My dad loves to tell the story of when he and my mother took me to Disney World. We stayed at a beautiful resort and spent countless hours seeing everything we could possibly see at all of the parks. You know what I talked about at the end of the trip? (Hint: Not Mickey. Not Minnie. Not even Cinderella or her castle.) I talked about the origami frog a waitress at the Japanese restaurant in Epcot made me and the cement turtle beside the pool at the hotel. It’s a tale that has not been exaggerated over time. It’s how it went down. And I was reminded of this today when we drove an hour+ into the suburbs to take Arabella to a pumpkin farm. I know I know, a pumpkin farm isn’t exactly Disney— but stay with me.
We took Arabella to the same pumpkin farm last year because that’s what people with kids do, right? She was six months old at the time and clearly not old enough to enjoy anything about the farm, but we went anyway. Mostly, so we could take some cute family photos and Arabella could wear her pumpkin Halloween costume (we didn’t realize she’d be the only one in costume- oops- new parent move). She was miserable pretty much the entire time, but we attributed it to her recent doctor visit that consisted of some odd number of vaccines plus a flu shot. Obviously the following year would be different. She’d love to run around, pick out some mini pumpkins and maybe even take a hayride or visit the petting zoo. (Right??)
Needless to say, we had high hopes when we set out this morning. The weather- which was rainy and cold last year- was 65-degrees and sunny fall perfection. That may have actually ended up being part of the problem. The perfect weather meant that pretty much everyone was at the pumpkin farm. So instead of parking by the entrance and walking right in, we sat in traffic for ten minutes before eventually being directed to some faraway space. We were all sufficiently hangry as we joined the herd headed toward the patch. (And I use “joined” loosely- I’m still a hot hobbling mess, so we basically watched boards of people pass us em route to the patch).
When we got inside we made a beeline for the food. There was a long line, but it moved quickly. Jarmon and I had Italian beef, Arabella had a kids pizza. It was all fine, but unremarkable. Arabella chugged her juice box (a new item for her!) but otherwise had very little interest in her food. She didn’t want to sit in her stroller, didn’t want to walk and didn’t want to sit on either of our laps. When we tried to give her the foam mask that came with her kids meal, she pulled on it until it snapped— leaving a red mark on the side of her face. Jarmon, intent on getting a full farm experience, got some fancy corn on the cob. Then, since everyone was happily fed, we thought it was a good time to let Arabella pick out some mini pumpkins. Our wonderful dog walker brought a small pumpkin that her husband grew over to the house the other day and Arabella loves it— so we just assumed she’d be delighted by the tubs of pumpkins and other pumpkin like items. Not so much. She sat stone faced as we showed them to her. And legit screamed when we tried to take her out of the stroller to pick them out for herself. Admittedly, some of them were odd looking- but we were at a farm! Picking out mini pumpkins to take home is what you do! (Right??)
Given her disinterest in the pumpkins, we decided waiting in line for the petting zoo or hayrides was probably a waste. So we went back to the cafe to get what we really came for— hot cider and donuts. We decided to get Arabella another juice box since that was the only part of the day that she seemed to enjoy so far. Guess what? She again chugged the juice box and also enjoyed a few bites of donut. By this point, it was clear that our day of “fall family fun at the farm” was over. We snapped a few photos by the giant pumpkins to prove we had been there and were on our way.
I planned on just posting the family photo where jarmon and I are smiling and Arabella is looking in the general direction of the camera. I planned on hashtagging it- “fall family fun at the farm!” But you know what? The truth is- we aren’t really a fall fun at the farm kind of family. Most of our photos showed Arabella on the verge of a meltdown— and if we’re being honest, jarmon and I weren’t much more enthused.
After leaving the farm, we made our way to Buy Buy Baby. Once inside the climate controlled store, our happy baby returned. Not only did she happily eat a snack in her stroller while people watching, but she also got out of the stroller and ran around the store like she owned the place. Putting toys in drawers and running around looking at displays. She was having so much fun, we literally had to trick her into getting back in her stroller so we could leave.
We also made a quick stop at the outlets to get Arabella a winter coat. We were absolutely pushing our luck, but she really needed a coat. Anyone care to guess how Arabella acted? Like an angel. All smiles in her stroller— people watching and eating her peanut butter crackers.
Was I disappointed that Arabella wasn’t more excited about the pumpkin farm? Yes, yes I was. But she’s my kid— really, what did I expect? I don’t know if we’ll go back to the pumpkin patch next year (actually, we will, because I’ll want the photos)— but I do know that we’ll be adding an item to our grocery list. Juice boxes. Because that was no doubt her favorite part of the day.
Trina Orlando 