My Little Pumpkin

Baby's first Halloween costume: Go ahead, yuk it up. Laugh at the cliches. Blackmail for decades, I tells ya!

I've been calling Miles "pumpkin" since he was born so it's only natural that I have the desire to dress him as a pumpkin for his first Halloween. Matt is indulging me and letting me also take him out in public (*gasp!*) to the pumpkin patch next month to pick out his first jack-o-lantern. This will mean nothing to the little sprout but I'm personally excited! It was at precisely this time last year I entered my second trimester and really started "showing" and getting used to the idea that I would soon be a mom so autumn brings back good memories for me.

Of course, I went to Ebay in my quest and found one for under 10 bucks from a stay-at-home-mom. (Hey, gotta help out my peeps, y'know.) I only hope he doesn't grow so much in the next month that it's too tight on our little dude.

All this might not be a big deal to anyone else but Miles' first year is very important to me. I take hundreds, if not thousands, of pics because I want to capture every single, tiny moment since I'll never cross this path again. I want him to have a huge collection of photos to look back on and see how very, very much he was loved by his friends and family.

As a sidenote, today was little dude's first day in "Kids' Day Out" at Ridgeway Baptist Church. I signed him up months ago just to ensure Matt and I would have a 5 hour break at least once a week that we could look forward to. Also, I like the idea of him being around other babies and grown-ups besides just us and his Todd family. I chose this particular location because my kindergarten principal founded the new program. Yep, you read that right - the same woman who met me at 5 years old is still running around and educating the children of Memphis! She, of course, didn't quite remember me but she remembered my parents, since they were pretty big names with their band at the time.

I thought I would be a total mess all morning but I had been so stressed out over packing his bag properly and anticipation over leaving him in strangers' care for the first time that I crashed from 11-1 and woke up just in time to pick him up. Being up at 3am helped a bit, too. The women in his nursery said he did great and spent most of the day taking in his new surroundings. He's VERY recently learned to sit up so this enables him to see the world from a different angle and has also made him more interactive with people.

I noticed he had a "baby friend" named Samuel when I went to pick him up this afternoon. Samuel was several months older and had BIG blue eyes. He crawled towards Miles and laughed happily when they made eye contact so my hope is that this means he's becoming more comfortable around other kids. It's as if, by watching him grow, I'm growing up too. It's impossible for me to express to those without children how bittersweet the experience can be. However, the payoff is SOOOOO much more rewarding that any price paid is well worth the investment.

P.S. Bill Cosby has stated that people who only have one child don't REALLY have any idea what it's like to be an actual parent so I suppose you all should take my thoughts with a grain of salt.