When I picked D.J. up from school this afternoon, he was very excited about the snowman he’d made out of a sock. And rightly so, because it was a cool thing to bring home, even though we don’t have real snow (and therefore real snowmen) here in the North Bay. This couldn’t be an ordinary snowman, of course. This was a snowman named Luke Skywalker.

He tried to buckle Luke into a seatbelt, but I convinced him Luke would be safe if he just held him and buckled himself in. He was very chatty until we were about halfway home, when he suddenly said, “Uncle Mike, I have a headache. Can we have some quiet time?” This from the kid who defines the term motor mouth. But we had quiet time, for half a minute or so, until he started babbling amiably again.

We got to his house at exactly the same time Dakota was getting off the bus. He wasted no time in showing me the new book from the library, with the Allosaurus skull on the cover. He turned the book over, and on the back read me the titles of other books in the series. There was Stegosaurus (“Stegosaurus skull not here,” he told me). And Tyrannosaurus Rex (“Tyrannosaurus Rex skull not here”) and Triceratops (“Triceratops skull not here”).

We read a little of the book, but really, he was more interested in reading the names of the other dinosaurs and spelling them out for me. Then he quizzed me, to make sure I knew how to spell the names. This could have gone on for hours, if I hadn’t had to get back to work.

Aiden was sporting fresh bruises on his face. He’d fallen headfirst off the bed this morning, and then later he’d tumbled off the back of the couch (none the worse for wear). He was on the move nonstop (including sound effects) from the time I walked in the door until the time I left. (And probably for a long time afterward, judging by the energy level in the room.)

His new word, by the way, is “Golly.” As in, “Oh, golly.”