Today was a Very Important Day at school, and I skipped it in favor of a Very Important Day with my family. Today was daycare's annual trip to the pumpkin patch at Remlinger Farms, and there is just no way I'm going to miss something like this. I had to give up two days of "wellness leave," but it was a complete no-brainer -- what would I regret missing more? A day devoted to improving our WASL scores, or a day of sheer autumnal perfection with my daughter? My sister-in-law made plans to come along as well, and last night my husband phoned on his way home from work and said, "You know, I think I'm going to take the day off and come with you guys." Perfect. I'm just supremely grateful that we were both in a position where we could afford to do that -- to take the day off, to spend it together in the fall sunshine, outside the city. (Incidentally, it was supposed to rain all day -- but the weather was simply gorgeous, partly-sunny and warm enough to leave our coats in the car.)
I went last year, and I enjoyed the experience, but it was a whole lot more work. For one thing, Suzannah hadn't been walking all that long. She could walk, but she was too little and too new at it to walk with me, or with a group, so I ended up carrying her around on my hip in the sling all day long. I also carried our lunches and the diaper bag around for most of the day, because it was less trouble than hauling Suzannah with me out to the car all the time. I was hungry and exhausted by the end of the day, and there was that awful fiasco with the corn maze, and by three o'clock I didn't really care if we left with pumpkins or not. This time, though, Suzannah could walk (and go on rides!), and I had two adults with me! Between the three of us, all we really had to carry was the camera. (Speaking of which, I'd go ahead and add pictures right now, but it's still in the car and my husband is currently driving that to Trader Joe's for dinner fixin's. Be patient, loves.)
So the weather was beautiful and Remlinger Farms was huge and fabulous. We took a ride on the steam train, made friends with some chickens and sheep and goats, played in the hay jump and hay maze, and went on some rides. My tiny little baby daughter is big enough to go on rides. Matt took her on the first one -- something resembling a little tilt-a-whirl -- and I kept calling out, "Hang on to her! She's my only baby!" I relaxed when I saw the huge grin on her face and heard her little giggle as they whirled by. I actually took her on the little roller coaster, and she loved it. She liked the rides a lot more than the hay jump, which weirded her out a bit. (Oh, but you should have seen my very grown husband in there. He had as much fun as any of the tots and emerged with hay in his hair.) After lunch, we took a hay ride out to the fields, zipped through the corn maze (which I survived because I was not ALL BY MYSELF this time), and chose four lovely pumpkins to bring home with us. The only real drama occurred when Suzannah tripped and fell in a patch of mud and squishy rotten pumpkin. If you know my girl, you know that she DOES NOT LIKE TO BE DIRTY, and there she was with mud and slime all over her jeans.
(Okay, in the interest of full disclosure, we also had drama this morning before we even left when I hid Suzannah's crocs. She wanted to wear those, and I told her she could have her tennis shoes or her boots. That was not an acceptable choice, and she howled about it for twenty minutes. She threw such an impressive tantrum, in fact, that I was completely amazed that she didn't fall asleep on the way out of town. She not only stayed awake, but she was in a perfectly wonderful mood all day, even without a nap. She conked out briefly in the car on the way home, right in the middle of a bite of goldfish crackers, but not for long enough to count as a nap by any stretch of the imagination.)
It was a good day. And tonight I'm really looking forward to putting on sweats, eating a cozy dinner, and doing nothing more than watching a movie and eating chocolate after Suzannah goes to bed. These are the moments when I just think, you know, my life is pretty sweet, and what I really want is exactly what I've got.
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