September 12

This year, the kids' schedules are such that I can usually walk to pick up Brady from kindergarten, so that's what I did this afternoon. On the way home, we both enjoyed the satisfying crunch that results from stepping on fallen leaves, and at one point, he bent over to examine one more closely.

I don't remember which one of us noticed it, but there's a heart in the center of the leaf, so Brady asked me to take a picture. Afterward, as we continued along our way, I asked him how he he thought the heart had appeared. I suggested that a bug might've chewed through it, but I liked Brady's explanation exponentially more: he mused that it was the footprint of an animal with a heart-shaped paw.

Innocence is a sweet blessing.