Today is the first full day of Fall and it's a little bittersweet. I love fall and I can get behind all the bonfires and mulled wine and and jack-o-lanterns, but I really love summer.

I'm a beach gal and I can take those 80-degree days like it ain't no thing. I like a glass of rose on a patio somewhere and the smell of sunscreen. I like the sound of jetskis on a small, inland lake. I like sun, I like sand, and I like hot. And I think this summer was especially fun, because Duke is getting bigger and so we can play and chatter and going to the beach isn't an awkward magic show of trying to breastfeed without smothering the baby with whatever's available to cover up with, and also wondering if anyone will notice me drinking a shandy immediately after. That was summer 2017, fyi.

This summer was Duke yanking free of my hands as soon as his feet hit the sand. It was friends who know my drink order, and I know theirs. It was living in a small town long enough that that I run into someone I know every time I go to the grocery store. It was settling in and getting comfortable.