The search for a great pumpkin

No matter the season, my son regularly points to the same Lutheran church along our daily commute to remind me: "Mommy, it's the pumpkin church."

 

Every October, a pumpkin patch is delivered to the front lawn of the church as one of their annual fundraisers. And so it has become family ritual to walk the patch and choose our future jack-o-lantern. (And when he was a baby, it was a nice photo op)

 

With Halloween decorations up at school and at the stores, my boy knew the pumpkins would be coming soon.

 

Then on one morning drive, his eyes lit up as he saw the long rows of orange squashes.

 

Luckily, that afternoon, his Nana picked him up at school and was perfectly happy to go pumpkin shopping on the way home.

 

That still didn't satisfy him completely.

 

The next morning, as my son waited for his pancakes, he wanted to skip breakfast and buy a pumpkins.

 

"I want to buy one now."

"Well, we can buy one later."
"No, I want to go now."

"But we can't go now because the pumpkin people aren't there. They are having breakfast now."

"No, they're no. We can go now."

 

This discussion deteriorated into a full-fledge wail, but I would not budge.

 

As we passed by the pumpkins, my son saw that, indeed, no one else was there.

 

"You're right, Mommy. Nobody is there yet."

 

When I picked him up from school, he renewed the argument, realizing he could win this time.

And soon enough, we were at the patch, walking around and comparing the sizes and shapes.

Several pumpkins had this patch of bumps all around and my son made a point of rubbing each one of them. We saw a few albino pumpkins (probably just a different breed but I don't know the name).

He kept picking some small pumpkins and I kept trying to press him for someone larger that would make an impressive jack-o-lantern.

After debating about 7 different ones, we finally agreed on a tall, but relatively skinny squash. While I went to start discussing pumpkin prices, my son jealously guarded our pumpkin.

 

On the way home, we discussed all our pumpkin plans and I explained to him how I looked forward to making a pumpkin soup or a pumpkin pie, as well as toasted pumpkin seeds.

 

"But Mommy, you can't do that to the pumpkin. The pumpkin people will get mad. It'll hurt the pumpkin."

And then I saw a few tears starting to fall.