The Pumpkin Patch

Well, yesterday was an adventure to say the least. It was my 29th Birthday, a Birthday that I find more disturbing than 30 for some reason. It's like a year of torture really. Thirty will probably be a relief.:)

Anyway, I went and got my hair cut in the morning, minus two kids. It was relaxing for me, but not for some. Hunter wanted to come and proceeded to have a screaming fit the second I left the house. Kyle got to experience they full infliction of the "I hate yous" and "You're stupids." I was only gone an hour, but I'm convinced I'm more appreciated now. Maybe not, but as long as I'm convinced, that's all that matters.

We then proceeded to take the boys to the Pumpkin Patch. I know, exciting Birthday adventure right? BUT.....we'd been promising Hunter for weeks and this was the only time we could go. He'd tell you that he had a blast, even though he was horrified of pretty much everything. My anxiety driven toddler wanted to climb the straw pyramid. It's really high, so Kyle had to help him. By the time he was to the top, hysterics had begun. He was actually shaking. I could see it from the ground (Moms with bladders in my condition don't climb anything that requires jumping to descend). Tanner on the other hand was irate that he hadn't been taken up and tried to climb the darn thing. He pitched a fit until Kyle took him up with Hunter in tow. Hunter cried the whole way and caused an amazingly good scene. I was so proud. Anyway, Hunter was happy with feet on ground. Then we went to the petting zoo portion. Hunter loves looking at the animals. I think that was the first time that I've seen Tanner scared of anything. He was doing a little dance to get away from the pig, and since I'm a mean Mother, I laughed instead of saving him. What's my problem? Hunter saw the pony rides outside and wanted to go see. I asked him if he wanted to ride a pony. He looked at me like I was an idiot. "No! Horses have mean eyes! Hunter just wants to see 'em!" Oh, okay, well I'm so sorry I asked.

At this point, I think we'd traumatized Hunter so much that he even refused to sit on the John Deere tractor. He wanted his picture from the ground. Tanner went right up (and then nearly slipped right off as he wiggled to reach the steering wheel), but whatever.

Hunter just wanted to go to the Pumpkin Patch now. Especially since that included a trailer ride behind a tractor. Oh boy! He was pretty excited about that, although I had to hold his hand the whole way. Gosh I love my little, hesitant boy! Maybe he'll never outgrow it and he'll always want to hold my hand. Probably not, but a Mother can hope right. Anyway, the boys enjoyed traipsing through the pumpkin patch. Hunter has a little bit of trouble with his colors. I'd told him to pick a pretty orange one. So, at every single pumpkin, he'd say, "Oh, like this orange one, Mom!" (even if it was green or white). Tanner just wanted to pick them all up. And since they usually weighed more than he did, he was quite unsuccessful. I'm sure anyone that knows Tanner can picture him grunting in his deep voice and moving on to his next "victim." Eventually he found a little white one that he proceeded to launch like a basketball. He said nothing, just smiled and repeated his victory. Right. It's not a basketball patch, Tanner, it's a pumpkin patch. Still, no comprehension. Anyway, the part of the patch we were in didn't have any cute little ones, so we all just picked out a big one together and left with that. Kyle's even going to attempt helping the boys to carve it. Now that I'd love to watch.Anyway, afterwards we did a little shopping and ate some chinese food. Kyle's determined that HIS toddlers are going to learn manners in a restaurant, which I must say I found completely amusing. Hunter doesn't have an inside voice. He just doesn't. He's always loud. Kyle kept insisting he use his inside voice. This resulted in a few seconds of whispering, followed by more "regular" talking. The poor kid can't even help it. It's kind of funny. Tanner likes to bang his silverware on the table. The logical thing would be to take it from the kid, right? Well, if you take it, then he lets out this high-pitched scream until he gets it back. This is what we call a lose-lose situation. Eventually we ended up feeding him ourselves because that kept him quiet. Anyway, minimal mess, not too many disasters, all in all it went well.

So, Birthdays are different now that I'm a Mom. They end up being more about your kids than you, as a general rule, and actually, that's okay with me. It was fun. I did get several renditions of "Happy Birthday" sang to me on voicemail from my family (grandmas included). Those were classic. I didn't even delete them because they're fun for repeat.:) I got to spend a fun day with my little family, and our soon-to-be little girl didn't even make me too sick. That was nice of her, she's usually not so cooperative.:)

Oh, I almost forgot my favorite Hunter story. His 3rd Birthday is next month. We're on a mission to find him this toy lawn mower because it's all he talks about non-stop. They have one in the nursery at church and he's obsessed with it. If you ask what he wants for his Birthday, that's all he'll tell you, so you can see our predicament. So, we went to Toys 'R' Us. And guess what? They have it! We of course couldn't buy it right then, but we needed to check. Hunter saw it of course and proceeded to try and put it in the cart (along with every other tractor, Jeep, fire truck, bicycle, or other toy he wanted). When we'd tell him to put them back he'd say, "But it's for Hunter's Birthday!" We tried to explain to him that you don't get to buy your own Birthday presents (which he probably thought was ridiculous since Kyle and I bought my long-awaited mixer yesterday and I didn't have to unwrap it), but he was not convinced. We told him he'd have to wait until his Birthday to unwrap his presents and see what he got. Do you know what his solution was? As he tried to toss this truck towing a tractor into the cart, he said, "Hunter will just unwrap this later on his Birthday." Oh, you wish, buddy. This kid is too smart for his own good. I love it.

Anyway, just another day in the life of the Huwe household.