go jump in a lake

The clouds cleared, the little guy refused to nap (and sang songs to himself that we enjoyed over the baby monitor for TWO HOURS), the weather was perfect: doesn't that sound like an excellent time to go swimming? We thought so. Miraculously, so did Dennis! No big complaining, no screeching "I want to go to lake house" or "we go back to dock, Mommy" 15 minutes after we got in. Little man floated and splashed happily in his puddle jumper vest and Elmo float for half an hour and then said he wanted to go inside. When he got on dock, he stepped out of the Elmo float and then said "I want to get back in the water". We let him jump in with only his puddle jumper vest on, and he did great! He actually swam, REAL SWIMMING, for several minutes, and then wanted to climb out and jump in again (and did, many times). We did it just like swim class, with him counting 1-2-3 and then jumping. His jump off the dock isn't quite like ours--he sits on his bottom and kind of scoots off on the count of 3. All the same, he was delighted with his new skill, and so were we. We were careful to explain about never jumping in without 1) his life jacket and 2) the presence of Mommy or Daddy. We're so proud of him. What a great little swimmer he was today, delightedly announcing over and over "I'm swimming in the lake!" or "Dennis is swimming in the lake!". I'm hoping for warm and sunny a few more days before fall so we can reinforce his new skills.

pre-labor day

I should mention that we bought Dennis the baby doll that he wanted, and he's been caring for it sweetly since it came home. Today we fixed a baby bed for it out of a basket and some of Dennis' old burp cloths. He likes to lay the baby down and say "it's time to go to sleep, baby" and "night night, baby, do you want some covers?" (at which point he will gently tuck the baby in) or "want to ride in the shopping cart, baby?" and when the baby has an 'accident' "are you okay, buddy?" and "you are a sweet baby" (which he follows by kissing the baby's bald head). Today he told the baby "you don't need to go to the lake house--you need to get some sleep", so it stayed home while we are here.

Allison came down again today to party with us at the lake, and to help us accomplish a tiny bit of work at Uncle Denny's place. Last night we played dominos and The Game of Real Life for hours, and we had planned to do the same tonight, but it got so late that Allison left before the gaming began. Today might have been our last lake swim of the season, we thought, and we enjoyed a little over an hour of floating and paddling around on our pool noodles. Dennis didn't join us again today because he was napping, and for this reason I hope there's a little time tomorrow when we can get him into the water. He keeps asking about swimming, and talked about it when we were in the car on our way down here today.

Today he put puzzles together while we grilled a FEAST for supper that included salmon, chicken breasts, beer brats, and mushrooms done on the grill plus black-eyed peas and corn from the stove. YUM! We marinated each meat in a different sauce concoction, and then we all ate like kings and queens. Dennis enjoyed a bit of everything as well. Mostly he wanted to get back to his puzzles. I'm impressed with how well he's doing at putting them together! There are four wooden puzzles in the box, each is 12 pieces and each depicts a different mode of transportation: airplane, ship, motorcycle, fire truck. The pieces are all stamped on the backs with a different little shape so it's easy to separate the different puzzles when all the pieces are mixed up in a big pile. I think Melissa & Doug toys are some of the best out there, and a very big thanks to Aunt Kristin and Caedmon for sending these puzzles our way--Dennis LOVES them. He opened the box from them this time and did a happy dance when he saw the puzzles inside. I love watching his chubby little toddler hands working the pieces around until they fit, that serious look on his face while he's concentrating. I spend all day every day with Dennis, and I never tire of looking at him and admiring some feature of his nicely put together toddler self. I look for the traces of baby that are rapidly disappearing, and I look for traces of the developing boy that will soon take over. I am completely head over heels for my child, and though everyone told me it would be this way, I had absolutely no idea I had this much ability to love another being. And it increases all the time! Sometimes my heart is so full it could just burst. And sometimes I would donate a kidney for two hours to myself, but those times are thankfully very rare. David let me sleep gloriously late again this morning while he breakfasted and played with Dennis, and now I feel refreshed and like I can totally enjoy being a Mommy again (hence the warm fuzziness of this post). I am enjoying this holiday weekend so much, and I just can't figure that out. After all, many people would consider most of my days to be holidays! Maybe it's because David is off work and I have child care help in him and Mom and Dad, who are also here at the lake for the weekend. At any rate, it's a good Farewell to Summer time that we're having.

