Ground Cover

It's raining this week, and here's a carpet of leaves after the rain...

pretty pretty still, than if the leaves were intact, don't you think? :)

Except this was last month, so you can imagine how bare trees are now.

But while I haven't been able to give a blow-by-blow account of the season whizzing by...
... let me try and cover a bit more of the leaves, leaves, leaves, before I get to the snow!

Some more "ground cover"-- paving the way, like a miniature yellow-brick road, to this small park...










Jon (below) and Ben are ahead of Kait and me that Sunday, weeks ago now... Then, the boys drop their bikes, and Kait can't wait to join them in the sand pit.

But I bring her instead, slightly beyond the playground, where these leaves have just fallen, as fresh as it gets...

And she gets to them before the rain (afterwards) does...


Kait stops to gaze, and does her own exploring...




... mesmerized by the sea of leaves.

Now this is my favourite part...
Krunch, krunch, krunch!


But she has a mind of her own. And only for so long I can steer her away from the sand, the sand that is more MUD. See, she has no qualms getting all grubby, and will gladly help the boys dig their way -- to China (so we say)...

Until there's more than enough dirt for me to hose the three little pigs down (once home), and I start worrying, too, how I'm going to "oxi-clean" the laundry -- but without any Oxi Clean.

OK, got to go.

Meanwhile, Kait still stops to pick up leaves...

There are more theatrics, and new things she's picked up since, and more for her to discover. And when she'll let us hold her hand, SHE is the one doing the leading -- to show us what she wants!

Pictures taken last month. Kait turned 15mos last Fri. For someone who loves dirt/sand/mud, she shows potential in picking up after herself (yay!). The other day when the eldest child was just questioning me over why I did not make his bed (*sigh*... but yes, about time I stopped), and when every day still I have to remind him and his brother to put away their plates (among more things I have to get to), the little girl is going "Ah-ah, ah-ah" to the tune of "Pack up, pack up" for those words in that song. She'll also pick up every grain of rice/cereal I miss from the floor, though it's more her excuse to open the trash bin. The hilarious part is when she tries to close the lid with her foot -- the way I do when my hands are full!