The Children's Festival Part 1, again.
I had a long post written up, but when I went to post it it disappeared.
AGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
Since we didn't get to the Children's Festival on Wednesday as we had previously planned we planned to go today. William and I were going to go and Julia was going to Grandma Alexis' to play with Grandma and James. That was the plan when we went to bed last night. It was the plan when we got up in the morning. It was even still the plan when we got our shoes on to head out the door just after noon today. Then Julia got to thinking. She decided that the Children's Festival sounded like a lot of fun and she should come too.
Julia insisted that she did NOT want to go to Grandma's house. She did NOT want to play with “That BOY”, said with emphasis as though being a boy was the worst insult that you could throw at a person. We talked it out for a while, trying to figure out what to do. Julia wanted nothing to do with not going to the Children's Festival. She would not be put off with the promise of going with me or her dad all by herself tomorrow. She was not willing to stay at Grandma's while we went, period, end of story.
William on the other hand had had nearly a week to think about this just Mommy and William trip. He could see it falling apart in front of his eyes. Finally, William came up with what I considered to be a very mature solution. He would go and play with Grandma and James and Julia and I would go to the Children's Festival today. William and the parent of his choice would go to the Children's Festival tomorrow.
So we buckled ourselves in to the van and went to drop William off at Grandma's. Julia got upset again when she realized that the lunch I has packed for her was going with William to Grandma's. I had packed the same food in two sets. One for one child, the other for one child and one adult. I was not going to be hungry to satisfy her need to bring her containers.
Once William was safely dropped off we went downtown. Julia fell asleep in the van. I mean really asleep, as in pick her up out of the carseat, still asleep, asleep. I found a decent parking spot not at all far from where we were to meet Jessica and Lucas. I pulled in and parked.
I gathered everything we needed and got the stroller out that I still have from our Calgary trip (Jess') I put Julia in the stroller before plugging the meter, in order to maximize our parking time. I had a $2 & $1, and very little other change. I plugged the $2 coin in. That should have bought me 80 minutes. In fact it bought me......
0 minutes. It never registered. Next I added my $1 coin. That gave me the 40 minutes it should have. I had just paid $3 for 40 minutes of parking and had no money left, now what? I found a scrap of paper and wrote a note to leave on the windshield of the van and headed off. About one and a half car lengths from the van I spotted a Commissionaire coming towards us. I explained to him what had happened and he said that I could park for the two hours that I had paid for.
We met up with Jess and Luke in the park and wandered around for a bit seeing the big globe that they were rolling over children laying on the ground, and the parachute that a different group of children were playing with. Julia tried out both activities. The first time the globe rolled over her she lost her nerve just as the big ball was rolling over the child beside her. She sat up just as the ball got to her. I think it surprised her a bit but she was ready to go again for the next pass. Jess, Luke and Julia played with the parachute a bit then we decided that we should eat our lunch before the perishables that we had brought had a chance to go funky.
After we finished our lunch we wandered down to the ticket booth to buy our stamps so that we could try some of the attractions.
We saw a couple on stilts. Julia was a little intimidated when they talked to her, but endlessly fascinated once their focus was on some one else rather than her.
With our stamps paid for and only an hour until the park closed we went to go through the maze. There was an inflatable maze to wander though. Once we got to the entrance of the maze, Julia stood there and pointed an Imperious finger at me and told me in no uncertain terms to “GO AWAY”. She was going to do the maze by her self, thank you very much.
One of my goals as a mother is to have children who grow up to be strong and independent. I just didn't expect it in a three year old.
After the maze we went to the Potash Corp dig site to look for sharks teeth. At the entrance to the pile of rocks they give each child a small sealing bag for their collections. Now, it is a small bag but still maybe, 2 inches by 4 inches. Julia was determined that we should not leave the park until we had filled her bag with shark's teeth. We found quite a few but it would have taken hundreds to fill the bag. We finally convinced her to leave when there was about 10 minutes left till the end of the day.
We next found the Art tent where we coloured on each others arms and legs with water colour pencils. Then it was time to pack up and head home.
On the way out we passed an ice cream vendor. I declined to spend $3 on a fudgesicle but we decided that ice cream did indeed sound like a good idea. We stopped at DQ on our way home for Dillybars. Julia shared most of hers with William.
