Meet the team: Laura, Aaron, and Larry

We were so pleased when my nephew Larry, an Air Force officer, was in Maine to visit his parents (my brother and sister-in-law) and said he'd like to come down to see us, too.

We hadn't seen Larry or his children for three years, so while Larry looked pretty much the same, his children had changed a lot.

This is Laura. She turned five in mid-July, and she starts school tomorrow. She loves animals, so she and our Molly immediately became close friends. She's also a gymnast and has been moved up to a class of 7- and 8-year-olds. I wish I could see her perform her gymnastic routines. I think it's great for young girls to take dance or gymnastics or swimming, etc., so they'll feel less self-conscious and more confident with their bodies as they mature.

Laura loves to spend as much time as possible outdoors. She and I had been outside wandering around, investigating this and that, and I decided it was time we went back inside to join the others. Laura looked crestfallen as she said, "But I wanted you to stay outside with me." That's all it took. She and I stayed outside and used sidewalk chalk to write and draw in the driveway.

She matter-of-factly wrote her name, for starters, then branched out to drawing faces.

Since I hadn't seen Larry's children in three years, I'm sure my jaw dropped when 11-year-old Aaron got out of their car. For a second I wasn't even sure this was Aaron! I couldn't imagine who else it would be, though, so I said, "Aaron?" and he replied. He had grown a foot taller in three years and is, as his father said, in that awkward "Do I want to be a kid, or do I want to be an adult?" stage.

Aaron loves music, has played the piano for several years, and now takes guitar lessons. He takes lessons on another musical instrument, too, but I've forgotten what it is. When he visited us in 2007, he startled me by asking if he could play our piano. I was startled because we don't have a piano. Then I realized he thought our roll-top desk must be a piano.

The thing that amazed me about these two children and their dad is that Larry's wife, their mom, is deployed to Iraq. She's been there since May and will return home "sometime in September." You might think this would result in insecure children and an over-extended husband/dad, but they are very calm and matter-of-fact about the situation. Lisa, their mom, can call home regularly and had, in fact, talked with Laura and Aaron in the car as Larry drove down to our house.

It's sad to think that Lisa won't be able to see her little girl on her first day of school tomorrow. Larry is up for the challenge, though, and I suspect things will go smoothly. He said he doesn't "do" pigtails but he can create a pretty amazing ponytail with Laura's long hair.

They flew from Maine back to Illinois today.

Aaron's not actually balancing a cushion on his head in the photo below. It just looks that way!