"That suits me fine," she agrees, brightening proportionately to the sheepishness on display. "Celebrate growth and not numbers. You're gonna need to pick a flavor for me to work with, you need cake too."

Maybe ice cream too, if she feels ambitious. Of course she will-- a safer bet than cake anyway, without the number of trial runs she's envisioning.

"And then it won't be too far to Thanksgiving, we're rounding on holidays again," she notes, with some surprise. "Hard to feel like summer's happened at all without the sun."

It's warmer, but not at all what she would call hot.