This morning at 3:30, my door banged open and a little boy strode in, tapped me on the shoulder, and asked, �Mommy, do we still have that baseball?�

I had been deeply asleep and as I struggled to make sense of the question, he asked it again, this time with increased urgency �Do we still have that baseball?�

�What?�

�Do we still have that baseball?�

�What baseball?� We have at least 6.

�That baseball that we play baseball with.�

�Yeah, we have lots of baseballs. Go back to bed.�

As it turns out, AJ wasn�t really awake when he came in to demand the whereabouts of his sports equipment. It wasn�t until he started to climb back into bed that he started wailing. He had just discovered he was soaked from head to toe. So was his bed.

Zombie mom somehow changed his clothes and the sheets before stumbling back to bed, where she lay awake for hours. After some half-hearted protests of �I�m not tired!�, which were thoroughly undercut by gaping yawns and the rubbing of eyes, AJ went right to sleep. Zombie mom, however, was awake for hours reading mediocre English novels in hopes that her eyes might eventually glaze over.

AJ has no recollection of the baseball. He woke up exceptionally cheerful this morning and excited at the prospect of the completion of his new bookshelf, which turned out to have more parts than a Toyota. It is finally up and loaded, however. AJ�s first action after seeing everything in place was to drag the pillows from his bed over in front of the shelves and start pulling books off one by one and reading them out loud. �Sshh!� he admonished as I clattered my tools back into their box. �I�m trying to read!�

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My second run of the week month year this morning was not the best, given the lack of shuteye. However, I felt good for getting out there. I learned a few things today.

1. I am not in as good shape as I think I am
2. Soybean pods are really fuzzy (today�s route went along the perimeter of a local farm)
3. Running on pavement is a lot harder than running on dirt
4. Boobs are not aerodynamic

Perhaps someone will find my experience useful. Or perhaps I should stick to nocturnal conversations about baseball.

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