Sorry, Carter...

...Mommy just HAD to do it. 

I hope you'll understand if YOU have a baby someday.

So, I mentioned to Mike a few days ago that I think those pictures I've seen

of babies inside of pumpkins are pretty cute.  He looked at me like I had two heads.

"Are you serious?!!"

 "YES!!!  Why not?!" 

"Because they're ridiculous.  And those kids are going to be pretty ticked off when they're teenagers and they see those pictures."

 "I don't care.  I think they're adorable."

 Insert eye roll and look of complete disgust from Michael.

I hadn't even said it yet, but clearly he knew where I was headed.

 "I thought you said we were going to CARVE pumpkins this year, not put our BABY in them."

 "Don't you realize we'll have like 18 more years to carve pumpkins with him, but this is the only year he'll ever be able to fit INSIDE a pumpkin?!  At least in one that we can afford to buy?" 

"I guess you can do whatever you want.  I'm just saying, for the record, that I am against this.  And I'll make sure Carter knows when he's older that this was ALL mom."

That was all I needed.  My green light.

I had picked up a couple of really big pumpkins at a discount store for less than $4 apiece.

I thought we'd use one for Michael and one for me.  The plan was to take Carter to

one of the local pumpkin patches for HIS pumpkin, since they sell them by the

pound and the big ones would have cost three times what I paid.  I didn't even

think of putting the baby inside when I was choosing our pumpkins or I would

have bought even bigger ones.

They ARE much bigger than they look in this photo.

Unfortunately the weather has been awful the past couple of weekends,

so we never made it to the pumpkin patch for Carter's pumpkin. 
Sniff.  Sniff.

The temperature was in the thirties here last night, so I brought one of

the big pumpkins in the house to warm up overnight.

I had bought this "pumpkin" hat at a long time ago for our future daughter.

It's sized 12-18 months.  Finally Carter's 80th percentile head size

is paying off because it fits him fine at only 4 months old!

First thing this morning, I cut the top off the pumpkin and scooped out

all the guts while Carter sat on the counter and watched.

Then during his nap I cleaned, seasoned and roasted the seeds.

I managed to snap a picture while there were still a few left.

 Yum. 

While Carter was sleeping, I sized up the pumpkin.  I had been planning

on cutting leg holes in it, which in Mike's mind would have "ruined" the pumpkin.

But looking at the hollowed-out pumpkin, then at Carter, then back

at the pumpkin, it SEEMED like he might fit in it without leg holes...

If so, then we'd still be able to carve it and Michael would be happy.

Win. Win.

I covered the inside with plastic wrap and when Carter woke up,

I tried sticking him in it. 

He FIT!

(Please disregard my filthy kitchen.  I still
hadn't cleaned up from scooping pumpkin guts)

Carter was wearing a dinosaur sleeper and I didn't even notice that the color scheme

coordinated so well until he was in the pumpkin.  A happy coincidence.

There were no great indoor options for these pumpkin photos, so I stuck

him by the French doors off our kitchen and opened the door behind him.

I didn't want to take him all the way outside because it was COLD.

These were our first (spur-of-the-moment) shots:

"I'm not so sure about this, Mom."

 "Hmmm.  This isn't so bad."

"You're cracking me up, Mommy."

  

The test shots were cute, but I wasn't happy with all the light BEHIND him.

Hmmm.  How about out on the back deck?

 One of the side effects of saving for our adoption is that we've had to

delay replacing our fence and deck for a couple more years than we'd planned.

I happen to think that weathered wood is far prettier and more interesting

than brand new wood, so I'm fine with the delay.  It's great for pictures.

Most of the cute pictures I'd seen of babies in pumpkins were not only taken outdoors,
but they usually featured NAKED babies.  Not a big deal, except that earlier
this week our deck looked like THIS:

I went back and forth in my mind a few times.
It had warmed up a little, but not much.

Am I a bad mother if I take my infant, undressed, out into

50-something-degree weather just to take a picture?

How much insulation could a pumpkin provide? 
A lot, I decided.

Plus he'd be wearing a HAT!

Okay, you should know that when I undressed Carter, I put a nice clean diaper on him
and wrapped him in a warm, cozy towel.  Then I put the baby AND the warm towel
into the pumpkin while we were still in the house. 

I quickly carried the whole pumpkin outside just long enough to capture a few shots
(less than a minute), pulled Carter back out of the pumpkin, brought him in the house
 and immediately gave him a nice warm bath in case he got any pumpkin residue on him.

 If he had even STARTED to fuss at any point in the process,
 I would have aborted my mission immediately.

Luckily for me, he was happy as could be before, during and after our little session.

Here's what we got for our trouble:

Was it worth the effort?

 I think so.

And even more satisfying is that after seeing the pictures,
Michael admitted that he does, too.

I'm just praying that someday Carter's teenage self will forgive me!
That when he sees how cute he was, he understands why Mom couldn't resist.

After Carter's bath, I went back out to bring in the pumpkin and I found THIS:

Can you see it?

Three days ago, this:

And today, this:

How does THAT happen?

Maybe a special little someone was talking to me from half a world away,

saying, "Don't forget about ME.  Wasn't that supposed to be MY hat?"

Don't worry, Baby Girl.  We love you, too.

And we can't wait to have you home with us.

Thanks for the sweet little reminder, though. 

It certainly brought a smile to your mama's face.

Linking up with Sunday Snapshot at Ni Hao Y'all.