A Regretable Fall Showing for Day 8

Perhaps one of the worst parts of living in Texas is the poor showing of Fall.

For a girl who looks forward to Fall all year long, it is particularly sad that on the day her "get excited for Halloween" countdown reads "play in the leaves" and it is a pleasant 74 degrees outside.

The Fall colors just began showing Sunday. Give me another week and my trees will be barren and a million leaves will be littered on my lawn (both mine and my neighbors, since the considerate lawn crews "clean" their clients yards by blowing the leaves onto mine).

Still, my Jane plays in the handful of leaves scattered on the porch and driveway whenever we're outside, so I knew she'd make the best of it.

Add to it that she considers the following playing in the leaves:

and I know I have a mini-me.

After sweeping, Jane found lots of leaves to add to her collection gathering around the front-door pumpkins.

if only this photo had audio, you'd be hearing "smile, little leaf! smile!"

Later, Elliot joined in the leaf "fun" by crawling onto the porch.

I literally lamented his utter disinterest in walking this afternoon as I watched my baby girl find more "pretty leafs" (that's how she says it -- I know how to spell (for the most part)) along the entire stretch of lawn.

And ask me what happened 2 hours later.

Yes, that's right, my son walked. Right as I jabbered away on the phone with my sister. I glanced up and watched him traversing an entire room walking to me at the stove.

I stood in shock. Should I acknowledge him? Would he just fall to his knees if he knew I was watching?

In the end, I settled for some exuberant cheering as he reached his destination (me) and rewarded the feat with some candy corn.