The Search for the Great Pumpkin (or How I Learned To Love The Gourd)

Last Sunday, we went to Boone Hall to pick out a pumpkin.

It was great fun watching Reeves run around and touch the pumpkins and pick up straw and fall and get up and drag Daddy around and do it all over and over again.

I can't believe the difference between last year (cound NOT get him to look at the camera!)...

and this year.

And it ain't just the hair! Again this year, we only visited the patch and didn't do any of the games/rides, but I know next year we won't be able to keep him away from them. I'm already looking forward to it.

In the interest of full disclosure, I must admit, Halloween is not really my favorite holiday. I think the reason is that I can't stand costumes where I can't tell who it is under the mask. It kind of freaks me out. I think it is a holiday variation of my clown phobia. Other than the readily available candy and occasional party, I haven't really noticed Halloween in the past. Anyway, since becoming a mother, I have made a real effort to embrace this holiday. I have pulled out the pumpkin dishtowels. The jack-o-lantern is on the front porch, in the lap of a scarecrow, no less! The ceramic jack-o is on the china cabinet. I have practically immersed myself in the spirit. No? You don't think so? OK, well, maybe not, but by the time Reeves is old enough to get excited about all this, I promise, I will be Halloween's, like, 5th biggest cheerleader.

Let's be honest, as long as Jodie is still around, I'll never be the biggest, and I'm sure there will always be a few others out there more animated than I. But when you get down to it, that's just another gift of having children. Through their own innocent wonder, they get you excited about things.

The light shining through the face of a jack-o, the fascination with patting pumpkins, the way they stare at themselves in the mirror when they have on their costume, the thrill at being given treats just for having on a costume and asking for candy. All of these are just some of the things I have come to appreciate in the past 16 months. Watching my child dance to a shaking, singing, blinking skeleton makes me want to run right out and get every bit of Halloween paraphernalia. (After the holiday of course, when everything is on clearance!)

OK, not the clown. I will NEVER be into those!!