"Smile a Little Smile for Me"

I cannot remember having an October with such beautiful weather. It has been on the warm side, but at least it has been sunny giving us the opportunity to enjoy all the pumpkin patches and fall activities. St. Louis has so many fall festivals and pumpkin patches its hard to decide where to go! So far this year we have been to Theiss Farm and Millstat. Today we are going to Steckmeyer Farms and Valley Days and plan to wear our boys out! (Who are we kidding, we will wear out long before our boys).


I am writing this while Owen is in his gymnastics class. I watch as all the kids follow the teacher's instructions while Owen runs around. I can't figure out if he doesn't want to be there or if he is just being an over-energetic boy that doesn't want to listen. He says he wants to go, but then doesn't pay attention once he is in there. I want him to understand the discipline of being in an organized sport or group, and gymnastics is at least almost always moving. I know most other kids Owen's age are in soccer, but there seems to be so much standing around. Or, does it bother Owen that he is the only boy in this class? Does he notice it? Great, now he is trying to recruit other kids to the dark side...as I type this he just got up and started playing Duck-Duck-Goose while they are supposed to be in a circle...I believe Owen has just taken control of the class. This kid is either going to be the President or in prison when he grows up.

On a different note, has anyone noticed that no one really smiles anymore. As I was walking through the grocery store one day I started looking at all the faces. Most everyone looked irritated or at best blank. I tried a trick and just walked with a half smile. I'm sure I looked like a crazy person, but I wanted to see how many people noticed and smiled back. Not a single one, but maybe the grocery store isn't the best place to try this experiment. (Note that just yesterday I started crying in the grocery store because Owen kept hitting Levi in the cart...so if someone looked at me and smiled at that moment I can guarantee it would not be reciprocated). The moral is, just try smiling once in awhile while out and about, Of course, I guess you have to be careful of who you smile at and when. If your a 40 year old dude and start smiling at a teenager in a low cut shirt, probably not appropriate.