wish fulfillment

We were able to do lots of playing at home today, and we were so glad. He complained about taking his nap but fell asleep just seconds after I closed his door. When he woke up from his nap, I told him we could go outside and play. His face lit up and he jumped up and down. He said "oh, thank you, Mommy. You're the best Mommy I've ever had!". He gave me a big hug and told me he loved me. We only lasted 15 minutes or so outside. It was just under 40 degrees, and we learned that it's really hard to slide down a fireman pole with gloves on. Fortunately there are no major injuries to report.

eternal why

I just can't figure out why parenting one mild-mannered, easygoing three-year-old is so absolutely exhausting. Every night this week, I feel drained to oblivion when we get home, inundated with a desire to go crawl under a rock (a soft, warm rock). I guess it's the fact that I am trapped in a never-ending, stream-of-consciousness type conversation. I'm happy to be there, am frequently delighted by the witty observations, poignant queries, and downright funny quips that I am audience to. Days like today and yesterday (which is about as far back as I can remember--oh, yeah, and Tuesday, too), where we don't spend much time at home, well, those days just clobber me, especially when there are several in a row. At home, we get an hour, sometimes more, sometimes less, of solitary play in his room, a couple of times per day. I think we need this cave time, all of us, but we don't realize it until we aren't getting it. We exhaust each other in constant company. He's asked at least a dozen times today if we could just go home so he could play in his room. It just so happened that we couldn't but will be able to in just a short while. We can't wait!

He's car-napping in this picture, en route to a shopping experience with Gran and Gigi and me. I'm pretty sure we had some real fun, and when I get some quiet and rest, I'll remember! As I write this, he is chattering away with a multitude of questions, many of them beginning in "why". I am answering each one. And I'm happy to do so. And I'll be happy to rest my brain when he finally falls asleep tonight. I love him so, even though he deemed me the Wicked Stepsister in his role playing today. He sat on his pink throne there in the store and said "I am King Dennis, now you must bow down to my cute little feet." I elected not to. Gigi was his princess, but Gran and I were the Wicked Sisters. Gigi was the hero in all our scenarios today, and rightly so. We love our visits with her!

hello, home

We went on a little road trip today to have lunch with Granny. Dennis was delighted to descend on her toy stash and merrily play. And, get this, he actually put away stuff as he finished with it before moving on to the next things! We praised him, of course, and he told his Dad about it as soon as we arrived back home. Speaking of our arrival, Dennis was looking around when we exited from the interstate and happily asked "is this town? Are we back in town? Are we home?". We told him we were indeed back, and he said "yay! I love coming home!". He also said "when we leave our home, we get sick sometimes." I wonder why he thinks this, really. We have had some miserable colds this winter, but I don't know what made him connect those with germs from the outside world.

Quote of the day, from Dennis as he was waiting on me to get my stuff together to get out of the van: "Mommy, you caused confusion and delay!". I promised to try to stop.

origins

We had a bit of a biology lesson at Uncle Denny's tonight. We talked about mammals and reptiles and tried to help him make the differentiation. We taught him about 'ingredients' labels, because he's forever asking "what's in this?". For my efforts, I was rewarded with a particularly neat bit of Dennis Wisdom. I asked him if he knew where eggs come from. I can't recall if it's ever come up, so if it has, it hasn't been a recent conversation. He considered for a long moment and then said "eggs come from egg hides". I'll admit, it took me a second to process what he might have meant. I clarified, asking him if he meant that eggs come from Easter egg hunts, and he looked relieved and said "yes!", glad that I understood what he meant. Egg hides. He does love to find hidden Easter eggs, and I suppose that's as good a place as any to get your eggs. I'm surprised he didn't say Walmart or Winn Dixie, actually. He didn't seem surprised when I mentioned chickens as an egg source. It must be time for another farm visit, at any rate.

