CRAAAAAASH!
Last weekened was the Spencerville Fair. I've been going to the fair since before the boys were born partly because I like fairs and partly because I have so many relatives that attend it I've never failed to run into at least a couple of them there. This turned out to be the first year that we've gone to the fair where I did not meet any relatives. That's a real shame, because James was in a really talkative mood.
So, last year it was just James and I and we arrived early so we'd have plenty of time before his afternoon nap (man, I miss afternoon naps) but we left before the big Sunday event. The demolition derby. Since James has taken a hard line against afternoon naps over the summer, I figured this year would be the first year we could reasonably expect to attend.
Christine stayed home with Daniel and I packed James up in the car and off we went. I completely zoned out while we were driving down, James and I were talking the whole way, and I missed the exit. No big deal, but it did delay our arrival a bit as I was at the 401 before I realized where we were. That meant we were a bit later than planned getting to the fair. It turned out to be a really minor hiccup, though, since we got our usual parking space along Centre Street and we had plenty of time to see (and touch) tractors, say hi to the camel, even consider riding the camel briefly before changing our minds, walk around the chickens and ducks and watch a performance of a dog doing trick frisbee catches before lunch.
We'll probably ride the camel next year. Last year James was seriously freaked out by it. This year he wanted to talk to it and even wanted to climb the stairs, but he didn't want to get too close to it. We'll see.
We didn't get to check out any of the exhibitions I like to see this year. The sunflowers, the baked goods, stuff like that, James had no patience for it, but that's okay, we weren't there to look at 13' high sunflowers.
So after walking around and pointing at stuff we walked up to the midway portion of the fair and on the way saw Trevor the Traction Engine. Not one actually claiming to be Trevor, but one that looked very much like the one on the right, painted a very similar bright green to Trevor. James was, of course, quite impressed and we spent a while just watching it puff and chug and heat water to boil corn, or whatever it was doing.
Then we were up into the midway and all he wanted to talk about was the "big wheel that goes round and round". I didn't even consider trying to take him on the ferris wheel this year, but maybe next. We'll play that one by ear. He was also pretty impressed with a dragon roller-coaster ride that he'll enjoy when he gets a bit older, but there's zero possibility I could ever fit on it with him, so until he can understand that he needs to sit down on a ride, he's going to have to just watch from the sidelines.
We grabbed a quick lunch (hot dog for James, hamburger for me and a large fry to split) and sat down in the tent where I got a few photos to share with Christine. He ate a lot and when I dumped the remainder of our box of fries on his plate he exclaimed "Whoa, Daddy!"
Then it got exciting. We made our way back down to where the demolition derby would happen and I found us a spot where he would be pretty central and be able to see. We were only about ten minutes early, but ten minutes for a little guy is an unbearably long time and by the time the cars started rolling out onto the field he was announcing "Almost done, Daddy." over and over again and I was telling him, "no, almost starting." but of course he had no idea what I was talking about, even though I was telling him he was going to see cars crashing.
When the first heat started to drive around the field, a half-dozen cars I think, he started to get excited and did a little dance, but when the first contact occurred and a passenger-side airbag went off (they had "forgotten" to remove it, no doubt, never considering the spectacular effect it would have for the crowd) he went completely still and silent. Then more cars collided with each other and I think he finally understood what was going on and what I'd been telling him. He started hopping in a circle and waving his arms, occasionally stopping and shouting "Cars crashing, Daddy!" and "Say cars crashing, Daddy!" and "CRAAAAAASH!" By the third heat and he realized there was an effectively infinite number of cars going to hurl themselves against each other purely for his entertainment all he could really do was stand in one place, in my arms, and kick his feet and screech. "AAAAAAAAAH!" I have seriously never seen him this excited about anything and it's difficult to imagine him being more excited about anything.
It's been a week and he won't go more than a couple of hours without wanting to talk about cars crashing and how he saw cars crashing. Little dude is psyched.
So, last year it was just James and I and we arrived early so we'd have plenty of time before his afternoon nap (man, I miss afternoon naps) but we left before the big Sunday event. The demolition derby. Since James has taken a hard line against afternoon naps over the summer, I figured this year would be the first year we could reasonably expect to attend.
Christine stayed home with Daniel and I packed James up in the car and off we went. I completely zoned out while we were driving down, James and I were talking the whole way, and I missed the exit. No big deal, but it did delay our arrival a bit as I was at the 401 before I realized where we were. That meant we were a bit later than planned getting to the fair. It turned out to be a really minor hiccup, though, since we got our usual parking space along Centre Street and we had plenty of time to see (and touch) tractors, say hi to the camel, even consider riding the camel briefly before changing our minds, walk around the chickens and ducks and watch a performance of a dog doing trick frisbee catches before lunch.
We'll probably ride the camel next year. Last year James was seriously freaked out by it. This year he wanted to talk to it and even wanted to climb the stairs, but he didn't want to get too close to it. We'll see.
We didn't get to check out any of the exhibitions I like to see this year. The sunflowers, the baked goods, stuff like that, James had no patience for it, but that's okay, we weren't there to look at 13' high sunflowers.
So after walking around and pointing at stuff we walked up to the midway portion of the fair and on the way saw Trevor the Traction Engine. Not one actually claiming to be Trevor, but one that looked very much like the one on the right, painted a very similar bright green to Trevor. James was, of course, quite impressed and we spent a while just watching it puff and chug and heat water to boil corn, or whatever it was doing.Then we were up into the midway and all he wanted to talk about was the "big wheel that goes round and round". I didn't even consider trying to take him on the ferris wheel this year, but maybe next. We'll play that one by ear. He was also pretty impressed with a dragon roller-coaster ride that he'll enjoy when he gets a bit older, but there's zero possibility I could ever fit on it with him, so until he can understand that he needs to sit down on a ride, he's going to have to just watch from the sidelines.
We grabbed a quick lunch (hot dog for James, hamburger for me and a large fry to split) and sat down in the tent where I got a few photos to share with Christine. He ate a lot and when I dumped the remainder of our box of fries on his plate he exclaimed "Whoa, Daddy!"
Then it got exciting. We made our way back down to where the demolition derby would happen and I found us a spot where he would be pretty central and be able to see. We were only about ten minutes early, but ten minutes for a little guy is an unbearably long time and by the time the cars started rolling out onto the field he was announcing "Almost done, Daddy." over and over again and I was telling him, "no, almost starting." but of course he had no idea what I was talking about, even though I was telling him he was going to see cars crashing.
When the first heat started to drive around the field, a half-dozen cars I think, he started to get excited and did a little dance, but when the first contact occurred and a passenger-side airbag went off (they had "forgotten" to remove it, no doubt, never considering the spectacular effect it would have for the crowd) he went completely still and silent. Then more cars collided with each other and I think he finally understood what was going on and what I'd been telling him. He started hopping in a circle and waving his arms, occasionally stopping and shouting "Cars crashing, Daddy!" and "Say cars crashing, Daddy!" and "CRAAAAAASH!" By the third heat and he realized there was an effectively infinite number of cars going to hurl themselves against each other purely for his entertainment all he could really do was stand in one place, in my arms, and kick his feet and screech. "AAAAAAAAAH!" I have seriously never seen him this excited about anything and it's difficult to imagine him being more excited about anything.
It's been a week and he won't go more than a couple of hours without wanting to talk about cars crashing and how he saw cars crashing. Little dude is psyched.
Comments
Post a Comment