My younger son M is an extrovert. But, he says, he is stressed from too much visiting with people. I can only think it was the 31 hours in the car over the five day weekend and 3 days at his grandparents’ house, because other than that we’ve done our normal stuff. Our family, church, my family birthday party…

For his birthday, coming soon, he asked for “one day without people.” Since he is not old enough to be left at his grandparents’ while we return home for a whole day, I hit upon a partial day plan. Today I told him I would not talk to him from 9 to 1:30. I broke that promise with, “Lunch is in the drawer.” And if he spoke to me first, it didn’t count. I answered a question, “Are you watching Alton Brown (of Good Eats) without Dad?” with a yes. So he’s had some serious alone time.

Plus, it’s almost two and I won’t be speaking to him for another half an hour.

Happy birthday, M!