Falling for Fall

Fall is my absolute favorite season. I love the crisp chill in the air. I love the smell of it. And, of course, the leaf thing is pretty cool. But being a parent brings new seasonal worries I hadn't anticipated. For instance, I'm pretty adamant about not turning on the heat until like after Halloween. It just doesn't seem necessary. But now, I guess I'll have to be more flexible. I can't freeze my kid. Her poor little mouth quivered this morning. D'oh. So I dressed her up in a onesie, socks, pants and a hoodie. I think she felt much better about things after that (well, until she had a huge blow out, but nevermind, anyway). Now I need to figure out what to dress her in when we go out, too. Bob put her in a super cute dress for our night out to BJ's, but since it was so chilly, we covered her in a blanket. I know I'm making this needlessly difficult. Just stick a coat on her and go. But gee whiz, we combed the mall on Saturday going into every damn children's store and could not find a fleece coat in her size THAT DID NOT HAVE A HOOD. What is with that? Hoodies are tres cute. I get that. But they are not practical when you spend 75 percent of your day lying down. The hood gets all bunchy and annoys her. I was feeling a little desperate, so I even checked out Nordstrom. Nothing. We have a big-ass mall near us, too. BIG ASS. And nothing. I even checked out the boy fashions. Still came up empty. Thank goodness for Looseyfur who sent me a gray sweatshirt from Baby Gap. That is perfect. Why can't I find more like that? One is not enough. It shouldn't be that hard. Even the internet let me down. Back to the drawing board.

See, it's always the little things that trip me up. Sometimes I wish I had thought more about what happens when the baby was out while I was pregnant than focusing so much on the pregnancy itself.

Speaking of BJ's... They keep sending me offers for a 60-day free trial. I intended on many occasions to try it out, but I always ended up forgetting. Last night, we finally took them up on the offer. I've never, ever stepped into one of these type of stores in my life. In my former life, what would I ever do with a gallon drum of syrup? Now with a baby and a house, I thought it would be more worthwhile. I admit that I'm sort of fuzzy about what I pay for things. I'm not always the best shopper. I can't be bothered with going around trying to find the cheapest price on things since I still sort of maintain a one-bedroom apartment mentality. This needs to change into a stock-up-and-save mentality, especially in this new economy. Anyway, talk about a bemusing experience. I can't imagine why anyone would ever need *that* much minced garlic? And the one item I'm very keen on price is diapers. They were like $1 cheaper at BJ's. ??? One dollar. That's it. A buck. It's seems better to get them from Amazon and save on tax and gas and time and trouble. I was excited to buy 8 toothbrushes and 6 boxes of Puffs, though. That should set me up for 8 months.

Gosh, I have a lot of commentary on very mundane things today. It's funny how my life has changed that this is my focus. If someone would have told me this 10 years ago. I'd laugh. Unbelievable.

I'm not even going to touch the debates last night. They seem so pointless. Do they change people's minds for real? I highly doubt that. Obama voters are going to think Biden is experienced and knowledgeable while Palin is a folksy rookie who can cram like a college student. McCain voters are going to think... well, I have no idea what they think. I think, in the end, what bothers me most about the Bush administration is the dumbing down of America. Our expectations have gotten so low that just showing up, looking cute and stringing a few talking points together is enough to be applauded as a victory. Sheesh. This whole thing is difficult, though. I'm so grrl power. I love to see girls kick ass. But, could you see Palin with her aw shucks hockey mom demeanor talking to Putin. It's laughable. Time and place, people, time and place.