Thursday, October 29, 2009

More on the Pumpkin Theme...The Patch

As you can imagine, accessibility is one of the major issues we have to deal with. It is extremely frustrating to discover that you can't take your child somewhere because of wheelchair inaccessibility. We have, thus far, only met this a few times--and thankfully most people are good about it. I think they can sense I'm going to go nuclear on them if they aren't just as accomodating as they can be...lol. Legally speaking, places of business have to have wheelchair access.


The exception to this is the Pumpkin Patch. Being a seasonal thing, and I'm sure not defined under the Americans with Disabilities Act, there are few 'real' pumpkin patches where we can take Dakin. They are too muddy or you have to ride a truck to access the pumpkins. As the majority of these in our area are on farms, that's us out. So we like to look for alternative patches that could be accessible, namely the churches around here.


Last year we went to a local Baptist church, who had graciously laid pumpkins out around their building and one could take pictures there anytime--these pics are from there.


This year, sadly, they opted not to do it, and so I was thinking we might not get to go when our Speech Therapist told us about a local Church of Christ who has a patch this year. So we gathered Dakin up yesterday morning and took him.


The church was perfect! The pumpkins were laid out in a nice grassy area surrounded by a RAMP! Ha! The weather was so gorgeous--crystal clear, sunny and cool. It was set up so one could come and take pictures whenever, and the lady who was there told us to take a little pumpkin for Dakin. I didn't get much by way of smiles in the pictures, due to the aforementioned sun. It was a ideal experience, and I'm so glad we got to go.


I need to write these churches a letter and let them know how much these simple pumpkin patches means to us. I am going to have to contact the one we went to yesterday anyway...they have a school, and the thought of private school for Dakin had never even occurred to me. (I'll explain why I'm thinking about this now in a later post.)

8 comments:

Tara & Mark said...

Dakin is such a cute little guy! Love the pics! I never thought about a church having a pumpkin patch, i will have to look into that.

Junior said...

Looks like Dakin had a great time at the pumpkin patch

Pajama Mama said...

Your little guy is just so stinkin' cute! Glad to have found you and I look forward to getting to know Dakin and his wonderful Mommy better!
PS - I was happy to sign your most recent petition. :)

Amanda said...

Oh yeah, such a great thing! Cute pictures, I especially like the one from last year where he's trying to eat the pumpkin, lol.

Whit, Lindsey, Jonas, and Maggie said...

That is a sweet idea! It was pretty funny trying to get Jonas through the corn maze that we didn't even want to try to go through the pumpkin patch...so Jonas just watches. It is hard to be limited. Dakin is so adorable!!

Colleen said...

That is so nice that he was able to go to a pumpkin patch. I'm sure the churches thought it was a simple thing, but for Dakin it's HUGE. I'm jealous of your nice weather! Happy Halloween!

Victoria Strong said...

I LOVE the one of Dakin looking at the pumpkin! So cute!!!

Dana said...

Love this post. I get the comment about being ready to go off on someone if they are not accomadating. I hear myself saying "they have to allow her access".
It also makes me laugh that Pumpkin Patch pictures are such a big deal for us. Something about having a child and boom you want that pumpkin patch photo and more so if you have a special needs child. That is one you want to fight for. Wheelchairs and rocky terrain do not mix. I get it. Glad you were able to get yours this year. I gave up as the rain was NOt our friend again this year.