relay

This was a busy Friday! Dennis and I spent the morning at home, and he had just gotten up from his nap when David got home from work. I worked the evening shift at Curves while the guys headed over to Grandma and GrandBob's place to assemble Bob's new treadmill. In exchange for this, I got an AWESOME Mother's Day gift: they gave us the elliptical machine that the treadmill replaced, and David kept with the tradition of giving me fitness gifts knowing that I'd really wanted an elliptical. I haven't tried it out much yet because Dennis absolutely LOVES the thing, and he's pretty good at it. He kept pointing to the recumbent bike (last year's Mother's Day gift) and telling me to ride it so we'd be working out together.

I got an email from the church reminding me that today is the Relay For Life event, and the email encouraged church members to go out and support the team. We headed over there tonight to look at the booths and hang out, and we bought a luminary bag for the walk in memory of David's dad, and I thought I'd inquire about walking some miles with the church team in honor of him as well. They said they were staying all night and could use me, so after a while we went home and put Dennis to bed and I did my Wii workout, then headed back to the park. I walked 10 miles!

When I got home, I found Dennis in my spot on the bed. As I was getting ready for bed, he said "I don't know" in his sleep and then, a few minutes later, said "Fire, fire, fire!", all without ever waking up. He did pop his eyes open when I climbed into bed, so I asked him what he was doing there (David never knew he had company in bed). He said "I was waiting for you, Mommy, could you tuck me into my bed and read me a bible story now?". I did just that!

new treads!

The nap thing may be headed out the window. He needed to lie in bed and sing to himself LOUDLY for over an hour today before he went to sleep. He was excited over being at the lake house and seeing Uncle Denny and Gran, and we did have a totally fabulous day there. He was also excited to see his Grandma and GrandBob after their vacation. Maybe the best thing that happened to him today was when the mail lady beeped her horn and we ran out in our pajamas to collect a bundle of mail and TWO boxes. He asked her "Is that box for ME?" when she handed them to us from her car window and he thanked her. One of the boxes was indeed for him--a bundle of clothes from Caedmon and a special sheet of stickers that he immediately used for an art project that I wish I had photographed for the blog. His favorite item in the box: hiking boots, just a little big for him but completely wearable. Too bad they arrived the day after his big hike, but he is so ready to go again. He put them on immediately, still in his pjs, and said "call Gran and tell her I can hike with Gran and Mommy now--I have my very own hiking boots!". I'm glad he's as thrilled over them as I am--this is something we've been looking to get him for a while since he's starting to actually hike with us. He has some really nice shoes, much nicer than he'd have if he didn't have a cousin who was passing them down just in time. We've gotten Teva sandals each year, Crocs (which he loves), dress sandals, tennis shoes, Keen river shoes (that Mommy and Daddy would love to have for themselves), and now Nike boots! And he has a great wardrobe thanks to Caedmon as well. We have been so very fortunate in this department. Some of the things that have come from Caedmon have now clothed 4 boys: Caedmon, Dennis, Dennis' cousin Jeff, and now baby Hadden! Talk about recycling!

New favorite treat for the Mitchells: blueberry ice cream from Peach Park. Mmmmm. Peach Park is the taste of summer around here!

family hiking day

I didn't spend much quality time with Dennis yesterday, so I didn't blog about it. I can summarize his Tuesday: Library Story Hour followed by lunch and nap at Gran's followed by Daddy Time while I worked at Curves. They had already had their supper when I got home and Dennis and I snuggled for just a little while before he went to bed.

