Ahhh, autumn!

Today is one of those days when you wake up, feel the crisp air blowing in through the open windows, and smile at the sun shining through the screen door onto our sleeping cat. It's a beautiful autumn day today. Makes me want to get some fresh from the farm cider, sit on our front porch, and just be still.


{And eat too many pumpkin bars. I don't know if we just didn't have them at our house growing up or if it's not a southern thing, but since I moved to Madison, I've fallen in love with pumpkin bars. I can't resist them, which is a bad, bad thing.}


Sure there are many days when I miss the warmth and tan lines that the southern sun brings, but it's days like today that I truly appreciate seasons. Last weekend, John, LE, and I stopped at the arboretum on our way home from church. The trees are not yet at their peak, but the reds, oranges, and yellows are starting to creep in. It smells so clean there, and the row after row of trees shelters it from street noise. Given that the arboretum is one of John's favorite places in Madison, we certainly don't go there often enough.


(Be sure to scroll past the photos)

LE's sixth month has been full of energy and constant joy. I love going out with her because everyone-- toddlers to senior citizens, extroverts to introverts-- love smiling at, touching, squeezing, and laughing with our little happy baby. She loves attention, and it truly is so fun to watch her make other people's days.


On the home front, LE has been pulling herself along the floor to get to where she wants to go. She sits up to play with her toys, but she can't get herself to the sitting position yet. She giggles and laughs until she squeals. It's so much fun.


Now that LE is getting up on all fours and is super close to crawling, we needed to get our house in order. The tables are bare, sound system down banned to the basement, decorations relocated to on top of our kitchen cabinets, and furniture rearranged. It's true that the next few years will look different around here, and we'll have to pay much greater attention to the items we drop (e.g. bobby pins, pencils) and the dirt that we track in. Did you know that babies lick the floor? LE does, at least. Strange.

John took a couple of videos this morning when LE woke up. In the first one, she was army crawling towards the kangaroo that GrandBob (my dad) brought her from Australia. The second one was her just playing on the carpet in our room. {pardon the dirty carpet}