elmo knows

We didn't have much energy around here today. We got to bed late after coming home late, and we slept late on top of that. Our major event was a trip to Prattville to buy lumber at Lowe's. Dennis spent a good bit of the day in the car, poor fellow, but we did break up the monotony by 1) switching up vehicles (he got to ride in Grandma's truck) and 2) stopping at Bass Pro Shop to look at the fish and boats. He got his first pair of real Crocs today--his feet are finally big enough to somewhat fit into the smallest size. We got him a brown camo pattern because that's what was his size, but thinking about it, they will match his fall clothes pretty well. That is, they'll match the kinds of clothes I plan to outfit him in this fall. I don't have many fall clothes for him yet save what Caedmon has passed down to him and a few awesome long-sleeved t-shirts that Gran picked up for him at the end of last season. I suppose we'll need a couple of pairs of khaki pants and another pair of jeans, and maybe a button down or two, and that should take care of it with what he already has, unless he has a major growth spurt. I'm not overly worried about shopping yet, as it will be shorts weather for some time to come. And he's still wearing 9 month and 12 month shorts, some of which he wore last summer! They are shorter on him this year, but still almost knee length. He is not a long legged child.

The highlight of his day was his visit to his Grandma's house where he ran around and around, playing with the toys in the grandchildren's closet. She had bought him a special board book about Daddy kisses and he gave it a cursory reading before tossing it onto the floor, which is how he treats most of his new things these days. It's a good book, though, and I imagine we'll add it to the board book rotation. He spent much of his visit trying to wreak havoc with the kitchen trash can. It has one of those swinging lids and it just fascinates the heck out of him. There wasn't any trash within reach, but that didn't stop him from walking in there every 6 minutes or so to check and then try to add things that weren't actually trash. He managed a juice box all on his own today without wearing it all, and I was so proud. I shared my glass of ice water with him (always risky--he's bad to backwash), and after the third sip, he pulled away and pursed his lips and spit water out all over my leg. It was more a concentrated stream than a spray, and it soaked me. I couldn't do anything but laugh because it was so unexpected, and such a good shot as well.

He played with his new Elmo learning laptop in the car pretty much nonstop, and when I was following David from the lake in the Blazer after we'd dropped off the lumber, David reached his Elmo limit. I got a desperate phone call from him asking "How many shovels are there?". There are pictures that accompany the number pad (and 8 different scene cards to use) and Dennis doesn't even know what a shovel is so didn't know to press the number 2. He had pulled the lever that makes Elmo ask him a question but never answered the question, and Elmo continued to ask him over and over again how many shovels there were until David reached a moment of insanity and grabbed the laptop. He was driving and didn't have time to count shovels so he called to ask if I knew! It just so happened that I did know, because Elmo had badgered me with the same query some time earlier in the day. David pressed the 2, and all was well, and Dennis got his laptop back. We bought it because he open and close it and can push the buttons and Elmo will tell him the number he pushed, or the color, or the shape... And then will use a comparison, as in: "2, there are 2 shovels", or "red, the number 4 in the picture is red", or "circle, the wheel on the wheelbarrow is a circle". We thought it might satisfy his button pushing need and save our laptops at the same time. I just wish it was Oscar's learning laptop, or Cookie Monster's, or Ernie's, but instead we are stuck with Elmo's nauseatingly cute little monster voice. It is the first toy I've seen him spend over 30 consecutive minutes playing with, though. Kudos to Fisher Price for that.

The laptop stayed in the car when we came in for the evening, and tonight while getting ready for bed we had a Drive-Thru story time. I read a rather long Dr. Seuss tale (The Sleep Book), and Dennis didn't want to get out of his car and sit in my lap while I read. No problem. But then it turned into an I'll-play-with-every-toy-in-my-room-while-Mommy-sits-there-and-reads story time, and we'd just cleaned up. We paused the story for pajama and tooth-brushing time, and David was scooping him up into the crib as I read the last page. We had a quick kiss and getaway, and when I checked on him a few minutes ago, he hadn't really moved from the position he went down in. Tired little guy. Yesterday was a big day. And he's probably tired from the screaming fit he had when I put him down for his nap without Froggy. Oops. Froggy was in the car somewhere and I tried to substitute Elmo or Snoopy, but he screamed like I was killing him. I wanted to think that maybe it was time to try and substitute a replaceable stuffed friend, instead of the One of A Kind Froggy, but it was a no go. I ran to get Froggy, and when I handed him to Dennis, Dennis promptly shut his screaming mouth, clutched Froggy to his chest, sat down, laid down, then went to sleep, all while I stood there at his crib side and watched. Amazing. And scary. I'm going to have to buy fabric to make another one as well as tattoo our phone number on Froggy and offer a reward if he's ever found away from Dennis. We watch him like a hawk whenever he goes into a store with Dennis (which we try to avoid), and we always are asking each other "Do you have Froggy?". Froggy is our other child.

Now we are all in bed, recharging from yesterday because we never really got it together today. We were tired and cranky and disjointed, all 3 of us, and maybe a good night's sleep will put us all back together. The pictures! Oh, yeah, gotta explain those... He was napping and it was time for supper. I went in to wake him and he didn't want to wake up. I called his name, he opened one eye to a slit and looked at me, then closed it back and pulled Froggy up over his face. I asked him if he wanted to get up and play, and I got nothing. But then I said "Do you want to eat?" and both eyes popped open and he stood right up and held out his arms. He walked right to the kitchen for supper. I mistimed it a bit, and he was in his high chair about 5 minutes too early but was extraordinarily happy to munch on an Oreo appetizer while he waited. It's possibly the happiest he was all day.