Noah's First Pumpkin Patch

This morning we skipped our morning nap to meet the downtown mom's group at a local pumpkin patch. The moment we entered the activity area, Noah was in heaven.

First, he checked out the goats. Then, he ran around, drunk on freedom.Next, we found the pirate ship, and Noah was much more interested in the ramp that I was letting him climb up and down than the actual ship. Notice the exuberance on his face.

Finally got him on the ship where he was dawned with a real pirate's hat.Noah and Aidan were living it up...it's a pirate's life for them.Then came the fatal mistake. After allowing Noah so much freedom, I attempted to strap him down to my lap for a pumpkin patch tracker ride. Bad decision. The kid did not want to sit still, so he screamed, and he arched his back, and he really embarrassed his mother. Pretty pumpkins though. He's attempting to wiggle out of my lap here.Reese was loving just hanging with her mom and watching the pumpkins float by.Shanna was able to distract Noah with a piece of straw for a short time. A very short time!After this, I was able to take zero more pictures because I was too busy wrangling with this child, as the lack of the morning nap took it's tole. We had to leave. The party had barely begun, yet there was no way Noah was going to peacefully finish out the morning. He screamed as I tried to quickly get us off the tracker, and then he screamed as I bee-lined for the car, and then the whole 5 minutes it took me to get him in his car seat (5 minutes because he was arching his back, bracing his body, and just generally doing whatever he could to make my life difficult), and finally he screamed for the first 5 or so minutes we were in car before falling to sleep.

Although Noah can do frustrating things often, I actually rarely find myself really fed up with him, but this morning was one of those times. I was doing all I could to keep it together. As I told my mom, I think one of the most frustrating parts was that we were at that patch solely for him. It was all for him, and he ruined it! I breathed, prayed for patience, and just got out of there as fast as I could. It was another one of those "that mom" moments. I'm sure I'll have many more! At least the beginning of the patch trip was enjoyable. And after his nap, he was back to being my lovely little man. Thank goodness for morning naps! We won't be skipping them again any time soon.