This Week

 We've been raking a lot of leaves.  Our new house is on a 1/4 acre (big for around here), with lots of mature leaves and great fall foliage.  Gorgeous October = 17 full lawn bags of leaves and counting.

 Jack has learned the fine art of jumping in all the leaf piles.  :)  And then helping to fill the bags...sometimes one leaf at a time.

 Last Friday we had a 2 hour playground playdate.  Afterwards, he went upstairs, took his shoes off, crawled in to our bed, and went to sleep.  For almost 3 hours!  First nap he's had in months.

 I put away our summer-y colored dishes, and replaced them with the darker, more autumnal/wintery ones.  I'm going to miss these bright colors, but it's fun to have the seasonal change.

 Jack and I have been assembling a lot of IKEA furniture.  We've finally got the basement back to normal, just 4 months after it flooded.  We had exterior grading down around the window wells, cleaned out the gutters, got new windows installed, and finally this week had the carpet pad replaced and the carpet re-laid, and got the carpet cleaned.  So excited to finally put Jack's playroom/my craft space together!

 I had a stack of boxes of IKEA furniture sitting in the family room for the past month while we waiting on the windows and carpeting.  (I had coupons that were about to expire.)

 Jack is getting pretty good at furniture assembly.  And playing in the partially assembled furniture - he kept calling this a "bridge".

 He's really good with an allen wrench.  :)  Should come in handy in about 15-18 years in his dorm room and first apartment.

He has decided that if it's below 60, he needs his jacket (with hood up), hat, and mittens.  On the flip side, he's hot and uncomfortable if it's much about 85 (or 80 with humidity).  I think he may have to move to San Diego when he's older (or some other place where the temps stay right around 70).  :)  Although he does enjoy the snow...as long as it's not actually snowing on him.  We'll see how this winter goes!  :)