In the car, I asked Tyler was kind of ice cream he wanted. I gave him the option of vanilla, chocolate, or chocolate and vanilla mixed.

“Umm, I just have nilla.”

“Do you want sprinkles on it?”

“Ohhh sure,” he replied.

During the drive, Tyler and I rehearsed what he would tell the person at Dairy Queen. He tends to be on the shy side lately, and we’ve been trying to get him to open up a bit and talk to people.

“Tyler, you have to tell them you want a kiddie cone, vanilla.”

Each time I quizzed him, he answered correctly.

Twenty minutes later, we pulled into the parking lot of Dairy Queen. He held my hand as we walked into the building.

“Hi. How can I help you?”

“Hi. Can I have a small M&M Blizzard?”, I asked. “Tyler, tell this guy what you would like.”

Tyler ran up to the counter, looked at the guy running register, and spoke.

“I have nilla kitty cat cone.”

Through my laughter, I translated to the guy at the counter.

“I watch it again.”

“No, Tyler. The helicopter is gone now. Let’s go look at another firetruck.”

As we played and admired the bright red firetruck, we saw another pull around to where the helicopter had previously been resting. Firemen pulled some heavy tools from the truck and staged them on the ground. Nearby, rested a heavily damaged car. I remembered reading that there would be a “jaws of life” demonstration. I told Tyler to run to where we were earlier so we could watch. For the second time in less than thirty minutes, I watched as Tyler sat, slack-jawed in awe of the goings-on.

At the conclusion of the demonstration, I asked Tyler if he wanted to go into a hay maze.

“What a maze is?” he asked, looking into my eyes.

“Well,” I said, thinking, “a maze is like a game. We go inside and have to try and find our way back out.”

“Ohh. I do it wif you?”

On the way to the maze, we stopped to play in a police car for a bit. Tyler was very excited and even asked the policeman sitting in the driver’s seat if it was his car.

Then, we made our way to the maze.

I was utterly amazed (heh) at the amount of fun Tyler had in there. Every time we ran into a dead end, Tyler would stop and say “uh-oh… dead end,” before turning and running past me in the other direction. Each time he reached the exit, Tyler would keep running, to do the maze over and over again. Soon, he decided it’d be fun to run directly into boys two to three times his own size and shout “SMASH” while doing so. The boys he crashed into looked at him, confused, as I roared in laughter. Tyler would then just bounce off them and keep running.

“The exit is that way,” a boy, who had just ran up to Tyler, said. He pointed to the left.

“No. It dis way,” Tyler said, pointing in the opposite direction. They were both right, but I didn’t say anything. I just watched.

“My name is Joseph Edward Wiggons (changed, to protect the innocent). I’m three years old.”

“I Tyler James Gearhart. I two.” When Tyler says his own name, it sounds more like Tywer Dame Gearhowt. He held up two fingers.

They both smiled at each other and ran in opposing directions.

When he finally tired of running nonstop through the same maze over and over again, we walked out and sat in the shade for a bit. We both drank some water, and Tyler had a snack, while we waited for the tractor to come back. Tyler desperately wanted to go for a hay ride, and I desperately wanted a break from running in the heat, so it worked out.

The tractor seemed to have been gone for an inordinate amount of time, and I began to wonder if the hayrides were through for the day. I asked Tyler, “Where do you think the tractor is, buddy?”

He held up his hand, like a policeman halting traffic and said, “Be patient, daddy. It comin.”

The tractor did, indeed, come back around. The breeze felt nice, and my feet sighed their relief at this chance for rest. To be brutally honest, the hayride was rather boring, but Tyler enjoyed it. At the end of the hayride, I asked Tyler if he’d like to go get some ice cream. He, of course, answered in the affirmative, so we made our way back to the car. Next to a nearby barn, a cat was resting in the shade.

“Hi cat,” Tyler said. “How you doing today? We going a get ice cream.”

To be concluded…

On Saturday, Tyler and I went to a “pumpkin fantasyland” nearby. It was at a farm roughly an hour from our house. I told Tyler that he should close his eyes and take a nap while we drove there. Surprisingly, he obliged. Tyler almost immediately fell asleep, while I navigated down rural country roads, guided by the GPS built into my phone. I didn’t think he’d fall asleep, because just a few moments earlier, when I asked “who wants to go to the pumpkin patch?”, Tyler enthusiastically yelled “MEEEEEEEE. I DO!!”

Tyler’s eyes fluttered open just as I pulled into a parking space on the lawn of the farm property. I glanced in the mirror to see a line of drool trailing down his face. On his shirt was a silver dollar-sized wet spot.

