Circus Fun

The daycare took the kids to a small circus on Wednesday morning. I didn't want to miss seeing Christian experience this for the first time. I took the morning off of work, packed up another car seat and kid and followed the caravan of cars to the big top.  It really was an actual tent put up in a parking lot!

We got there about 20 minutes early and the daycare owner is so smart, she brought bananas for all the kids. Worked like a charm!  It kept them occupied and not hungry so they were all in a good mood. A clown was playing the audience, this side clap, that side clap, who's the loudest.....the kids had fun with this the first five minutes but after that they were ready to move on to the next thing.

Christian kept asking me when the animals, especially the horses, were going to come out. I said, "in a minute," because that is my standard answer to him and I get by with it (for now) because he has no idea how long one minute really is. Of course, once he learns, I'm in trouble :)  So this was working for a bit, until I realized the older kids in front of us were listening and strongly stated that "it's been longer than one minute, the horses aren't here, are you sure you really know?" Well no I don't know smarty pants.  By a stroke a sheer luck, the lights dimmed at just that moment and the show began. I resisted the urge to stick my tongue out at that kid :)

The kid's faces lit up, they sat up as straight and tall as they could so they could see, and many of them clutched their hands together in barely contained excitement.  I felt a huge smile spread across my face.  Christian sat on my lap so he could see better and periodically he would turn around and say excitedly, "CIRCUS! CIRCUS!"  I spent more time watching his face than the show. 

It was a small show that was a prelude to the bigger circus, so it didn't have the big animals or events.  It had trick horses, clowns, trick dogs, gymnasts, jugglers and a couple of high wire acts.  It was a little over an hour long which was perfect for little kids.  They did the gymnasts and jugglers first, which bored Christian, he kept asking me,"horses? horses?" My standard response, "they're coming in a minute."  Finally a little pony came trotting out and he squealed!  Then a big horse came out and did the tricks with the clown, then tandem horses with people standing on their backs. He was SO happy and excited and just kept saying over and over, "OH! Horses, horses. OH! OH!"  I thought that would be his highlight.....until the little fluffy trick dogs came out. They were adorable, jumping around, up on stands, through hoops, down a slide, etc.  Christian was pointing at them, mouth opening and closing like a fish, breathing like he's just getting ready to say something. His eyes were bright with excitement and amazement at the tricks the dogs were doing.

After the other acts and the ride home, he kept chattering, "back, horses, back."  He wanted to go back and see the horses again.  I went back to work and when I picked him up at the end of the day, he asked to go see the horses again!  Then he asked me again this morning, to go see the horses.  Uh oh!  My sister has a horse, but it doesn't do tricks :)  I am just so happy that the people who run this daycare make the tremendous effort to organize events like these for the kids.  This is such a great place and I am so thankful to my friend Julie who told me about it and put in a good word for me with the owners.  Christian loves it there, so I love it there :)
~Amy