Flipper made a full recovery from her intensely whiny, easily-annoyed state of being to...oh, wait that was ME that was easily annoyed.

So very often in life, I learn and relearn the same lesson over and over and over again. There must be some sort of psychological name for it. I think it is idiot.

Why was poor Flipper freaking out, whiny, sad and miserable? Why, for the very same reason she was whiny and crying when she was 6 months old ... because she was TIRED.

I can never "get" this. That 99 percent of her problems and high-strung crying fits always always always boil down to two causes: Hunger and/or exhaustion.

The night after her "awful day" (her words) she slept from 7:40 at night until 7:15 in the morning. As a result, yesterday was heaven. She was full of energy, happy as a little clam. We took a walk after school, then returned to our old neighborhood to have dinner with Rose and Seamus and Baby Ronan.

The kids were fantastic. She and Seamus played together without requiring any refereeing. Ronan was content and plump and cuddly ... blah blah blah. After supper we went out to the street so Keith (Flipper's dad) could give them rides in his new favorite, albeit temporary "toy."

Gorgeous, no? Can you not smell the testosterone from here?

The official Bobcat Web site actually has this tag line: It's not the size, but what you can do with it.

Well, what KEITH is doing with it is tearing up the back yard, pushing small trees over and generally enjoying himself immensely. Seamus was scared during his ride, as the thing is incredibly loud, and Flipper liked it only about 5 percent more than Seamus did.

But then...I DROVE IT UP AND DOWN AND AROUND THE STREET!!! It was great. It was a very very Free To Be You And Me moment. Does any other child-of-the-70's remember the book and album besides me? My fourth grade class actually put the whole book on as a play, complete with all the songs. I look back at that as rather incredible. Somewhere, Marlo Thomas and Gloria Steinem are smiling.

Anyway, the thought of me driving it caused Flipper some sort of gender-defying consternation. She didn't want me to, thought something would happen. What she REALLY meant was: You can't drive that, only Daddy can.

Wrong, Missy!! Mommy drove a front-end loader once in Colorado from the warehouse up and down a dirt road, closely supervised by one of the maintenance guys. So when this opportunity opened ... I just had to take it.

Leigh Sparacino appears every Monday on TriangleMom2Mom.com Read more about Leigh at Flipper and Me.