The trouble with blogging about your life...

is that when you're actually doing stuff that's fun, you don't have time to blog. So I've got some catching up to do. Oops.

So we did our big summer vacation thing -- r family vacations cruise with a few days in NYC tacked on. It was tons of fun. But let's face it, we've been back for a while now.

So LAST week, Steph was out of town for 3 days and 2 nights. During that time, I had to get a blood test. Chas helpfully warned me "It's gonna hurt a LOT." Then during the actual puncturing of the skin part, he put his hands over his ears as if he expected me to scream at any moment. Afterwards, he said -- with great awe -- "You were really brave, Mommy." Then he pronounced my blood test "cool." Because, let's face it, there was blood but nothing hurt him personally.

(This kid in yellow shorts was the one who really, really, really wanted to get his hands on the ball. A split second after this frame, he was foiled again by Eddie and Chas.)

Anyway, Steph also missed their first T-ball game -- thanks to Alaska Air's inability to replace a light in the plane she was supposed to take. We very nearly missed it -- thanks to traffic and my inability to leave with any extra cushion of time to account for heavy traffic. But it all turned out OK. Eddie cried after the first "inning" because he didn't get a turn to catch the ball. The second "inning" was more fruitful and he touched the ball several times. A kid near him, who apparently has Hurley for a father, was not so lucky. He sobbed as Eddie had done just moments earlier. Eddie looked at him with a mix of ... no, not sympathy ... bewilderment and disgust. Hey, dude. Buck up. There's no crying in baseball. Besides, Eddie got to touch the ball, so what the heck is YOUR problem?

Turns out there IS crying in baseball....

Then yesterday evening Mama came home and was greeted like the rock star she is. The enthusiasm only grew when she brought out the prizes she'd carried for them. First came a little poster thing with die-cast Cars cars about to be released. Then a postcard. At his point, Chas told her, "I like toys." Fortunately, she had toy cars with her and all ended well. She also took some pictures of samples of Cars that have not been released and Eddie loves looking at them longingly.