excuse

for those of you (jessica :-p), who are about to complain about not having any pictures of autumn, there is a reason. she's had a constantly runny nose for the last week and her eyes have been red, so i haven't been taking pictures because she looks kind of gross no matter how much i wipe her nose and wash her face. she's feeling better now (started sleeping again), but she looks yucky most of the time.

on a positive note, she has learned to come when you call her. she looks up, sees you calling, gives you a huge grin and comes crawling forward as fast as she can all the while making very excited noises. she has a very funny crawl. one hand and then the other, one knee forward and then she drags the other leg along behind her. she always looks like she's moving sideways, but she actually manages to move forward. if you watch her crawl it makes you laugh. especially because she's always so excited about it. and then when she gets to you and you swing her up into your arms, she wraps her arms around your neck and squeezes hard while she buries her face in your neck giggling. she leaves her head there for a second while hugging you, then she pulls back and gives you a huge grin. it's very sweet (though it can be messy with a runny nose ;-)).

she also thinks it's absolutely hysterical to crawl up behind me when i'm washing dishes and grab the back of my leg and bang her head against it.