little black journal

We’re in the midst of Autumn’s finest hour here in Seattle – brightly colored leaves, pumpkins on porches, and cool, crisp afternoons. We pulled our sweaters and scarves out of the back of our closet on Saturday and got our Fall on with a visit to Carpinito Brothers pumpkin patch in Kent. I have been getting together with a number of new moms from our church each week and had fun sharing the day with them and their families. Juliette is the newest little tot in the group – I asked her to stand on a pumpkin and smile for the camera, but she wasn’t havin’ it…

Photo by Jon Brenner

Clearly, pumpkins aren’t her favorite.

It wasn’t quite the carefree family outing we’d imagined, as Shane spent much of our time there doing the shush-bounce-walk among the pumpkins while Juliette wondered where on earth we had taken her. Turns out missy was super-tired – she dropped off to sleep within minutes of being tucked into her stroller.

Once our hands were free, I picked out a couple of perfect pumpkins and handed them to Shane to take to the pay station. He later told me that as he was standing in line, he caught himself absent-mindedly bouncing and shushing the pumpkins in his arms – oh, the things sleep deprivation will do to you! I giggled the rest of the day, imagining my husband soothing a squash.

On Sunday we gathered with friends at Emily and Daniel’s to carve pumpkins and eat dumplings and admire the kiddos in their sweet little costumes. I didn’t snap a single picture. Or carve a pumpkin. Or eat my usual fill of a dozen dumplings. Different priorities this year, I guess. But dang, that was some good cuddle time Jules and I shared on their couch…

We took advantage of yesterday’s sunshine and got out in the afternoon for a walk through the arboretum. The trees were donning their very best October outfits, in gold and orange and bright red.  I still maintain that Summer in Seattle can’t be beat, but days like today make Fall a very close second (I might be singing a different tune in November, after we’ve had 27 straight days of rain, but I digress…).

Juliette dozed off and on in her stroller, waking every so often to look up at the leaves with her wide, curious eyes. We’ve had a couple of challenging outings this past week, so we were thrilled to see her hang tight on an hour-long walk.  We even coaxed a smile out of her near the end!  We thought she was being all sweet, saying “Thanks for the walk in the park, Mom and Dad!”.  Now I know there was actually quite a bit of mischief behind that grin – turns out she was saying “Get ready, folks – I’m going to scream like hell on the car ride home!”  Oh, child…

Car seat tantrums aside, it’s been a pretty glorious October with this little pumpkin.  Whether we leave the house or not, every day is an adventure!