About Distracted Daddy
Distracted Daddy is a working father with a two-year-old daughter, a focused wife and a flatulent pug. When he’s not distracted he blogs about poop, parenting and other things at distracteddaddy.com.
Leaves: Nature's (Dirty, Wet) Glitter
distracted daddy: leaf jumping canada
(Oct.20.11)
Look up, way up, do you see that? The leaves are falling off the trees. It’s the second sign of fall. The first sign is the never-ending stream of “boogies” under my toddler’s nose.
Before they fall, the chlorophyll leaves the leaves and they change colour. (Thank you elementary school science.) It’s a beautiful kaleidoscope of ochre and auburn out there. It’s not as beautiful when you’re stuck in the backyard raking all day.
Falling leaves are like nature’s other rain. Their piles are like nature’s other puddles. And if you know anything about my daughter, you know that she loves to jump in puddles. Even poorly linked metaphorical ones.
So this year, I raked the leaves into a pile and let her leap into that pile. Jumping in the leaves is a classic fall activity like pumpkin carving or tracing a poorly drawn turkey around your hand.
This was how I spent last Saturday: Rake pile of leaves. Watch toddler jump in pile of leaves. Repeat.
The yard work took three times as long. But my toddler got some fresh air. And the leaf jumping exhausted her. An exhausted toddler is worth extra yard work.
She occasionally took breaks from the leaf jumping. During these breaks, she kicked the leaves, searched for particularly good ones to hold, and we threw the piles in the air. The leaves slowly fell down on us like nature’s glitter. Nature’s dirty, wet glitter.
Then she resumed jumping. She would brace herself and say, “one, two, three… go” before each leaf leap.
I kept re-raking.
Freshly raked piles of leaves are perfect for jumping. Old soggy piles of leaves that have begun to decompose are not. My toddler does not understand the difference and I've had to remove her from half rotten damp leaf piles.
When I let my daughter jump into leaf piles, I tell myself that the piles only consist of leaves and not all the other things in the backyard; sticks, black walnuts, dead bugs, raccoon scat, and squirrel barf.
Part of the fun of leaf jumping is ruining someone else's yard work. That's why leaf jumping loses its appeal when you're the raker and not the jumper. My daughter still has many years of jumping left in her. One day though, one day I will hand her the rake and send her outside. Then I'll run over and jump on her leaf pile.
Thought that was sweet? You'll enjoy: