The Wonder of The Pumpkin Patch

It's been way too long since I last posted, between potty training, the new school, my new job and the normal chaos of life with an active 3 year old, I probably shouldn't be surprised how the time zips by...and yet I always am. I'm also a little torn between blogging and journaling and am probably just doing a poor job of both at this point and will need to choose between the two eventually, but for now I'm going to continue to allow myself to believe that doing both is somehow possible...the risk of reading way too many fairy tales, I imagine...LOL

Last weekend, Jakey and I found ourselves with a little time on our hands and in spite of the fact that we already had two trips planned to the pumpkin patch (one with his school this past Fri and one coming up with the Posse and his donor sib, Hallie and her moms), I decided to give it a test run to see how he might react. Of course, I still haven't learned that it's just plain silly to try to predict these things, they never and I mean NEVER turn out as expected. And this was no exception.

I was sure we would only be there less than a half hour as I just couldn't imagine what about a bunch of pumpkins would actually keep his attention for long. I imagined him going, "ok mom, yeah, that's cool, their orange and round and wow, they're all the same...ok, once you've seen a dozen, you've seen them all, right?" Well, I could NOT have been more wrong!!! Who knew there was such magic hidden in the pumpkin patch?!?!? Clearly, not I!

So...we arrive and pick out one of those old time metal radio flyer wagons that look as though they were used to pick cotton in the civil war era and off we go. My little man (who insists on being referred to as my "big boy") is off and running pulling the wagon, and I'm off an running to keep up with him. We walk the long, bumpy, muddy (which he loved...me, not so much) path to the BIG pumpkin patch and he's content to pull the wagon the entire way...which was about 99% further than I had predicted. If I'm being totally honest here, after the first 2 minutes I contemplated returning to the car to get something to lay down in that dirty, muddy old wagon so he could sit on it when the time came that he no longer wanted to walk. Again, totally wrong!

As we round the final bend of that little dirt path, he catches a glimpse of the very first pumpkin in sight...now, this was one that had been passed up by thousands of people, looked like it had been kicked around a little bit, and partially squished, yet you would have thought he had found the most perfect pumpkin in all of the world. Off he went running, pulling that rickety wagon along behind him as fast as he could go...as if someone might beat him to it. The whole time yelling "mama, look, mama, look...a pumpkin (pronounced punkin)!!!!" And he drops to his knees and hugs this ugly, dirty, muddy, somewhat squished, lopsided pumpkin, like it's the last one on earth and begins to struggle to pick it up and place it in our wagon. OK, as anyone who has ever tried to talk a 3 year old out of something he thinks he must have knows, I had less than a snowballs chance in Hell of changing his mind, so I help him load it in.

The rest of the time spent in the pumpkin patch reminded me very much of that little book called "everything I need to know I learned in kindergarten" (or something like that). Here's what my incredible little guy taught me that beautiful fall afternoon:

1. There is NO such thing as a bad pumpkin...they all have things that make them special in one way or another

2. Don't judge the pumpkin by what's on the outside, sometimes real beauty is only hidden beneath a little layer of dirt or mud, and with a little extra care those pumpkins can be shiny and new again too...of course, licking your fingers and rubbing the muddy pumpkin may not be the best approach...LOL

3. Some pumpkins aren't ready to be picked yet...these are small and still attached to the vine and you really shouldn't pick them yet because they're just taking a little longer to grow up (to become "big boy punkins", as my son would say) and really, what's the rush?

4. Some that were picked too soon and then left behind, may not have ever had the chance to turn orange, but that's ok too, don't leave them behind, because there's no reason that they all have to be the same color. If everything was the same color, we wouldn't have rainbows, right? And what fun would that be?

5. Size doesn't matter... at least not the size of the pumpkin...Except, however, when picking pumpkins for gifts, the size of the pumpkin should be relative to the size of the person...this one made me a little nervous about the size he would eventually pick for me...LOL So, Pops got the biggest one, and JJ the next biggest one, and down from there to Nanny, Mommy, LaLa, Hallie (who he now includes among his FAV 20, usually in the top 10), one for his girl Jordan and the three kids across the street. (Are you getting a visual of our little radio flyer wagon right about now?)

6. Pumpkins that others pass by can be the greatest find of all...because they'll try extra hard to be a really good punkin for you because they really, really want to be picked. (Again, amazing words from a 3 yr old, no?)

7. You can't pick all the pumpkins even if you like them all, because then there wouldn't be any left for other little boys and girls to pick and God says you have to share...of course, that's a line I'd love to hear more often from him...LOL...would have come in especially handy this afternoon when I had to carry him out of a birthday party at one of those kids play places after he picked up two 5 year olds...one in each hand, and threw them across the room for touching the light rods he was playing with...not so good. As I carried him out to the car kicking and screaming I asked what God was thinking about this lack of sharing...needless to say, the answer was not good.

8. And last but not least, my favorite two lines of the day from the punkin patch..."Momma, I know we can't fit another one in our wagon, but can you carry this last little one 'cause he told me that he really, really wants to be MY punkin and I got one for everyone but me?" And... "Momma, I feel bad leaving all those other punkins behind, can we go back and tell them not to be sad because somebody else will come and pick them?"

So, needless to say, we left the pumpkin patch with close to a dozen pumpkins...11 in the wagon and 1 in my arms...and a gazillion memories...Whatever it cost me at 50 cents a pound, it was worth every single penny!!!!!

Who knew a trip to the pumpkin patch could be SO magical?!?!?!?

A couple of shots from his class trip to the Pumpkin Patch and meeting the farm animals...