Archive for October 24th, 2009
Ava did get a visit to a pumpkin patch this year. It went moderately well – despite a couple of supremely stupid comments made by a group of college girls (“Ohhhhhhhh, I want me one of those Chinese babies. They’re so cute and smaaarrrrrtttttt, too.”) and Ava’s decision to act like a total and complete brat since my niece was there with us and Ava thought she could pull off some behaviors with her that we don’t allow. Because of the attitude we did end up cutting the day short, which in the end wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Ultimately the mission was successful in that we came away with a pumpkin, albeit one that cost 3x what we would have paid at a grocery store simply because we got to carry it in from a faux pumpkin field where they’d chucked out about a thousand or so pumpkins they probably bought from the grocery store themselves.
No matter. She was cute and we got plenty o’ the obligatory pumpkin shots.
We asked her to pick one out and she (naturally) went for the biggest one she could find. She tried to carry it to J but got creative and rolled it to him instead. Smart girl.
She most adamantly did not want to go on the hayride (“No mow, Mama”) but we forced her onto talked her into her first pony ride. I always feel guilty about the pony rides where the little ponies just walk ’round in a circle but the desire to see Ava ride her first horse overcame my moral objections so we paid our $5 and off she went.
It didn’t start well.
Note the lean into J:
There was also much whining and a few iffy moments where we weren’t sure if this was going to happen.
He managed to talk her down by promising to hold on to her at all times…
but, pshaw, the next thing we knew she was pushing J’s hands away and was all “Gidda up, horsey” and riding like she was born to the saddle.
By the way, getting her off the pony was a whole lot harder (and louder) than getting her on it. She did not want this particular carousel ride to end and did (loudly and screamily) protest having to say bye-bye to her new friend.
We convinced her to move on to the big pumpkin patch – and by convinced I mean J carried her, kicking and screaming, under one arm. She was soon (thankfully) distracted by the hayride once again, slipping into her homecoming queen mode and waving serenely as the tractor puttered past.
Of course, once we made it to the big patch she was all like, “What the heck…”
OMG. Too many. What to do?????
Well, she chose a pumpkin, of course – only to pick it up, drop it and break it – which engendered a few more tears. J quickly substituted another and we finished up just in time for more attitude and drama when we a) walked past the pony b) looked at her funny c) wouldn’t let her run amok in the crowds and d) oh, pretty much anything we did.
After she decided to lay down on the ground and refuse to move we knew it was time to go.
Another kicking and whiny football carry ensued and the day was done.
(Believe it or not, a good time was still had by all.)