family matters

Dennis spent the majority of his day at his Grandma's house. His cousins Laine and Emily were there and all were waiting on the arrival of some relatives from North Carolina. Grandma fixed a big dinner for everyone, which Dennis certainly enjoyed. Hard to tell if his favorite was the sweet potatoes or the spice cake...

From what I hear, he played nicely with his cousins today before I got there. And he continued to play nicely after I got there, but I could tell he was exhausted. He didn't nap much today (too much going on for the little guy to get to sleep!), which is never good. He wasn't really whiny or anything, but he did get a little more upset than usual over the small things, like when Emily shoved him off the ride-on car and into a wall. Of course, I might have cried too in this situation...

He did "cook" us some dinner on the play kitchen set at Grandma's house, stirring a wooden pot with a wooden spoon and then banging all the kitchen implements together while "talking" on his cell phone. It's good to know he can multitask. He enjoyed chasing Laine around outside this evening while she collected dandelions, and he enjoyed getting kisses from all the relatives. The sweetest thing was when little Emily kissed him goodbye and he just smiled. She kissed him almost on the eyeball, but it was still sweet. Laine kissed him, too, as we were leaving, and he almost kissed her back. He has still not managed much in the kissing department, other than an open mouthed lick attack, so perhaps it's just as well that he only received kisses tonight instead of giving them.

The great aunt and uncle he saw tonight were relatives he had not seen in a year (when he was 2 months old!), but he wasn't a bit shy. He gave them all his best, smiling and talking and laughing. It's almost like he's a trained performer, but we couldn't have devised a way to train him to do this. I suppose he's just a friendly baby, at least at this time. We are learning that toddlers are unpredictable at best, and he's starting to have little bitty tantrums when we take too long to get the sippy cup or when we pick him up to get him out of trouble at a time when he is rather enjoying getting into trouble. I suppose we are in for somewhat of an awakening as he develops his own opinions about everything.