Carousels
I’m not sure why, but I really enjoy them. Maybe they’re made for small children, but I disagree. They’re one of those things that I can’t walk past if I see one. I want to ride it. And I usually do. It used to be Nicole that I’d drag on with me (okay drag is too strong a word, I think she likes them too!) and now it’s Tom.
Central Park carousel? Ridden it. Disney World carousel? Yup. Boston’s? Of course.
And now, we’re introducing E to them! We recently spent some time outside of Hartford, and while we were eating lunch, E noticed a nearby carousel. He didn’t know what it was, but he knew he needed to be on it. The lights, the music, he loved it all.
The moving up and down sitting on an animal? Well he was more nervous about that. He lasted about two rotations around before begging to be in my arms. It was half love, half fear. Either way, I’ll call it a success, and predict there will be a lot more of these in our future.
He also loved the little cars that you could pay $1 to make move around, but given that he didn’t like the movement of the carousel, we just let him sit in it. He was completely happy to sit in the car and use the steering wheel, and it was cheaper for us! It makes me want to install a steering wheel into his car seat, a la Maggie Simpson. Maybe he’d enjoy car rides more?
Our strategy right now tends to be throwing random things at him in the backseat to hopefully entertain him for a few minutes at a time. Even if it’s a window scraper or empty water bottle - whatever will distract him from his hatred of the car. The worst is when he makes eye contact with me in the mirror and reaches up his arms, asking to be picked up. I told him that if I loved him less I’d gladly unbuckle him, but since I don’t, he needs to stay safely in his seat. He’s not buying it though…
So if you ever see us standing in the parking lot of daycare for a long period of time and wonder why, know it’s because every time I try to put him in his seat he cries and clings to me, wrapping his arms around my neck. So we stand in the parking lot cuddling until I can bare to put him in the seat and listen to his cries for the 15 minutes it takes to get home…