I realize I've been incommunicado the last week or two, so I just want to give people a general update of what I've been up to so you guys don't panic.

I've been making great strides (ha!) in my individual football skills in the past few weeks, as you can see from this action shot:

The main problem is that I have such mad crazy ball skills, I'm having a hard time playing with my vastly inferior teammates. It's quite frustrating, really.

C'mon, kiddo, make a cut. You need to cut. If you just stand there, the ball is going to get stolen. Work with me here. For god's sake, DO SOMETHING!

It's really a problem of focus. Most of the kids out there get distracted by butterflies, dirt, specks of dust. Last practice was the first time we played together rather than just with our moms and dads, and it was pathetic. A lot of the parents looked like they were playing foosball out there, only yelling instead of turning the knobs to activate their players. Meanwhile, I was trying to... HEY! A butterfly! I'm gonna go chase after that butterfly... sorry, I'm back.

Anyway, I'm thinking of sticking to a more solitary sport like basketball, where I've mastered the no-jump slam dunk and have moved on to the mid-range jumper.

Yes, that is all net you see there. And yet, I did call it.

In addition to mastering the state capitols, I've started drawing letters:

Here's my Z, L, T and what appears to be an oblong vegetable.

This has also been a week of celebration, what with dad's birthday...

He finally turned twenty-leven!

...and Grandma Lisa getting a big lifetime achievement award. I'm still not sure precisely what the award was for, but I'm pretty sure it was "World's Greatest Grandma." It was my job to escort Grandma and Char the Great for the celebration weekend:


I was invited to the ceremony itself and naturally wanted to look my sharpest:

Then I thought, hey, I'm representing the University of Virginia. I'd better tweak my wardrobe just a little bit:


After the award was presented...

I think "Hadassah" is Jewish for "World's Greatest Grandma"...

...I gave a few off-the-cuff remarks:

Hi Grandma. I'm on a 'tage!

(Dad's still working on getting me to stop dropping the "s" on those double consonants. For some reason, he winces when I talk about my scooter. Go figure.)