Secret Agent Man

It started when he found a pair of Pop's sunglasses on the desk. Immediately he put them on and assumed a crazy, wide-legged crouch, saying "I'm Secret Agent Dennis." He gave some secret agent style hands gestures (okay sign, thumbs up, finger gun, etc) and then jumped up and turned and landed in another crouch. And then he rolled forward into a somersault, hopped up, and took off running. At the doorway, he gave a jump spin, landed into a crouch, gave us a thumbs up, turned another somersault, and then headed in another direction. I have no idea where the inspiration for this came from, but suddenly there he was, in his very own episode of Mission Impossible. I even started to sing the theme music. I gave him a mission: find and put on his tennis shoes in 30 secondes. He took so long crouching and spinning and sneaking that he was a little late in his accomplishment of the task. We were trying to get him out of the house and into the car so we could leave Gran's and Pop's house. It took a few "missions" to get out the door, and watching him stalk and sneak his way to the car, striking poses every few steps, was absolutely hilarious. We had to retrieve his sunglasses from my purse so that he'd leave Pop's pair behind. It was full on dark outside by this time, but that didn't deter our little agent. When we got to Arby's for supper, he had morphed into a regular hungry little boy... until we got inside. There he found a 'game room' with a sit-in flight simulator game. It was all we could do to get Pilot Dennis to stop and eat before he was off to pilot another commercial flight.

Tonight during his bath (after he played "oil spill" with a cup of bath water that was pretend 'oil'), he told me "Mommy, you're the best Mommy I've ever had!". Best compliment ever!

playground wars

After over a month apart, Dennis and Chloe reunited this afternoon for a play date and Christmas gift exchange at a McDonald's with an indoor playground. I knew there might be trouble when we arrived and saw a sign on the playground door announcing that the room was reserved for a birthday party. The children inside were a good bit older than Dennis and Chloe. We kept them out for nearly an hour while we ate and talked and they opened gifts, and then we sent them in to play. We'd driven a half hour each to get to this particular location with the indoor play area, and we had every intention of letting them wear each other out with vigorous play, especially after the long cold-weather-and-illness spell we've just been through. Of course no one complained. They might should have. We opted not to sit in there with them (hot, loud, need I say more?), but we sat where we could watch them through the glass. They pushed and shoved each other some, not enough to warrant intervention, but then we noticed shouting and pointing and some light shoving between them and all the bigger kids. They were holding their own, maybe even going beyond holding their own when Ellen stepped in to take a look and listen. I saw Dennis jump off the play structure while roaring at several kids, even pushing at one of the girls. Chloe and a bigger guy were shouting and waving fingers at each other, and he climbed up onto a pipe where they couldn't get to him, so Chloe and Dennis climbed up the staircase thing and yelled at him through the mesh barrier. The big kids apparently decided to block them from getting into one part of the playground, shoving them back and surrounding them, until one of their parents intervened. Then Dennis and Chloe took over that area and the bigger kids went to the other side. Our little guys did a victory dance for a second until they realized that they were alone, and that's when they decided to climb up after the big kids. A giant wad of children came out the tunnel after we sent Chloe up to fetch Dennis. He was the last one out. I'm unclear whether Chloe demanded they all get down or if they were all in Dennis' way or if they had just decided en masse to exit the structure just then. We collected our two little hotheads and took them to Walmart to shop. Dennis told us "they said we were losers and they wouldn't let us play with them. So we said THEY were the losers." I guess things escalated, but they did have a fabulous time. And they bonded together in their time of adversity as well as burned off a good bit of energy. All in all, a successful venture.

When we got home, we played Hungry Hungry Hippos (one of his gifts, a HUGE hit). I always wanted that game growing up. It IS as fun (and as loud) as it looks--I always knew it would be! Later tonight, Dennis put a pair of pants on his head and let the legs trail down over his shoulders. "Look," he said, "I'm Rapunzel!". Never a dull moment here, even when we occasionally wish for one.

taking prisoners

I don't know where Dennis got his love and knowledge of the intricacies of police work. He really ambushed us tonight, grabbing my leg repeatedly to "take me to jail", but even I didn't get the treatment that poor Gran got! She was his prisoner many times (because she borrowed the dustpan and I didn't have it when I needed it). She was wearing imaginary handcuffs and taunting Officer Dennis just a bit when he told her she couldn't say those things because she was in handcuffs. For some unknown reason, she told him she could talk because he hadn't gagged her mouth. He then put a pretend gag on her, just as Uncle Denny mentioned duct tape. He was kidding, of course, but imagine Dennis' excitement when he found a roll of scotch tape. He actually taped her mouth. In this picture, he's taping (cuffing) her hands. She was a great sport about it, laughing through her bondage, and Dennis was so pleased with himself that his cheeks flushed bright pink in pure delight. I can't imagine when he's had a more willing playmate than Gran, so much so that he said he didn't want to come home tonight but wanted to go stay with her instead. Uncle Denny acted as police car and driver, shuttling Dennis around on his super cool electric wheelchair and making siren noises. Much fun was had by all.