last summer weekend

We're at the lake today, getting in some last summer partying and swimming (or trying to). We finally got Dennis down for his nap well after 4 pm, and we jumped in the water for about 15 minutes before the thunderstorms arrived and nixed our plans. We've been swimming a lot this summer during naptime--we'll set up the baby monitor and put it on the dock, and we'll lock the doors so Dennis can't get out of the house--one of the screened porch doors fortunately locks from the outside, and we lock all the others with hook-and-eye latches well out of his reach. It's been a good system for this summer, but I'll bet this is the last year we can do that. He might not take 2 hour naps next year, and he might be a bit more wiley about gettting out of the pack and play (and heck, he'll most likely be too big for it--he is nearly too long for it now). He has done some of his napping in the regular bed, and we listen to the monitor for him waking up. We are lucky that every time he woke up from his nap this summer, someone was already in the house to get him right up. He may never have realized that we were swimming while he slept. He asked to swim today, but I think it was so that he wouldn't have to nap. Our dream baby, the one who went to bed so easily, is starting to protest a little. He doesn't want to miss anything! Tonight when we got home, he insisted on playing with Mr. Potato Head (even though it was nearly midnight and he'd been asleep both at the lake and in the carseat on the way home). We had a little Potato Head party for 10 minutes before putting him to bed, and he cried, but only for a few minutes and then fell asleep.

This has been such a fun summer, especially all the time we've spent at the lake--it more than makes up for not having a real vacation this spring. Thank goodness for the trip to Gigi's place near the beach a couple of weeks back--that was a wonderful break. As we move into fall, we have several trips planned, plus plans to take our camper out twice a month to local state parks. We can't wait, but we can't really start this up until we've finished all the work at Uncle Denny's new house. So much to do, so little time! I can't wait for the pumpkin patch trips and the state fair and the pumpkin train ride... Now if we can only get the threat of swine flu to disappear so I lose my growing fear of taking my child to public places, it could be a wonderful autumn.

fear of fire

The Japanese steakhouse trip last night did not go as we thought it would. We thought Dennis would be totally charmed and entertained and amused, and if he had bothered to take his nap yesterday, this might have been the case. Instead, he was interested in our seating at the grill, and was 'reading' the menu to Hadden, and was generally settling in for a usual restaurant meal when two things happened. The birthday crew came out and banged a drum very loudly, and it started up right behind Dennis. When he turned his head to check out the noise, one of the other grill chefs had just set loose a giant plume of fire, which Dennis saw. Hadden and I were saying how cool it was, but Dennis had a mini-breakdown, hiding his head behind my shoulder and grabbing my hands and placing them over his ears. He stayed this way for the appetizer course (I think he got the soup course in before he became afraid), and I couldn't eat because he had both my hands. Hadden covertly requested chopsticks, and Dennis' pair came rubber-banded together with a piece of cardboard stuck up in the top, and this saved the meal. He learned to pick up rice and noodles with them and feed himself and his Thomas the Train that I found handily tucked into the front pocket of his diaper bag. The meal was fun, overall, and Hadden was the recipient of many Dennis hugs and cuddles and kisses, and this is good because it was his birthday! Dennis wanted to go back to their house after supper, and he lucked up because they are the kind of very cool hosts that have a treasure box full of Happy Meal toys for kid visitors to play with. Naturally he had a great time with these, and he has carried around his souvenir Sponge Bob all day today. The thing he's still talking about, though, and I probably should have written about it first, is his getting to see baby Hadden in the NICU. He loved this. He was not even in there for a full minute, but he was completely captivated by seeing that tiny little person in his parents' arms. We stopped by the store on the way to the lake tonight for the customary bottle of Bug Juice, and Dennis begged for a baby doll on their shelf that was about the same size as baby Hadden (and, oddly enough, wearing blue and green just as the real baby was yesterday), and said "I want the baby, the baby Hadden, please Mommy". If only I'd had more money in my pocket... Maybe tomorrow!

