Autumn is my favorite season. It’s not freezing cold, and it’s not blazing hot. Plus there are trees changing colors and fall decorations are abundant. If you take me to a place that has cornstalks adorning light posts, bales of hay surrounded by pumpkins, and fresh taffy apples for sale, I will be happy. I couldn’t wait to share this season with Tuco, but I think Tuco had other plans for our Autumn activities.
We took Tuco to our town’s last farmer’s market of the season. There was a scarecrow contest, apples, gourds, and pumpkins. What did Tuco make of it? He cried. As we waited in line to buy kettle corn, a child behind us pointed out Tuco to his mom. The mom suggested that the little girl smile at Tuco and maybe Tuco would smile back. Instead of smiling, Tuco decided to stick out his bottom lip for a few seconds, and then he began to cry. I wouldn’t say it was the best time Tuco’s ever had.
Shortly after that, I took Tuco to the zoo for their fall festival. What kid doesn’t love the zoo? I’ll tell you which kid: Tuco. Well, it’s not that he didn’t like it. It’s that he just didn’t give a rip that he was surrounded by animals–live, furry animals that he has never seen before. I made special efforts to take him out of his stroller to give him a closer look at them, but he looked every which way without glancing at any animals. What kind of life is this kid going to have if he doesn’t learn what a llama is?
The last taste of Autumn I tried to give Tuco was the pumpkin patch. My husband and I brought him to a farm and sat him in the middle of a sea of pumpkins, but he w
asn’t interested in looking at or touching them. However, he did spend a few minutes picking at the grass the pumpkins sat in. Was the grass particularly interesting? In my opinion, no. But Tuco seemed to like it.
This most unflattering picture illustrates how I imagine Tuco felt about these Autumn outings (note the drool of boredom that hangs from his mouth to his shirt). I don’t know what I expected Tuco to do though–he is only 6 months old. I guess I’m just obsessed with exposing him to new things, so he can soak them up into his little spongy baby brain. Or am I too eager for Tuco to love the things I love doing, so that we can be best friends forever? Hopefully we can meet somewhere in the middle soon.
I'm a stay-at-home mom who's making it up as I go along. This blog is about my mundane life with a super-awesome baby. I nicknamed him Tuco. Do you think I'm doing a good job?
Adventures With Tuco 
I loved this post! It reminded me of how I was when our first child was born, I was so eager to do all the things I had always wanted to do with children, and my son was not always so thrilled with my plans. This also remineded me of the time I waited on line for two hours so I could enroll my 18 month old son in an ecolgical class for babies, at a enviromentatl center complete with animals and walking trails. While all the other babies would get so excited to see the lizards and turtles up close my son would go to a corner of the room and just wait till they got the icky animal out of there!! Now that he is almost 13 I love to remind him of this!! Thanks again for a fun post!!
I’m with Tuco, man, screw pumpkins.
Keep exposing him to new experiences! They take it all in. A sense of adventure is a gift from day 1. Lucky little man!
~ Your Fellow Fond of Fall Friend