This afternoon My Marine and I met at the park for his lunch break. The Little Man hasn’t ever been to our nearby park (Ha! Shows you how often we do this!), and he was loving watching the dogs play, laying in the grass and watching all the activity around us.

Littlest enjoyed playing with his toes in the grass…

…and he loves twirling!

He played with Mama…

…and did lots of laughing!

But after a while, poor Little Man started to get a little grumpy.

He was clearly getting tired.

So were the dogs…

…so we loaded up and headed home!

I feel so terrible when my guys are sick.

Poor Little Man has already had three colds in his short little six months of life. He was two weeks old the first time, two months old the second, and now he’s sick again. His little nose is all stuffy and he’s had a slight fever. It’s hard to tell if his cough is “real” or not, though, being that he has a silly little “fake cough” that he does for attention–sick or not.

My Marine had been saying that he thought he’d already had a mild case of this cold that’s been going around and was now over it… until last night. By the time we went to bed, he could no longer be in denial. He’s pretty sick now. He always takes such good care of me when I’m sick… I try to be at least half as good a caretaker when the tables are turned.

I am a little worried about him tomorrow, though. He has to be in to work a little early to check in for his 24 hour “Duty” and be in charge of the sound for the morning raising of the flag, National Anthem and Marine’s Hymn at the General’s Building. Then, later, he is scheduled to brief his General regarding the new course he’s in charge of. After work, he will go straight back to the General’s Building for the remainder of his Duty, which requires him to be awake most of the night.

If you think about it, prayer on both of my guys’ behalf would be appreciated. Little Man is having a hard time getting much sleep at all, and My Marine really can’t be “fuzzy-headed” tomorrow (which will probably, from experience, be the worst day of this cold). I know God’s grace will be sufficient and this will soon pass, but it’s so hard for me to see them not feeling well–especially after I just went through it myself.

Now I’m off to try–once again!–to get my tired baby boy to sleep!

Yesterday was a perfect day. It was the first day I could really say it felt like autumn in the desert.

It was the kind of day that, had I not been trying to recover from a nasty cold I caught over the weekend, I would have loved to take our rambunctious Australian Shepherd and my Little Man to the park to play in the grass, enjoy the light breeze and soak up some golden sunshine.

Instead, I opened up all the windows and let the fresh, crisp air fill every room in the house. In the afternoon, I curled up with Littlest on a bed made with soft cotton sheets and we both took a long nap while the breeze floated through our bedroom and a pretty little bird twittered from his perch on the backyard fence.
My wonderful brother had come for the day to help with the baby after seeing how terribly sick I was on Sunday, and he and I enjoyed the extra time we had together, watching his school videos together and finding ourselves amused at the hand motions and voice inflections of a few of this year’s teachers.

I chatted for a while with my dear Mother-in-Love about the new carpet they’re having installed, about this little grandson of hers who is much too far away from her, and a little about our trip to Colorado for Christmas. While we were enjoying our mild weather and calling it fall, she was able to look out her windows and see snow. In a town at 10, 300 feet elevation, I guess it shouldn’t be surprising to have snow in September, but still, I find myself amazed!

Today was a little warmer again. I knew that the cooler weather of the past few days was only a “teaser.” Experience tells me we’re still due for another triple digit hot spell. But I think the autumn bug has bitten me. I now have out all of my fall decor… not much, just a garland of golden leaves woven among the pictures on top of the piano, a wall hanging outside the front door, harvest placemats and a pumpkin centerpiece on the table, and my miniature scarecrow standing in his little hay bale on the entry-way table. But still, we’re pretending it’s cooler and crisp outside. We had soup and biscuits for supper with cinnamon-spicy candles lit and the sounds of our Smoky Mountain Hymns CD’s playing. (Yes, even our music changes when the seasons change!) I’m eager for cold weather to arrive in the desert, and even if our changing of the seasons only gives us mild weather in the place of the scorching heat, I don’t mind being prepared!