This Season, Still

The days have gone from a warm, thick heaviness of air to a goose bump-raising chill. The leaves are starting to turn, the wind is whistling through foggy days. On nice days the sky is a crisp and clear blue, the air fresh, the sun still shines. For the past couple of days, however, it is like the setting for a scary mystery movie. It’s been a constant drizzle of rain, the sky never lightens from a deep slate color.

It’s starting to throw me off. Usually the first thing I do every morning is open the windows and doors and let the light in. It’s not doing much lately. I’m starting to feel like a hermit.

Luckily, the kids have hit a patch of awesome lately. Faith’s age combined with a new phase of less tantrums and more understanding is adorable and sort of amazing. She is starting to try to figure things out, why this happens or what to expect from people. She’s smart and clever. She comes out with the most precious things. She says “thank you” and “please”. She gives everyone kisses and hugs when she says goodbye without prompting from us. Right now as I am typing this she is stripping on the front porch while watching a “sick butterfly” (it’s like the scariest moth I’ve ever seen and it’s turning slow circles on the porch floor in a slow death dance), so I’m not sure how that ties into her learning manners and such, but there you go. When James isn’t climbing to the highest point in the house and balancing precariously on a countertop or dresser he’s playing with toy cars and building blocks. He’s starting to entertain himself or let Faith entertain him. They both love the kitten and he’s now saying “kitty” (more like kee-kee) which is his second word (the first is bye-bye). They are consistently happy children and it not only warms my heart but keeps a smile on my face as well.

This year we look forward to taking Faith to pumpkin patches and corn mazes, this year she is already talking about costumes and jack o’ lanterns, how ghosts are NOT real but ARE really scary. This year we’ll also take our children (plural!) out to hikes to warm our bodies on Jeff’s days off, we’ll take pictures of them together smiling and happy. I can actually be in the autumn pictures since I won’t weigh forty tons like last year.

Jeff’s about to be off of work for a week (this schedule is wonky, but I love it when he’s off) and we have so much planned that we will undoubtedly fall short of all we have to do, but I’m looking forward to the next week like a little kid would. I suppose I’m excited because I’m about to see autumn through Faith’s eyes.