For the first time this season, the air is truly crisp today. A jacket wouldn't look stupid at this temp but isn't required either... the cool air feels great! I've been in the mood for weeks. The kind of mood that inspired me to buy goods for baking cookies and to plant mums. I've been nearly giddy the last few weekends. I know. Giddy is not a term commonly applicable to describing me, but I love October THAT MUCH. I would be sad it's almost over if I weren't looking forward to Halloween so much.

I've had Grant's costume a month at least. Tigger. That's what he picked way back when I ordered it. My first EBay purchase was a success. Those things retail for nearly $40... Good thing I didn't spend that, because now he is saying he'd prefer Spiderman. Last week it was Woody from Toy Story. I am considering locating a Spidey suit. He would be cute in tights and we could tease him with photos in about 20 years when we're planning his wedding rehearsal dinner.

Actually, his best suggestion for a Halloween costume has been "a naked jaybird." This is what we call him as he commonly streaks through the living room after his bath. So, the other night after we chased him down and were wrestling him to get the pull-up on before he parked his bare bo-hiny on the sofa he said, "I'll be a naked jaybird for Halloween. Oooookaaaaay?"

In other Halloween festivity news, G made some Halloween cookies with Grams and Pops last weekend while Deeda and Mommy played at the Aggie game in College Station (the day before our "horror-scope" had the word whoop in it. seriously!) The significance of the cookies is that a couple weeks ago, we started talking about Halloween cookies and G said he'd "make Halloween cookies for Santa Ooooookaaaaaay? Pretty cool he remembers making cookies for Santa last Christmas...

But that's not all folks. The things that this kid says never fail to entertain. They're learning about where fruits and vegetables come from at school. Ask the child about it and he'll give you the spiel, complete with hand gestures to help you understand exactly what he's describing. It goes something like this:

"You get some seeds and you put them in the ground. You pat them down and water them every day and they grow big and tall like a beanstalk."

So we were talking about it one night at the dinner table and he was telling us, oranges grow on trees, potatoes grow in the ground, milk comes from cows.... So, I said, "Where do eggs come from?" He looked at me like, "duh mom." And said very matter of factly, "The grocery store."

Another quick one. It's so cute to observe him learning the language. He gets the concept. Really does. Here's how I know. He was naming the tools in his tool box with Pops who said, "pliers" as G pulled the plastic pliers out of the box. G corrected him. "No, I just have one plier Pops."

And last but not least, a new three syllable word arrived at the park the other day. He wanted to stop swinging. So I stopped him. He said, "Let me get situated" and adjusted himself in the seat. Then we were off and swinging again.

In other news the pile of tree limbs and fence was removed from our front yard this week. We're scheduled to get a new fence on Monday. Hooray!

Back to the grind and that’s good.

The word of the day is raisins – that’s short for decorations.

It’s a grind until you’re all out of the routine and then you miss it so. This weekend brought a feeling of normal and a feeling of fall. After a long week of tearful drop offs at school and catching up at work, it was so good to have some home time. We needed it to continue the clean up but we also managed to watch a movie, cook a meal at home and eat Mexican with friends. What more could we ask for?

Going to the store to restock the freezer never felt so good. G was a model child on the trip and the nightmares and flashbacks from the trip I can’t even bring myself to write about a few weeks ago are starting to subside. I still have to play the Rocky theme song in my head to gear up for taking him, but we proved this weekend it’s possible to go and get back without incident or the need for assistance from law enforcement. Someday I’ll tell the whole story….

Anyway… Add to the full fridge, a return of one portable AC unit to Home Depot, a Prince’s Hamburger lunch, nap time yard work and an afternoon run to Target and we were all on cloud nine when we sat down to have this year’s inaugural batch of pumpkin soup for dinner.

Princes Hamburgers is full of neon lights and sparkly vinyl chairs. It looks an awful like the sha-boom life would be a dream scene in Cars. G was amazed and he got his first gumball there—and his second when number one hit the floor. He also liked pushing buttons on the juke box and we heard “If you’ve got the money honey” while we were there. Reminded me that I still love that song…

This morning I had to giggle to myself as we all puttered about. G was reuniting with every toy in the cabinet by pulling them out on to the living room floor, Deeda was in this garage reuniting with his toys too and I was placing Halloween spiders and ghosts throughout the house sipping my second cup of coffee. We all needed the time together and the time in our own surroundings doing “our thing” respectfully.

Despite circumstances, we made good memories while we were evacuees. Many trips to the Wal-mart, Lakeway park and “chick a fill” back and forth down the roller coaster street with the windows down (Living in H-town the hilly drive to Casa Butera really is something special for a two year old). We swam at the Sullivan’s (G still wants to go back). We had a super Austin-style Friday night mole Mexican meal complete with live music and a lake view. We walked dogs “all by ourselves.” We made a good soccer team. We ate Papa eggs. G had the Cabelas experience and hasn’t stopped talking about it since. And we are now the proud owners of one rescue helicopter—just like the one we saw land at the top of the hill. WOW!

We saw at least 10 great sunsets. G even appreciated the sunset. He was still for the sunset. He told us what color the clouds were. Ole Ike made us slow down a little. It felt good.

Toddler Tip: If you make pumpkin soup a dipping sauce (like ketchup) , a two year old will eat it. He even dipped his green beans!