more Christmasing

Today we had Christmas at Dennis' Grandma's house with David's sisters and their husbands and children. He got to see more cousins and play with them. He really played with Laine's dollhouse today, rearranging the furniture and putting the fireplace on the porch. He enjoyed pushing Laine around on the ride-on car and I think she enjoyed it too! He played tea party with Emily's brand new tea cart and showed off his trains to everyone. His presents included a Thomas the Train book and music player, a basket of play fruit, a set of pots and pans for his kitchen, a set of farm books, and a tool truck. Seeing that there were more presents under the tree, he could barely restrain himself from opening them. And since Phillip didn't come, Silas wasn't there to open his gifts. Toward the end of the afternoon, his Grandma decided to let Dennis open one and it was a roll along train, which he liked but Emily loved (it's hers now) and then before we could stop him, Dennis ran over and tore the edge off the big gift. We let him open it, with Becky saying she could re-wrap it later, but then he saw it was a Fisher Price Little People play set, one that he didn't have with 2 trucks and a police station and some people. He carried it from one person to the next begging us to "open?". He was so persistent and loved it so much that she went ahead and gave it to him. He was very excited and seated himself under the dining room table and played contentedly with it for quite a while.

He doesn't feel too good. I am almost sure he's getting in those other 4 molars now and he's drooling constantly. His cough was a little better today like ours, but also like ours is worse when lying down. We let him get back up tonight (he never napped today and we tried to put him down early) to play with us and he ran excitedly back and forth to his kitchen, bringing us food that he'd 'prepared'. The corn he brought me was pre-drooled on, but of course I pretended it was delicious. When he finally went to bed, he was in a great mood and ready to sleep.

I don't know if he could possibly be any cuter than he is at this age. I love his little words that he says, carefully enunciating them (tonight: "corn"), and the smile that he gets when he knows you've understood him. And I love the hugs and kisses--they are the sweetest! Tonight he acted like he was going to kiss David but instead blew a raspberry on his cheek. We laughed until all 3 of us dissolved into coughing fits. Surely we'll be better tomorrow.