Longing for Fall

It’s hard to believe that September’s almost over. It’s amazing to me how fast the last year has gone by. Finn is 14 months old. 14 months! I still remember bringing him home from the hospital. He has grown so fast! Just in his mobility development alone, he has grown leaps and bounds in the last few months from his first clumsy unsteady steps to flat out running from room to room. He’s not really talking yet, as far as comprehensible language goes, but he’s close. When we ask him if he wants juice, he’ll reply with an adorable little “uze”. He’s smart though. It amazes me on a daily basis how much he understands. The language is in his head, he’s just not gotten it out yet. If I ask him to go get his blue ball, or find Cocoa, or push the button, that’s exactly what he does. If he wants a drink, he’ll go to the refrigerator and point. I’ll then pick him up, open the fridge and he’ll point directly and reach for his sippy cup on the second shelf.

Here in Tallahassee, our afternoons are still pretty darn humid, with temperatures in the low 90’s on a daily basis. Believe me when I say that I am longing for the days of fall. Now fall in Tallahassee is a funny thing. My friends up north have already begun to enjoy cool mornings and afternoon highs in the mid 60’s, as well as Mother Nature’s autumn grandeur of the leaves changing colors. For us in North Florida around 30 degrees latitude, there is absolutely no way to determine when the sweet relief of the sweltering summer will come. Undoubtedly in late October/early November, we will go through a phase that is quite unique to North Florida. This occurs when the mornings are cool enough that you need to don the jacket or sweater as you head out to work. But the enjoyable sense of a seasonal change will dissolve by the afternoon when summer will show its refusal to yield, and the upper 80’s will force you to continue to seek out the man’s greatest invention – air conditioning! Until then we suffer through September and into October with temperatures in the 90’s.

My desire for cooler weather is compounded by other factors. When the weather turns, the bugs and mosquitoes, for the most part, leave for the year. That, as well as the completion of our deck replacement/expansion project has me excited to spend much more time on our new outside living space. When we moved into this house, I knew that tearing out the existing deck was only a matter of time. With the back of our lot on a slope, I had wanted to incorporate a multi-level design for our new deck. Well, I can’t even to begin to explain how it exceeded my expectations. The upper level now has over twenty square feet more space, and balusters every four inches ensuring the safe containment of a certain toddler. We have a gate that opens to the steps leading to the lower level. I’ve set up my beloved grill on the lower level, again safely away from tiny hands. These changes prompted Dad to dub the upper level the playpen, and the lower level the bullpen. I’m now imagining all the solar lighting effects, and how to incorporate a speaker system directly tied to the computer inside. Oh the possibilities are endless! I can tell you already though, Finnegan LOVES his new play area. His mother has already picked out his Step2 picnic table which will serve as a toddler craft area, i.e. finger painting, play dough, and basically all manner of messy that she has banned from the house. Yes, there was a brief lapse during the pregnancy, but my wife has definitely regained her well know disdain for the mess.

And of course, I haven’t mentioned my all time favorite thing of the fall, Football!!! The saving grace of the continued heat through September is that football season is underway!