Pumpkin Patch

So we needed to get one more pumpkin to carve, and my first thought was to go to Stop and Shop. And then I thought, NO! We're going to Sam Bridge Nursery, which has an actual pumpkin patch and stuff the kids can do. So I picked them up after school and we went right there.

It was awesome. We parked, grabbed a wagon, and I pulled them down to the patch. They jumped out to say hi to the big inflatable Frankenstein monster, and the three little pigs and big bad wolf, and the ghosts, and the scarecrows. And then they ran around in the middle of the pumpkins, and in the hay maze. They jumped from bale to bale and frankly I was a little nervous but Kate can jump further than you would think. Or than I thought. They did this for about half an hour, while I carefully and meticulously selected a couple of pumpkins. There was a tractor, which they climbed on, and off, and on, over and over again. I'm not sure they'd have left if I hadn't finally said it was time to go.

In the car on the way home, they happily sang pumpkin songs.

Kate:

"Mr. Pumpkin
Mr. Pumpkin
he's so orange
he's so orange"


Jack:

"When the ghost went out,
on Halloween night,
he screamed.......!
and he dropped his head right onto his toe!"

There were others, but those are the only words I can remember.

At home, they had a Halloween party. Kate wore a pumpkin cat mask she'd made at school. Jack quickly made a colorful skeleton mask. They made a sign; Jack wrote the words, Kate drew pictures of the pumpkins, hay bales, and tractor. It was pretty great. Then Kate came to me and asked me how to spell "pumpkin patch" so she could finish the writing. She did.

At the party, Jack read Halloween stories, and also Lost and Found, aloud, while Kate listened in rapt attention.

During the time they were running wildly around the pumpkin patch, Jack paused for a moment and said to me, "I feel bad for the kids who have to go to after school program!" Then he ran off.

I can't tell many people that, but it was pretty cool.

school trouble

It was a rough week for Jack, and us, hearing that he supposedly called another boy a name (he says he didn't, and we pretty much believe him), then getting in trouble for, I guess, telling knock knock jokes while lining up for recess with a friend and using a word he shouldn't have. That incident got him a "warning" because apparently there was another occurrence, totally accidental, where he brought a dot to dot book to school, and a pencil, and accidentally poked a friend with the pencil. He told me about that one and was kind of confused it was an issue. "I turned to talk to Peter and was holding the pencil and Jenna got poked."

He's a 7-year-old boy; I kind of figured I had a few years before I'd need to be worried about him getting in trouble in school. So we gave him the lecture about not wanting to hear any more of this kind of thing, and punished him, and said, you know, you could get suspended. And he was in tears, lamenting he was going to have to get through the whole year without doing anything wrong. And it's sort of like, well, yeah, I guess that's true. So I guess I won't be letting him bring a dot to dot book to school, and he'd better not be laughing at or repeating jokes that are pretty much created with 7-year-old boys in mind.

The funny thing is that -- while conceding I have a bias here -- I don't know any better kids than him. Happy, funny, likes everyone, gets along with everyone. (Near as I can tell, I'm not actually there at recess.) Every day do I need to worry about him getting in trouble for something or other? Again, I just figured it was a ways in the future, if ever.

He was in tears at the idea that somebody thought he'd called them a name ("If people think I said that they won't want to be friends with me!") and at the thought he might get suspended. Scared. Which makes sense; he likes school, likes reading, likes the work, likes his friends and teachers.

I feel bad for Jack, and I wonder what's true and what isn't, and what needs to change. I wonder what the next thing I'm going to hear is. And I hope -- that it will stop, that it's nothing, that he'll feel better in the morning. And when I can relax and not worry about stuff like this, and realize as I write this that the answer is probably, uh, never, or at least not for very long.

Bedtime songs

I put Kate to bed tonight and offered her a song. She chose Edelweiss, then said, "No -- ballgame." So I sang Take Me Out to the Ballgame. Then she said, my turn. This was her song, as best I can remember it.

"Bears like to sleep,
they sleep in the night.
They wake in the day,
and they like to eat salmon.

Cats sleep too,
and cats eat fish.
Dogs sleep in the night,
and they eat dog food.

People eat everything,
except food for animals.

People
like
to
sleeeeep."

Mommy away

Emily had to go to Chicago, so I handled the kids solo tonight. Here was how it went.

Picked them up at school. Kate ran around with some boys her age. Only took two weeks for her not to be running around with jack and his friends. Jack ran around with Nick, as always.

Went to grocery store to smash bottles and buy hotdogs. Fun was had by all.

Watched an Avengers with Jack. He picks up on subtle things. "Look how now Stark tower is in the sun," he said. "So everything is Ok." That's right, Jack.

They helped make their beds. Well, they put on pillowcases. Kate cleaned Jack's room. Did a good job, too.

FaceTime with Mommy. They had fun making faces. Uh, just like me when I FaceTime with Robin. Hmmm.

Ate hotdogs, chips, corn. Eating in the kitchen, which we tend to do with three of us, is a big treat. I don't really know why.

While I cleaned up, we played music. Titanium a favorite these days, so I found it on YouTube and we listened. They danced.

Bath and shower. Jack helped Kate brush her teeth and comb her hair. Thanking her for cleaning his room. I don't have words for that.

Read Room on the Broom. At the end, Kate likes pointing out all the different features on the new broom. "He has a pool, and he has a book, and he has...."

Gotta go make my own bed, now....