All Things Fall and Maiden Voyages

Selfishly, I think one of the things I like most about "31 for 21" is that October becomes the most documented month of the year. And it doesn't hurt that October kicks off my most favorite season: fall! All hail candy corn, apple cider, pumpkin flavored coffee and crisp afternoons.



I've already talked about my love of fall lights. Last weekend while the babies napped and Erin and Leo were running some errands, Ellie and I went searching for the fall decorations. Going full Halloween seemed premature (and we'll be limited by what we can do this year in terms of decorating, thanks to Sticky Fingers #1 and #2--Looking at you Twin Tornadoes--but dare I say this might be our last year of worrying about baby proofing?). The one thing we could not find was our fall wreath. So  we improvised (see above). No, it's not the candy corn wreath of my dreams (don't ask). But it will do.

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Last weekend I took Leo, Harry and Lucy to the grocery store. Normally, if I go anywhere but Costco I'm basically screwed I struggle because of ye old cart sitation: two babies, one baby seat in the cart. But a person can't always go to Costco. Because a certain youngest daughter is, shall we say, more than obsessed with strawberry fruit bars. Or, as she calls them, "buys." Note to self: Do not forget the adorableness of how Lucy, at age 28 months seems to transpose her y's for r's (another one: "flowers" are "lowry").


She's big on hats and insists on wearing one wherever she goes.

I spent years trying to keep Leo contained so that he wouldn't run off in public places (grocery stores were a particular challenge) and it could be a constant struggle. Now? He insists on pouring his entire nine year old boy body into the grocery cart no matter the store. At Costco, with their super sized carts, it's not a problem. At Trader Joe's, home of Lucy's beloved strawberry "buys" it's a slight problem. But thank goodness for Down syndrome's low tone, because dang, Leo is some kind of flexible!

My whole point in this story was that Sunday was Lucy's maiden voyage walking independently in a grocery store. This, after Leo pitched a giant fit in the parking lot about the possibility of not being allowed to ride in the "big part" of the cart (I planned to put Lucy there and have Leo walk beside me--he would have nothing of that). My Leo, so the creature of habit. He wanted to ride in the cart and he wanted to hold his cheese crackers!

I decided right then and there when there were actual tears shed by him in the parking lot, that it just wasn't a hill for me to die on, on that bright, sunny, Sunday morning. I expected protests from Harry (if Lucy's rogue, he usually wants to follow).

But not that day. That day, Harry was perfectly content to ride solo in the little front perch of the cart (probably enjoying the novelty of a "single" since his whole life is about tandem and double at this point). Leo loved his starboard post in the belly of the cart, a box of cheese crackers in his lap (another part of his Trader Joe's shopping ritual that dates back to 2008, I'd reckon). And little Lucy carefully stacking "buys" and juice boxes and yogurts? Couldn't have been more thrilled.