A Mommy Story

Sure, you can say a lot of bad things about Ohio (and who hasn’t?), but one thing I really love about being here is the weather. If you like experiencing all four seasons, Ohio is the place to be. We have all four, fully-defined seasons, although not always occurring in the correct order.

Fall has to be my favorite of the seasons: the crisp air, warm during the day and cool at night, the changing colors of the leaves, the bright blue skies, the bountiful harvest. Ripe, fresh apples, sweet corn, and of course, pumpkins.

So of course when my friend Kristi, from the blog Life with Aveline, invited us to her family’s farm for pumpkin picking, horse-drawn hay rides, corn mazes, and petting zoo, we couldn’t resist. Today we drove the hour north to Honey Haven Farm to meet up with Kristi, Laura, Jessica and others.

It was also the big debut of Kristi’s newest baby, Scarlett. Seeing that tiny little person asleep in the sling made me remember why I wanted another baby again.

Aaron and I worried about how Cordy would act during the day, since we were arriving right before nap time. Interrupting nap time can lead to, well, a grumpy troll of a child. But the day was perfect – not too warm, a light breeze, and sunny – so it was worth the risk.

When we first arrived, we met up with Kristi, who was attending to the baby, so we wandered around on our own for a bit. Cordy immediately saw Kristi’s dog, Elvis, and ran for him, petting him gently and following him wherever he went.

After that, we found our way to the petting zoo in the barn. Cordy ran back and forth between the animals before settling on the goats, mostly because they were the only ones close enough to pet. She would reach through the fence, pet the goat, then look at me and say “Mooooo!” I tried to explain that these were goats, not cows (there was a calf in the next pen, however), and she then tried again and said, “Baaaaa!” Sigh.

We tried to get her to go see other things, but she was fixated on the goats. I walked over to look at the straw maze for the kids in the barn, hoping Cordy would follow and be interested. Looking back to find her?

Finally she did wander over to the maze.

While in the maze, she ran into Aveline, who had just woken up from her nap. The two had never met before, but were quickly plotting in the back of the maze.

Then it was time to ride the wagon out into the field to pick our own pumpkins. Cordy loved petting the horses. Once in the field, Cordy was fascinated with all of the running space. Once her feet touched the ground, she was off, yelling, “running! running!” just in case we weren’t sure what she was doing.

We did have to grab her once to keep her from running right in front of one of the wagons. We walked the field, looking for just the right pumpkins. Cordy’s crazy running led us to a good section of the patch that hadn’t been picked over, and so we found three nice pumpkins.

By the time the day was over, Cordy had learned the word “pumpkin” and was proud of her new toys. We ate a little ice cream while chatting with Kristi, then packed things up to start for home. Cordy was well past her nap time at this point, and the meltdown was nearing. Not even 5 minutes into the drive, she was asleep.

Thanks to Kristi for inviting us up to the farm. We had a fabulous time, and we now have three lovely pumpkins to display outside the house. I love fall!