End of summer

Reed's 5-day preschool has started, Scarlett's in Rebounders and JHU Toddler Co-op, and the house project is finally done -- must be Fall! Our addition has turned out great and we are loving the new space. Reed and Scarlett both just claimed their own (new) rooms the other night after sharing a third-world bazaar since May. We still have a lot of organizing to do, furniture to buy, and grass to grow, but it has begun to feel like a real home again.

As Reed winds down drum lessons, golf lessons have gotten underway. His prolific art continues on a daily basis as we work through reams of paper and find stubs of crayons everywhere. Meanwhile, Scarlett continues to be on a princess tear. The big debate (already) was whether she should be Ariel, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, or Snow White for Halloween. We've coined her belly button "Beebs," she's in a serious hide-and-seek phase, and she's Mommy's right-hand errand girl while Reed is at school.

I should flag the Summer of 2009 as the Year of the Fish. Between beach trips to Bethany and the Outer Banks, daily trips to the pool along with a solid boost of confidence from some swimming lessons, and a few visits to the River, fear of swimming was all but eradicated. Reed was a pool shark, trying "dives" into the big pool, doing strokes all over the place, enjoying going under. Scarlett's favorite trick was to prowl the baby pool and then pounce into the 1' water, leaving her with a couple dings and dents throughout the course of the season. Reed reeled in a fish, too: a nice white perch on the creek dock with Pop's help and the Spider-Man rod. We complemented the water sports with a day in Dutch Wonderland, Scarlett's first Orioles game, tons of arts and crafts, and the constant buzz of saws and paint spray guns at our house. Summer was capped off when Reed, Pop, Mike, and I had our first camping trip a week and a half ago (pictures to come). We ventured to Cunningham Falls State Park near Frederick, MD and stayed in a cabin. Reed loved it -- especially searching for big sticks and toasting marshmallows.