READ, Mommy!

Today was a much busier day here. While not 100% recovered as of yet, Dennis and I did feel well enough to engage in some major playing. We played trains for a time and then we drove the Chevron cars around and around the perimeter of his bedroom rug. There were major pile-ups every couple of minutes or so, and sometimes the cars would run off the 'road' and crash into random furniture. Good times.

Dennis was pretty excited that we actually made it out of the house today. I decided that it was time to get back to the gym after my miserable days of bed rest. I had just won Member of the Month and was supposed to get my picture taken on Monday and instead was too sick to go. I went today and figured I'd take it easy on my workout and not use the electronic personal trainer, but I went ahead and worked hard and used the keytag anyway. I'm glad I did. I feel pretty good tonight. Working out usually clears my head and energizes me, and tonight I was able to cook and do a little cleaning. The holiday workout challenge ended for me today. The challenge was to not gain any weight over the Thanksgiving holiday and we had to work out at least 3 times per week and get weighed every week for a month. If you didn't gain weight, you get a prize. If you lost weight, you get a better prize. If you lost the most weight, you get the biggest prize. I lost 10 pounds. I can't wait to see what my prize is! I digressed a little there--I took Dennis with me to the gym and we waited outside in the car for David to meet us. He took Dennis shopping at the flea market next door while I was working out. He was just delighted to be out somewhere. When we first pulled into the parking lot, he pointed to the lit Christmas tree in the window and said "Cree!" (Dennis for 'Christmas tree'). I'm going to have to take him around to look at lights. I should have done it tonight, but it's damp out (even if it is pretty warm) and some people don't turn them on in the rain.

The picture shows him just after he snatched the novel I was reading from the back of the couch (it seems nothing is unreachable anymore). He appears to be 'reading' it, though in a mighty uncomfortable position. We read many books together today, which delighted him, and he was so happy that Mommy felt well enough to play with him again. We watched part of The Santa Clause movie but the movie didn't hold his interest today since he felt up to playing. I have hope that we'll get better, except now David has the early symptoms. If only his case won't be as bad... I won't pack for our vacation until I know that he can finish the job he's working on and stay well at the same time. It's a pretty tall order, but God can handle anything. If it's His will that we go, we'll go on our trip. I admit, I really really hope it's His plan for us to go!

All week long, throughout my illness, I've been the recipient of many baby hugs and several (wet, disgustingly sweet) baby kisses. He seemed to feel sorry that I felt so bad and was very loving and cuddly. I'm sure that's helped my recovery. He's one extraordinarily sweet child, and I'm so happy that he's that way.

Tonight he adopted a basket (the one I got as my Member of the Month prize) and loaded his nativity set into it. I am delighted that he cleaned! Usually I keep the set out on his table, but now it's in the basket on his shelf. He'll have fun dumping it out tomorrow. Oh, and we've named a second wise man. While we were looking at a Sesame Street page, I was asking him to name characters. When I asked him where Zoe was, he ran over to the table and grabbed the Oriental wise man character. So now we have Yo and Zoe. Can't wait to see what the third one will be called.

Speaking of characters, David and I have been noticing resemblances of ourselves and each other to the characters in the movies we've been watching. He's Shrek, I'm Donkey. He's The Grinch, I'm Clark Griswold. We just sort of began noticing these things. We were watching Shrek the Halls with Dave and Ellen, and I just kept finding myself hearing David whenever Shrek talked. I looked over at him, didn't say anything, and he said "I know. I'm Shrek. I just realized it. But you're Donkey." I had to agree. He did the same thing yesterday when I was watching Christmas Vacation, watching Clark Griswold decorate the house and go way overboard on everything--he just kept looking at me, so I admitted the resemblance. Sad. Makes me scared to watch any more holiday movies! We haven't seen A Christmas Story yet (he claims to hate it but laughs every time he sees it) or Miracle on 34th Street or It's a Wonderful Life (the one I hate--it's so depressing), but we've seen Elf (guess who resembles Elf) and The Grinch and White Christmas and the others I've already mentioned. I think Dennis has liked The Charlie Brown Christmas special and White Christmas the best. He likes the classics!