long Wednesday

This morning after we finished breakfast, the girls from next door were knocking again, inviting us to come and swim off their dock. We happily joined them, smiling as Dennis ran and jumped off their dock yelling "to infinity and beyond!" as he leapt into the water. He's starting to say it correctly now, and I admit I'll kind of miss his "to divinity and beyond!", which always made me smile. We swam for quite a while before heading into their house for sandwiches, and the girls taught Dennis how to putt a golf ball with a putter perfectly sized for him. It makes me want to take him to play putt-putt somewhere now.

Though he complained that he wasn't tired, he fell asleep as soon as I put him down for his nap, and when we got up, we headed to church. There were eight children in his class tonight, and David and I completely lost control of them about 45 minutes into it. We actually lost control a few times, but they took over at the end and we gave up and let them have free play time. We did actually complete an entire lesson before this point, so I don't feel too bad about it. Dennis and Joshua fought, Grace and Peyton fought, Ava Claire bopped Joshua on the head with an inflatable palm tree and Dennis pinched Joshua to get him to stop smacking Ava Claire. Grace and Maddie snuck off to the bathroom to have a girl party that I had to interrupt, and Reagan tried to teach the class when she wasn't shoving Joshua or shooting David death-ray glares. Hope (who is ten and was visiting with Peyton) was a BIG help and she kept Peyton involved and engaged, which we are so thankful for because he is the youngest in the class. Ava Claire actually remembered the two bible verses I taught last week and recited them for us. And all the children took turns praying out loud (SO wonderful) because they wanted to. It was one of the longest hours of my life!

Dennis informed us after church that he did NOT want to go home--he wanted to go back to the lake house, and he worried us about it over and over as we drove home to check the mail and our pets. He had a great day today, and he even got to visit Uncle Denny after 10 tonight, nearly falling asleep at the table as he ate his Burger King snack. He told us he didn't want to go to bed, but he didn't really fight us about it. He talked to himself for about 10 minutes to unwind before falling asleep. I think David beat him there!

I started to inflate the big kiddie pool I bought for him--do you know how much air goes into those things? I estimated 15 minutes to blow the thing up, and Dennis watched me as he wrung his hands in anticipation. I think I might have it inflated by Friday, if I'm lucky!

impromptu campfire

We were settling in for the evening, Dennis and I, waiting for David to get off work and come back to the lake house for a late supper, when we heard a knock at the door. Laura and Mary Beth (and Holly and Brownie the dogs) were at the door inviting us to come next door for a hot dog and marshmallow roast. We accepted and joined them and had the nicest time! It was a perfect night for grilling outside, and the kids had fun turning long-handled forks of goodies over the fire. Dennis grilled marshmallows but refused to eat the warmed ones. He did eat a grilled hot dog, though. The kids lost interest after a while and kicked a ball around in the yard before going inside to play with wooden trains. I enjoyed sitting around the fire with the Halls, chatting until David finally arrived and joined us. We dragged Dennis kicking and screaming from the toys just before 11 and brought him back to our place. We had a great time, and he kept asking "can Laura and Mary Beth come and spend the night with me at our lake house?". Laura is 9 and Mary Beth is 6, so they kept a good eye on Dennis for me and I didn't really have to worry what he was up to. It was like he had honorary older sisters for the evening. Very nice.

evening prayers

Tonight we went on a brief night stroll down at the lake house, taking trash to the dumpster. Dennis likes to walk at night, and he accompanied me on the journey. While we were outside, he said "are the moon and stars smiling at us, Mommy?" and I said that God was smiling at us. He said "I want to talk to God then" and I told him to say whatever he wanted to say to God. He said "Thank you, God, for this wonderful night with the beautiful stars and thank you for the bats and the crickets and the lightning bugs and the owls." I repeated it to myself in my head all the way back to the house so I could remember his lovely words. Heartfelt, and so well-spoken! I agree. Thank you, God!

