Current mood: amused
At first I was going to carve Mia's pumpkin by myself, like last year, but then it hit me; shes old enough to participate or at least play with the pumpkin guts and seeds! haha But where to do this? hmm.... I needed a good open area that would be ok to get totally covered in pumpkin guts!
At first I thought the kitchen floor but I knew she would probably take off with pumpkin guts all over her and get it everywhere including the carpet. Then I thought maybe outside? Nah... knowing Mia as soon as shes outside she would bolt and not even care about the pumpkin. Then it hit me! The tiny tiled area infront of our front door. It was perfect, small and open. So I laid down some plastic on the floor, grabbed my Brother and Sis-in-law's baby gate "Octogon" and blocked off a small spot in front of the door. I set it up in such a way she couldn't get on the carpet but still had some room to move around. I then realized... the walls!!! All I could envision was orange pumpkin and seeds smeared all over the walls from her tiny hands so I taped some plastic up there as well. I was good to go!
Grandpa helped her get up from her nap and changed her diaper. I then had him dress her in one of my old black shirts. She was swallowed up by my shirt! It literally looked like a gown on her! It went all the way down to the floor. At first she was unsure about wearing it and she tripped a few times but she got the hang of walking around it it. She looked too funny and cute so we took tons of pictures.
Then it was pumpkin time!!! Armed the the camera, Grandpa stood by with Daddy. I got in the gated area with her. Daddy picked her up and put her inside and right away she started to whine, she didn't want to be locked up!!! I calmed her down by giving her, her favorite white spoon to play with. That made her happy. Soon she was tapping the top of the pumpkin over and over with the spoon because she liked to hear the hallow thumps! Tap Tap Tap she went. I gave her my spoon and she was soon playing the drums on the pumpkin. Everything seemed fine until I started pulling the guts out. I think it freaked her abit because she wanted no part of it. She started to cry a bit and refused to even touch them or get close to them. I tried and tried to get her to at least touch them but she refused. When I stopped pulling out the guts she would tap the pumpkin with her spoons again. She later grabbed the top stem part of the pumpkin and was carrying it around then she kept trying to hand it to Grandpa. I really wanted her to at least put her hand in the pumpkin and it was Daddy that came up the great idea on how to do it. He got a piece of candy and we put in the pumpkin. She really wanted the candy so she drove her hand inside. At first she was uneasy and unsure but she dug and dug. She would take her hand out, looked back inside, then dig again and finally she managed to fish it out! Her hand covered in pumpkin guts and the candy as well. Once she realized her candy was tainted by pumpkin guts she didn't want it anymore and handed it to her Grandpa! haha Poor Mia. After we tortured her enough it was time to stop the maddness haha. I finished cleaning out the pumpkins while she got out and was allowed to run around the house. She was also treated to a sucker since she was such a good girl.
It was a fun experience I was glad that Mia at least got to participate a little. I guess I really didn't need any of the extra plastic since she never willingly touched the pumpkin guts afterall haha but it was still tons of fun!!! I can't wait till next year when she can really make a big mess!
