Tonight was our fiourth wedding anniversary, and we celebrated by going to a new Tapas bar near our house -- reminiscent of our honeymoon in Spain. Alex was a champ with the tapas, too -- he had potatoes, lima beans, meatball, and lots of cheese, all from our plates. The wait staff loved him. Our day care provider actually offered to watch him so we could have dinner by ourselves, but we decided against it -- it seemed right, somehow, to celebrate as a family. Speaking of cheese...

Take one stay at home, former actor dad, add a lot of book signings at a Manhattan Barnes and Noble, and what do you get? A kid who's met, and been photographed with, more celebrities in under a year than most adults in a lifetime.

So what is worse: Admitting that I am watching American Idol this time around (I didn't watch the previous two seasons, if that makes it any better...)? Admitting that I am a really big Barry Manilow fan? Or admitting that on a Saturday night, the most productive use of my time I could come up with was to try to guess which Barry Manilow song each of the remaining Idol contestants will sing this week, matching the song style to the contestant's relative strengths? For what it's worth, here are my predictions (I won't even add that Mike somewhat participated in the endeavor, because then he would be embarassed):

George Huff

Miracle (Actual: Trying to Get the Feeling Again)

DeGarmo

Copacbana (this is her Hail Mary pass...) (Actual: One Voice)

John Stevens

I Write the Songs (or Mandy) (Actual: Mandy)

LaToya

Somewhere In the Night (Actual: All the Time)

Fantasia

Ready to Take a Chance Again (Miracle)

Jennifer Hudson

Could it Be Magic (Actual: Weekend in New England)

Jasmine

I Made It Through the Rain (Actual: I'll Never Love This Way Again)

April showers have brought...not flowers, but rather a mini flood in our backyard that managed to attract a duck. Very strange. I felt a little Tony Soprano, actually.