The Pumpcat

Oh the Pumpcat. Hee. Mindy reminded me of that whole situation with her most recent comment. I wish that I was home so that I could include a photo, but I promise that I'll share one as soon as I can.

Remember how I said that I wasn't so into Halloween? Well, last year I recall listening when the ladies in my First Time Moms group talked about dressing up their (approximately) 4 month olds. Oh, the costumes were so cute and I so wanted to share their enthusiasm, but I just didn't have it in me.

While all of that was going on, I was experiencing a serious addiction to shopping at Target. BD affectionately called it "robbing" the store. See, there was this amazing coupon floating around for Gerber baby food. It was something like $1 off of 2 and for some reason Target was selling jars for anywhere from 52-57 cents each. So, yeah, 2-7 cents at the register. I didn't know at the time if my baby would ever eat baby food (of course she did and has since moved on to sweet potato pie and barbecue chicken as of her last meal), but it was a great diversion to all of the emotions I was feeling at the time. When BD would come home from work, he would tell me to go. Just go. Somewhere, anywhere, as long as I went. I chose Target. Suffice it to say that we ended up with a yooge, yes yooge, supply of baby food and related items.

I say that just to help illustrate that I was spending a lot of time in Targé Boutique. Have you ever seen those $1 bins at the front of the store? If you haven't, take a look next time. Sometimes there's cool stuff. Like black cotton hats with cat faces painted on them. For babies, even.

Yeah, I bought one. They had pumpkins and cats, but since it was an impulse buy, I limited myself to just one - the black cat hat - cause it was all dangerous and mysterious-like. Oooweeeoooo

And then, when I was at this fantastic community yard sale that I just happened upon while walking one day, I bought the pumpkin pajama-ish thingee for $0.50. I was weak and it was a bargain. What can I say?

When I realized that maybe I did want to dress Playette up a little on Halloween, I went back to the store (actually, several of them) and attempted to smoke out that elusive pumpkin hat. But, no. Not a one was to be found.

Wait. Am I remembering that wrong? Hm. Maybe.

But isn't that the age-old argument? What came first - the pumpkin or the cat?

Regardless...

With a pumpkin outfit and a black cat hat, I thought, "That's ok, 'pumpcat' sounds kinda cool." Say it with me - Pumpcat.

Plus, I was sure she'd be the only one of her kind and we're all about being unique over here.

I shared this with my mama friends on about October 29th. Mindy then volunteered to send me her pumpkin hat since she didn't need it.

But would it arrive from Florida on time?

Dun Dun Dunnnnn!

On October 31st, I had to take Playette to the Opthomologist. The mail arrived just before we left. Huzzah! The pumpkin hat.

But what about my beloved Pumpcat? I couldn't just leave it behind without another thought, could I?

The ending to the story is not all that complicated really, and I hope it's not too much of a letdown. Who am I kidding? Of course it is.

I took photos of her with both hats and then took her out in public with the pumpkin hat. Hey, I was a new mom. I didn't want people to think I was totally wacko. As it was, the Ped had already made a note in Playette's medical record about me being unstable.

Now that? Oh, that is a much more interesting story for another day, but I still love my Pumpcat.

Thanks for the reminder, Mindy!