Azaleas in November

We're having a wonderful November. After a ridiculously rainy October, November has been sunny and warm. It gets into the 70s in the afternoon and you really can't be beat falling leaves in warm weather. It's my second fall here, so we're repeating a cycle of seasons. Though not I'm not as disoriented as last year ("it's Clementine season already? I'm still not wearing a jacket"), I still find it a little strange. I don't think Katie knows that I think fall is "supposed" to be cold. Yes, it's my Northeast centric view, I fully admit that. In fact, when her friend Julia was over this week, they were bothwearing shorts and asked to go swimming. Pool is down to 64, so no.

Katie is amusing. At times she's so independent and will help herself to snacks, help me make her lunch, and basically showers on her own (with parent supervision and reminders to rinse her hair well). But she's also still the Katie who is full of hugs and wants to snuggle all the time. She's really into playing games this week. She played Chinese Checkers with Nana and Papa and Go Fish with Peter. Yesterday the 2 of us played Go Fish and it was actually a lot of fun.