Raking Leaves, Turtles, and New Words

Here's a short update on us!

About 2, maybe 3 weeks ago I decided to finally get out there and rake the leaves. This took me two days and I filled up about 12 40 gal. bags. It was a big job and my back hurt. Over the weekend I was so happy to see that Jackson wanted to take his turn raking the leaves!
Jackson's friend Beckham has a pet Turtle. While they are out of town for Thanksgiving we get to babysit little Turtle. I'm thinking this is the best kind of pet. He makes no noise, he eats lettuce, and it takes almost no effort to take care of him. We've only had him one day and the boys and I are totally in love with him.

When Jackson saw me taking pictures of Turtle (I don't know his name, so we just call him Turtle) he said, "Take pictures of me mom!"

Jackson has gotten really good at boosting my self-esteem. I had a doctor's appointment in Monterey today so instead of going home after dropping Nate off we just went to McDonald's for breakfast. We were eating pancakes and Jackson says, "Mom, when we're at home you're a really good cooker. I really like your food that you cook at home. You're a good cooker."
Little Payton put so many words together yesterday! He completed a whole paragraph and I could understand each word (this is a huge deal since Payton's usual communication is in the form of grunting and pointing). Nate had a 24 hour shift on Monday so all day yesterday he slept. Payton knew that Daddy was home, so he was curious as to why Daddy wasn't out playing with him. After Payton looked all around the house for him and couldn't find him he came to me and said, "Daddy? Where's Daddy? I wanna see Daddy!"