I'm not sure exactly why, but Jude and I have been going to the State Fair for several years. It's gritty, dirty and maybe a little unsafe, but it's ours. Or something like that. We took J.P. last year, but he was a little young to do much more than roll around in his stroller and take it all in. Last night, J.P. made his second appearance at the State Fair and it was an entirely different story. Man, what a difference a year makes!
Although we took a stroller in with us, he wanted out as soon as we got inside the Fairgrounds. As we walked down the midway, he just stopped and stared, transfixed by the sights and sounds of the rides, games and people milling about. At first, it was hard to get him to keep walking. He just stood still, like a statue, quiet with his eyes wide open.
Jude took J.P. on what really amounted to a children's obstacle course, complete with slides, a tunnel and a rickety swinging bridge with nets on the sides. When he slid down the last slide, he wanted to go again, so I took him back into the obstacle course. Piece of cake, I thought, until we got to the top and started across the swinging bridge. First of all, the slats had gaps in between them, big enough it seemed to me that his foot could slip through. Second, it was hard to balance myself and hold his hand, because there were no walls on either side, only netting. When other children ran up behind us and the hold bridge started swaying, I literally thought I was going to fall into the net, taking him with me. Finally, as we slid down the slide at the end, I breathed a sigh of relief. I was ready to go home, right then.
We wandered over to an area that had a couple of children's rides - some cars that children could sit in, that rotated around and around, slowly, and some motorcycles that did the same thing. No problem, I thought, Jude can ride in one of the cars with him. Except, that wasn't the case. No adults allowed. When Jude tried to take J.P. out of the car he was sitting in, he started screaming and the lady working the ride strapped him in, took Jude by the arm, and gently escorted her outside the ride. "He'll be fine," she said. "He's 2 1/2 years old? We've had 18 month olds on this ride." Gulp.
I was convinced that as soon as the ride started, J.P would fall apart, start crying and the lady would have to stop the ride to let him off. Wrong. He loved it. As soon as the ride started, he gripped the steering wheel, went around and around, grinning from ear to ear the entire time. I'm not going to lie, my heart sank just a little bit as I watched him. "J.P. doesn't need us anymore," I thought. "He's growing up."
Next, it was on to the motorcycles. As Jude strapped him in, J.P. looked her in the eye and said, "get out, Mama." I'm not joking. "It's over," I thought. "He's going to tell us, this weekend, that he needs his own space, that he's moving out, going to get his own place." All before his third birthday.
The highlight of the night for me, though, was "the Euroslide." J.P. wanted to try it, so we walked all the way up a steep, steep ramp to the top. He walked in front of me, on his own, up the ramp, which was impressive in and of itself. I sat down on a piece of plastic folded over at the bottom for my feet, placed him between my legs and pushed off with my hands. Off we went, sliding down the length of the slide, picking up speed and flying over the humps in the slide. It was awesome! As soon as we got to the bottom, sliding into the foam, J.P. jumped up, bouncing on his feet, and said, "again, again Daddy!" We rode the slide two more times. The last time, J.P. screamed happily as we slid down. I did, too.
It's hard to describe, but I felt really close to J.P. as we hurtled down "the Euroslide," together. I think he felt safe, sitting between my legs. Safe enough, anyway, to try something new that was a little scary, but exciting at the same time. It was another one of those special moments I'm always referring to, where I wanted to stop time and preserve the memory in my mind forever.
No comments:
Post a Comment