On our first trip to the pumpkin patch with our daughter, the chill of the late afternoon took us by surprise. We had dressed D in soft overalls and a Scandinavian-style fleece jacket, the first of a series that my mother would sew for her over the years.  But either Mama hadn’t yet made the matching fleece hat, or we didn’t think she’d need it.  Her baseball cap clearly didn’t keep her warm, and her lack of mittens didn’t help either.  Her little feet must have been freezing, in lightweight cloth tennies.  In these photos, it’s painfully evident that the kid, not quite ten months old, was borderline miserable but making the best of a bad situation.  She looks as though she’s thinking Where are we? What are these cold round shapes?  Why do they make me sit on such scratchy stuff or on a hard, icy seat?  I do, however, rather enjoy being pulled around on this thing.   

Here, D is wedged in on the Radio Flyer between pumpkins and the bulky camera bag we were never without during those early years.  We had bought our first video camera in anticipation of our new baby, and, like so many new parents, we filmed our growing child during unremarkable moments. Look!  She’s tilting her head!  Look!  She’s blinking her eyes!  She’s lifting her hand!  Amazing!  Marvelous!  No doubt we have extended live footage that documents her discomfort on this outing even more clearly.

The next year, we made sure to choose a warmer day for pumpkin picking.  Here is our girl surrounded by pumpkins on another red wagon.  Despite the more comfortable temperature, she still doesn’t appear to be very happy.   But I’ve never appreciated a photographer’s insistence on BIG SMILES!  I remember this day as being a fun-filled one.  I’m hoping our baby, despite her conspicuous lack of a big smile, nevertheless enjoyed herself.  I resolve to think she did, because in the years to come she would look forward enthusiastically to pumpkin patch visits. 

Maybe now she’s really had enough!