In Which the Brothers McMillan Dominate a Softball Practice and Grant Turns One

One day this week, Hailey was singing to a fussy Grant. Jackson walked in from the kitchen table carrying a book and demanded, “Mom, stop singing. I’m looking at this book.”

Neal and Glenn were in town during the week. I hiked Sugarloaf Mountain with them, and we wrote poems and offered each other feedback on them. We also played softball on my intramural team. The opponents didn’t show up on account of the rain a couple hours before game time, so we divided into teams of three and took turns at bat. The McMillan brothers were a team, and we stole the show, probably scoring a few dozen runs. Neal made a diving catch in center field.

Saturday was Grant’s first birthday party. Hailey made an elephant cake, and she made Grant a special one out of cupcakes. We stripped him to his diaper and set him on a painter’s drop cloth made of plastic to watch him attack the cake. After several minutes of poking at the frosting and wiping it on his legs, he started whining—he doesn’t like handling gooey food.

Jackson helped Grant by opening his presents and claiming them for himself. He also ran the dinosaur bubble machine given to Grant by Mom Merritt. Today, Jackson said that at his next birthday party, he too want to be “naked to eat the cake.”