Fall Also Means Pumpkin Carving!

I remember when Robby was around 18 months old and Halloween came around. Arnie and I took him to the pumpkin patch on a muddy Saturday, picked up a couple of nice pumpkins. Arnie tends to pick the creatively shaped or colored ones and I pick the perfectly round, bright orange ones. We lugged the pumpkins inside, cut them open, handed Robby a spoon and showed him how to scoop out pumpkin innards. I'm not sure why the knowledge I already had of my son did not transfer to pumpkin carving immediately, but pretty soon I was laughing as my toddler sat with a very sour look on his face, fingers stiff and spread wide, dripping with stringy gooey pumpkin.

This was my kid who did not like to get his hands dirty outside. He would play in the sand box until he toppled over and put his hand into the sand. Then he would be upset. He would help me dig around in the garden until the dirt stuck on his pants. He would play with play dough until it got so soft that it started to stick to his fingers. Silly boy. Didn't like to get mucky.

So, for a few years, Arnie and I would scoop his pumpkins for him. He liked to draw the face and liked to hold the little saw with us. He loved the way the pumpkin faces looked with candle light flickering behind them. Katie, of course, is so opposite. We have great pictures of little Katie with her head inside pumpkins, checking to make sure she got all the stringy stuff out. She would pull the guts out of the pumpkin and then play with it until her shirt and pants were covered in slime. Many Halloween pumpkin carvings ended with Katie being stripped and put in a bath tub.

But just look at them now! I'm not sure how someone ever came up with the idea of carving pumpkins, but it was definitely someone who believed that playing with food was a good thing! These kids are creative and interested in the traditions of holidays. What more could I ask? Robby went for the drill this year. His pumpkin is the polka dotted one. Katie created a fun face from lots of shapes. I used cookie cutters to make ghost and pumpkin faces. Robby is okay with getting his hands dirty now. Katie kept her mess to the newspapers under the pumpkin. We all ended our carving session with cool pumpkins.