go go gran

Mom (Gran) drove us safely back home yesterday and Dennis was wonderful for all those hours on the road. Whenever we'd stop, though, he'd chant "go go gran" or yell "GO!". He was beyond delighted to be reunited with his toys last night when we got in, well after midnight. He ran around, grabbing them from shelves and showing them off to Granny. As charged up as he was, it was easy to get him to sleep. He snuggled right into his crib and was out in a matter of minutes. He got up a bit early this morning, still on eastern time, but took a nice long nap this afternoon.

This morning he went to the refrigerator, pointed to it, and said "milk". I asked him if he wanted milk and he said "no" and walked away. He has learned how to use 'no' very effectively just since last week, and I presume it's Chloe that taught him this new skill. It's not so bad, though, because he's able to tell us when he doesn't want something. So far he's not used the word loudly or with open defiance. But I'm sure that's coming.

Yesterday in the car he kept asking for cake. I don't know what made him think of cake yesterday in particular, though he did keep pointing at the fridge in the cabin and saying cake while we were there (because last week there was wedding cake in the fridge all week to sustain us through our snowed-in period). But we weren't at the cabin when he started his cake mantra yesterday. After a couple of hours of this, Granny bought him a piece of cake at a gas station, and when I handed a piece to him, he yelled "CAKE!!" and then, for at least fifteen minutes, we kept hearing "mmmm cake thank you". He was overjoyed with his treat.

It's good to be home. There are no big trips on the horizon and no money to plan any, so I imagine we'll be happily playing at our house for a while. Or from the lake house, which Dennis loves (we all do).