers, I'm sorry, but Dennis has me on a different schedule, and we usually sleep til (gasp!) 8 am. But not tomorrow I'm sure. So I'm going on to bed very soon!