goodnight moon, goodnight tooth

The new teeth are killing us. None of us are sleeping, and one of us is in pain every night (probably because he's not up moving around, distracted from the pain by his surroundings). Come on, darn it. Grow. Come on through those gums. Get it over with. Wish there was a tooth fairy that brought teeth instead of taking them.

Dennis had a very important job today. Gran and Pop were trying out the new soft serve ice cream machine, and Dennis was the taste tester. When I stopped by to pick up supplies (ok, a toilet seat) for the house we were working on, Dennis's pack n' play was in the kitchen, and he was in it. I suppose he'd been helping a little too vigorously with the ice cream making process. He ate ice cream, played with toys, opened Easter eggs, and even took a nap, all in the kitchen in his pack n' play. Then Gran took him to the lake, where he was the recipient of much grandmotherly attention (his Grandma was at the lake already), and I'm sure they spoiled him rotten before we arrived to pick him up and gratuitously watch some cable at the lake house. I won't get cable at home, because then we'd watch it all the time, but I'll sure watch it when I'm somewhere that has it! Hypocritical? You betcha. But we read books at home or watch dvds instead of tv, and sometimes we play board games, although less now since we have a Nintendo Wii and since I'm now on the internet every night.

He wanted to drink from a water bottle today. Gran was sharing hers with him. I was sure he was going to drown himself, and I would have been so embarrassed explaining to the ER that he was just sitting there drinking water and we don't know how he drowned... He tipped the bottle all the way up every time he took a sip. And he drenched himself and splashed his Gran and me pretty well in the process. We were laughing, so he laughed too. He turned the bottle up, got a face full of water, sputtered, then giggled. And repeated. We had to change his clothes when the bottle was finished. At some point today, he apparently tried to break into the oven with his head to see if there were cookies in there. His grandmothers had slathered his head with Arnica to prevent a bruise, and I never even knew he had fallen and hit his head until David told me just now. It'd be hard to notice a red spot from that, what with the two mosquito bites already announcing their presence so noticeably on his forehead. Some days I think he needs a helmet. Actually, most days I think he needs a helmet. And we've actually bought him a helmet now (to go with the bike trailer), a cute gray one with rocket ships on it. He looks just like a mushroom when we put it on him. If he were in a Super Mario game, he'd be a character that Mario would jump on and get a coin. But he's a CUTE mushroom.

Dennis has an alphabet foam play mat in his room, and the letters are removable. This morning and yesterday he was gated in his room, and he kept bringing me letters that he'd pried from the mat. "K" jumped the gate yesterday, and today "I" and "J" ran off together. We apprehended "I", but "J" is still missing. Gotta watch those "J"s. Sneaky little buggers. Since "J" and Snoopy and Ice Bat are all on vacation somewhere, it makes me think ahead to our upcoming vacation. How can I train a one year old to fly well? Do I sit with him held prisoner in my lap on the couch while I hold his portable dvd player for him to watch? Any suggestions? He was 7 months old when we flew before, and he slept for most of the flights. When he wasn't sleeping, he was eating his Southwest Airlines cardboard snack container--not the snacks, the actual container. I hope Delta passes out edible entertainment as well. I would like to bring toys and books along, but anything I bring has the potential to be tossed into the nether areas of the plane. Do I dare let him walk around? Would he go up to strange airline passengers and smile charmingly and say "hey" before he licked them or grabbed their drinks? Scary. I have one month to come up with some strategies. I don't think they sell baby straightjackets.

Right now he's snoring to beat the band. He's coming through loud and clear on the baby monitor. He even snores cute.