Good thing the sweater's pink...

Sundays are Zoey's "boy time"...football, grass stains and toy trucks...

This afternoon Zoey flopped on her new Tigers cap (already the second of her short career), slipped on some old jeans, and grabbed a Fisher-Price Toy Truck to head out into the back yard for some grass stain practice. Of course, she had help managing all those feats, and Dad is entirely responsible for her Tiger cap collection, but she's an eager girl when it comes to all of it.

Hat that she never fusses with...check.

Crawling around in the grass without hesitation...check.

Boy toys 'cause there isn't a doll to be found in this house thus far...check.

Pink sweater so she doesn't look completely like a boy...check.

Brad, Heather and the kids came over this afternoon for some backyard chillin'...some Autumn sun, some sand and a little football. We grilled, we layed about in the hammock, and we watched Zoey's cousin Reece burn tracks in the grass every direction he spun in. Man, that funster doesn't stop! Zoey can't take her eyes off of him, like he's some kind of whirlwind! Avery and Zed got along famously as usual, and Header got some fun niece time in too.


Avery and Reece are pretty good at monopolizing all of Zoey's time and attention.

It was a good afternoon, especially considering the funk my day began with. No "Backspacer" album...some stinking neediness from some stinking friendships, and a slight lack of sleep. But then Avery and Reece and Beezer arrived with their rents and we had a good time doing nothing.


Three of four cousins...it's pretty fun watching them all together.

Avery and Zo are practically joined at the hip, mostly in large part to Avery's overwhelming motherly instincts...Zo doesn't even know that she has hips yet...and we like giving those two the chance to connect. We're hoping to abscond with Avery when she gets a little bit older, and she's absolutely fine with our plan to turn her into our own traveling nanny. In fact, I think her entire college savings is banking on it. She's doing great so far...Zo likes her a lot and she seems pretty comfy.


Avery 's already apprenticing for her babysitters gig.

To make the whole day complete the Jets took one from Tom Brady and the Pats on what was my first official game as a Jets fan...Yup, another experiment. Hopefully this one works out better than the Dodgers debacle. The minute the Jets drafted USC's Mark Sanchez I became a fan. I told June that I would become an instant fan of whichever team scooped the Junior out of Troy. Turns out it was the Jets. I even had to email my friend in NY, Betsy, to ask what I was getting myself into. She warned me off of the Jets but I was already committed with the Sanchez pick.

I've never rooted against Tom Brady in my life, but I did today...it felt weird. I'm hopelessly smitten with this Jets team so far so perhaps this will be one experiment that actually works. I remember the day the NY Knicks drafted Patrick Ewing out of Georgetown, I became a Knicks fan for life...now if only I could stomach NY baseball, in any incarnation. There's no way.

Now I get to settle into a Sunday night with less trepidation than I was expecting to earlier. I still can't believe that this day will end without Pearl Jam's "Backspacer" in my hands but I suppose that means I'm gonna have a stellar Monday in search of the new release! There are certainly worse ways to waste away a Monday.