“We’re here?” he asked.

“Yes buddy. We’re here. Are you ready?”

“We at the pumpkin patch!” he exclaimed.

In addition to the typical attractions one would expect to see at a pumpkin fantasyland, the police and fire departments were also on hand. The emergency personnel would only be there for a few more hours, so we headed to the far end of the farm first, where they were located. The tractor rides and corn mazes would be open until much later, so there was no rush to see all that first. Tyler spotted a fire truck and broke into a run. The doors were all open, and children were crawling all over it, inside and out. Tyler stopped at the door and turned to me.

“I go in it?”

The fact that he has the respect/courtesy/manners to ask such a question, especially when he is dripping with excitement, made my heart swell.

“Sure. Climb up and be careful, okay?”

“Okay,” he agreed.

After playing inside for a few minutes, I heard an unfamiliar noise. Tyler was busy pressing buttons and playing with helmets while I tried to identify the noise. In a moment, I heard a mother tell her son, “Come on, the helicopter’s starting!” I told Tyler to hurry so we could watch too. We ran to the back of the firetruck, jumped out, and ran towards the crowd. As we ran, I told Tyler that a helicopter was going to fly away and that it would be very loud.

“I watch it,” he shouted back, still running.

We sat down in the lawn as the rotors spun ever faster. Shortly, lift was acheived, and we watched (one of us in complete awe) as the heli flew off into the distance.

To be continued…

Remember last Halloween? We went to a pumpkin patch, went for a hayride, picked pumpkins, and Tyler gutted and carved his very first pumpkin? Well, it was actually his second Halloween and pumpkin, but the first he’s had an active role in. And afterward, he smashed the pumpkins.

Well, right after we gutted the pumpkins, we all picked out a handful of seeds, cleaned them, dried them, and placed them in a baggie over the winter. Winter’s over and it’s time to plant those seeds now.

First, we made a hill for the seeds, or “baby pumpkins” as we were calling them. Then, we poked a hole in the top of the hill. Three seeds went into the hole. Once the plants sprout, we’ll thin them; meaning, we’ll pull the two weakest plants, and let the strongest grow in that hill. We made a total of three hills.

Once the seeds were placed into their new home, we filled the hole with dirt and patted it down. The hole was only about the size of a quarter and a couple inches deep.

After finishing this on the first hill, it was time to build the second hill. Spacing is important in gardening, especially when dealing with a plant that grows as aggressively as pumpkins tend to. We chose the spot for the next hill and started gathering dirt. We poked a hole, put three seeds in, filled the hole and patted it down again. Then, we did the same for the third and final planting location.

Sarah bought Tyler his very own watering can so that he can help with gardening this year. With all the seeds being nestled snugly in their beds, it was time to put use to the watering can. We filled Tyler’s watering can, and the larger one that Sarah and I use. As Tyler emptied his watering can, I filled it again and again from the larger one. The little stinker lost half his load to spillage just walking from the hose to the pumpkin patch.

To keep the plants moist, we need to put mulch down. This will help retain heat and moisture; keys to life in the plant world. Tyler and I retrieved our wheelbarrows. Both wheelbarrows are very old. Mine was handed down from my father-in-law, whom it was handed down to from his grandfather. Tyler’s used to belong to his mommy. Sarah’s dad brought it down last year, in very rough shape, to pass onto Tyler. After some sanding, painting, clear coating, and new hardware, it was as good as new. We got to work shoveling mulch into the wheelbarrows. Tyler picked up very quickly and had no qualms about the manual labor.

Tyler was pretty pooped after all the hard farming. Sarah took him in the house for a nap. Sarah wasn’t feeling that great as it was, so she took a nap as well. While they slept, I put up some chicken wire around the patch, and made a very special sign.

Ladies and gentlemen, I would like you to see Tyler’s very own pumpkin patch. He is very excited about it, and smiles every time we talk about his pumpkins. We haven’t had a chance to water the seeds because it’s been raining the last two days, and we just planted them three days ago. With any luck, we’ll be posting pictures around September or October of Tyler’s very own, homegrown, pumpkins.

I told Sarah that this was a “Daddy and Tyler project,” because I think it’s important that Tyler has specific “daddy time” and specific “mommy time” along with the family time that we spend together. I feel tinges of guilt about it because, on a level, I feel like I’m excluding Sarah. That’s not the case at all, and to be honest, I’d never be able to do anything like this were it not for her. Aside from the advice she’s given and some of the stuff I picked up from her gardening last year, I wouldn’t have ANY of the above pictures if she wasn’t there to take them for me. For that, I’m very grateful to have had her help.

