Many thanks for all your good wishes. I�m feeling much better today. I�m not quite pain-free, but at least I can now get around without the stooped shuffle, which caused my husband to call me Mr. Burns. (He stopped making fun of me when I pointed out that he would have to be Smithers.)

Poor AJ had a hard time with having me stuck in bed all day yesterday. First he tried empathizing. �I�m sick too. I have a tummy-ache� and climbed on my bed and wiggled under the covers next to me with his head on my shoulder. We read a few stories that way, but his energy level was too high for that to last long. Next he tried bringing in his favorite toys, one at a time, to say hello. I had long conversations with the Very Hungry caterpillar about his favorite foods (apples, pears and cupcakes), played volleyball with a giant letter A and attempted to discuss marine life with a blue and green stuffed fish puppet named �Rubatubby,� although this later task was hindered by the fact that Rubatubby can only say �peep.� Later he grabbed a pile of library books and proceeded to read to me.

AJ�s conversations are all interspersed with random and often incomprehensible comments about school. �Hey, Mommy, I really liked when they had this CD and you put it in the thing and you click it and it was Snoopy.� Eventually, based on an intensive interview, I was able to determine that AJ loves to play with a View-master and his favorite disk to look at features pictures of Snoopy. I remember the View-master. I used to have a red one and we�d always buy new disks for car trips. Frankly, given all of the other technology, I was kind of surprised to find that View-master is still around. I would have been nearly as surprised to hear him raving about a stereopticon.

AJ loves everything about school. Yesterday afternoon, he looked at the clock and said, �Mommy! It�s 4:00! Do you know what we do at 4:00?� (this is based on a time-telling game we�ve been playing where I mime an activity and he either guesses or asks me what I�m doing and then he tells me what time we do that particular thing). �No, what?� �We go to school!� I then had the unfortunate duty of informing him that we didn�t get to go back to school until Monday. He was crushed. �But I want to go now!� Nothing at home quite measures up to school, it seems. We are not as fun as his teachers. Our toys aren�t as good. The snacks are subpar. And, worst of all, �There�s never anything to do around here.� AJ, it seems, is practicing his teen attitude a little early. I have to say that it�s a lot more palatable on a three-year-old than on someone with a driver�s license.

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