Dream a little dream

I have a phrase that makes Mike break out into a cold sweat: "I have an idea." My ideas range from "Hey let's have hamburgers for dinner," to "Hey, let's go outside in the cold wet rain and clear the front flower bed!" Understandably, my poor husband just never knows what he's about to get himself into!

Sunday was another one of my "idea" days and this is one instant I kinda wish Mike had said "Absolutely not." But, being the amazing and patient man he is, he let me jump aboard the crazy train and take a little ride.

My idea started out innocent enough though! For the past couple of years, my sister and I have been talking about visiting the Dallas Arboretum's annual Pumpkin Patch. And now that I have an adorable little angel to take cute pumpkin pictures with, I thought this year would be the year to finally go check it out! We invited my sister and her husband and a friend of mine and her family. And we scheduled it during the Cowboys game. Go ahead, feel free to start laughing now.

We started the day at a christening for Mike's cousin's daughter. The first sign that our day was not going to go according to my Master Plan of Awesomeness was the sound of my daughter filling her diaper in the middle of the christening. Seriously. Right at a moment of silence, she decides to relieve herself. Awesome.

I took her to the restroom to get cleaned up and even more disaster struck! As I was changing her, she decided to pee thereby creating a nice pee and poop paste that then got all over her dress. Of course, I didn't have a spare change of clothes in the diaper bag. Of course. I'll let all of you experienced parents take a moment to laugh here as well!

After the christening, we loaded up our circus tent and trekked the 45 miles to other side of the metroplex to the pumpkin patch. 

Immediately after we arrived at the Arboretum, Olivia decided she had had enough of our activities for the day and she started fussing. And fussing. And crying. And fussing some more. The ENTIRE TIME WE WERE THERE.

So, there we were on an awesome fall day in Texas (we only get about 4 awesome days around here), strolling through the beautiful Arboretum with a screaming infant. What a great time we were having as a family!

But I was persistent and determined to get some cute pictures of our sweet baby amongst the fall foliage! After all, babies always go along with their parents' plans, right? Right???? WRONG.

Every time we sat her down, she started screaming. And that's when I looked around and noticed we weren't alone in our little hell bubble. It seemed most parents there were juggling screaming infants and posing them amongst the bug infested hay bales and pumpkins to get that perfect fall memory for the scrapbook. Mommies were bouncing, daddies were cooing, and babies everywhere were excercising their lungs as if to say "What in the hell is wrong with you people?!?!?"

And I thought to myself, "What in the hell is wrong with us, indeed?!?" Every one of us with new babies should have been at home parked in front of the television watching the Cowboys lose yet another game. Who in their right mind takes an 8 week old out to a pumpkin patch?? ME. And apparently every other first time parent in the DFW area.

At the end of the day, I was upset and worn out and ready to throw in the towel. Mike just looked at me with laughter and love in his eyes and said "Honey, I know you had grand plans for the day. I know you thought that we would all be skipping through the pumpkin patch together as a family. Olivia would be smiling and frolicking in the pumpkins and maybe make a few new baby friends. Your sister and brother-in-law would be skipping right along with us and maybe some nice Disney music would be playing in the background!"

"You don't know me!" was my incredibly mature 3rd grade retort. But, yep, he knows me pretty well.

So my day ended with lesson number 487 in parenting: Whatever plans you have for your kids you can just expect them to be tossed out the window. Kids have a mind of their own!

I have no doubt that by this time next year, I'll have forgetten this little incident and the month of October will start in our house with the phrase, "Hey, Mike, I have an idea..."