First, he attacks the Elmo pumpkin. Then, he makes sure Sarah’s “Bertha” pumpkin had no brains before smashing.

First, you wind back…

then SMASH!

When smashing wasn’t working, he also tried pulling and clawing.

He’s possessed by the Ghost of Pumpkin Smashing!

What a great afternoon. I didn’t take pictures of loading the pieces into the wheelbarrow and taking them to the compost pile because then I would have gotten pumpkin slime on my camera, and that just cannot happen.

I’ll let the pictures tell the story, and I’ll try to keep my typed words to a minimum… We went to Nottawa Fruit Farm to partake in some hayride and pumpkin picking activities…

Tyler LOVES tractors. He calls them grahgors. He even got to ride one of his very own!

We went through a corn maze… get it??? Corn? Maize? Har har har. Then Tyler sat with Papa during parts of our covered wagon hayride.

Tyler got to pick out his very own pumpkin. He found the one he wanted and sat on it.

Tyler didn’t want to, but his cousins climbed through a dark tunnel system made of hay. They loved it. Afterward, Tyler got to dig for buried dinosaur eggs! He found one with a baby dinosaur toy in it.

Tyler got his very own mini pumpkin to color and decorate.

All in all… we had a great time… Stay tuned for the pumpkin CARVING post coming in the next couple of days.

This is Part 1 of a 2 part Halloween post.

Sarah and I had an arguement on what we would be doing for Halloween this year. My thoughts were that we’d hang out at home, as a family, and hide from all the trick-or-treaters. We could watch a movie, read books, play on the internet, and ignore all the kids that would inevitably pound on our door. Sarah wanted to dress Tyler up and go trick-or-treating.

“He’s only 4 months old. He’s too young, and wouldn’t remember it anyway.”, I said.

I can’t remember EXACTLY what Sarah replied with, but it translated to “Too bad what you want, idiot.”

So, I found a monkey costume and picked it up. A week later, Sarah found a Superman costume and picked it up. The monkey costume was kinda dumb anyway. I only bought it because that’s all they had. Anyway, a week ago, we did a test fitting on the Superman costume:

Perfect…. then we decided that we’re going to bring Delilah with us for Trick-or-Treating. So, Sarah picks up some red fabric and some yellow acrylic paint to make a Superdog cape for Delilah:

We didn’t do the traditional Trick-or-Treating. There is something called “Trunk or Treat” up in Coldwater, Michigan that we went to. We met up with Sarah’s parents, her sister Allison, her other sister Jillian, and Jillian’s daughters, Lexi and Paige. Lexi dressed up as Elmo, and Paige was a princess. At the end of the night, Lexi was a grumpy Elmo, and Paige was a grumpy princess. How it works is, a bunch of people (from Sarah’s dad’s church) fill up the parking lot with games and do trick-or-treating from the trunks of their cars. All in all, it was a very good time.

Delilah got a lot of attention as “Superdog” here’s a pic of a bunch of people looking at her when we got there:

Tyler held onto his pail for a little bit, while he was flying around as Superman (with Allison):

After being there for a few minutes, it became evident that bringing the stroller with us was a mistake. I offered to take it back to the car while the rest of them walked around. When I came back, I had to do that thing where you try to act like you know where you’re going, even though you have no idea where you’re going. Sarah was whistling for me, and I was trying to find her, but I just had no idea where the sound was coming from. So, I’m walking around, trying to play it off to the crowd that I know where I’m going, but having no idea where I’m going, and I’m getting frustrated that Sarah can see me but I can’t see her. I finally spot her and her dad in the line to get cotton candy. Free cotton candy. Sarah’s dad, who has opted to be known as “papa” to Tyler, was holding Tyler. Well, Tyler decides that he would also like to have a taste of this strange, pink, cottony goodness. He waited until nobody was looking and grabbed a HANDFUL of cotton candy from papa!

Tyler’s hands were already wet from having been sucking on them earlier. As such, there was nothing I could do. Once he got a handful of cotton candy, it was essentially superglued to his digits. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway, because he had his hand in his mouth before any of us had a chance to react. So, I instead snapped off a picture:

At 7pm, we had to head inside the building, because they were raffling off some bicycles. Cousin Lexi had recently had some cotton candy and looked like this (soon to be grumpy-overtired-Elmo):

Tyler, on the other hand, looked like this by 7:15pm:

You can view the entire Halloween gallery here:
Tyler’s First Halloween

Part 2 of this post will be detailing our trip to a pumpkin patch a couple weeks ago.