AJ and I were playing in my room this morning shortly after he woke up when a movement outside the window caught my eye. It was a mother deer and her tiny, spotted fawn, ambling down the creek bed and disappearing into the woods. AJ and I stopped to watch. He banged on the window in his excitement and the deer looked up. And there we stood, two mothers and our children, staring at each other until suddenly, in a flash of white tails, they were gone.

Today was spent running around. I taught water aerobics this morning, came home for a fast shower, and packed AJ in the car for a trip to the library and the grocery store. We dined in our favorite picnic spot for lunch and read our new library books before AJ�s nap, which he almost did not take. His friend N. was coming over and he was just too excited.

N. arrived shortly after AJ woke up from his nap, which is a good thing, because AJ refused to do anything but sit on the windowsill and wait for N, sighing pitifully every now and again and asking, �Why isn�t he here yet?� But N. did arrive, and the two immediately took off for the backyard where they spent an hour splashing around in the wading pool and squabbling over who got to hold the butterfly net and who got to hold the toy fishing rod.

I love watching N. and AJ together because they are, in many respects, very much alike. They both have a penchant for obsessing about facts and arcane. And both tend to be kind of absent-minded. For instance, when N. was heading out to the pool in his suit and socks, he knew he was supposed to take something off before he got in the water. But he wasn�t paying attention, so after I turned around after helping AJ off with his shirt, I saw N�s bare butt running down the deck. �N, you need put your bathing suit on and take off your SOCKS!� But it was too late � his socks were soaked and AJ was demanding to remove his suit too.

After we were done with the pool, we got dressed and went for a nature walk. We found scads of frogs belching in the pond, but not much else. Even our attempt at digging for earthworms was thwarted (they probably heard us coming). But as we cut through a little-used path through a wooded part of our yard, we startled the fawn we�d seen earlier out of the reeds. Scared and frantic, she ran back and forth around the yard as the boys gaped and pointed. She careened into the street, narrowly avoiding an SUV and tore up to the house that�s being built across the street. Frightened by the hammering, she ran back to our driveway and stood panting under the spruce tree for a moment before taking off toward our neighbor�s yard and disappearing. AJ and N and I continued walking through the wooded path and came upon the spot where the fawn had been sleeping, an oval patch of tamped down grass, still warm.

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