I love the Chicago area forecasts. There are so many pleasant surprises. Today was supposed to be rainy. Today was supposed to be in the lower 50s. Instead, there�s not a cloud in the sky and I had my first actual T-shirt day in the garden. I was hoping to break in my summer office on the balcony outside our bedroom, but a serious wind has kicked up, which would make today�s projects, which involve juggling a ridiculously large number of ridiculously small pieces of paper (thanks to my archaic note-taking system) a little difficult, if not downright unpleasant.

We spent the morning working in the yard. While my husband made some minor repairs to various objects damaged by winter weather, AJ and I grabbed our gardening tools and headed for the flower beds. AJ dug holes in search of worms and sprinkled the flowers with his empty toy watering can while I raked and pruned and began the long road toward readying the yard for spring. AJ helped me spot new plants coming up and it was he who spied a patch of Johnny jump-ups that have burst into bloom from nowhere. I don�t know where they came from. They weren�t there last year; just a pleasant surprise on a spring day. I smell of grass. There are leaves in my hair. There is dirt under my fingernails (and just about everywhere else). It�s marvelous. Singing and gardening are the two things that keep me out of therapy.

AJ and I ate our lunch on the deck. AJ did a little dance between each and every bite of his meal. Every now and then he�d suggest, �Let�s yell!� and he�d scream �Yodelodelaihihoo!� I think he picked up his penchant for yodeling from this website that I mentioned in an entry before Christmas. AJ does not get tired of playing with the virtual snow globe, which he refers to as �Snowman Eat Little Girl� (if you�re not familiar with this site, watch for a few minutes and you�ll see why he calls it that). He also likes to reenact the snow globe action. It generally goes something like this:

AJ: �I�ll be the guy who says �hey!� and you be the little girl.�

Harriet: �Ok.�

AJ: �Hey!�

H: �AAAAHHHH!�

AJ: �What�s wrong, little girl?�

H: �The snowman ate me!�

AJ: �Hmmm. That�s terrible!�

He never sounds like he really thinks it�s terrible, though. He�s downright gleeful about it. Of course, he knows that the little girl is always mysteriously reincarnated. After being eaten by a snowman of her own creation, which subsequently explodes, she will reliably come strolling out of the house a couple of minutes later to do the whole thing again. She�s very persistent. And maybe not too bright.

Although I have tried to interest AJ in a variety of more challenging computer games, he keeps returning to Snowman Eat Little Girl. It has captured his imagination. And it may explain why I could never convince him to help me build a snowman this winter.

0 people said it like they meant it