my chair ROCKS!!!

Last night, Uncle Denny (Dennis' Godfather), bought for Dennis one of those great rocking chairs that live on the porches of Cracker Barrels nationwide. Dennis tried out all the chairs on the porch, and he didn't seem to really have a preference at first. We debated a slatted chair seat versus a woven one, and whether he'd want a painted one or a varnished wood one, and if he wanted the navy blue one that had a team logo on it or if he would not want that... At the end, he turned to the navy one, screeched in delight, and ran over to it and climbed in. That sealed the deal. It's the one I liked the best after all the considerations, too. It's painted dark blue and says 'Tigers' across the back. It's an Auburn team logo, and we are Auburn fans (and they don't appear to make a UAB one, where we both earned our degrees), and we like the chair very much. We pointed out a few more things that make it appropriate. The team mascot for our town is a tiger, and the school colors are orange and blue (just like Auburn), so this chair which doesn't actually say Auburn on it will also be a chair that supports Dennis' school team. Pretty neat.

He LOVES his chair. He spent much of the day climbing into the chair and out of the chair. He learned how to make it rock. Most importantly (for him), he learned how to stand up in the chair and hold on to the back of the chair and rock standing up. He thought this was great fun, much to our exceeding nervousness, but he fortunately managed to avoid falling out of the chair. He did slip once and bump his little bottom on the arm of the chair, and it hurt enough to cause him to get teary-eyed, but soon he was standing again with glee. We rewarded him effusively when he sat down, cheering and clapping, and we thought this might work. Pretty soon he was standing up in the chair clapping and attempting to direct us to clap along with him (for him). We didn't encourage this behavior. He did so much that was cute today, though, and he played for an adoring audience of some of his biggest fans tonight, including his grandparents and Godfather (and his parents, too!). We sure do love that little guy.