Mojo fell asleep in the car as we drove home from school yesterday; while he slept I decided to take the bicycle out for some exercise. Cookie came with me on his bike. We went on the usual path along the Bronx River and made it to Scarsdale and back. That boy loves his bike, and I love watching him ride -- standing upright on his pedals, pumping his little legs as hard as he can, smiling and laughing under that big helmet as he screams down hills going entirely too fast.

On the way back we stopped to watch a baseball game under way at the ballfield. I sat with Cookie in the bleachers wanting to point out to him what the players were doing, trying to build his understanding of the game. Unfortunately there were only two outs left in the game. As those teams packed up, two other team started unpacking. So we went back home, I made myself something to eat (broccoli-rabe, spinach, olive oil and garlic), got the now-awake Mojo to put his shoes on, and the three of us returned to watch the next game.

This was a softball game -- Eastchester EMS vs. Eastchester Fire Department. Everyone knew each other; families and co-workers congregated in the bleachers; emergency vehicles idled at the curbside (I hope no one was dying on the other side of Tuckahoe).

I sat with the boys and explained to them what was happening in the game. They paid attention for a while, then they wandered about and played on the bench, then back to the bleachers to sit and half-watch, as Cookie called everything a home run and Mojo made jokes about stinkies.

The game ended as the day faded I walked them across the street to head home. The boys ran ahead of me toward the house, shouting to each other as they scampered, the LEDs in their sneaker-heels blinking in the dusky half-light. It was as close to a perfect day as a person gets -- an early birthday present, the kind you can't hold onto any more than you can hold onto the moments that forever run ahead of you and away.

Today has been nice too -- the boys made a birthday banner that greeted me at the door, and now it's time for cake. The cake has Sccoby Doo decorations all over it.

Of course it does.