Catching Leaves

I've just spent the past hour in the forest with Jaevin and Summer letting them completely control what we were doing.
And I loved it!
It's the first week of November, yet I was wearing only my blue sweater from New Brunswick. No hat; no mitts. Same with them. The sign is shining and there is an occasionally breeze and light wind, but other than that it is a perfect day.
I went over there to get some pictures of them in the brilliant fall colours. The forest is a mosaic of yellows, reds, oranges, greens and browns. Jaevin even discovered some pinkish leaves. I got my "posed" pictures and then took some of them just enjoying the forest, and then I didn't bother with the camera at all and just watched them, trying to memorize each moment in my heart.
My camera is great, but when i take so many pictures I am not completely and truly experiencing the moments.
We walked through the forest and we stopped and listened. We were silent and we could actually HEAR the leaves landing on the ground. We could see them floating, like big, crunchy, colourful snowflakes. We ran around trying to catch them. Jaevin would see one and charge forward and reach up his hand and move on to the next falling leaf. Summer, always looking up to and trying to copy her brother, ran around and tried to catch them too. She was so enthusiastic that she fell a few times. Once was when we were adventuring in the mainly dried up creek. Of course, Summer discovered the small area where there is actually some muddy water remaining! She cried a bit, but then got over it. We found some stumps and some fallen trees laying across a leaf bed. Although, I suppose they weren't actually FALLEN trees, but trees that had been cut down by the city for whatever justified reason.
I sat down on a white birch and watched Jaevin try to catch leaves. Summer saw me and was intrigued by sitting on a tree, and crunched her way over to me and I helped her sit beside me. Soon after Jaevin made his way over and then I showed him the clear, smooth cut of the tree trunk and explained how you could determine the age of a tree by counting it's rings.
"How old was this tree, Mom?" he curiously asked.
I looked at the infinite rings and said, "Oh, I don't know...probably about 100 maybe" and then I thought, well that can't be correct because how could someone cut down a tree that had lived for 100 years? That's like murder in a forest....oh that's a good name for a story or a book....Murder in a Forest.
But there were so many rings.....
Jaevin balanced himself along the length of the tree, and at the end it split into two sections and he walked with his legs spread apart.
"Look at me, Mommy! Look at me! Do you think I can make it, Mom? It's very tricky," he cried to me.
"I don't know...it does look tricky. Too tricky for me." But of course he could make it.
We found another log and he did the same thing. Then he stood tall on a stump, and Summer did too.
I sat down on a tree log and Jaevin started collecting leaves and piling them beside me for us to take home. Summer was getting a wee bit whiny, so I asked her to find me some yellow leaves because every time she sees something that is yellow she gets excited beyond description.
Jaevin helped her find her first yellow leave and he gently brought it to her and whispered, "Yellow Summer. Show Mommy the Yellow leaf!"
It was one of those moments that, as a parent, you wish would just pause time. Keep forever.
Summer grabbed it and turned around and held it up as high and as proudly as she could and yelled, "YA-YOW! OOK, Mama...Ya-Yow"
Then she ran over and put it into our pile. I sat and watched them and tried to come up with unique compliments for each and every leaf that Jaevin enthusiastically brought over to display to me.
"Look at this one mom!"
"Wow! That one is the biggest one you've found!"
"Mom, here's another one!"
"It's so bright. And that one is such a cool shape!"
On and on it went until he became tuckered out and asked to take his collection home.
He grabbed a jumble of them and we walked home and he took them right into the basement so we can do a craft with them.
I was so inspired by this moment of mommy hood that I couldn't wait to write about it.