the inaugural ride

We were pounced upon well before 8 AM, something we haven't had to experience lately because we've been keeping him awake until 11:30 when he begs one of us to put him to bed. Not great parenting, I know, but the resulting sleeping in was nice while it lasted. This morning he climbed up between us in bed and said "it's time to go ride my bike outside now" and I said it wasn't time yet because it was still time to sleep. He said "no, it's sunny outside" and I agreed but said it was still time to sleep. He said "BUT IT'S SUNNY OUT THERE--LOOK!" and snatched up the shade and pointed and said "see?". We got up. Since it's Father's Day, I made biscuits, sausage, and scrambled eggs with cheese, and we tried to get Dennis to concentrate on eating to no avail. David had to leave for work and Dennis was still working on his food.

About noon, we headed outdoors to see if we could find a neighbor with an air pump to inflate his bike tires (again he told me it didn't need air in the tires because it was perfect and didn't need anything). Everyone was busy, so he rode to the marina on the dirt road with me trotting close beside him. He asked me to let go as we were heading downhill, so he had his first little bike wreck just at the corner where we'd turn to go the marina. He flew off the bike and landed on his hands and knees, and I ran and scooped him up and brushed him off and waited for his reaction. He burst out laughing and said "whoo! I had a little accident, didn't I, Mommy?". He did scrape his knee, but he didn't discover that til 2 hours later (and of course whined about it then and needed a band-aid). The marina wasn't yet open, so Dennis very happily played with the sand toys in the sand out front of the store. Some folks drove up to launch their boat (and in retrospect, I'm pretty sure the folks were Gran's neighbors in town), and Dennis told them "I'm having a wonderful day at the beach!". When the marina opened, they very graciously inflated Dennis' bike tires, and I dragged him away screaming that he wanted to play in the sand some more. He was so hot and red-faced that I though we should go in for a while and cool off, and I tried my best to convince him to swim, but he didn't really want to.

I was just about to put him down for his nap when I heard from Allison that she wanted to meet us for supper at San Marcos, so we skipped the nap and got ready to go into town. I decided we'd go ahead and stop by Wal-Mart to look for bike reflectors while we were waiting on her (no bike reflectors there). It turned out to be too early for the dinner hours at San Marcos (they re-open at 5), so we met at Burger King instead much to Dennis' disappointment. He did insist on showing her his new bike, so we took it with us and he climbed on it and gave her a little demo of how he looked when he was riding.

He crashed after we got home and I intended to let him nap for an hour, but I couldn't get him to get back up. It's going to be an early morning tomorrow! The highlight of my day: handing him my iphone in the Wal-Mart bathroom to keep him occupied while I, um, attended to business, only to have him laughingly turn it to the camera setting and snap photos of me on the toilet. I was laughing in the photos, even though I was trying my best to look stern, and I was looking at them later in the car as I deleted the not-G-rated ones and Dennis piped up from the backseat "are you looking at those toilet pictures I took of you, Mommy? That was funny!". Nice.

is it bike time yet?

Dennis got up this morning asking about his new bicycle which we purchased (well, he purchased it for the most part) unassembled. He couldn't wait for me to get it out of the car, so I did so about mid-morning. He hovered around the box and removed various parts, and he announced "I'm going to need some tools for this job" and disappeared into his room. He immediately reappeared with his toolbox in hand and another little case along with it, telling me "this is my special 'quipment'". Before there were nuts and bolts and assorted necessities scattered hither and yon, I assured him that Daddy would be putting it together tonight after work.

We are at the lake tonight, and David did indeed assemble the bike while Dennis watched and offered 'helpful' commentary. "Daddy, I think it needs pedals" and "Daddy, I think it's time for the seat" and he would grab random pieces of it and try to help. David loves to be watched and instructed while he works on projects, so he was at the very outer limits of his patience as Dennis danced around and cavorted right around his workspace. He held on, though, and actually let Dennis hold the bike while he adjusted the brakes and straightened the steering and performed other manly bike adjustment things that elude my comprehension. We did forget the air pump, and when we told Dennis that we'd need to put air in the tires, he said "no, it's PERFECT! my bike is just perfect!". He told us the same thing when we commented that it didn't have any reflectors on it ("it's perfect--it doesn't need 'flextors'"). I'm glad he loves it. He rode it around and around the tiny space at the lake house and can't wait to ride it outside.

