Gettin with he Program

The lazy days of summer have been gone for about a month and we are in full swing of the hustle and bustle of school, activities, and sports. Of course, I only have pictures from their first day of school but since the last post was an overflow of snapshots, I think we can all be ok with that. Let's start with Harrison's agenda. He is back at Pelican Marsh for 1st grade and is really enjoying it...so far. He rides his bike to and from school with his neighborhood buddies and hopefully, doesn't terrorize too many of the neighbors along the way. On Mondays and Wednesdays he goes right into an hour and a half of tennis after school and has improved dramatically since he first started a year ago. Next week he will begin baseball which goes from 5 to 7 on Tuesdays with games on Saturdays. And will be starting golf on Thursdays soon too. Harrison loves dancing and if I can find the right outlet (and time) for him to work on his dance skills, I will sign him up! The man's got moves! He also continues to be one of the most social creatures that walked the planet, so getting him to sit alone and do homework or entertain himself, alone, is still a struggle. But luckily, he is having a much better time with school work this year and is able to do his assignments with much more ease. Basically, we have to threaten him with pulling the plug on time with friends if he doesn't complete his work. And guess what, he gets it done! That is the ultimate take away for him. Harrison has great excitement for anything that interests him whether it is finding lizards, science experiments, legos, dancing, and most recently, hurricane and weather reports. And having just watched every Jurrassic Park movie out there, he is also into dinosaurs. He is very entertaining and I can see how other friends are drawn to his kind, funny, energetic, and sometimes crazy personality.

Brooks also keeps a packed schedule these days and unlike Harrison who I sometimes have to persuade to get ready for sports (he would rather play with friends all day long), Brooks is chomping at the bit to sign up for another activity. Right now she does ballet twice a week, Mondays and Thursdays, and is rehearsing for her Cinderella play for 2 hours on Tuesdays and some Thursdays. Sounds like a lot, right? But guess what, she wants me to add tennis and she might as well be training for the next Olympic gymnast team. She is ALWAYS doing cartwheels, flips, splits and handstands even in the most random of all places. I love her energy. But occasionally, I like to see her calm. Which never happens so, whatever. She is doing great in school and is at Moorings Presbyterian with an AMAZING teacher, Mrs. Frino, who also happens to be the mom of one of my best friends. Her imagination is huge and she will make up songs and pretend play with elaborate detail. She has really found a new fascination in the last 2 or 3 months with baby dolls. However, we can not refer to them as dolls in her presence...they are babies! She really puts her imagination to the test and will spend endless amounts of time changing, talking, singing and feeding her babies. It cracks us up. And if she isn't doing that, she is practicing her gymnastics around the house or coloring. Those are her go to activities.

So, basically, like every other update on these two monkeys, they are busy. And we are only feeding the fire with more activities and ideas, but I guess we enjoy the chaos. So that's what we will continue to do. And I'll keep trying to keep up!