Last night we experienced one of the most cacophonous storms I can remember experiencing. The wind was moaning around the house and whipping the trees around as if they were mere blades of grass. It was raining so hard that we couldn�t see out the window and the forks of lightening were alarmingly close. Amazingly, AJ slept through the entire thing. I really don�t know how that is possible. However, at 4 a.m., a little voice whispered in my ear, �Mommy, I�m not sleepy anymore.� I�m still not used to the fact that he can now get out of bed by himself, a little ghost haunting me in the dead of night. I managed to coerce him back to sleep, but a little hour over later he drove a flotilla of trucks into the bedroom and I knew he was there to stay. My husband, who had to leave for a meeting at 7 anyway, kindly got up and entertained him while I tried to get a little more sleep. I was still pretty groggy and very grumpy by the time I emerged at 6.

AJ is mystified by the adult tendency to be less than elated about getting up in the morning. He can�t wait to start his day. He was particularly excited this morning, because he was having a beach party at preschool today. His spirits were not at all dampened by the fact that it was raining and 50 degrees out. We put on his bathing suit, sunscreen and sandals, topped with a rain jacket and headed to school where the kids were all tearing around the classroom in their Dora the Explorer and Spongebob beachwear.

I spent the morning trying to figure out some kind of part time child care arrangement for the summer, as AJ�s last day of school is Tuesday. I was hoping to find daycare, as AJ really wants to be playing with other children. But I am not happy with our options, so I find that I�ll be interviewing nannies soon. I have very mixed feelings about the whole thing, but I would very much like to finish my dissertation and this is the only way to make it happen. I�ll be spending the afternoon wallowing in maternal guilt and anxiously awaiting the new round of photocopies from the Newberry Library so I can finish this *&^%^% chapter.

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