There's a mysterious climbing plant full of dandelion-ish material growing along the fence in our backyard. I don't purport to know anything about horticulture, so I call it a fluff bush.
We left the house early this morning to meet up with good friends at the smaller, quieter coffee counter on the university's campus. Our three kids played together nicely as we sat and chatted about discipline, bulk shopping, photography and life. Somehow we mustered the energy to scoot our strollers at least 3/4 of a mile around the school before the natives became restless (read: the moms were out of breath) and we had to head back to our homes. I had a tall white mocha with soy to fuel me, which probably isn't the best fuel, but it was good. The sun is just beaming down today and the only indicators of the season are the wind and the slowly changing leaves. When we came home, I sat on the warm driveway and let Betsy play in the grass and sniff the air while I played my four favorite iPhone games.
Aidan greeted every adult we came across today politely, as opposed to keeping his head down and mumbling and/or ignoring them, and is minding his "yes ma'am"s and other manners. All of these things were discussed with him at length yesterday, I was glad to see that the directives had sunk in, no prompting necessary. It's hard at first, but it becomes much easier to be a diligent parent than an apathetic one, and the dividends are better.
Today I made a goal to take pictures. I'm letting Aidan rest and relax so he'll be in a good mood for me later and smile in some new fall portraits. Hope it works.
