Sunday, October 28, 2012

Day 28 - Last Sunday of Down Syndrome Awareness Month!


Day 28 -  The Last Sunday of the Challenge!

I can’t believe we’re coming to the end of the month…I thought it would drag on and on…but it didn’t – it rushed like a waterfall…it wasn’t a special Sunday really, just a typical Sunday of Football.   And I know how mundane that sounds, but with almost eight years in Japan and a time change that gave us football in the wee hours of our Monday morning, and Monday night football on Tuesday morning…well, you can probably understand why the novelty has yet to wear off for us.  So we spent some quality football time watching the Chargers embarrass themselves on live TV; again!  And I know that the Chargers aren’t that much to write home about but someone has to cheer for the underdog, and there has to be at least one NFL team that plays Farm Team to get better players ready to move onto better teams…it’s always been like this, I don’t see it changing any time soon but since I am a fan of my Hometown team – I keep cheering for them nonetheless!  So anyway, after that Epic fail we realized we are as yet pumpkin free in our house.  The girls have been gifted little pumpkins each and found a tiny one perfect for their brother but as for the family pumpkin that would be the ultimate Jack O’Lantern to sit on our doorstep to welcome the trick or Treaters come Halloween…that one hadn’t joined our family as yet.   So we decided that the last time we went to a Pumpkin Patch Bradley was only ten months old and we didn’t get pictures of him there, just the girls.  It was time.  So we went off with our tablet in order to try to capture some of the fun as Bradley experienced his first real pumpkin patch. 

First we examined pumpkins in the neat little rows that had been set up for the Toddlers in the Toddler section – uh, examined, threw and kicked.  Perhaps if they weren’t so ball-like he would have been less likely to toss them and try to kick them.  I predict great success for Bradley in the following sports: soccer, baseball, football, and bowling – might even have a future Curler in there…he showed some nice technique. 
 
 
Well then we tried the maze, the straw bales that created the maze kept getting pushed around by the kids and some of their Dads running across the top of them so that poor Bradley at one point put his arms up to me to be picked up because he was pretty sure we weren’t getting out of there alive if we stayed at his level. 
 
So we jumped a few bales and managed to finally make our way out of the maze.  I should have worn pants to protect my legs, but at least he was in his overalls and was well prepared for the rigors of escape.    
 
From there he examined pumpkins again, and with the same interest he had before the maze so we made a beeline for the toy area.  The slide was a hit, the toy house was a hit, the hay bales stacked in a pyramid provided the perfect backdrop for pictures if only Bradley hadn’t been so anti-straw at that point and the girls could have looked somewhere near the camera at any given time.  Oh well, they are kids and they acted like kids and if you look close enough you might even recognize one or two of them as ours. 


 
We moved out from there, poor Bradley mostly stood and stared at the thrashing groups of unruly children rushing around him and they weren’t just his sisters so we knew it was time to give him a break and let him vent off this experience in the relative quiet and definite safety of his carseat.  Did we find the perfect pumpkin there?  No, we didn’t make it to the bigger pumpkin side, and the prices were tear inducing…we found the perfect pumpkin at Ralphs…cause that’s the perfect place to buy a vegetable after all.   And when it came down to it, the kids and I hung out in the car and left the search to dad.  He found one outside that I was able to send my thumbs up too, but the girls were too busy playing some game about piranhas and spiders to notice he had even left the car, let alone not taken them on the great pumpkin expedition.  No worries though, they were quite enthusiastic in their approval of the future Jack O’lantern Burnett that dad found, so all is well in the kingdom.  The girls are home for the next week for Fall Break, so they are more hyped up now than they’ll be after trick or treating on Wednesday…woohoo, can’t wait…so excited…so thrilled…so – oh boy what are we going to do for a week???  HAHA…just kidding.  I enjoy their breaks, we usually think of something fun to do even if it isn’t in the Epic area of the chart.  They both try to sleep late and then spend their time reading, playing and catching up on the mellow stuff they don’t get to do while they’re in school; it all works out well for us. 

So we didn’t conquer the Pumpkin Patch in the way that most people probably did this year; but we conquered it the way Bradley could this year.  He was healthy enough to give it a good forty minute try this year and that was Huge for him.  He was overwhelmed but not in tears, which is a big deal for a two year old, and he voiced his disapproval at leaving which is just another nice milestone for him.  The girls were given a taste of what their brother feels in the overwhelm department as they were both practically manic until we reigned them in too.  How quickly such a place can really mess with your head and throw you completely off balance.  Interesting places Pumpkin Patches – once a year is more than enough for me.  Perhaps I should stick to the once every two years, that feels a little better to me.  Guess we’ll just wait till next year and see if the kids mention it, they didn’t last year so maybe I’ll get lucky next year!  J   

Happy Sunday all.  I am off to continue my war against laundry and that ever growing pile of unmatched socks! 

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