AJ�s brain has been in overdrive this weekend, leaving me less time for writing. Friday night he had insomnia. I knew he was going to be in for a rough night when, at bedtime, we read a picture book about a boy who invented a machine. The machine didn�t do anything, but it made a lot of noise. The pictures of it, a mix of collage and painting, were tantalizing to AJ. He began to imagine his own machines. He couldn�t stop talking about them. He was still talking about them three hours later when he came into my room just after I�d turned off the light for the night to tell me about another machine in his head.

Despite the lack of sleeping, he was up bright and early Saturday morning for T-ball, but he didn�t have a good day. He was not concentrating on the game the way he usually does. He missed balls. He goofed off. When we got home, he yelled at his grandmother, who had driven for an hour to come see him. He threw yogurt at the wall. He got sent into the uncooperative corner [a name borrowed from Kevin Henkes� Lily books � Lily has an uncooperative chair.]repeatedly.

It was clear that he was exhausted. We tried to get him to take a nap and he was willing, but then he started looking at a math worksheet. Pretty soon he was working on math problems in his head. He couldn�t stop. Word problems, addition, subtraction, multiplication. He was hooked. Eventually, he did doze off for a little while and was a boy changed for the better upon waking up.

We spent the evening at my cousin�s house in a nearby suburb. My cousin has lived in Chicago even longer than I have, but our lives are busy and pretty different � he�s from the very Christian side of my family. But they�re really nice people and we were all feeling guilty about ignoring each other.

We had a lovely evening. We spent a fair amount of time catching up on family, and, in particular, talking about our uncle T. T is one of those people who seems to live a charmed life. He�s my dad�s youngest brother and as such seems to have shouldered the burden of keeping up with the older set. Over-achiever might seem a useful word to describe him. After graduating from college, he got a Ph.D. in a humanities field at an Ivy League university. Then he went to law school and has been a successful corporate lawyer for most of his career. More recently he�s been getting involved in charity work related to one of his son�s activities. It was at a function for this organization that something unusual happened to my uncle T. While he was standing at this party, some people came up to him saying things like, �Look at his face! He�d be perfect! He�s just what we�re looking for!� These people turned out to be Hollywood producers. They asked my uncle � who, as far as I know, had absolutely no acting experience � to do a screen test. He agreed and even more amazingly, he was cast in a speaking part in a movie with some major Hollywood stars of the Oscar-winning variety. Shortly before filming was due to start, my uncle T. broke his leg. He figured that was the end of his not-yet-begun film career, but instead the film people said, �Wow, what a great idea! Let�s put the character in a wheelchair!� And so they did. My uncle had a good time but he figured he�d never get to see his work. Surely he�d be on the cutting room floor. But no, nothing was cut. And that is how my uncle the Ph.D. lawyer came to be in a movie released this weekend (alas, not yet in my area) in a part big enough to be mentioned in some reviews but small enough not to be mentioned in all of them. Although it is not the kind of movie I�d ordinarily go see, I am of course dying to see it. My cousin and wife are thinking of heading into Chicago to see it, which may be what we end up doing too.

It was really great to see the cousins. I had been a little nervous about possible lack of conversation since it had been so long since we�d seen each other. Growing up, my cousin D. and his brother T. were the cousins I saw the most frequently, as they lived near my grandparents. T and I, being in the same grade, were always good friends. D took his big brother role very seriously and T often bridled at being forced to play little brother. I, of course, took T�s side in all things. But mostly we enjoyed playing together. As a kid I was fascinated by the dirt alleys behind the houses on my grandparents� street in Toledo. There were no alleys in the suburbs, where garages were showcased like museums of cars. D and T and my brother and I used to slip away from snacks at my grandma�s dinette set � our shorts-clad legs sticking to the vinyl seats made a ripping sound as we got up � and out the back door, past my grandfather�s prized rose bushes and into the dusty alley where we�d look for interesting bottle caps and beer cans for D and T�s collection.

We were noting, last night, how we�ve moved on. The beer can collection is apparently still in my aunt K�s basement, where it has been since I can remember. But now D is a church elder and a math teacher and something of a gourmet cook � he grilled panini with fresh mozzarella, roasted red peppers and portabello mushrooms for dinner that made me want to keep eating all night long.

AJ was a bit shy about the whole enterprise, but soon warmed to D and S(his wife)�s daughter, about to turn 12, who kept him busy. It probably didn�t hurt that their daughter shares a name with the beloved Girl Next Door. It was funny to see someone else�s home through AJ�s eye. I was struck by so many things � the beautifully remodeled kitchen, the vertical blinds, the framed crocheted doilies made by one of Stephanie�s aunts, the large painting of Jesus that I think used to hang in my grandmother�s house near the vinyl accordion door to the bathroom, my grandma�s well-worn but rarely used dining room table. I remember helping my grandmother ice lebkuchen on that table once when her tiny kitchen was too full of other food to allow for two people. It was an evening of retrospection.

Today was much more laid back. We did our usual Sunday pool thing � laps for me, splashing for AJ. AJ was still on a math kick, so we trekked to the bookstore for reinforcements. AJ came home with a book about dinosaurs, yet another book about space, Captain Underpants (his first venture into this series) and a book about kittens, which he promptly loaned to The Girl Next Door �because she really loves cats.� I have my suspicions that I just bought a book for The Girl Next Door. But I like to see their generosity with one another. On Tuesday, The Girl Next Door gave AJ a small stuffed tiger-striped cat. He�s named it Stripey and carries it with him everywhere, a surrogate friend for when the real thing is not available.

This evening I sat out on my balcony while AJ and The Girl Next Door and her brother tore back and forth between our yards, shrieking with delight at some new game. It is my favorite sound of summer.

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