I feel like I haven�t updated in an age, although it�s only been a couple of days. I�ve had almost no time alone, a situation I cannot tolerate for very long, but one I enjoy in limited doses. It�s fun having some guests. It�s also nice having a little break from being the sun in AJ�s solar system. I�ve been temporarily replaced by �Bama� (aka my mom). AJ has been keeping her hopping noon and night. He is constantly demanding �Play with me, Bama!� and, since she doesn�t get to see her only grandson too often, she coalesces.

Our house has been transformed into some kind of toy wonderland. After Christmas Part II last night, AJ is even more distracted. Moreover, the presence of new toys seems to have inspired him to drag out some old favorites that had fallen on hard times. I think we now have enough blocks to build well-fortified castles in just about every room in the house. We now have toys related to six different athletic pursuits (basketball, baseball, soccer, football, golf and bowling). The wooden trainset that used to meander unobstrusively around a corner of AJ�s room is now transporting wild animals on a roller coaster ride that covers nearly half of his floor.

The best present of this Christmas, however, has turned out to be a remote control car designed for preschoolers. While both of the adults in the Harriet household (not to mention the visitors) enjoy playing with this toy, it is AJ who has discovered its transformative properties, for it takes other games to a whole new level. �Hide and Seek,� always a popular game in our house (although the rules are a little unusual, given that you either tell the seeker where you are going to hide or you hide in the same place over and over again. The seeker is then supposed to feign surprise when �discovering� the hider.) has become �Beep Beep Hide and Seek.� This means that AJ hides behind his crib and the remote control car, steered by whichever adult has been suckered into this game, has to drive underneath and find him. The car is also good for knocking down the pins on the bowling set (at which point the pins cheer wildly and shout, �Strike! Yay!�), derailing trains and releasing the wild animals contained therein into a wanton rampage of destruction.

We spent this morning at Costco, my first ever visit there. It was very overwhelming, but I was excited to finally find some decent looking produce � a major blight on our current location. Also they had enormous pies. I wanted to buy about 6 of them. We stocked up on silly party food for the upcoming New Year�s Day gathering of the clan at our house before heading home to lunch and a state of near total collapse. Nearly everyone is sleeping at the moment.

I�m not sure whether I�ll be able to update until after New Year�s, so just in case, Happy New Year to all! We�ll be spending the evening, as we usually do: staying home and making a fancy multicourse meal while drinking too much champagne. Since we have guests, this year we�ll also have party hats. Hopefully things will be back to normal around here next week. All this booze and chocolate and conversation is making me woozy.

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