2010.06.05-BirminghamFair.04.jpg2010.06.05-BirminghamFair.02.jpgWe took Ian to his first fair today.  It wasn’t anything huge, but it had enough rides to interest Ian that he so didn’t want to leave.

Let’s start at the beginning. When we first got there, the three of us walked to stripped, checking out what was going on.  There were a few rides we knew he wouldn’t be able to do, but there were a few that he could.  So we purchased some tickets and started off.  His very first carnival ride happened to be at the Train Station.  The monkey does love his trains and he couldn’t resist going on it.  Not only was he big enough to go on his own, but this is also the first ride he’s ever gone on without either Jesse or I will him.

After that, Ian got his fix of swinging in with whatever the swing ride was called.  For both these rides, he just reached the minimum height requirement (one guy had to duck down to check) and Ian was totally excited about being able to go on his own.  While he was riding the swings, he was one of the few kids who wasn’t just sitting there peaceably – he kept shaking those chains whenever he could.

2010.06.05-BirminghamFair.09.jpgAfter the train and swings, the next ride Ian wanted to go on required one of us to go with him.  The Fun Slide would let him on, but considering you had to walk up this huge flight of steps, he had to have an adult with him.  When Jesse first suggested hitting up the fair, he didn’t take into account that I wouldn’t be able to do a lot of the rides (if any) with Ian.  So guess who got stuck going up to the top of the slide with Ian?  Yup, Jesse and he’s not generally a fan of heights either.  However, by the time both of them made it to the bottom, they both had huge smiles.

2010.06.05-BirminghamFair.23b.jpgThe next ride Ian wanted…yeah, he couldn’t go on.  You know those dragon boat rides that swing back and forth like a pendulum? Yeah, he so wanted to go on that, but he didn’t meet the height requirements, obviously.  Plus, you weren’t going to get me on one of those things, pregnant or not.  So the two of us went and snagged a ride on the carousel instead.  At first, Ian was worried about falling off and me not being with him; but once I assured him I wasn’t going anywhere, he had a blast.

Right across from the carousel, Ian saw something that he had to do – skeeball!  According to Ian, skeeball is his favorite game and he had to play it.  He’s not very good at it, but he got to roll a ball a couple of times and help daddy and I try to win something (we didn’t).

After doing a few rides, we went to check out all the games that were set up.  I cannot believe that it costs $3 for a single game at most of them.  That’s outrageous.  However, we did find one that Ian was able to do that wasn’t too bad (meaning he would come away with a prize regardless) and that was “pick a duck”.  He did end up grabbing a winning duck and he came away with a new shiny ball.  He even got to pick it out himself from a bunch of different prizes.

2010.06.05-BirminghamFair.33.jpgWe still had a few tickets left, so we went back for another round of rides.  While Ian was driving the train, Jesse made a quick stop for some cotton candy.  He was going to taunt Ian with it while he was on the train, but Ian wanted to sit up in the engine so he could ring the bell a few times.  He really didn’t pay too much attention to us while he could do that.

After the train, we took a small break to indulge in the cotton candy, or as Ian was calling it, the cotton balls.  He wasn’t a fan of the blue stuff, but the pink was pretty good.  *grin*

By this time, Jesse and I were starting to get a little tired (it had been a long day up to this point), but we still had a few tickets left.  So Ian got to head back to the swings for another ride as well as the carousel.  Once all the tickets were gone, we started heading back to the car.  Ian did NOT want to go home.  He wanted to go back to the fair and play some more.  Both Jesse and I assured him that there would be more fairs this summer, that this wasn’t the only one, and he started to calm down a little.  What finally convinced him that it was time to head home was the fact that we still had to go shopping for his big boy bed, but more on that in a few.