Lovely fall colours... going, going...!

Contrary to the"blah" fall foliage predicted earlier in the season for this region, the shuttling back and forth between home and school has been a really pleasant one this past week. At the same time leaves were falling like crazy, trees that weren't bare yet were sporting vibrant shades of red, orange, and yellow!

It was just so lovely, driving on roads and streets flanked by these later-than-usual fall hues. And possibly, the most gorgeous we have seen in our stay here, because I remember them to be more washed out before.

However, we've not had a chance to really "get out there", away from concrete and traffic, to capture all this beauty in more natural surroundings. And there is also always such a small window to view it, before it's all gone!

But did we just miss a chance to catch more of it? The papers today reported that the "late but great" peak season was last weekend! Aw!!! And perhaps it's true that the shades are dwindling. These few shots I snapped yesterday, do not do justice to how much better the colours had looked earlier in the week.




But housebound we will be for a little bit, because we aren't feeling so well, having just come down with symptoms of the flu. Vern said it could be from the flu shot we took, or somehow, somewhere, we must have caught the same bug at the same time. I hope it's a milder version.

Just before feeling blue, Jon helps rake the leaves that are falling like crazy all of this week especially. It's leaves, leaves everywhere; leaves, leaves, all around!



(Updated with pictures, Sun)

Ben @ 3.5 years old

"WAKE UP, IT'S MORNING!" Ben bellows in my ear!

He's right, it's morning, and the room's already bright, with the sun's rays peeking through the blinds. But I don't feel so good, I don't want to wake up just yet. My throat hurts, and my bones ache, a day after Vern started complaining of the same things.

Wasn't it just four hours before Ben sprang wide wide awake, when he needed a middle-of-the-night toilet break, and I just put him next to me after we came back from the bathroom? And then, two hours after that, big brother Jon had heaved his still-tired body on our bed, wondering, "Is it morning yet? Why do I have a headache?". And, with Vern, Jon had stumbled back into the boys' room for a bit more slumber.

But now, our little Captain Von Trapp won't let up! "I'm going to count to three!"

And, "One, two, three...!" he starts counting. All the way, till 10, and I still don't budge. And then, I think he skips '12', goes on counting till almost 20, and jumps ahead to tackle the 80's, but with more difficulty:

"81, 82, 83, 84, what comes after that? And then what? 88?"

By now, Jon's awake too, fumbles into the room, and flings himself on the bed. "Go back to sleep," I mumble to him. "It's Saturday, and there's no soccer game, no chess.".

Ben bounces off, disappears for a little while, and zips back into the room, blaring, "Ting, ting, ting, ting, ting! We have a fire to put out!".

Aw, can I sleep some more? "How about we play pizza? I'll be the pizza!" I volunteer.

(How's that for a compromise? Whoever is the pizza, gets to be rolled around on the bed like a dough, and gets a back massage on top of that, because the back doubles as the chopping board for whatever ingredients that need chopping, dicing, julienning. It's even more fun for the Italian chef. No?).

"No pizza!", our junior firefighter is adamant to fight a pretend fire. How about help me fight some germs, some real ones?

"Wake up!" comes his command, again. "Let's go to the basement. We have to wash my pillow case!". (The basement is his firehouse, washing clothes, our secret code for putting out fires!).

Back and forth like this we go. But not for long. When I eventually roll out of bed, it's only already slightly past 8am! No time to lose... we have a fire to fight!

Ben has the sniffles, but other than that, he's the fittest of us now. He will be exactly 3.5 years old tomorrow, and I just wish I have as much energy to keep up with him!

Now playing...

Mars Mission...
- It's for real, not just on the net, and great for some male bonding, too! Jon couldn't wait to put together that alien strike ship and mining vehicle, and he did, almost completely by himself, except those clamps took a bit of help from his daddy.




Bear Grylls...
- We are big fans of the Man vs Wild show on the Discovery channel, where British special forces trained Bear Grylls makes his way out of some wilderness destination, starting with the Sahara Desert in the new season. Among other stunts, he 'narrowly' escapes a cobra and scorpions, and does a monkey-crawl out of quicksand!

All this, in a t-shirt for a headgear -- that Ben must have, too. And pants with "heavy duty" patches at the knees -- that Jon can identify with, because iron-on patches still work for us to salvage his pants for a few more wears! (I haven't stopped wondering what kind of sports Jon plays during recess. Umm... "see who can crawl fastest on your knees?" What can I say? It's a jungle out there)!



Dinosaurs...
- Ben doesn't always like to do drawings, but now and then, when he draws something like this, I just have to snap a picture of it!



Is this a figment of his imagination, or is there a dinosaur with spikes on its back and a club for a tail? What's it called?*

Librarian...
- Part-time firefighter, takes on a more serious, deskbound job at the library this week. Future librarian in the making? The rapt audience I try to be, in between trying to involve Ben in my chores -- like, pretend there's a fire we have to fight in the basement, whenever I need to go get laundry in or out of the washer and dryer, and we've managed two loads in a row, like this! Hey, it's not all play and no work, you know... hehe!

But each time we play library, I only get to be the person asking to check out books. Probably because Ben likes to go "beep", for every item he scans!



Besides our couch doubling as the bookshelf, with books Ben himself will arrange rather nicely, these are his other tools of the trade:

• a scanner for books, with a holder for "Date Due" receipts
• a smaller scanner for DVDs
• a long strip to demagnetize whatever's in the spine that triggers off the alarm at the library door.

So, don't chuck those mega blocks just yet, you never know when they'll come in handy for something like this!

Small Talk
And it's not just watching the boys' imagination at work, at play, that makes being a mom so much fun, but also getting a laugh here and there, from the things they say.

Here are some quick quips from Ben...

me: So, your library is open till late?
Ben: Until midnight.
me: Wow!
Ben: And it's almost midnight! Let's play!

***
me: Shall we take a break from checking out books, and sit down to read a story?
Ben: Why?
me: Because libraries have story-time, and my 3-year-old likes a good story now and then.
Ben: But your 3-year-old is not with you.
me: Huh?
Ben: He's at the library!

***
me: How was school? What did you do?
Ben: Nothing.
me: Huh?
Ben: I don't know what's the schedule.

***

Ben: For my next Show 'n Tell, I want to bring you!
me: =) (That's a compliment, right?)

***

* And the answer to the dinosaur question is:

Euoplopcephalus
".. was well protected from predators. It had a thick, armoured skin, covered with spikes, and a bony tail-club. If attached... will swing its tail at its enemy. A blow with its tail-club would have wounded even the fiercest predator."

When I asked Ben, he came and showed me the page on the "Triceratops" book by Early Childhood Publications, where he'd first seen a picture of this dinosaur, that I wasn't sure if it existed. It lived in the same Cretaceous Period as the Triceratops, Ben's favourite dinosaur.