Pumpkin Preparations

Well, we went to the pumpkin patch on Sunday and had a great time! I'm not sure Judith smiled much during the experience, except when she was able to sit in the fire truck. She just kept looking at everything and was in her best mood of the day. It was quite cute. The big attractions for this particular pumpkin patch are its corn maze (quite elaborate) and its "Pumpkin Blaster"! Essentially, you pay $5.00 to load up a huge gun with mini-pumpkins and fire it at targets. You'll have to take a look at the website to get the full impact of these guns. Robert and I were fascinated, and could have easily been persuaded to stand in the long line for this, but Judith truly hated the noise and so we quickly vacated that area of the patch. (http://pumpkinmaze.com/content/view/9/36/)

We watched all the kiddies in the kid's play area and thought that even next year Judith will be able to enjoy some of that. Amazing! We walked all around and showed her the horses and pony and miniature horses (all different sizes), and the goats. We didn't go into the petting zoo area because we're cheap. We do think that this is a fairly good deal for the farm. It costs $1.00 a person to go in with the animals. It costs an extra $1.00 a person for a small bucket of feed so that you can feed the goats and miniature horses and other animals. So, we would have to pay for the priviledge of feeding their animals for them - neat trick! Can someone pay me for the privilege of cleaning my bathrooms?? If Judith was older, I have no doubt we would be there. But for her age, it was good enough to stand outside and look in and simply expose her to the allergens in the air.

We walked Judith through the small hay maze for children, but we decided against the corn maze. It's really quite large and we did not relish the idea of changing her diaper or needing to feed her in the middle of a corn maze. Of course, we picked out a few pumpkins. We ended up with two large pumpkins (which we may or may not carve, depending on our mood next Monday), 6 small pumpkins (a few of which Robert is going to use to make pumpkin bread) and 3 miniature white and orange pumpkins to add to the mini-pumpkins and gourds we already have decorating the house. We decided against the ornamental corn this year. We also decided not to buy the giant cut corn stalks for $5.00 a bunch. (This is another neat trick - you pay to take away their waste product!)

Overall, we had a grand time! Of course, preparing for Halloween in the Central Valley of California means picking your pumpkins in 85 degree weather with 100% sunshine and not a single cloud in the sky - which is awfully nice. We didn't see any great pumpkins lurking about, but it is a bit early for the annual visit, so we'll just have to wait.

One of the areas where Judith is really growing is in her love of reading. It is amazing that in a few short months she has gone to tolerating reading and not looking at the books to really enjoying the time and being fascinated with the pictures. She seems to listen to the words now and really look at the illustrations. There are a few books we are reading quite frequently (Pat the Bunny, The Belly Button Book, The Cat in the Hat) and then we keep cycling through all of her other books so that she can hear the different words and sounds.

We know that Judith is very much looking forward to being on the go. She loves to have us move around when we're holding her. And when she's laid on the ground, she scoots herself around in a circle, or scoots backwards. But at the same time, she is getting better at sitting still (as times). She is now more capable of sitting in her bouncy seat while I get some of dinner ready. It's only 5-10 minutes, but that's time when she just watches and smiles or chews her fingers or plays with her toes - not time when she's demanding to be picked up and held. This is a big step forward that does allow a slightly greater freedom of movement at times.

Of course, as Judith grows, so does her ability to scream and yell when she wants something NOW. We have explained to her that when Mommy and Daddy have hearing loss later in life, they will be able to look back on this time and know where it started! Of course, at four months of age we are eleven to twelve months (at least) from these being actual temper tantrums that need to be ignored. So when she cries, we try to figure out what's wrong and fix it as quickly as possible. Sometimes we simply cannot fix it right away and we just put up with the crying for a few minutes. But the range of possible problems is still fairly small, so we can pinpoint the issue fairly quickly most of the time.

Something that did not make Judith happy this week was church. We did not go to St. Anne, but instead went to St. Bernadette in Stockton. They do not have a choir, but use a cantor and organist at each Mass. I am going to be a regular cantor there once or twice a month going forward. Robert and Judith came with. At St. Anne, we simply sit in the front row and I can hold Judith and sing at the same time. At St. Bernadette, I sit up in the sanctuary and holding Judith is not appropriate. So Robert had Judith at the back of the church. We don't know if she could hear me through the speakers and recognized that as me (their sound system has a rather tinny quality to it). But certainly when Robert came forward for communion, Judith was just starting and staring at me, like why are you up there and not down here holding me???!!! At one point, she was so upset that I heard her yelling from the men's wash room, where Robert had taken her to change her diaper. Oh well. Maybe on the other third Saturdays of the month when I do that Robert and Judith will go to church at St. Anne still, which is smaller, more familiar, and 25 minutes closer to home. We'll have to see.

I think those are all the updates for this week. I apologize for the rambling nature of this week's entry. We wish you all a good week, and encourage you to use the last of the late afternoon sun with evening walks before it's dark - because after daylight savings time ends this weekend, you'll get home from work and find that it's dark and too late to be outdoors. Very sad. Of course, the outdoor walk thing isn't as much fun in freezing temperatures, but that's what hot cocoa is for - warming up after being out on a brisk fall evening! Take care!