Proud Parent Day

Earlier this summer, we spent a day at Silverwood theme park.  They have rides, food, and a water park.  After Keith spent some time on the coasters (I don't do heights), we decided to see what kinds of rides Charlie might like before we headed to the waterpark.  Charlie had already mastered the carousel at the park, so we felt sure he'd have some fun on the kiddy rides at Silverwood.  We couldn't be more wrong! 

Flying elephants?  No!  Butterlfyer?  No!  Froghopper, Red Baron? NO NO NO!  Hmmm.  So much for family day at the park.  Finally, we put our foot down.  Our feet, I guess.  Antique cars.  Surely Charlie would like that.  All you do is sit in an antique car, ride around a track at 2 miles an hour for about 5 minutes and get out.  Charlie knows all about riding in the car and this time:  no carseat!  When we got to our car, it was like trying to put a cat in a bathtub.  He screamed, fought, pushed, pulled.  And then he sat down, and SNAP, he was a happy kid.  What?!  I kid you not, the transformation was instant.  He was smiling, talking about the color of our car, the car ahead of us and how we were "drivin."  Whew!  Fun at last.

Well, after that experience, we began to seriously doubt our upcoming trip to Florida this fall, which includes a visit to Legoland.  Would every ride be a battle?  Should we even try to push him?  He's only two after all. 

Later in the summer we received a tip to visit Riverside park downtown to see a real live, close up Fire truck.  As we could have guessed, Charlie wasn't actually too interested in sitting up in the cab like the other kids, but he accepted a sticker and waved at Smoky the Bear.  What we didn't guess, was that actually the whole park was alive with booths, games, food... and rides.  Kid's day.  We wandered around, eating up our hour on the meter.  When we got to the rides, Keith asked, doubtfully, if Charlie wanted to ride the Airplane ride.  "Yeah."  We asked him if he was sure. "Yeah."  We must have asked him half a dozen times, pointing out that Mama couldn't ride with him and that it might be fast and a little high.  "Yeah."  Ok we thought, he'll get on and then we'll get to witness a melt down for the duration of the ride.  Spending far too much money, Keith bought enough tickets for three rides.  "We'll just see what happens.  But we've gotta try it."

And what happened was, we were the Proudest Parents of a Toddler that day.  With astounding calm, Charlie was placed in a plane, by himself and left there.  And once the ride started, he smiled, laughed, forgot to pull the lever to go up, but who cares?  He was having FUN!  And, so were we.  We were elated.  Sounds so silly to think so.  I mean, for goodness sake, if we're this proud over a carnival ride, what happens when he graduates from high school?  And Charlie went on to use up all the tickets.  "Driving" a train and riding the bumper boats.  Our son.  A ride rider.  So proud.

And so, some of you may be asking, why can't Mama set a good example and start riding the roller coasters?  My response to that is, "Don't make this about me.  This is about the kids."