Crunch Crunch

Now that leaves are changing into beautiful shades of yellows, red, and oranges I get to enjoy the new season’s perks. Fall has always been my favorite time of year. It’s not so hot that I need to slather a pound of sunscreen on my boys or limit their time outside to prevent heatstroke and possible sunburns. Also the mosquito’s population slowly dies down. Wintertime they are also limited in the amount of time they can be out in the cold. As for Spring, let’s just say it isn’t my favorite. My boys love mud, if there was a place they bottled it and sold it they would be begging for us to buy it. However, they are lucky that our yard can produce enough mud to ruin pairs upon pairs of shoes. Last spring a puddle was so deep and thick that it actually ate Big Brother’s rain boots. We only ever recovered one side so he is convinced it ended up surfacing in China. Another reason Fall is my favorite season because with a sweatshirt and jeans on the kids can spend an entire day outside on the weekend. They play and run without getting too hot or too cold. The weather usually provides enough clouds to ward off worries of sunburn. The ground may be wet but it is not soggy. It seems to be raining a bit more this year than last around this time but Big Brother loves when the yard floods from it. He will go out there in his boots to measure the depth and when it goes over his boots he run back in the house exclaiming, “It’s really deep, my shoes are drowning!” Little Brother being the little puddle lover will literally claw at the door trying to pry it open with his little fingers to get at those big masses of water. They must be like swimming pools to him because it never fails he will lay stomach down doing impersonations of a swimmer. Sometimes he leans so far forward that he can soak his hair in it. I have had to designate ‘mud clothes’ for the kids. I believe no amount of scolding or consequences of going straight back into the house will ever matter to them. As long as they ran out and got wet by a puddle they will happily head back in the house to change. Leaving for somewhere important like a family dinner or shopping trip can be a little on the frustrating side when you are right on schedule and hear the Splash of someone going against your wishes. I don’t know how many times I have ended up being a little late for something because I have to bring them back in the house to change socks and shoes. I won’t even bother to really scold them if it was just those two things (I have a pair of socks and shoes ready by the front door daily) but when it’s their entire outfit they don’t even fight or run away they just walk straight up the porch steps and wait for me to unlock the front door so we can get new unsoaked clothes. They both know better but the boy in them makes it almost impossible to resist. At least in the fall the puddles are in the low parts of the yard and grass has been growing all year, unlike spring when a foot on the yard will make mud. I’ll take wet over mud smothered. Yesterday while Big Brother was at school I let Little Brother play outside as soon as he had eaten breakfast. He was happy and busy until it was time for lunch. We made sandwiches and went straight back out to the yard. We watched the leaves blow around as we ate. I pointed things out to him while he just ‘MmmHmmed’ back. He threw his sandwich crust on the ground and ran away. He went to his little playhouse and slid down his toddler slide. After a while a bird came and scooped up his bread crusts and Little Brother chased after it. Then he saw the swing and wanted to be pushed until he got sleepy. Seeing that he was ready for his nap, I put him in his stroller and took him for a walk down our road. It was a nice day for it, all the trees lining the road where different colors and when a breeze blew leaves would fall around us. Little Brother would hold his hands out to catch them as they fluttered by him. Minutes later he was sleeping with all his captured leaves crumpled in his little hands. When we got back from our walk and I was making my across our yard to the house the leaves were crunching under my feet. This new sound woke up Little Brother who immediately jumped out of his stroller in a sleepy state and wanted to walk over crunchy leaves. The two of us spent the little time we had left until Big Brother’s school day was over walking around crunching leaves. We didn’t say anything, but I would laugh when he’d giggle at the sounds of “crunch crunch”.