Autumn

Its the end of October already. The past week has been really cold here in Tarbes. Infact, it has started snowing in the mountains at 1800 metres. 2 days ago, I saw the snow up in the mountains in our balcony. Last week, it was 1 to 3 degrees in the morning when I went to my French class. By the time I get out of class, its warmed up to 10 degrees or so. The heating in our classroom is still not switched on, and I was relieved when I walked into class on Monday morning to find almost everyone shivering from the cold. I didn't want to be the only one who was bundled up in winter clothes and still feeling cold. The week before, I was one of the few in a winter coat and my English friend told me that at her house they haven't started up the heating yet and still have the windows open! I'm like, OMG, we started our heater 2 weeks already!!!!!

It's really deceiving that the sun is shining so brightly and then you step out and its still so frigging cold! I've had to go back into the apartment to change my clothes twice!
It was therefore a relief for me that the past couple of days the weather has warmed up - in the mornings its 6 - 8 degrees and by noon, its about 18 degrees. Both Lucas and I are getting used to dressing up for the cold, though "layering" takes some getting used to.
Lucas received a warm parka from Gap from his aunt in Seattle, and that will keep him toasty warm this winter. I have finished shopping for him, my last purchase was his flannel PJs. I bought a couple for myself too and they are nice and warm.

The leaves are finally turning red and falling from the trees. Fred says he is already looking forward to Spring. The days are getting shorter too - the sun rises around 830 and then sets by 7. Lucas has been getting up at his normal time of 7 or 730 am but I didn't realize that the sun is rising later so I kept telling him "go back to sleep baby, its still early!" since its still dark when he wakes me(previously the sun rose at 6 am). Poor thing must have been so confused :)

Now that Lucas has turned 2, he is talking more and is more interactive. Today at the doctor's he looked out the window and said "Coo Coo". I guess he learnt it at creche, since I didn't teach him that. He also now plays with his Melissa & Doug puzzles, where he matches half of the vehicles to the peg puzzles. Previously he couldn't recognize the colors and cars but now he can do it and then shows it to me, beaming happily at his achievement. His favourite word besides "no,no,no" is "again". His favourite cartoon right now is Kung Fu Panda (thanks to his Ah Yee who sent it). Lucas can now finish his milk bottle and then brings the bottle to mama to wash, he also wakes up and takes a shirt out of his drawer and brings it to mama to wear it for him. Lucas can take his shoes out of the closet when he knows we are going out and goes down the stairs holding mama's hand.