JACKSON

"Jackson Avery, you know those Nike's do not match her outfit!"

The annoyed squeal coming from my wife could only earn a hearty chuckle from me as I gave another glance at our daughter. Harriet was wearing an orange shirt with white pants that had little black hearts all over them. I had put her in a pair of little Nike sneakers that were a bright red with the signature swoop in white. Nothing about the outfit seemed wrong to me as far as I could tell, but she had always been much pickier about that kind of thing than I was. Hattie looked cute. But she was the kind of little girl that you could have put in a potato sack, and she would still look cute. She had all the best genes from both of us.

"April, come on, she looks fine," I reasoned.

"You know those don't match," April rolled her eyes. "I want to be able to take pictures of her, Jackson. For both of our mothers. She's going to look adorable running around the pumpkin patch and I want to make sure that she looks nice for them." She pleaded with me.

"And it rained yesterday which means it's going to be muddy, so if you put her in nice shoes, then they're just going to get dirty. Wouldn't you rather have her run around in some sneakers that are much easier to clean?" I pointed out with a raise of my eyebrows, stepping toward her. "You should be honored that I'm willing to let her get her Nike's dirty." I teased.

"Hmm…" she thought out loud. "Okay, fine. You win. We'll go with the Nike's."

I grinned, stepping over and pulling her in by the hips. "She's messy. We'll save the cute shoes for church and other days, alright?"

"Alright, alright," she sighed dramatically, placing her hands on my chest and looking up at me. Bent down, meeting her lips in a brief and chaste kiss.

"We better get going, huh?" I asked.

"Mmhm."

Bending down, I pressed a quick kiss on the growing curve of her stomach that contained our third child before turning to gather everything that we would need. Potty training was going decently well with Harriet so far but we had to be prepared for an accident just in case. She tended to do well at home but not so well whenever we too her anywhere else. Given that she was only two though, it already seemed like she was well ahead of the curve.

Getting the car packed up and loaded with everything we needed, and Harriet secured in her car seat with my phone to entertain her for the car ride as well as one of her CDs playing over the radio, we set out to the pumpkin patch. It wasn't a long drive, just north of the city and in the suburbs. But it was a little longer than what Harriet was used to in the car, over twice the length of the quick to and from the hospital or a ride to the park, and also a bit longer than the drive to Grandma and Richard's house. With enough distractions though, she doesn't seem to notice the increase of time in the car.

"We're here!" April announced in a sing-song as I pulled into a parking spot. "Harriet, are you excited?"

"Yeah!" She shouted enthusiastically.

Getting out of the car, I get Harriet so April doesn't do too much heavy lifting. I was trying to keep a good eye on her and lifting things because I knew that she didn't want to slow down even while she was pregnant. She wanted to do everything with Harriet and me. I could only take off little bits and pieces.

It was one of the nicer pumpkin patches that we had picked out – including options to pick in the field and ones already gathered from the field, hayrides, a hay bale maze, pony rides, and a petting zoo. It was a small fee, three dollars each for April and I, and free for Harriet, but that didn't matter. It took no time at all for Harriet to begin calling out to go over to the petting zoo and I set her down on the ground, empty hand finding one of April's as we trailed behind our excited daughter.

"She's just like you," I mused, glancing down at April. "Straight for all the little animals."

"They're not little to her," she remarked. "She's the little one."

Of course, April was right. Even though the chickens were smaller than she was and the baby goats were, a couple of the animals did tower over her. Those were the exact ones that she went to, though. She ran her hands all over a friendly sheep and I lifted her up so that she could pet the head of an alpaca. She even got to pat a couple of bunnies and rub the belly of a baby spotted pig. She was all giggles and smiles the entire time, radiating infectious joy. The same smile was resting on my wife's lips as she watched our little girl have the time of our life. The mother and daughter paired matched perfectly.

We let her play around with the animals in the petting zoo to her heart's content. It meant that tonight there would definitely be questions about getting some kind of pet of our own, something that I would have to be firm about. She was a little young, and April and I worked too much to take care of a dog properly. Maybe a couple years down the road it would be something to consider.

"Come on, let's wash our hands nice and good now so we can go pick pumpkins." April encouraged Harriet. All three of us took a moment to wash our hands.

The area with pre-picked pumpkins was going to be the best bet so we didn't have to worry about Harriet getting too far out of sight with a big, open field of pumpkins waiting to be picked. It was a bit crowded with other families and their kids, but she was an easy one to keep our eye on. Or maybe that was just something every parent felt.

"Big! Big!" Harriet settled her hands on the biggest pumpkin she could find, pushing at it.

"Do you want to get the biggest one that you can find?" April asked her.

"Sounds just like Mommy," I retorted under my breath, making sure only she could hear.

The jab naturally earned an elbow in my ribcage.

"Yeah!" Harriet shouted.

"Why don't you show us which one you want to get, Hattie? We'll get whatever you want." I spoke to her this time and tried to contain the smirk on my lips as I eyed my wide.

Harriet roamed around from pumpkin to pumpkin, getting her hands on all of them and apparently determining which one she wanted by her ability to push or roll them around. We would get a few – at least a few to carve and then one or two more to keep around for after Halloween passed as general fall decor on the porch. I knew that April wanted to bake a pumpkin pie or two, as well, but I wasn't sure if she wanted to do it completely from scratch or something a little more store bought. Knowing her, it probably wasn't the latter.

