half-naked chef

Here he is, playing in the toy kitchen at the lake house!

The past two days have been extremely busy for us, spending some final time with Jason before he leaves and trying to help Gran and Pop get on the road for their big cross-country driving trip. I would like to say that tonight we can sit back and relax, but instead I'm doing laundry and packing for our camping weekend in Decatur. We leave in the morning. We could probably wait until Saturday to go, but then we probably wouldn't get a very nice campsite. Tomorrow it is.

Dennis was pretty irritable yesterday, and I might have gotten frustrated if I didn't give him the excuse of tiredness after playing with his cousins coupled with fairly bad diaper rash. He did enjoy playing with Gran some while I worked on cleaning their car. And then he had a nice supper with Grandma and her friend and spent the evening there as David and I actually went to dinner and a movie. That's two movies we've been to the theatre for since Dennis was born! It was a late night, and we picked Dennis up after midnight and brought him home. He had a little fever, and I checked on him many times last night. So much so that I feel like a bit of a zombie at the moment. Surely we will all sleep good tonight. No more fever today, and profuse drool, so I am left to presume that there's some tooth action going on somewhere in his mouth. Not that he'll let me see, of course, since his teeth are a closely guarded secret. We only see them when he decides to show them to us.

Today he was our little buddy. David played in his room with him this morning while I finished detailing the vehicle for Gran and Pop. Side note: Isuzu Troopers are BIG cars. BIG. It was more of a project than I anticipated, but I did enjoy watching it look better with every swipe of Armor All and every pass on the outside with Turtle Wax and the buffer. Yes, we do own a buffer. Nice piece of history behind it. Seems our 'friends' gave our old Chevy Caprice a serious decor job after our wedding, and Uncle Denny helped us get the buffer so that we could clean it up. We soon realized that we should have waxed the car BEFORE the wedding, as black shoe polish soaks into old paint (who uses black shoe polish on a pale blue car, anyway?). In the brightest sunlight, that car still said "Do The Wild Thing" on the hood, and the older gentleman we sold it to must have been the talk of his neighborhood. David swears he saw it on a truck of crushed cars one day and he reported that there were still 'happy sperm' swimming all along the bottom of the doors--our friends have such lovely and mature taste in car decor. And before I make our friends sound like total immature losers, let me report that we were 19 and 20 when we married, and most of our friends were still in their teens.

Though I might have been tempted for a minute, I did not write any phrases on the Trooper's paint job or windows. It's sparkling now, and I hope it gets Gran and Pop safely and comfortably to Washington. Dennis rode around in my car with me after I finished it, after saying goodbye to his Gran, and we slummed and ate McDonald's for supper. I was at loose ends and didn't know what to do with myself after they left, so I found myself driving us to the lake house to have a picnic on the deck and take supper to David. Becky and Bob were there as well, and Dennis enjoyed showing his Grandma how he can walk up stairs now instead of crawling, using the railing and spindles to help him step up. He was very proud.

Yesterday, he went to his bedroom door and told me he wanted to go outside (by saying "outside" of course), and I had been trying to catch him so I could put his shoes on. I got one shoe on and he escaped before I could put on the other one. He went back to the door to beat on it and ask "outside?". I told him we couldn't go outside until he had his shoes on, and he turned right around and came and sat in my lap and held up his bare foot. I was very surprised. I just told him that to make conversation with him, and I couldn't believe he understood what I meant. His comprehension increases every day along with his vocabulary. I'm trying everything I can think of to keep him interested in books and to keep naming the things he sees. He even wants me to identify the sounds he hears now. He can sure tell when a boat is coming. He hears it and announces "boat", then points to it. Today he waved at the neighbors going by on their boat. He waved first, and then I think he got a wave in return once they saw him. It's a job keeping that smart little brain stimulated, but it's a challenge I'm enjoying immensely. I can't wait to see what he learns next (and I know I may regret these words!).