Tale of Two Pumpkins

Louis picked out our pumpkin--a white pumpkin--a month ago, and he has been asking to carve it ever since.

Finally, on a lovely evening this week, Baba got everything ready and Louis watched as Baba carved a "happy face" onto the pumpkin.



Then Louis got to scoop out the goo.

He tried to wait patiently while the jack o' lantern's face emerged. Patience doesn't come easily to a boy who is counting down to Halloween, his third birthday, and Christmas all at once, but he made a valiant effort.

He was so happy when the pumpkin was carved and he could put the pumpkin's hat back on top.

"What should we name the pumpkin?" Baba asked.

"Tough one," Louis replied.

Maybe Louis had some premonition of the pumpkin's future.

Or maybe it was the exact opposite.

Because although the pumpkin smiled happily enough the night we carved it...

...when Louis and I arrived home last night, the pumpkin was damaged. There were small pieces of pumpkin rind and goop (and yes, I believe that's the technical term) strewn over the sidewalk. And the carefully carved smile on Tough One's happy face was...well...not such an obvious smile.

For our little boy who had been talking about seeing the pumpkin for much of our drive home, it was a sad moment. I tried to explain that the pumpkin had been partly eaten by an animal, but although that would have excited his rodent enthusiast cousin, it didn't interest Louis in the least. He was just plain sad.

So I did what any mother would do. I got a knife and tried to fix the damaged mouth. When Louis was clearly unimpressed with my meager attempt at pumpkin reconstruction, I turned to my last resort.

"Baba will fix it when he gets home," I said confidently. And Louis trotted happily into the house.

And, as he always manages to, Baba did. He explained that a cat had nibbled on the pumpkin, and Louis agreed wholeheartedly. "I think cat too," he told me again on our drive home tonight. After all, Baba knows his stuff.

When we got home, a brand-new, untarnished pumpkin was just waiting to be carved. "Orange pumpkin!" cried Louis, sprinting from the car to the steps.

And Baba and Louis went right to work.



Again, Louis scooped the goo. And this time he helped draw the nose.



By the time we were finished carving, I noticed that Tough One had become "White Pumpkin" and the other was "Orange Pumpkin." Not the most creative names, but certainly appropriate.

Louis wasn't crazy about the idea of posing with the pumpkins, but he agreed to sit in between them. This was his first idea of compliance with my request. Technically, yes, I suppose he is in between the pumpkins.

But he finally agreed to put his smiling face in between the two pumpkins' faces.





The only scary thing is that we still have a few days to go before trick-or-treating--and lots of hungry critters in our neighborhood. Let's just hope we don't have to invest in another pumpkin before Halloween!