all smiles

I'm happy to report that my sweet little guy was back in residence today. That little whiny guy from yesterday wasn't around today, thank goodness. I'm glad those days are more the exception than the rule.

He was in such a great mood all day. I suppose we can attribute it to lots of rest, because he slept quite well and took nice long naps as well. We played with his farm this morning, and when I stepped out to go to the kitchen for his juice cup, I heard a crash. A cyclone hit the ole' farmstead while I was out, and cows, horses, geese, apples, and farmers (plus a couple of barns) were whisked to all corners of his room. Dennis really seems to be into catastrophe playing these days. Guess we'd better warn the pets.

He talked a good bit today, and he's starting to ask for specific things. When we were in the car headed to have lunch with David, he kept asking "Daddy?". And later when we left there without David in the car, he again insisted "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy?" until I had to roll down the car window and have David assure him that he was coming home as well. When he woke up from his nap, he said "Mommy. Daddy? Cheese." So I took him to see David and fed him some cheese crackers, and he couldn't have been happier.

He was very affectionate today, climbing in my lap and kissing me with a "mmmwwaaaaa" sound. So sweet. He's very hard to resist like this, and he knows it! He also invented a new game today, but I have serious concerns for his safety while he plays it. He found a pillowcase when he was rearranging the linen cubby, and I draped it over his head. He pulled it back off and I said "peek-a-boo", and then he was off and running. He covered his head with the pillowcase and took off, and I followed and said "peek-a-boo" whenever he peeked. He has not realized that it's not safe to walk with your eyes covered up, and he bonked his head on the table, a doorway, and the dryer. It didn't even slow him down, he just backed up and took off in another direction, still with his head covered. Though it's hilarious, I don't know how I feel about mobile peek-a-boo.

He was funny in his bath tonight too, talking and splashing nonstop. David took a bath with him (one of us always does) tonight, and he (Dennis) learned how to open and close the sliding shower doors. He thought this was great fun, and he stood up, slid open the door, looked at me, yelled "DAY" as loud as he could, gave me his most solemn and serious expression, then sat down and smiled at me. I'm sure this meant something extremely important, but I don't know what it could be.

He talked all day. We identified trees (not tree varieties, mind you, we just pointed to any tree and said "tree") and dogs because he likes to say "tree" and "dog". He also asks for juice now when he's thirsty. As far as we know, "jooooss" refers to any liquid in his sippy cup. He can repeat many words that we say now, and when I was singing the alphabet song to him, he would pronounce random letters that he heard. The one he picked out and kept repeating was "w", and that's a hard one to say ('dubbayew' is how he said it).

Tonight he watched me blow on a piece of chicken to cool it off before I put it in front of him, so he picked up all his food and blew on each piece before he ate it. He made a big production of the blowing, too. Very cute. He ate some English peas without balking, and I am mildly horrified that he rejected broccoli but ate those yucky peas. Ewwwwww. I suppose he has his Daddy's taste buds. My taste buds won't tolerate those things.

He was fun today. I love those days where he's full of smiles and laughter, when he is happy with himself and the world. I suppose there has to be a bad day every now and then just to make me appreciate all the good ones we have, and there are so many good ones!