doing toddler things...

What a beautiful sunny fall day it was here today! Dennis enjoyed running and playing in Gran's garden several times. The first time was when I dropped him off with Pop on my way to the gym. Pop took him out into the garden and gave him a wagon ride. After the ride, Dennis went over to hoot at their plastic owl (to keep the hawks away from the koi in the pond), and in a surprise move, picked up the owl and chucked it into the pond. While Pop was fishing it out, Dennis took his toy car up to the waterfall and tried to see if it would float down. When it didn't, he threw it into the pond as well.

After lunch, Gran and I took him back out there, and he identified things to me by name. He pointed to the owl and said owl and then said "who who who". He pointed to the waterfall and said "waarful" and then to the water and said "wa-err". He showed me flowers and a chair and some rocks as well, naming each thing correctly. Then, just as I was reflecting on what a brilliant child he is, he shoved a handful of pea gravel into his mouth and took off. He spit it out as I caught up to him, of course, but this reassured me that he is, in fact, a normal toddler. Not that toddlers are normal in any way...

This morning it was quiet in his room as I was cooking breakfast, so I went in to see what he was up to. He was sitting in the big rocking chair in his room, reading a Bob the Builder book. I had to look for a few minutes before I realized what was so interesting about finding him that way. The lamp above the chair was on. I still can't fathom how he managed to turn it on, because he would have had to climb up the back of the chair and reach pretty high and turn a twist knob. But he clearly did it, because we were the only two humans in the house and the dog was in the kitchen with me. I guess he decided he needed a little more light to read by.

Tonight as I was getting him ready for bed, my stomach growled, and it was kind of a loud moaning sound. Dennis didn't respond right away so I figured he ignored it or didn't hear it, and then suddenly he looked me straight in the eye and said "moooooooo" very loudly. I don't know what else I could say that could possibly top that, so I'll sign off here!

The picture was snapped as he was rapidly driving a car toward the camera--very rapidly--so it's really only a half shot of him. But you get the idea.