Dennis and the Busy Day

I kept Dennis busy all day today. First we had a brunch with Gran and Pop and Grandmother and Granddaddy at Cracker Barrel to with Gran farewell on her 3 week sojourn to Washington to see Dennis' cousins (and their parents). As always, Dennis loved his Cracker Barrel experience, and Gran answered our question about the weird head bobbing thing from yesterday. He's nodding. Duh. I don't know why I didn't pick up on that, but Mom said that she nodded yes a good bit around Dennis, and when she demonstrated, he began bobbing his head. So he's not head banging to his own internal rock band. He's just nodding his agreement and enjoyment of life. That sounds right.

After the meal he visited his Walgreens Fan Club when I went in to pick up my (gulp!) last paycheck. He also did some shopping. The first things he grabbed were 2 large bottles of tylenol caplets, and he walked around with one in each hand, shaking them vigorously. He got halfway to the front of the store before he was distracted by a display of pesticide sprays, at which point he tossed one then both bottles to the floor. He toured through the toys, stopping to scatter stuffed animals about in the aisle. He ended his wild run at the water guns. He found one that was taller than he is, and he pulled it out of the display. The rest of the water guns in the display started rolling out after it, and I picked up the carnage and scooped him up. We were about to leave the store and I decided I'd better go to the restroom. Naturally I had to take him in there with me, and he delighted in the echo in the room. Unfortunately, he chose this time to debut his new word: "poo". He yelled it over and over again, as loud as he could. Thank goodness we were the only ones in the bathroom, but he was so loud that I'm sure any customers shopping in the foot care/razor/deodorant section (located on the other side of the bathroom wall) could hear him. I didn't stop to see if anyone was there when we exited the restroom. I didn't really want to know!

I went to the bank and decided to go and put some gas in the car. When I arrived at Wal-Mart's gas station (usually much cheaper), I got out and noticed some metal stripping visible on my front driver's tire. Needless to say, we shopped for an hour while my car got a new pair of shoes. Dennis got a new pair as well. He picked out some sneakers, and I thought he could probably use some non-sandal footwear for our upcoming trip. He walked back and forth and back and forth in the aisle with them on, so I think they fit well. He didn't stand still long enough for me to mash his toes (I always hated when adults did that to me when trying on shoes as a kid!) and check the fit, but I think they're just fine. He would have shopped for shoes longer, but he discovered that someone had stashed a Reduced For Quick Sale Coconut Cake on the second-to-bottom-shelf in the shoe section, and try as I might to distract him, he kept going back to that cake, trying to extricate it from its shoebox prison. Yuck. Who knows how long it had been there. I guess this is why people buy their kids' shoes at Stride Rite or Buster Brown (are Buster Brown shoes still around even?). No cakes there.

We ate a late lunch, and then went to visit Allison at her place. Her apartment has a circular floor plan where the living room connects to a hallway that connects to the kitchen that opens to the dining room that opens to the living room, and Dennis treated this like the Talladega 500. He did dozens and dozens of laps, mostly in the same direction, and I began to fear that her carpet would show a wear track in it. She has a dachshund named Sadie (these dogs are well known for wearing a trail into their territory), and she and Dennis enjoyed playing together. He patted her, she licked him, she knocked him down and licked his belly, which cracked him up--all in all, they got along well. He started calling her name after we'd been there a few minutes. He'd say "Aydeeeeee" and when we left "Bye Aydeee". So cute!

Then it was time to come home, so that the cute little guy that hadn't napped all day could get some rest. He didn't last 5 minutes once he was loaded in his carseat to come home. He was OUT. He slept so hard that the pacifier fell out, and he continued sucking on nothing and didn't wake up until we got almost home. He woke for supper, which reminds me to mention the weird grunt/yell thing he's doing at some mealtimes now. We don't know if he's clearing his throat or yelling or grunting, and we give him a drink whenever he does it. Sometimes that stops him and sometimes it doesn't. It's bizarre.

Tonight he played in his ball pit (I have managed to locate 400 balls to add to the 50 that came with it). I paid $10 for the ball pit with screen tent around it, and I was thrilled at the bargain. Now I understand. Balls are $10 for a bag of 100. And the thing's not quite full yet, but every retailer everywhere is sold out of the darn balls. I found two bags at a toystore and two bags at Wal-Mart in Pelham, and found that 3 wal-marts were already sold out. When we added the two bags I found today to the two we found last night, he started crawling into the pit to play. He wiggled around in the balls, and burrowed down in the balls, and lay back spread-eagled. He loved it. He fought his way out and crawled back in a few times, laughing the whole time. We heard a gross diaper related noise and retrieved him from the ball pit because we don't want to wash 450 balls. He got a bath, a new diaper, a cup of water, and a goodnight kiss, and then he was down for the count. I can't believe he never got cranky. He was sweet all day, even with no nap. How long could he possibly be this sweet?