I Want to Carve Pumpkins
Greetings to everyone.
A couple weeks ago we visited a nursery. Rebecca cut a large part of the front lawn out for a planting bed, and she wanted more bulbs—tulips and other springtime flowers.
While she combed through the available bulb selections, Xavier and I checked out of the pumpkins. The nursery had many varieties. Jack-o-lantern style, smooth, more rounded pumpkins, warty pumpkins, giant pumpkins, tiny pumpkins. Xavier was all over the tiny pumpkins. Had we bought all he rounded up, we'd have a few dozen.
We ended up with three. Two small ones and one Daddy liked. We also picked up (at the point of sale station) a pumpkin carving kit with stencils. The tools in the kit caught Xavier's attention.
Xavier wanted to play with the tools before we purchased them. When we brought them home and placed them on a table, he wanted to get into them. "I want this one," he pestered every time he saw the kit. He always indicated the little knife.
Every time Xavier saw the pumpkins, which sit on the front porch, he wanted to carve them. We kept telling him "Three weeks," then "Two weeks," then "This Saturday," as our planned time to carve the pumpkins as a family drew nearer.
I don't know what triggered it. Perhaps he got to wear his Halloween costume to school yesterday, perhaps he did not get a nap today, perhaps he saw something while shopping with Mama. He came running into the kitchen, bouncing up and down like he mainlined caffeine.
"I want to carve pumpkins! I want to carve pumpkins!" He was so excited, it was hard to say no, even though tomorrow was the planned day for pumpkin carving.
We chose one of the two small ones. First, we had to wash it (it had some dirt caked to it). Of course, Xavier was all into that, it involved water.
He did not get the whole sketch and plan the face phase, but he finally pointed at one of the four choices I sketched out.
As it was a warm, sunny day, we set up outside on the front porch. I cut open the top, then showed Xavier how to hollow out the gourd. Surprisingly, Xavier did not like the hollowing out process. So long as he could touch the "pumpkin guts" with a spoon, he helped. The moment he had to touch it or stick his hand into the pumpkin, he said, "Daddy, you do it."
Once we finished the hollowing out, he got to (finally) use the carving knife. This is a little three inch saw. He loved cutting out the shapes. I only had to guide him a little bit.
After all the cutting was done, Xavier ran into the house to find Mama. She had the iPhone and he wanted to take a picture of his work.