Summer snaps

As promised, sort of. The end of summer vacation sneaked up on me, and I've been more concerned with offline, kid-centric stuff(which doesn't include Mom sitting at the computer being boring, or really Mom having any alone time). So consider these last week's snapshots -- my words, his pictures. More to come soon.

**Giddy on a visit from my sister and an end-of-summer-vacation high, he sprinted around the living room, squealing and screeching and hurling a Nerf ball, until his head was pouring sweat.**

**He intently watched a Whale Wars commercial. There was a long sniff. "I'm going to be a whale biologist," he said. "I'll teach everyone." Oh, and there was something in his eye, he said.**

**He played the drums on Guitar Hero. He seemed distracted, so I left the room. I figured he must have given up and turned on the menu screen, because a demo song began playing, complete with a complex drumming part. I crept back to offer encouragement -- it was him. Playing drums to a song he didn't even know, with his eyes closed.**

**The section of the yard still needing work was suddenly populated by weed stubs instead of full weeds. "I did it for you!" he said proudly. I gave him a sundae and pulled the stubs when he wasn't looking.**

**I was opening and cropping the photos for this entry. I wonder if he even remembers taking these, I thought. "Hey!" he said. "I don't want the moon shot to look THAT way! Those are my pictures!" I relinquished creative control.**

**We went to Meet Your Teacher Night. Some kids' moms filled out the cards clearly marked "STUDENT." Not us. He grabbed it, plopped down, and filled it out proudly. He had a hard time fitting everything on the "What I did this summer" line. On the way out, he gazed wistfully at the door with peeling beige paint marked "Band."**

**After a stupid, stupid argument between my husband and me, which we fooled ourselves into thinking was unnoticeable, I stood in the kitchen, emanating grouchiness. My son ran to me and hugged me for a full minute. I don't remember what the fight was about now.**

**An unexpected thunderstorm rolled in on the heels of immense golden-brown and blue clouds. Birds wheeled, soared and dove against the backdrop of building thunderheads, and below, he spread his arms to catch the maximum amount of water and twirled as the rain painted bright warm streaks for an instant each in the charged air.**

**We spent a few days hanging planets and sticking up glow-in-the-dark stars -- big ones all the way down to tiny ones, to give the illusion of depth. It was really getting old, the job. But last night, he turned out the lights. "I feel like I'm floating in the whole universe," he said.**