Today was a great day! I heard the weather report on the radio yesterday on my way to work and immediately called Mom to plan a hike, and hike we did! Dennis and David and Mom and I all went up to Oak Mountain State Park this morning, and the guys dropped Mom and me off at the South Trailhead/Peavine Falls area and we hiked the entirety of the Blue Trail--they picked us back up at the North Trailhead. Well, I say we hiked the entire Blue Trail, but we didn't really--there's a VICIOUS section of rocky downhill climbs at the north end of that trail so we cut over on the north red/blue connector and came out on Red, which added just a little distance to our hike. We did about 7 miles. While we were hiking, David and Dennis hiked the Treetop Nature Trail up to the Nature Center and back, and Dennis told us all about all the animals he saw (snakes, birds, etc), and they also went to a playground. It was so nice to be outside in the sun and breeze today! We all had a good time. While I had hoped very much that Dennis would nap on the way home, it wasn't to be. He talked all the way south about random Dennis things, saying he was Baby Bird Dennis and instructing me to be Mommy Bird. He referred to Mom and I as Co-pilot Gran and Co-pilot Mommy the entire time because we were in the front seats. We stopped at a brand new Publix that opened today in Calera (what a great store!) to do a brief shopping trip and then we just did make it back to town in time to go to church. Dennis got a coloring book from Publix and whenever we'd talk on the way back while he was looking at it, he would say "don't talk right now, I'm READING!". He had some nice observations to make about our day as I tucked him into bed tonight--and I asked him if he wanted biscuits for breakfast and he said "silly Mommy, we can't eat biscuits--biscuits play baseball!". I suppose the Biscuits are his new favorite team because he's still talking about that game we went to on Monday night.

biscuits fan

Biscuits are his favorite food, yes, and now also his favorite baseball team. David was able to get tickets to a Montgomery Biscuits baseball game tonight through his job, and we enjoyed box seats and some pretty good baseball! Dennis was so enthralled with it all, pointing excitedly at the stadium on our way in and asking "can we go in there?". He watched the players practicing on the field, and he really got into it when the game actually started up. He watched each batter and got excited when the balls were hit and the runners took off! We took a playground break a couple of times--it's so nice that they put playgrounds in stadiums for the little ones now. Dennis also insisted on getting a foam finger at the gift shop, so now we have one of those things to clean up from all over the house, but he is awful cute waving it all around.

After we left the game (long before it ended--David has to work early tomorrow), Dennis asked if we could go to the doughnut shop, and though this sounded great to me, David turned the car toward home. We stopped off at Target to do a little necessity shopping and bought a bag of powdered doughnuts for the road, and they are SO good! Dennis popped one into his mouth and said "mmmmm... are these made from cows?". We explained that they weren't. It was such a good evening in such a pretty stadium that we are hoping to be able to go again. Dennis really had a good time! I especially loved when he would stand up and assume the batter pose with each new batter, and he'd swing just as they did. Perhaps we should let him play sports now and learn early so that maybe he can avoid the kind of ball sport incompetency that his mother has, the thing that still haunts me when I think about all those years of P.E.!

Also of note: he looked up at the full moon tonight and said "I want to go up there, Mommy, to the moon so I can meet the aliens. Can we go up there, please?".

shiny guy

Dennis nagged me about taking his bath this morning before church. I claimed the shower first since my hair takes so very long to dry and he beat on the door and worried me from the hallway until I finished. He and his Daddy took a much shorter shower, and as always, once Dennis got out of the shower, he wriggled free of the towel and streaked through the house. He was giggling uncontrollably and shouting "I'm all clean and shiny, Mommy!". I eventually caught him and convinced him to dress himself for church. Getting him to leave church was another issue as he (and the other children in his class) was begging "can we please go to the church playground now?". It must be torture to them to see the playground from their classroom window, especially on such a beautiful day. The only way we convinced him to leave was by telling him that we were headed to Gran's house for lunch and that he could play with his new toys that she has for him there. Then he RAN through the church and out the door before we could catch him--many thanks to our assistant pastor for observing our speeding child and stepping in front of him to stop his forward momentum and distract him until we could weave our way through the elderly contingent and get to the door. We didn't want to barrel through and scatter old folks like bowling pins, but we also didn't want Dennis running down the stairs and into the street!

Our day at Gran's and Pop's place turned out way more fun than I could have imagined. I didn't know that a party had been initiated and I was informed that we were having a burger grilling garden party and that my friends were coming down! I knew the Gallmans were coming so that Dave could help David work on the electric wheelchair (problem still not solved there), but Allison's idea (or craving) for a burger cookout turned into a wonderful evening meal for 10 of us! We girls tried on our cruise formals and paraded around the house and out into the garden for photos, and then it was time to get our burger eating clothes back on to enjoy a feast of Pop's expertly grilled burgers and hot dogs, baked beans, fresh tomato slices, pasta salad, and sweet potato fries, with a pan of brownies baked to perfection by Pop as well for dessert. It was a gorgeous evening, the perfect temperature with gentle breezes, eaten with good company in a beautiful garden--what more could we ask for? An added bonus: Dennis and Chloe were very sweet together today and wore each other out! Dennis still had energy left to come and run some laps at the track tonight after the meal. We had planned to walk, but Dennis stood with his hands on his hips and demanded that we run, calling each of us and shouting encouragement. He was in full Coach Mode tonight, even blowing an imaginary whistle at us. Here's hoping he sleeps LATE in the morning!