Tomorrow, William and I think I are going.
AGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
Since we didn't get to the Children's Festival on Wednesday as we had previously planned we planned to go today. William and I were going to go and Julia was going to Grandma Alexis' to play with Grandma and James. That was the plan when we went to bed last night. It was the plan when we got up in the morning. It was even still the plan when we got our shoes on to head out the door just after noon today. Then Julia got to thinking. She decided that the Children's Festival sounded like a lot of fun and she should come too.
Julia insisted that she did NOT want to go to Grandma's house. She did NOT want to play with “That BOY”, said with emphasis as though being a boy was the worst insult that you could throw at a person. We talked it out for a while, trying to figure out what to do. Julia wanted nothing to do with not going to the Children's Festival. She would not be put off with the promise of going with me or her dad all by herself tomorrow. She was not willing to stay at Grandma's while we went, period, end of story.
William on the other hand had had nearly a week to think about this just Mommy and William trip. He could see it falling apart in front of his eyes. Finally, William came up with what I considered to be a very mature solution. He would go and play with Grandma and James and Julia and I would go to the Children's Festival today. William and the parent of his choice would go to the Children's Festival tomorrow.
So we buckled ourselves in to the van and went to drop William off at Grandma's. Julia got upset again when she realized that the lunch I has packed for her was going with William to Grandma's. I had packed the same food in two sets. One for one child, the other for one child and one adult. I was not going to be hungry to satisfy her need to bring her containers.
Once William was safely dropped off we went downtown. Julia fell asleep in the van. I mean really asleep, as in pick her up out of the carseat, still asleep, asleep. I found a decent parking spot not at all far from where we were to meet Jessica and Lucas. I pulled in and parked.
I gathered everything we needed and got the stroller out that I still have from our Calgary trip (Jess') I put Julia in the stroller before plugging the meter, in order to maximize our parking time. I had a $2 & $1, and very little other change. I plugged the $2 coin in. That should have bought me 80 minutes. In fact it bought me......
0 minutes. It never registered. Next I added my $1 coin. That gave me the 40 minutes it should have. I had just paid $3 for 40 minutes of parking and had no money left, now what? I found a scrap of paper and wrote a note to leave on the windshield of the van and headed off. About one and a half car lengths from the van I spotted a Commissionaire coming towards us. I explained to him what had happened and he said that I could park for the two hours that I had paid for.
We met up with Jess and Luke in the park and wandered around for a bit seeing the big globe that they were rolling over children laying on the ground, and the parachute that a different group of children were playing with. Julia tried out both activities. The first time the globe rolled over her she lost her nerve just as the big ball was rolling over the child beside her. She sat up just as the ball got to her. I think it surprised her a bit but she was ready to go again for the next pass. Jess, Luke and Julia played with the parachute a bit then we decided that we should eat our lunch before the perishables that we had brought had a chance to go funky.
After we finished our lunch we wandered down to the ticket booth to buy our stamps so that we could try some of the attractions.
We saw a couple on stilts. Julia was a little intimidated when they talked to her, but endlessly fascinated once their focus was on some one else rather than her.
With our stamps paid for and only an hour until the park closed we went to go through the maze. There was an inflatable maze to wander though. Once we got to the entrance of the maze, Julia stood there and pointed an Imperious finger at me and told me in no uncertain terms to “GO AWAY”. She was going to do the maze by her self, thank you very much.
One of my goals as a mother is to have children who grow up to be strong and independent. I just didn't expect it in a three year old.
After the maze we went to the Potash Corp dig site to look for sharks teeth. At the entrance to the pile of rocks they give each child a small sealing bag for their collections. Now, it is a small bag but still maybe, 2 inches by 4 inches. Julia was determined that we should not leave the park until we had filled her bag with shark's teeth. We found quite a few but it would have taken hundreds to fill the bag. We finally convinced her to leave when there was about 10 minutes left till the end of the day.
We next found the Art tent where we coloured on each others arms and legs with water colour pencils. Then it was time to pack up and head home.
On the way out we passed an ice cream vendor. I declined to spend $3 on a fudgesicle but we decided that ice cream did indeed sound like a good idea. We stopped at DQ on our way home for Dillybars. Julia shared most of hers with William.
Tomorrow, William and I think I are going.
