A Perfect Moment in Time

It was the perfect day.  Mr. Golden Sun came out to play big time, we were all feeling better, and Rusty was in the best mood.  It was the day we had been waiting for the last few weeks.  It was beautiful.

Sunday morning dawned, bright and full of promise.  Rusty and I woke up and enjoyed some time together, letting Daddy sleep off the late night hockey game the night before as we munched on Cheerios and took in a Dora episode.  Rusty knew what day it was, from the moment he woke up!  He has a little alarm clock that is a stoplight.  It turns green when he is allowed to get up and almost every morning as the clock strikes 7:15 a.m. we hear his little voice call out, "Mommy, it's green!  Mommy, it's green!"  This morning he added another phrase, "Mommy, it's green and today is PUNKIN PATCH!"  Oh yes, our boy knew!

His patience amazed me.  He played puzzles and blocks with me as he wondered when Daddy would get up.  Finally it was 9 a.m. and I said, "Okay buddy, go tell Daddy it's time for the pumpkin patch!"  He ran into our bedroom, practically leaping on the bed and shouting,

"Daddy!  Time for punkin patch!  Daddy!  PUNKIN PATCH!!!"  He was ready to go!

As we made the drive to the farm, Rusty took in the various sites.  It's located in a more rural area and all the way out we heard, "Mommy, Mommy, it's a farm!  Mommy, it's horsies!  Mommy, Mommy cows!"  Then, as he asked about the pumpkin patch he said, "Mommy, sheep there?  Sheep at punkin patch?"  Wow...our little boy is growing up!

The pumpkin patch was all we had heard it would be.  It was our first time at this one, the year before we had visited elsewhere, and we were so happy with our switch!  It's an adorable little patch, filled with fun things for kids.  Animal farm, pumpkin patch, an enchanted forest, a corn maze, panning for gold...you name it, they had it all!  Rusty was almost overwhelmed!  At first he was so sidetracked with the animals that I think he almost forgot about the pumpkins!  He was particularly fascinated with the huge Tom turkey, and returned to that pen time and again to check out the bird.  Maybe he's thinking about Thanksgiving!

The farm even had a hayride, if you can call it that!  It was a quick little jaunt around a circle, but Rusty didn't know any different.  His face was full of pure delight and wonder as the tractor pulled the wagon around the circle and he looked out at the farm scenery. 

One of the best parts of the day was seeing the excitement Rusty had over the pumpkins.  He loved them all.  We plopped him down in the big piles of pumpkins and the grins that covered his face, they are the ones that make my heart topple and fall head over heels for the kid, every single time.  His joy bubbled up and out as he exclaimed over everything from the "tiny punkins" to the "washed my hands here Momma!" station.  The pumpkin patch through the eyes of a two year-old truly is a little, tiny piece of heaven.  We took the chances to get some pictures with our precious boy, and often as I looked at him I thought of how precious and special these moments with him are, and how next year things will be a little different as we go from a family of three to four! 

We finally made our way to the massive field full of pumpkins.  The supply was extensive and the stock was impressive!  There were very few rotten or misshapen pumpkins and once Rusty entered the field he beelined for a specific location, picking out his pumpkin and then proceeding to pick one for each of us.  He would fixate upon one pumpkin far off in the field and then march, march, march until he had found it.  In the end, he lost his focus a bit and just wandered through the field, enjoying the fun of walking around this pumpkin or over that one.  We didn't really mind though, the massive Chesire grin on his face made it all worth it.

Our last stop after choosing our three lucky, orange orbs was to visit the corn maze.  Silly me, I thought it would simply be a little path through the corn, it was actually a bit difficult to navigate!  Rusty was game though, and kept exclaiming, "Momma!  Wrong way!  Momma, we stuck in the corn! Mommy, wrong way again!"  It was adorable chatter to keep our friend Andrea and I company as we tried to find our way through the tall stalks.  I had to stop him at one moment for a picture, simply because the amazement on his face at the huge stalks of corn was too cute for me to pass up.

Yep, I'd say it was as close to perfect as you get...I can't wait for next year's visit!