for new rituals: for taking a minute every day in midst of the morning rush---the gulping down of the coffee, the throwing on of the clothes from the laundry basket that has taken up permanent residence on our kitchen island---to sit down with roo to read margaret wise brown's a child's good morning book. for showtunes on pandora during snack time. (c., through a mouthful of crackers: "is this sondheim?") 

*

for roo, who has begun to make the sign for milk (or at least something that resembles the sign for milk) compulsively. it's clearly meaningless right now---the baby-sign equivalent of babbling---but i like to believe the real thing is on its way. it thrills me to see him experiment.

*

for yet more signs this morning that fall is coming: a case of shipyard pumpkinhead beer left out on someone's porch. schoolkids waiting for the bus. a single orange maple leaf in the middle of the street. a yellow crescent moon hanging over my parents' apartment building.