The guest -- RS and my friend M. are chatting on the porch, while I am temporarily exiled to the bedroom to supervise AJ in his bath. He is playing a game that involves two plastic spacemen, a submarine, a sailboat and a lot of splashing.

After a colossal breakfast of pancakes, fruit, bagels and lox, we took AJ�s T-ball practice, which was almost as entertaining as last week, except without the spinning children in the outfield. Afterwards AJ was whisked off by his dad and uncle to play mini-golf while RS and I donned possibly ill-advised lycra and headed to the bike trail where we biked 5 miles to Dairy Queen, ate ice cream and biked home. On the way back, we saw canoes and kayakers galore on the same stretch of river we should be navigating tomorrow, barring thunderstorms.

M. drove down this afternoon and arrived bearing his famous cookies for RS, trains for AJ and a copy of his latest article draft for me. RS is a friend from college and M is a friend from grad school. They know each other because a number of years ago M. moved to New York with his then girlfriend and I hooked them up with RS who helped them find a place to live just a few blocks from her own apartment. A number of years later, when M. and his girlfriend split up, he moved back to the Midwestern town in which he grew up, but he and RS have remained friends. AJ demanded the trains be set up immediately in the middle of the family room floor (he already has an enormous layout of trains covering much of the floor of his room, which is the biggest room in the house). We have been dining on junk food of all kinds � pizza, potato chips, ice cream. We�re telling ourselves that we�re carbo loading for our swimming and kayaking tomorrow. But really, I think it�s at least a little about feeling like a kid for a while. At least, I think that�s my excuse. I can�t speak for the rest.

AJ has been holding up fairly well. Being an only child, he is used to being included in all household ventures and he generally feels like all guests arrive at the door exclusively to see him. He gets a little frustrated when things go past him, when people laugh and he didn�t know there was a joke. He likes the change of routine that guests bring and he likes having a bigger audience, but I can see he�s getting tired. I�ll have to make sure he gets some quality Mommy time tomorrow.

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