real man fun

When we left the house this morning, we didn't get farther than the foot of our own driveway. We saw in our neighbors' yard about six or seven fire trucks and fire personnel and medics everywhere as their home smoldered after what was apparently a major fire. Since Mom and Dad own this particular place, we had to break some bad news to Dad, and it so happened that we were actually on our way to pick him up and take him to the airport. He came out to talk to the firemen and then talked to the insurance adjuster--no one was home, thank goodness, but we had to locate the renters and notify them about what had happened. We hope to help them get into a new place on Monday, and we have decided to leave the country when Mom and Dad go on their next vacation without us. Lately, a trip out west for them has meant calamity and catastrophe back home!

Dennis did get to meet all the firemen and ask them questions, and they were so patient and informative! He got to sit in the engine of his choosing and walk around the scene checking out the hoses and tanks and helmets and boots.

We did get Pop to the airport in plenty of time, and after we dropped him off, we went to the Southern Museum of Flight. We were amazed to see the changes since the last time we were there, and we were also a little shocked that it was $7 each to get in (free for Dennis). About halfway through our tour of the place, a museum official came to ask Dennis if he was having fun. When he said he was, we were told that we could get a family membership to the museum for just $20, $6 on top of the admission we had just paid, and the membership is reciprocated at so many places which include the Anniston Museum of Natural History, the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, the Gulf Coast Exploreum, an Emerald Coast children's museum, and another science type museum in Orlando, ALL places we plan to visit this year (where we will now get in FREE!). There's even a nice children's museum in Austin, TX, on the list if we get there by the end of the year! We were impressed with the flight museum--looked at many nice aircraft displays, enjoyed climbing into the flight simulators and pretending to fly the jets, and played for a long time in the children's room full of tables of Lego airports and other various airport type toys.

You'd think that would be enough, but we called Jason to see if he wanted to join us for dinner or something. He suggested Toy Story 3 starting in 15 minutes, and that's just what we did. He treated us all to the movie, excited to be at Dennis' first theater experience. Dennis did GREAT, quietly watching the movie (totally absorbed--he loved the first 2 Toy Story movies), happily munching his popcorn.

After that? Well, something pretty special, actually. This morning (way back before the fire incident), he told us "I want to use the money in my bear bank to buy my very own big boy bicycle today." So tonight we got to Toys R Us minutes before they closed, and he test drove some bikes before choosing a very nice Huffy bike, dark blue with lime green accents and an Ocean Reef motif. He paid for well over half of it with the spare change he's found and put in his bear bank over the past year.

The fun didn't stop there! He wanted a hamburger and we were starving, so we went to Whataburger and then Dunkin Donuts in Pelham before spending a half hour playing at the train table at Books-A-Million. I'm not sure he could have had a more boy-activity-filled day than he had today. It was 11:30 when we got home!

Granny's birthday dinner

We had an early birthday dinner for Granny tonight at Uncle Denny's place after spending the entire day at the lake with Granny and Uncle Denny. Dennis enjoyed taking a walk with Granny and playing construction site with her, and I know she had as much fun as he did. Of course I was happy to listen to all her raving about how special Dennis is since I totally agree. She got to hear him sing and saw him point out some letters and read a word, and she heard him saying his night night prayers at nap time. She heard him recite the Lord's Prayer in its entirety and was super impressed--Dennis loves this prayer. He also said the blessing for us at the table for both lunch and supper, and he helped me clear the table and load the dishwasher. He had some moments of wildness, naturally, but he was good today and so much fun. I'm so glad we all had such a good day, and I hope Granny's 80th is a perfect day when it rolls around on the 21st.

The cutest part of our day involved Granny teaching Dennis to snap beans. She brought these from her garden and they were delicious. And Dennis is one excellent bean snapper.