Fairs

This past weekend, being the last holiday weekend before school starts was about “fairs” for our family of three. 

We decided to take Makenna to the NYS Fair in Syracuse and for the most part it went well. She was a bit crabby here and there due to lack of a nap but she really enjoyed the various rides she could go on.  She enjoyed this very lame, slow cow ride and wanted to go on it again and again.  We limited her to one ride - for our sakes - although it was free so I don't know why we did that?!

She went through a bounce house and along the line got stuck somewhere and I could hear her crying in the distance. I asked the guy to go check on her and sure enough he found her and brought my tearful child to me. The guy said that she had gotten stuck somewhere and turned around and started coming back. Luckily a mother knows her child’s cry.

All three of us enjoyed a Ferris wheel ride that was in more of a round container than a chair with a bar holding you in. It was also nice because it was so hot and humid on Friday that being up in the air gave us a really nice breeze to cool off with.

She also went on a roller coaster, for kids, but this one was actually a bit faster and it had her go up a small incline and down so we were nervous about how she would be with that. As she came around from her first trip I heard Chris say to her, “oh honey, it’s going to be okay.” I said to him, she’s screaming with glee not fright. She really enjoyed it.  Not only that but she ran right up to the front to get in the first car.  Unfortunately, some other kids had already gotten there so she had to take the second car.

We also looked at the pigs and cows and chickens that they had displayed from the various people bringing them to be judged. I never knew there were so many varieties of chickens. We got stuck watching the ducks and had to pry Makenna away from them. She’s seen so many ducks in her short life span I don’t know why they’re such a huge fascination.

We got the obligatory chocolate milk, which Makenna didn’t want but it was pretty refreshing and tasty. We also sampled some cheese, had a horrible and expensive lunch and a pretty tasty ice cream.

We’ve decided that fairs are all about how much money you can spend on silly stuff. But that didn’t stop us from going to our local JC Field Days which is an end of the Summer ritual. Last night it seemed like everyone from New York was there – it was packed, even more than the NYS Fair.

There was more rides to go on and Makenna went on another roller coaster which was not as “elaborate” as the one at the NYS Fair but for some reason a lot more scary for her. I think because this one jerked her around a bit that she didn’t like it. The first time around she seemed okay but by the second pass we could see the fear and pout on her lips. When it finally came to a stop the tears came out. I felt like a mean mom as all the parents looked at us as if “who would put there small child on such a ride?” We soothed her with other rides more her speed and somehow got out of there without buying anything else.

She also talked about seeing the fireworks for a bit but when they came out, loud and banging, she was not a fan. She covered her ears and we helped cover her ears some more. We had to hold her and both of our backs are sore today because of it.

As for the rest of the weekend it was spent with family at our cottage. It was also a practice run for next week when she officially starts a no-nap preschool day. It showed us that we are not ready for the grumpy, whiney child that ensues with no nap. It also confirmed that she will be going to bed earlier than she does now.

There was a lot of fighting and arguing with her cousins and in one instance in particular, she was trying to take a nap, according to her, when her cousin Katie wouldn’t stop looking at her. Later when I tried to talk to her about it on the way home she said, “Well, I was trying to take a nap and Katie was bothering me.” I said to her, “maybe you could say in a nicer voice to Katie that you were trying to take a nap, could she please leave you alone?” She replied in an exasperated, irritated with your mother voice, “Fine, fine, fine.”

There was also a lot of yelling at me and others to “Stop it.” So now we have a new “swear words” of sorts to punish her with. I know we say it quite a bit to her so it’s only natural for her to say it back. It’s still the whole who’s the boss scenario being played out.

Needless to say there were a lot of time outs this weekend for yelling at us, talking back to us and general behavior issues. We’re still practicing on putting her in time-out just after one warning it just seems so time consuming.

If we as parents could just remember to punish her with words such as “yes I’ll do that willingly,” or “sure I’d love to,” or “anything you ask I’ll do,” instead of “stop it,” “calm down,” “knock it off,” I think we’d have a much more compliant child and one who’d yell at us in phrases we’d love to hear.