"She really does look just like you, you know," I commented as I wrapped my arm around April's waist and pulled her in next to me. Her head rested on my shoulder for a brief moment.

"I see you in her," she disagreed. "Look at those eyes. How can you not?"

"Look at that smile," I countered without hesitation. "Her with those animals? That was all you. She loves them."

April made a thinking noise. "Maybe we should go to my parent's for Thanksgiving or something. Give her a chance to see the farm now that she's a little older and can appreciate it, you know? I think she'd like that. I know it'll be cold in Moline, this late in the year, but it' be nice to get out there and see my family. Then we could do Christmas with your mom and Webber, and everyone else here," she suggested.

"I think that we could manage something like that," I agreed with a nod. Harriet got a lot more time with my mom than my mother-in-law, merely because of the close proximity. "Your parents and sisters will be happy. We can set something up."

"Thank you," she stretched up, giving me a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Don't. I think I enjoy your mom more than you do," I chuckled. "And that gives me an excuse to stay away from the kitchen because I know that Karen won't let me."

"That's true," April laughed. "I'll be lucky if she even lets me anywhere near the kitchen."

"That just means more time with your dad." I knew that she would never pick a favorite parent, but it was obvious that April had been a daddy's girl growing up. That was definitely a trait that I had hoped our daughter would get, too. The two of them were the entirety of my life and world now, and that was only going to expand with the birth of our third child, waiting impatiently for a few more months inside of April's belly. "Oh, there goes her hat–"

Letting out a chuckle and quickly chasing after my daughter, I picked up the beanie that was now on the ground and shook out the little bits of grass and dirt that had gotten on it. Wrapping an arm around her middle to stop her, she laughed and squirmed as I pulled it back over her curls.

"Daddy! Silly!" Harriet protested.

"You're going to get cold without it," I informed her, kissing her on top of her head. "Have you decided which pumpkin you want to take home yet? I know you're going to pick the best one."

Straightening back up, April took a moment to catch up with us. She wasn't big enough to be waddling and she certainly wasn't slowed down, but I could tell that she was just taking the time to stretch it out. Plus, her phone camera was out which meant she was getting those photos for our moms as she had said. Fall was her favorite season. It was mine, too. In part because of all of the football games that came on tv, sure, but the weather was reliably decent and Halloween was probably my second favorite holiday. Second to Thanksgiving solely for all of the food that invisibly came with that particular celebration.

"This, Daddy." Harriet placed her hands on one of the bigger pumpkins that were on the lot, decently oval in shape, fortunately, and tried to give it a shake. It was too heavy for her to get too much movement out of it, which seemed like precisely what she wanted.

"Why don't you carry it for her, Daddy?" April suggested with a laugh as if there was any other option.

I reached down and picked it up with ease. "What else do you want, Mommy?" I looked at her.

"I think we'll get two little small ones to keep out on the porch once all of the Halloween decorations come down. Let's get one more to carve." April suggested.

The big one to carve would be Harriet's, more or less. We would let her draw whatever design on it that she wanted to be carved and I would take care of the actual carving portion of it. Then there would be a more traditional one. April was really good about keeping things balanced and making sure that we involved Harriet in as much as possible to assert some of her independence and encourage her creativity.

With two larger pumpkins in my hands and one small one in Harriet's, a more medium one in April's hands, we pay for our selections and head back to the car, loading them up. The exhaustion seemed to hit Harriet almost immediately upon getting in the car. She was practically asleep before we could pull out of the parking lot.

"We got lucky that it didn't rain today," I mused as we drove back to the house. "What do you think she's going to want to carve?"

"Hmm…" Glancing over at April, I can watch her purse her lips. "I'm going to guess a spider. I think that's her big fear. Do you remember that little one that got in the house the other day?" We both laughed at the memory. Neither one of us was scared of bugs, but it seemed like she had gotten that from somewhere still.

"Yeah, that's a fair point," I glanced at our daughter through the rearview mirror. "What about you?"

"Traditional scary face, of course." She answered without hesitation. "We have to have one."

"You're right." As always. "I still don't know how I feel about your costume choice, though."

April laughed. "I'll never get a chance to do it again! Being pregnant and showing during Halloween is lucky. I may as well take advantage of that luck." She countered. "Besides, then Harriet and I get to match. You're the one who needs to get on board."

"A grown man in a Tigger costume is a little weird." I shook my head. "You'll be cute as Pooh with your little belly and she'll be an adorable Piglet. What about Christopher Robin?"

"Is dressing as a boy really less embarrassing than a Tigger onesie?" She questioned.

"Fair." I breathed out, giving a slight shake of the head as I pulled into the driveway, waiting on the garage door to open up before pulling into it and putting the car into park. Harriet was still asleep in the back seat judging from the little look over my shoulder at her, worn out from all of the excitement and running around that she had done today. "I'll do it. But one of the ones where it's got the full head, so you can't see my face."

Her beautiful hazel eyes rolled. "Fine, whatever you want." She leaned over the center console to kiss me gently.

"April?" I murmured against her lips, nipping at her lower one.

"Mmhm?" She asked.

"I love you."

"Love you too, baby."