Insanity

And now, for the State Fair:
We have made it a family tradition to go to the State Fair each year. We end up doing the same thing, eating the same foods, and seeing the same things every year. We even have pictures of the kids doing the same thing each year. I can't quite get the same effect from the barbeque booth as I got from 2005This would be our first year of going to the Midway to play any games. Yesterday, at Valley Fair, after 3 continuous hours of being asked to play another game, Mike told Gavin he would lose his opportunity to play a game at the State Fair if the question was asked again. He has trouble remembering even the most explicit directions when it goes against his plan. Lo and behold, Gavin couldn't stop himself from asking, so he incurred a loss of privilege. This LOP didn't sink in for him, since it wouldn't come to fruition until the following day. Today, as we were getting ready to go to the Fair, Emma felt compelled to remind Gavin about his LOP. It still didn't sink in for the boy. I was worried about the ramifications of the LOP once we got to the Fair, so Mike and I decided to discuss the situation with our son, reminding him about his behavior at Valley Fair, and reminding him about his consequence. I was mostly an observer in the conversation, since this was really Mike's battle with G. When G realized that we were actually going to follow through (or not), his eyes started welling up with tears, despite his efforts to fight them back. I almost started to cry, he was so sincere and so incredibly sad. I was waiting for Mike to cave, because I certainly would have. It's hard to say if it was the sad face or the prospect of having to listen to constant pleas and attempts to persuade Daddy to change his mind. Whatever the reason, Mike said, o.k. under the condition that he didn't talk about games until it was time to actually play the game. We came up with 3 agreements for Gavin to make. 1. Don't ask to ride any rides (we rode rides all day yesterday) 2. Don't ask to buy anything- unless you're hungry 3. Don't talk about playing games- we'll each play a game at the end of our State Fair experience if you remember about our agreements. I made sure that Gavin looked at me and could articulate each of our agreements. He got so good at it that he was able to teach agreements 1, 2, and 3 to his sisters.



After spending a lovely day at the Fair (5 hours), it was finally time to play a game. Gavin and Emma both chose the water shooting game, almost the same game Gavin won yesterday. I helped Gavin and Mike helped Emma- can you see where we went wrong here? I couldn't believe my eyes, but Mike and Emma won the game- there were about 10 other people playing the game, including adults and ambitious teenagers. Emma got to choose a large stuffed dog. (by the way, we acquired 5 new stuffed animals over the last 2 days!) Gavin became completely hysterical. He was pacing around. Tears streaked his very dirty face while he yelled at me, telling me why he should get to play another game, and how it was unfair that Emma won, and so on. I kept my cool and sat holding him, trying to console him, then finally, in a very calm voice, told him to sit down in the wagon. I noticed lots of people staring, I'm sure thinking, thank God I'm not her. After a few more minutes of insanity, a girl of about 9 years came to us with a big neon green stuffed dog and asked if she could give it to Gavin. At this point, I didn't care what lesson he was learning, I could have kissed that girl's feet. I talked to the mom of the girl, because, I really didn't want to take the girl's prize, but I just wanted Gavin to stop. I guess somebody gave her a life-sized gorilla to carry around for the rest of the day, and they wanted to share the love. Gavin did, infact, stop crying, and thanked the girl.

Here are some things we learned from all of this:
1. Mike always helps kids play the game
2. One family member playing a game at a time
3. Make your kid eat something more than a giant lollipop and some corn while spending a day at the Fair
4. LOP's must be immediate
5. Avoid the Midway at all costs

We did actually have a great time, tantrum notwithstanding. Some highlights:
*The Miracle of Birth Center (baby farm animals)

*The Giant Slide, The Sky Needle, and the Trampoline (those were the 3 rides we agreed to do because they're part of the tradition)

*Corndogs, cheesecurds, scotch egg, roasted corn, cotton candy (Lilah), Lollipops (E & G), chocolate chip cookies

*Little Farm Hands

*Again, the general enthusiasm toward EVERYTHING

*People Watching

*Big Neon Green Stuffed Dog