Raging Dad

Sonny in the hay bale maze.

Fall has fallen in the Pacific Northwest, but the sun came out this weekend to show us that it hasn’t left us fully, yet.

We took our annual trip the pumpkin patch this weekend. I have to admit that despite growing up in rural Minnesota, I never went to a pumpkin patch as a kid, and I don’t recall going on any hay rides. Yet, it seems these things are now a requirement of the fall season.

This pumpkin patch featured all the typical attractions plus a few new ones, including pumpkin bowling. There was a hay bale maze, which thrilled the kids for a good twenty minutes. We stood with some friends, and watched them chase each other around. They figured out the maze quickly, but were content to continue to wind through the bales, laughing loudly and enjoying the moment of freedom and joy.

Raging politics are all around us!

The best part was the corn maze, which was a gigantic rendering of Obama and McCain’s heads. The kids were very excited about this, as politics has been a hot topic in the Raging Household of late. As we arrived, Sonny cried out with glee, “We’re gonna see John McCain!” You’d have thought he was yelling out the name of Keyser Soze, by the way I cringed in fear that people would think us sympathetic to the Republican, so we moved to squash his excitement by explaining that the candidates were not really there. Any doubts of our political leanings were dispelled when the kids were unanimously thrilled to walk through Obama’s head, and disgusted as we walked through McCain’s nose.

It was a great day. Oregon gave us an amazing Saturday, filled with sunshine, cool air and a lovely breeze. The kids picked out a pumpkin which we will carve later this month, and they each picked gourds as well. Strange things, these gourds are: bumpy and phallic, lovely and terrible. Connie thought this one looked like a swan.

Connie and Michael, enjoying the punkins.

While walking through the maze, Michael’s leg began to bother him. At first I thought it was the rubber boots he was wearing, that they were somehow irritating his foot. I fiddled around with his sock a bit, and we tried to continue our march through McCain’s jowls. A few feet further, and I could see that Michael wasn’t going to make it. I picked him up, and was notably irritated to realize that I was going to have to carry my four-year-old through the remainder of the corn maze. He squirmed and fussed, and eventually Raging Mom took him so that he would quiet down. I watched Raging Mom walk ahead with him on her shoulder, his figure small and fragile, and I felt bad that I had been irritated with him, giving up the chance to have him cuddled into my own shoulder. Way to go, Raging Dad.

The weather continued to deliver nothing but loveliness, and I had a great afternoon with the kids. But I can’t help but think about how they are getting older, and our chances for holding them tightly through corn mazes are probably waning. It was a good day, and a good reminder to me.

Song of the day: “Landslide,” Smashing Pumpkins (with apologies to Fleetwood Mac).

Filed under: bad daddy, growing up | Tagged: corn maze, fall, oregon, pumpkins, seasons