shopping fun

Dennis helped me shop tonight for some things that Uncle Denny needed. David met us there and Dennis was looking all around for him. He was calling "Daddy, where are you my Daddy.". He looked to the rear of the store and said "I see some daddies that way" and pointed. I told him David was wearing a white shirt and black pants (the uniform for his new job at Winn Dixie). Dennis said "we have got to find him. I wish we could find him in the toys."

As always, he asked to look at toys. I distracted him with a new spelling game on the iPhone. He also asked to look at the cakes, something he's recently started to do, and he really likes the decorated birthday caked. He walked up to the bakery there and a nice lady shopping there said hello to him. He said "I want to look at the cakes" and she asked if his birthday was coming up. He said "no I just like to see the cakes with cars on them."

my new name

Dennis was busy playing, crawling along the floor on his knees and pushing a truck when he slipped and fell on an elbow and yelled "OWWW!". I asked him if he was alright and told him to be careful. He said "thank you Space Alien" and then left. I laughed and he popped his head back in and said "oh, yeah, Mommy, you are a space alien." Nice.

We are at Gran's and Pop's place now and he just told me "I am going upstairs with Gran, I'll be quick. I'll be right back, right quick." Gran is packing for her big cross country trip--she is flying out to Washington in the morning. Dennis has asked numerous times if he can join her on the flight ("oh, I would like to go to Washington, Gran, I'll come on the flight with you"). So he really hasn't asked as much as informed her he's coming along, but he understands that he can't go. Gigi is coming up to spend some days with him very soon, and she has LOTS of awesome activities planned. Dennis is going to have a very good weekend. We all are.

decoration day

Dennis spent last night at Grandma's and GrandBob's house while Mommy and Daddy went to upgrade our cell phones and then go see a movie. We hear he was well behaved, thank goodness, but didn't want to go to bed, much like things have been going at home. We woke up in the wee hours of the morning yesterday to find his head on David's belly and his feet propped up on mine. He got put in his own bed.

Today we went to Decoration, a sort of family reunion for David's family where they gather at the community cemetery and put flowers on the graves. This year the weather was cool and nice, and Dennis made friends with one of David's cousin's children, Ben. Ben is considerably older than Dennis (a teenager) but Dennis wanted so much to "go make friends with those boys" and eventually overcame his shyness enough to introduce himself and grab hold of Ben's hand to steer him in the desired direction. Dennis and Ben played a game of tag that lasted a nice LONG time (we thanked Ben profusely). Dennis met lots of family members and helped put flowers out, and he was fairly well behaved for the majority of our time there. When we got in the car to head home, I asked him what did he think (meaning, of course, about Decoration), and he said "I think...I hope I get a new fire truck for Christmas". I'm glad he told me what was on his mind!

Oh joy of joys, I got an iPhone yesterday! David had planned to buy me jewelry on the cruise (I love that man), but we didn't find any aquamarines anywhere. I told him I'd rather have an iPhone, knowing they were expensive but having wanted one for two years. When I called to get an actual price and check the availability of a refurbished one, I couldn't believe they were LESS THAN $100 BRAND NEW (because the newest one is due out later this month) ! Oh, I love the thing and I haven't even owned it 24 hours! My iPod had begun to act up a little (it's three years old) when I was using it to track my walks, and I wonder how much longer it would have lasted through the heavy use it was getting. Now I have the iPhone that acts as iPod, cell phone, and mini-computer. The best thing so far? The free apps I downloaded for kids to play--we got through a fractious car ride by letting Dennis watch an episode of Sesame Street and play Topple (like kid Tetris, but the blocks make faces and slide in the direction you tilt the phone), Memory Match, and Balloonimals (his favorite--a game where he blows near the speaker and a balloon appears on the screen and inflates, then he shakes the ipod until a balloon animal is created, then touches the animal to make it do a trick, then taps the screen until it overinflates and pops and a new balloon appears to do the whole process again with a different animal). I can foresee easier shopping trips and waits at doctor's offices, especially once I download the books that he can read on the thing. Oh, we still love ACTUAL books, but this way I can take tons of them with me and he gets the novelty of being able to play with Mommy's iPhone. Sometimes technology just ROCKS.

the muffin man

Dennis baked muffins tonight. He ate every bite of his supper (macaroni and cheese with smoked sausage--a favorite) and was still hungry, so I asked him if he'd like to help me make chocolate muffins. He agreed excitedly, so we dragged a chair up to the counter and I got out the muffin mix, a spoon, a bowl, a measuring cup, and the milk. He poured the milk into the cup and from the cup to the bowl (where he'd already poured the mix), and he took care of all the stirring. He was a little heavy-handed with the nonstick spray on the muffin pan, so I had to wipe it a bit, but he is the one who transferred the mix into the cups. He donned the oven mitts to open the oven door (under heavy supervision). Midway through all these tasks, he said "Mommy, can I put on my apron and my chef hat?" and I told him we were almost done, so he said "okay, next time then" and closed the oven door after I put in the pan. He would periodically turn on the oven light and watch and announce "they are getting BIGGER!". They turned out delicious, and he wore both oven mitts as he helped me remove the pan from the oven. He was so proud of his muffins and we all enjoyed eating them. Afterward, we all played Walk It Out on our Wii to work off the muffin calories. He told us he wanted to work out, too, so he held the controller and put the nunchuck part in his little pocket just like we do, and he liked watching his avatar make footsteps on the screen as he walked and earned points. We had a nice family workout before bedtime!

sport geese

We were driving home from the lake on the dirt roads and happened on a pair of Canada geese crossing the road. We startled them and they flew awkwardly up into the air. They flew just over to the water to our right and landed with plops and splashes. Dennis observed them skidding across the water and asked "are those geese water-skiing?". It certainly looked like it!

daily storms

Dennis has not been thrilled that the daily afternoon thunderstorms have cancelled our planned swims this week, and neither have I. There are side benefits, though, the first being that our tomato plants are producting some excellent fruit. The second benefit? Giant puddles in the yard that some little person had great fun jumping into. Luckily he was wearing his Keen water shoes (though I would have preferred the Teva sandals), so they were made for such. He was delighted to show us his yucky feet after all the puddle hopping. "Look at my cute toes--they're all muddy" he said, and he was right.

He told me the greatest thing in the car today. He said he enjoyed our cruise but that he wanted to take a "vol-cation". I presumed he meant 'vacation' and tried to clarify, and he said "no, a vol-cation--I want to go and see a volcano". He says he wants to go to Hawaii (and the way he pronounces it is too cute for words), but that he would go anywhere there is a volcano. Road trip, anyone?

buggy tradition

We caught our first lightning bug tonight (Dennis wanted to call it a firefly, and though that smacks of Yankee to me, I went along with it). He liked taking an evening walk down the driveway, and when we got to the part where the trees completely shade the center of the drive, it was dark enough to see the insects lighting up everywhere. I caught one and we brought it into the house and took it into a dark room to watch it light up. Then Dennis said "we can take him back outside now to be with his friends so he won't be sad" and we did just that. Dennis held our 'jar' and waited for the bug to fly out. When it didn't fly out right away, Dennis gave the jug a vew helpful (violent) shakes, but the bug didn't seem any the worse for wear when he flew away. I'll need to get him a proper bug habitat for the next time we do this!

Dennis sure enjoyed playing with his youngest cousin Jeff on Sunday, and Jeff is just a little over a year old. When we were walking back to the lake house, Dennis asked me "Mommy, does Jeff speak English?". I told him yes and asked if it was hard to understand him. Dennis said it was, and I explained that Jeff is just learning to talk and it might be a few months before he'd be easy to understand.