Elmo loves Dennis

Dennis enjoyed spending time with his extended family today. He walked around the cemetery with his Aunt Karen and smiled and talked to his Great Granny and his Grandma and his Aunt Melissa. He enjoyed being the center of attention today and not having to share his Grandma with those girl cousins of his.

He charmed everyone at the hotel during continental breakfast, and he loved helping us get packed up to check out. His specialty is grabbing bags and unpacking them quickly while our backs are turned. I think he could have a good future as a baggage inspector.

He wasn't so happy on the drive home, though. He slept until we arrived in Birmingham, when we so rudely awakened him to make him go inside the AT&T store with us to inquire about high speed internet, which we can get via a mobile internet card at comparable rates to what cable or DSL would cost (neither of those is available out in our area of the woods). He was extremely bored with what little selection there was at AT&T, and I didn't turn him loose for fear he'd find an iPhone and break it (who in the world could afford for that to happen?)! After we were hooked up with our card and software, we were off to find a WiFi connection to find the drivers to make it work with Vista, ha ha ha, and some lovely people at Best Buy solved the problem, mostly. The software is installed. The card that we were sold, however, is not the one that fits with our computer, and the AT&T store, of course, closed early today, so we will be redoing this whole deal tomorrow, unfortunately. Dennis pretty much lost it in Best Buy. He was exhausted, he hadn't napped enough, there were no kid friendly areas, he got tired of playing with and dropping my cell phone... Granted, he did manage to take a nice picture of my left breast with my camera phone (clothed, of course!!!). When I heard the camera noise, I grabbed the phone away from him and saw the picture, which was already set up to go out in a message. I don't know who he was planning on sending it to, but those were some lucky button pushes he had accomplished thus far, and I'm glad I intervened before the people on my contact list were left scratching their heads over that particular photo. Poor Dennis. He was so bored, and we were in there for 5 forevers while they tried to wrangle Vista into cooperating. He cried and I nearly cried, and then finally it was over and we were out of there. We checked another AT&T dealer in the mall to see if they had the right card, but they were sold out. Dennis wasn't so upset about being in the mall, especially since he got to have a cookie and milk from the cookie place there. He slept hard on the way south, and then we were at his Grandma's house to visit the family.

He was the floor show. He played with the wooden kitchen, and he held his phone up to his ear and talked, and he giggled. He successfully grabbed the bottom of a bag of Fritos and dumped them across a wide area of floor. He walked dozens and dozens of laps around the open floor plan at his Grandma's. He exuded cuteness for all to enjoy until he nearly conked out from exhaustion. Tonight he went down in his crib with nary a whimper.

Cute things of note today: He has been trying on Daddy's shoes. It's so cute to watch him try to turn the shoe and his foot in the same direction while saying "shoe" over and over again. And we have managed to find him an Elmo, and he's constantly saying "Elmo" now. We were in a bookstore today for a minute (they have nice bathrooms, okay) and he passed by a display of jumbled up stuffed animals in the children's section, grabbed a red furry limb and exclaimed "Elmo!!". When he pulled it free, it sure enough was an Elmo. I was so proud. But then he grabbed a Cookie Monster and said "Elmo" (sacrilege!!). They do look alike except for fur color, especially in a small stuffed animal type representation. I just let it go. I'm happy to report that we found a soft cuddly Elmo for him that doesn't say or do anything! We call him the Elmo Be Quiet model. Highly recommended.