You know that you are setting a new standard in slacking when your in-box is full of “Where the hell are you?” and “Is everything o.k.?” type messages. The truth of the matter is this…At-man is frying my brain. Do not get me wrong, I am loving every sizzling minute of it, but after hearing a live 4 year old human being utter off more words than are included in the entire audio version of “War and Peace” the last thing you want to do is write. Most nights all I am capable is slinking my ass on to the couch and sitting mindlessly in front of mind-numbingly crap-tacular summer reality television.

Now, At-man is a great conversationalist. He is very interested in science and can spout off facts about things that I never even knew. He is also hitting an age where he can come up with some pretty deep and sensitive questions, ranging from “Why do people get buried when they die?” all the way to “How do girls pee?” I think I have permanently injured my brain in an attempt to come up with a decent answer to these, especially when they come shooting at me one after the next. To add to the difficulty level, these questions are most frequently asked when we are at the pool, in hundred degree heat, while I am in the midst of reading some type of fluff about the “trials of being Brittney Spears.” It is at the point where I have voluntarily taken my own I.Q. down to a “summer time fun” type of level that At-man feels compelled to begin pondering the great mysteries of life.

It is also at the pool that At-man has earned his new nickname. Our neighbors have all started calling him “the mayor”. He has earned this due to his habit of making the rounds starting at one end of the pool and working all the way around, stopping to chat at every single chaise. He cares not if you are 3 or 83, he will find a topic to engage you. I know the real reason for his “grass roots campaign style” is to size up the pool toys brought by the other kids, left tossed around and under chairs. He works to finesse the other parents into relinquishing their own children’s toys to him. “He’s so darn cute, and Tommy isn’t playing with it anyway…sure he can use it!” For the most part, everyone loves him. Occasionally you get a group of teenagers who try to brush him off quickly so as to get back to planning who will steal their parent’s liquor for that night’s party, but over all he seems very popular.

Adding to all of this is the fact that the blond marshmallow is becoming more and more vocal everyday. While he adds new words all the time, Em also has an entire vocabulary of his own. May-may (Spiderman), Bay-may (Batman), Dank (thanks), a-pay (airplane). You really have to listen but once you catch on you realize he actually has quite a bit to say. I grew up sibling-free, in a very quite home…all this noise is so new to me. It’s great, just very different.

When you take all this conversation and group it with the fact that we are out of camp for the week and Hipster D was home for a four day weekend, you now have the answer to where I’ve been. I bet you thought I was out on my deck with a glass of pinot and a Marlboro Light. No way baby! Its six sweet smoke free weeks today! Once again I will try to be more regular about posting but it is summer, so we shall see. I love you all, thanks for worrying about me. I feel so special!