A change of seasons

Autumn has come to Oregon. It’s been raining off and on for a week or so now. This morning the mountain pass to our east was being inundated with snow. The cool, damp mornings are at a relief after our hot, dry summer. In a month we’ll be missing the sun. I love this time of year. I love sweaters, cozying up with a cup of tea before bed, watching movies, carving pumpkins. We put in our first order for solstice gifts through Darwin’s preschool. Leah has been keeping apple cider on the stove all week.

Darwin loves the rain. She loves the leaves. She loves autumn. She does not love the wind that comes with the changing weather, but it is manageable with hats and hair ties. She loves the baking that we do when it grows cooler.

Linnea does not seem to be bothered by or excited by the rains. She does adore helping in the yard, however, and has been putting leaves in buckets to help clean up the driveway. She also loves baking, but primarily because she gets to stand in the kitchen helper, which is the most fun thing any child has ever done, if you ask Linnea.

Last weekend we planned and attempted to go to a pumpkin patch, but 15 minutes into the drive, poor Darwin puked all over herself. This was the final straw for turning her forward-facing (which of course she loves, while I’m convince that it just means we’re going to get in a car accident for sure), and we’ll try again for a pumpkin patch this weekend.

Fall also means it’s flu shot time. Linnea had her 15 month checkup this week and we learned that we could just get both kids vaccinated while we were there. I explained to Darwin that she was going to get a vaccine and we asked if she wanted to go first or she wanted Linnea to. Linnea, of course. Linnea was a champ and barely flinched for her shots, which helped Darwin be so brave and she sat there and let D swab her shoulder and do the shot with not one issue. When off the table her voice got a little trembly, so I immediately told her we were going to get froyo since she and Linnea were both so brave and that was the end of that! I hope my method sets us up for good experiences in the future…

Last thought today. I keep talking to the clouds and reminding them that they would also be welcome to fly south a bit before dropping their moisture. California may actually be more relieved to have rain this year than us. A month ago I wouldn’t have thought it. One of the worst fire storms in decades had changed everything though. I’m cautiously optimistic that there will actually be change because of it. Will we finally start burying our power lines? Requiring residential neighborhoods to do more fire proofing? One can hope. And for now, I’ll just hope for rain for them. For you, to my friends reading this who live there. Stay safe. We have beds here to the north if you need to get out. We’re all up here thinking of you.