Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday we headed down the street to the KC Pumpkin Patch. It's pretty late in the year to pick out a good pumpkin as they were pretty well picked over, but I don't think Jo really felt like stumbling around a pumpkin patch while 9 months pregnant (I don't know what the problem with that is). Anyway...

...Devon wasn't really aware of anything that went on. I don't think he even opened his eyes the entire time we were there. But, Jake had a blast.

We took a hayride out to the depleted pumpkin field and spent most of the time trying to get Jake to stop picking at, poking and stepping on the rotted, decaying pumpkins. Until he found a decent small one for himself and an even smaller one for Devon.

He had a blast playing on the slides, playground equipment, walking through the hay bale maze (which wasn't much of a challenge since daddy could see over the tops of the hay bales and see our way out), and going through the haunted barn with mommy.

It was an easy, inexpensive way to exhaust him so we could get some rest later in the afternoon, and he had a great time doing it.

Pirate Speak

Jake has been really into this one particular series of books lately about a boy named Jeremy Jacob. One of them is entitled "How I Became I Pirate"..

A week or so ago, Jo and I were working on dinner, and Jake was running around the house from here to there, playing. I don't remember exactly what he was doing at the time, but I do remember I had to interrupt my conversation with Jo to tell him to stop doing something. Here's how the brief, one-sided conversation went:

Daddy: "Jake, stop it."

Jake: *ignoring me*

Daddy: "Jake...STOP it."

Jake: *continues to ignore me*

Daddy: "JAKE! STOP!!"

Jake: *still not paying attention to me*

Daddy: "JAKE!!!"

Jake: "OKAY...okay........shiver me timbers."

How am I supposed to repond to that? How do I exert my 'parental authority' in situations like this when I have to turn around to laugh without him seeing me?

Shiver me timbers.