The Week of the Pumpkin

Finally! The days are getting shorter, football rules the TV, apples are plentiful, Catoctin Orchard brings out their cider and the pumpkins arrive at the Farmer's Market. Fall is my favorite season. The air smells crisp and it's so much fun to play in the falling leaves. Snuggling with Steve on chilly nights while we watch football or our favorite shows. We planned to have Julia in the Fall but she arrived a few weeks early. We celebrate our anniversary in the Fall. It's just a special time for me.

So far we've purchased two pie pumpkins this season. Julia has never called a pumpkin anything but "pumpkin pie". When they started arriving on decorations she would let me know. "Mama, look! Pumpkin pie!" Although both Steve and I have tried to correct her by telling her that it's just a pumpkin; she still says "Look, it's a pumpkin pie!" She told everyone who stopped at our house that we had pumpkin pies. Oh well, it's something we'll remember and tell her when she's older.

She is still on a birthday kick - singing happy birthday to her animals and imaginary friends. On Thursday it was apparently a pumpkin birthday. She pulled one of them off of the table, placed it on a tea towel in the middle of the kitchen and then adorned it with a crown that she made in school. I had to stop making dinner to sing "Happy Birthday, Pumpkin Pie". We called Grammy to share the madness (or at least have one other adult hear it...so I didn't think I was dreaming). Her animals started to join in the celebration. It turned into a full-blown party for the pumpkin pie. Thankfully when Steve came home he was able to convince her to move it from the center of the kitchen floor back to the table. It was a bit chaotic.

While we were shopping at Target on Friday, she yelled at every pumpkin decoration she saw "Mama, pumpkin pie!" "It's a birthday pumpkin pie!" Thankfully the rest of the Target shoppers thought she was simply adorable. Adorable, yes. Imaginative, yes. Quiet, no.

Yesterday I was finally able to open one of the pumpkins, steam it and scoop out the pulp. After some blending we had some very orange puree and a very curious Julia. So we decided to make an actual pumpkin pie from the puree and freeze the extra. Steve read the directions and I executed them with Julia watching very closely. Then came the polar bear. NO - we didn't start watching my LOST DVD collection. It was the polar bear from the Little People Learning Zoo.

She stood by the bowl I was mixing in and proceeded to tap the bear against the bowl and then pretend to crack it open. Steve and I were successful in hiding our chuckles. She was using the polar bear as a pretend egg! OMG. At least she was able to keep him out of the pumpkin custard. I cannot say the same for the measuring spoon that she was using to dump pretend spices. For a few minutes I tried to figure out where her play eggs were from a cupcake set that Peter gave her for her birthday. Well, they were busy being used for Little People train cargo. Who knew?