wishing for snow already

This morning I was greeted with "good morning, Mommy. You need to brush your teeth." Nice. I immediately ran my tongue over my teeth, trying to detect anything gross and failing. It must have been my breath. A little later, we were playing in the living room and he suddenly ran back into his bedroom. He came back in seconds, sporting his yellow toboggan cap with one ear flap over his eye (his apparent preferred method of wearing a winter hat). He said "it snowed, Mommy, I need my mittens and shoes". The shoes he brought were sandals, so I told him he really needed some snow boots. He said "yeah, snow boots" and then said "I can't open the closet, the snow boots are in there". I went to open it and saw only one snow boot. He said "where the other one?" and I told him to find it and went back to the living room. He appeared a few minutes later with his Crocs (must have given up on the search) and said "I wear Snow Crocs" and proceeded to put them on the wrong feet then said "I ready to go".

We've had to call Poison Control today--he came to us carrying an open bottle of calcium tablets, saying "I eat one" and with white goo around his mouth. No harm done, and at least it was calcium. Now we are on our way to see Jennifer and Hadden and the babies and to celebrate a special occasion with Dennis' first visit to a Japanese steak house (which should give me plenty to write about tomorrow). Happy birthday, Hadden! Dennis is currently amusing himself in the back seat, and he is pointing out clouds. We were both shocked a minute ago when he said "look at that cloud, Mommy, it's shaped like a turtle" and then "that looks like a elephant" and "look at the seahorse in the sky" and "there's a kite cloud". Neither of us have played the cloud game with him yet--we tried it half a year ago and he wasn't interested--and we looked at each other in wonder and then David revealed that the dragons on Dragon Tales played the cloud game. Aha! I spent an hour this morning praying about ways to help him develop his incredible brain, feeling some guilt about the tv shows he's watched lately, and now I found out he's actually learning. He sang Old MacDonald in its entirety and then sang the first half of the Thomas the Train opening song--he sang "they're two, they're four, they're six, they're eight, shunting trucks and hauling freight, red and green and brown and blue, they're the really useful crew". That's a pretty decent memory developing in his little head. I'm such a proud Mommy!

home, not home, home

We spent Sunday night at the lake, Monday night home, and last night at the lake. Dennis seems to be adapting well to the back and forth nature--the lake house is kind of his home away from home anyway. I guess it's time to make the official report. There has been no pacifier use since Saturday. That's 4 nights without, many car rides without, and 4 naps without. So far, so good, though he asks for it repeatedly in the car. No problems going to sleep or anything, and I feel only mild guilt for removing his mouth plug during the height of the swine flu scare. I guess we'll stay quarantined and carry hand sanitizer and/or Clorox wipes for those times we have to go to public places. Scary.

He wanted to look at pictures nearly all afternoon, pictures of himself. We looked at a zoo album from April, and he remembered at a glance "That's where the monkeys are" (not that any monkeys were evident in the photo). He also remembered his visit with Thomas the Train, back in March, and was happy to see the photos. And of course he remembered our trip to Gigi's recently, and Caedmon and Mirella's visit at the end of May. We looked at all those pictures, and I came across this one of him helping his Mommy. It made me reflect on how sweet he really is--he carries in bags for us and he actually pulled out the chair at his tiny table and said "sit here Mommy" as he held it. He says "thank you" and tonight when David passed me a french fry, Dennis looked at me sweetly and said "please please can I have french fry Mommy?", so as you know, I didn't eat it. He's a good diet helper as well!

learning to drive

Two milestone wheel-related events today! First, he got out his little trike and I saw him actually pedaling it around the living room. He asked me "How 'bout my bike helmet, Mommy?" so I went and got it for him. He pedaled forward and backward ("look at me go backward Mommy"), and he was as proud of himself as I was of him. After this, I asked him if he wanted to go outside and drive his Jeep (helmet still on), and he excitedly danced to the door. When we got out into the Jeep, he pushed the gas pedal voluntarily and drove the thing all over the place. He's still a bit sketchy on the steering, so David and I got a workout chasing him and correcting his steering, but he's getting it. Today was the first time he wasn't afraid to hit the pedal!