there's no place like home

Yay. We're back home! Dennis didn't have too many meltdowns in the car today (just 1 really), and he didn't really lose it until we were just 15 minutes from home. For the last 40 minutes of the trip, though, I had to pull out all the pacifiers, a book, a car, an entire bag of blocks, and his big yellow smiley face ball, and most of this worked for a few minutes until he tossed each item and screeched. What lasted the longest was Gran's nearly empty water bottle, which he played with for quite a while, turning it around and around in his little hands and shaking it for all he was worth. It's always the forbidden items that work the best.

He was thrilled to wake up in his pea pod and discover me sleeping on a mattress on the floor right beside him. I unzipped his tent and he crawled out and onto my bed, where he noticed that is was a bit springy. I guess you could say today was his first attempt at jumping on the bed--he bounced up and down standing up, laughing before he toppled over onto the mattress. He enjoyed the hotel suite, and he loved walking up and down the 'hallway' between the living room (where he and I slept) and the bathroom and Gran's room. This morning he got to try some of the leftover barbecue from the Memphis in May festival, and he and Gran loved it. He also ate yogurt (and said yogurt) and a banana, all while walking back and forth between me and his Gran for each of us to give him a bite of something. His portable high chair had a bit of an accident resulting in the tray snapping off, but Handyman Steve was able to fix it right up, and we retrieved it when we stopped by to see them before the drive home. Dennis was so ready for his nap by the time we got ready to leave that he was falling over himself.

We stopped off on the Natchez Trace Parkway, because we crossed it and had never driven on it before. We had no maps or info, but a minute or so after we got on the road, we saw a sign for Buzzard Roost Spring. Of course we had to stop! It was a beautiful, dark, woodsy water hole with moss all around. We walked down to it and let Dennis put his toes in the water. He liked the feel of the tiny river stones under his feet, and he kept stepping little steps to move his feet up and down in the water. We only stayed a few minutes and, sadly enough, didn't see any buzzards roosting there.

I had the worst time trying to stay awake on the ride today. Fortunately I wasn't driving. I was the mobile Dennis entertainer. We made a Wal-Mart run somewhere in North Alabama (Moulton maybe) to try to wake me up by walking around and looking at stuff. It helped amuse Dennis as well. He smiled at everyone there, much as he did at lunch at Shoney's. At Shoney's he said "pork" and attempted to say "peach cobbler", ate without spilling much on himself, and when we weren't paying close enough attention to him, goosed the waitress bending over at the table behind him. He also perfected his technique of drinking through his sippy cup while it was held to the side of his mouth (his great Granny hates this when adults do it).

I am thrilled that we had such a nice trip and Dennis did so well on his long confinement in the car. I have hope for the long flight coming up. I plan to have an entire bag of new toys that he can reach into the bag and pull out. Some of the things will be items that he likes (water bottles, papers, napkins, maybe a roll of toilet paper...) that aren't toys.

I returned home to a Guitar Hero. David played some Nintendo Wii while we were away, and he's conquered the game on the easy level. Pretty neat. The game makes me dizzy, so I suppose I'm a Guitar Wuss. But that's ok. It's good that he had a fun weekend as well, because Dennis and I sure had a great one. And it's wonderful that we're home in bed!