So life is nuts.

What else is new.

Jane is growing like a weed.

She has the most wicked sense of humor.

The other day we were eating supper and she discovered baked beans.

She ate them by the greedy handful, shoveling them into her mouth as quickly as she could.

Then she shook her hands back and forth at me… her “all done” sign that we devised so she wouldn’t just slump and scream in her highchair because she couldn’t communicate with us.

Being able to communicate is a BIG DEAL to this kid.

I cleaned the bean juice off her and set her down to play.

I was still eating.

My pants, not the most fitted pants, were sagging down in the back.

It was at this particular juncture I felt something on my backside.

It was Jane.

Laughing to herself while carefully placing a rogue baked bean in her mama’s butt crack.

I shrieked and jumped up, so shocked and surprised, scrambling to rid my hind quarters of said bean.

She laughed and clapped her hands.

Like I said.

Wicked sense of humor.

What did we ever do in this house before Jane?

It must have been so quiet and tidy.

So devoid of fun and messes.

I can’t even remember now.

The leaves are falling from the trees in our yard.

It’s so hot everything is dying.

We’re having a drought, and that’s what everyone will always remember about this summer.

But not me.

I will always remember this as the summer of the bean.

The crack bean.