Our Fourth of July party was a big success. Dan and I got to see friends that we've been missing for too long. Julian played with his cousins all afternoon and was in seventh heaven.

Between Julian and my hostessing duties I had a horrible case of ADD though. As soon as someone started to tell me a story, I had either a whining child or a guest need to attend to. I was choring like a fool for most of the day, but I did get a few moments of chatting and catching up every now and then. When J needed Mama time I would hold him for five minutes and then put him on my back. That worked pretty well. Within a short time he would be recharged and ready to go off and play again.

Julian was very good and stayed dry in his shorts all afternoon while playing with his cousins. Dan and I took him to pee a couple of times, but he held it for several hours in between with no problem.

My friend Hilary flew in from Sydney and arrived just before the party. She spent the night, so we got to have a nice chat about all kinds of excellent topics over breakfast this morning. She's just starting off on a two-month trip through the US, Canada and Europe. I'm jealous. I'm itching to go off on another trip, but since we just got our backyard remodel finished *yesterday* we'll be enjoying the good life here at home for a while. We've got a badminton court set up in the front yard, and our bocce ball court in back. Let the Summer Games begin!