Carny Boy

I realized recently, while enjoying the drive to a local carnival, that I am going to worry myself exhausted, trying to be the Mom I want to be. Evidently, I want to be the Mom that makes sure her son has something fun, exciting and unexpected to do nearly every day. I want his Summer to be filled with so much fun. I want him to have a wealth of personal experience to draw on when he goes to school. I want him to know that life is meant to be enjoyed. I want him to spend as little time on the couch as possible.....Okay, and I want to be able to scrap it all. Naughty, huh?

With that desire to make sure my little three-year-old leads the fullest life possible, I started to panic a bit. I had wanted to take him to a pancake breakfast at a local airport the next day, Sunday... in addition to planning and shopping for dinners for the upcoming week, knocking out a couple loads of laundry, sanitizing the bathroom (again!), picking up some more printer ink so I can have a ton of pictures to put on scrappy pages...AND work in a nap and enough play time that he still knows he's loved. The weekends are when I wish for more hours in a day because the time is more precious to get things done and make life worth living. The weekends are when I long for Super Mom status and easily fall short.

While we did not make it to the airport breakfast on Sunday -- I had realized at the last minute that he would have been painfully bored and constantly trying to ride in the planes all morning -- we did make the most of the time we had....grocery shopping, napping and watching a new movie.

At Saturday's carnival, I took well over 200 photos. In the humidity that comes with temps near 90, he road the rides over and over and over again.

When he needed a grown up along for the ride, he either got his Daddy, his Mommy or my mother-in-law, Gramma Cam'ra.

We fueled up on hot dogs, french fries, rootbeer floats and water.

We spent an entire hour at the city playground that was backed against the carnival grounds.

I took time to appreciate the art, beauty, charm and childhood memories triggered by Merry Go Round music.

We also learned how one successfully continues potty training in a porta potty...but no worries. I didn't take any photos of that. Score!

....I guess my closing thought, and what I want to take away from all my own nonsense, is that life is what you make of it....Fun Rocks the Casbah. But taking moments to breathe and reflect will help me appreciate it so much more.