robocruisers and lava pools

After swim class this morning (the usual disaster, though this time the teacher told me she's sure he now knows how to swim, he just refuses to do the strokes on demand), we braved the major thunderstorm to get to Gran's house, where Dennis spent the majority of his afternoon. Gran indulged us with Whataburger honey butter chicken biscuits, probably because I sent her a number of text messages about craving same late last night but couldn't convince her to do a midnight run there with me. Happily she picked some up for us this morning! In case you happen to remember my posting about stepping up my workouts for the upcoming cruise, let me brag about the two hours I just spent riding my recumbent bike.

By the time I left Dennis with Gran he was more than ready for me to go so they could play. I got a few bizarre text messages about Spaceman Dennis and the Robocruiser rescuing Froggy and the spacemen from the hot lava pool, and this was followed by an urgent phone call from Dennis in which he warned me "don't fall in the lava pool, Mommy, it's very hot in there so you have to be careful." As far as I know, I told him, our house is fairly lava pool free, but I'd keep my eyes open for one and be extra careful. I used my free time to do a little house cleaning and a little working out on my Wii. I was supposed to return to collect Dennis at 3 but ran a little behind and got a text message from Gran around 3:20 that stated "cryogenic water cannons are about empty, child may burn in lava pool" to which I replied that the parent rescue team was almost there, just to hold on a bit longer! We ended up staying at her house, all of us, until well past 5 because we got involved in Dennis' first Skype video call (I think) with Caedmon and Mirella and Michael and Kristin. My favorite parts of this were when they were showing each other their favorite toy lovies, and when Mirella gave us a dance and tumbling show. Oh the cuteness! Dennis kept pointing to the screen and saying "I want to go to Washington!". When they ate their snacks, Dennis said he wanted to go to San Marcos and invited them to come. I sent him off to ask his Daddy if we could go, and he came back sad-faced and reported to us and the cousins "my Daddy said no, we can't go". Uncle Michael assured him that it was okay, that they couldn't go either what with being in Washington and all.

Would you believe that Daddy changed his mind? We turned into the San Marcos parking lot and Dennis said "are we eating here?" and when we told him we were indeed, he said "is Allison coming?". We laughed, realizing that nearly every time we'd been there in the past months, we were meeting her to eat as she passed through town!

It was nice to see the old Robocruiser out from the attic and in beautiful condition. This was a neat old toy of Michael's, and Dennis happily showed it to him via Skype. We remembered some good times playing with it!

Bedtime was not as smooth tonight. I caught him with his bedside lamp on a time or two, and the first time I went in there to see what he was doing, he was very involved in his Bible story book and told me "I am reading about Noah and the ark, can you read it to me now?". I fell for it, but enjoyed every second of it. He insisted I listen to him recite The Lord's Prayer again, and I loved that as well. As I passed his door much later, I saw the light on again, so I went in to check and he was asleep, curled up in a little comma, and as always, I said a prayer of thanks for the major blessing in our life that is Dennis.

bits of obedience

We had some nice periods of bedtime compliance today. For his naptime, he climbed into bed voluntarily and told me "I am a big boy, Mommy, and a good boy." I agreed. He didn't get up at all, just went straight to a long naptime. And tonight, he whined that he didn't want to go to bed, but when I told him it was time, he said "if you say so, Mommy" and went and climbed into his bed. He tried to convince me to stay with him ("Mommy, you are too small for your bed--you need to sleep here with me") briefly, but then it was quiet. He turned off his bedside lamp all by himself.

I asked him tonight what he wanted to do tomorrow even though his day is already planned. He said "Hmmm. I want to go on the cruise!". I told him we did as well! Less than a month to go now (note to self: must beef up exercise routine). This morning Dennis told me we needed to work out, so we put in his Elmocize video and Elmocized our hearts out. While I was walking this afternoon with his Gran, David took Dennis to the playground and burned up some more energy. I wonder if all the activity is connected to the easier bedtimes... Something to ponder.