Dear Mom we should get two pumpkins

Dear Mom we should get two pumpkins

This October was warmer than usual and that causes some serious problems when it comes to pumpkin carving. Claire had started requesting to carve pumpkins the moment they started to appear at the grocery store.

“It is too warm,” I told her, “They will not last till Halloween.”

“They will get old very fast?” she pondered.

“Yes Sweetie the heat makes them age very fast.”

I am sure she was conjuring up images of last year’s pumpkin melting on our doorstep.

She mentioned it a few times over the next week but never pressed it. The inevitable demise of her pumpkin seemed a good enough reason to put off it’s acquisition. Then one day, out of the blue. “Daddy we need to get two pumpkins.”

“We do?” I was very curious where this came from.

“Yea, we get two so we can carve one today and save one for Halloween for when the first one gets all shrively.”

This was impeccable logic! How brilliant! We get two pumpkins, one for now and one for later. Not only have we conquered the not having a pumpkin at Halloween, we also double our fun and get to carve two pumpkins!

“That is brilliant honey, what a great idea!” I was beaming as much as she was at this point. It was obvious to me she was bound for greatness. I imagine one day I will be smiling the exact same way when she announces, “Daddy, I have found a cure for cancer!”

As I turned off the road heading into the parking lot of the nearest grocery store, I was still floored at the notion. She came up with this herself. I pondered the possibility of there having been a cartoon where the main character had to face similar obstacles to getting a pumpkin. But really, this was still brilliant.

It took us most of 10 minutes to pick out two perfect pumpkins. She did not go for the biggest ones and she did not go for the most round, or the most orange. Pumpkin picking must be more complex than I remembered it. She carefully picked up some, others she just looked at or patted. Then once she had the right one she looked at me, “This one Daddy!”

With our Pumpkins in the cart we headed to the car. We carefully placed them in the trunk and headed home.

She pondered pumpkin ideas in her head. “The first one is going to be a pirate pumpkin, the second one I will decide later, because we have some time before Halloween.”

The pirate pumpkin did not last long, but that was okay, because we had a spare.

Love Mike