AJ is 4. He wouldn't stop being 3 until he blew out the candles on his cake this evening. "I don't feel four," he kept saying.

This morning N., AJ�s favorite friend from school, came over to play. He brought an unexpected birthday gift, a game that AJ wanted to play immediately but which took about nine hours to assemble. (Okay one hour, but I was watching two impatient preschool-aged boys at the same time, so it just felt like nine hours). The boys had fun tearing the house apart, decorating cupcakes (which mostly involved licking a lot of icing of the spreaders), feeding carrots to the neighboring horses and seeing who could find the biggest stick in the snowy woods. After lunch, a brief but abortive attempt was made at a nap for AJ, who descended, claiming sleeplessness and found before him and shiny new bicycle, which made his jaw drop. He was a little afraid of trying to ride it at first, but now he�s tooling around the driveway like a pro (pictures forthcoming eventually). He also opened a present from my brother (a book) and from my mom and dad (a globe, which actually made him abandon his bicycle. I think the globe wins the most popular present award).

Although AJ was excited to go to his grandmother�s for his party, he was a bit recalcitrant about getting ready. When he refused to put on his coat, my husband said to him, in a voice that was, no doubt, an echo of his own father, �If you don�t put it on, we�re leaving you behind!� AJ looked defiantly at him and said, �No you won�t. The sign says, �No child left behind.�� AJ stopped being angry when he realized both of his parents were laughing so hard that they couldn�t stand up straight. My boy is now channeling Republican epithets. Perhaps it�s time to consider brainwashing.

The party was lovely. The whole family gamely wore the Spiderman birthday hats AJ passed out. AJ got lots of cool presents and generally had a fabulous time (despite the lack of nap). There will be pictures sometime soon.

Today was a lot less fun. Apparently I had engaged in a colossal fight with my mother without my knowledge and was blindsided with an e-mail that made me cry this morning. We talked it out in a two hour phone call and all is, I think, well, but the experience has left me drained and a bit skittish, so much so that I have been unable to sit down at the keyboard until this evening. My family so seldom engages in drama, that when drama occurs it�s always horrifyingly ugly. This particular drama is not over, because the problem that involved me is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Had my mother not been upset by something else, I may not have even heard that she was upset, which I think was a good thing to hear in the general scheme of things, even though it wasn�t in my plans for this frantic weekend of birthday and Easter and about to start a new job.

And now, I must go play Easter bunny. And polish silver. And worry some more about my mom, my lecture, my paper, doing my taxes, life.

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