I'm back from a great weekend at Nancy, Mark and Anthony's house: Brenden and I woke up early Saturday morning and drove to Athens with little incident. Despite my protests concerning the costs of the vehicle, the Town and Country mini-van my husband bought us is perfect for travelling long distance with a small one. We have the back seat out so when I stop for food, I swing through a drive-thru then park and let Brenden out to crawl around the van for a while while we eat.

I always enjoy seeing Anthony because in many ways it's like a sneak-preview. Like Nancy I was interested in how Anthony and Brenden would interact. I thought Anthony did quite well - he didn't much like Brenden or I playing with his toys, but with some gentle prompting he would be generous. At one point he was playing with something, Brenden started playing with something, so Anthony took it away from him. I pointed out to him (very gently - I would not reprimand someone else's kid unless he was doing something extreme like trying to drown the cat in the toilet) that he couldn't play with both toys at once. He gave the toy back to Brenden. I was very impressed - it's no simple trick to appeal to a 3-year-old's logic with success. And there was one point where Brenden was crying and I was consoling him - Anthony asked me "why he crying?" and patted Brenden gently on the leg.

Both Nancy and Nancy's mom (who is as nifty and loving as I remember her) don't recall Anthony being as supercharged at 1 as Brenden is. This pretty much confirmed my suspicion that B is more active than normal. Everyone got a good demonstration of how B likes to run me ragged. There was so much to !!!INVESTIGATE!!! in this new place!

Between running around and keeping Brenden from trouble, I did actually get to visit with Nancy and Mark, and I was very happy to spend some time talking with Helly, who is as wickedly funny and smart as her blog indicates. I still feel like I didn't get a chance to get to know her but after this weekend I must say I am very happy for Alan. They complement each other wonderfully. Lachelle dropped by Saturday night as well and added to the adult conversation which I didn't realize I missed so badly.

Brenden and I had a fantastic time, even though both of us were out of sorts - B has some congestion and didn't sleep as well as he normally did, which means neither did I, plus I now have a raging sore throat that started Saturday - yep, my sinuses. I swear, and now that I've written it down maybe I won't ignore it, to visit more. And my offer is still open - anyone who wants to swing by the thriving metropolis of Hartselle Alabamastan, is more than welcome. And the next time I *do* visit either Brenden stays with Jon or Jon's coming with me to keep B in check.

Anyway, thank you Nancy and Mark for being such good friends and gracious hosts, thank you Helly and Alan for coming up and visiting and putting up with my hellspawn rambunctious child, and thank you mrs. Morris for helping out with B and for lunch Sunday. I promise not to be such a stranger, if you all will promise to give me sh*t if I let a year go by without visiting again.

We now return to our regularly scheduled programming, wherein I whine about my sinuses. Vía Lachelle:

A: "I think I need my sinuses removed."
B: "You can't have your sinuses removed -- they're cavities."
A: "Maybe -your- sinuses are cavities."

Indeed!