The Fair!

I honestly was not aware that it could be so much fun to watch Roman having so much fun at the fair. If this is what Disneyland is like, then I am so ready to go! Marc took Friday morning off so that we could head over to the San Diego Fair, and we had a blast. The day started with a bit of a delay, because apparently the fair doesn't open until 11am even though the parking lot opens at 8am, and all of the articles that I read about it said that the fair opened at 10am. So we had some time to kill because we got there right at 10. But once the gates finally opened, we were off!! We knew that the monster trucks would be there that day, so we wandered over to the arena to see if they were out. When we walked through the arena there were a couple of construction trucks preparing the track/in field area, and Roman wanted to sit and watch for a while. We figured it was his day, so we sat in the empty grandstands and watched them push the dirt around for a bit. As soon as Roman was ready to go, we headed over to the actual monster trucks. Roman seemed less impressed, but I think it was because they weren't moving, so he was just a bit "meh" about seeing them, and he wanted to go back to watch the construction trucks at work.

After the monster trucks, we walked over to the kiddie area. First stop once we got over there: funnel cakes. Oh funnel cakes, you are so delicious. The only thing I every really go to the fair for is the food, and 11:30am seemed like the perfect time to start sugar-loading my body... poor Livia; she had no say in the matter. That day we shared a funnel cake, a lemonade, some chili-cheese fries, a chicken tender sandwich, a sno-cone, and a deep-fried Snickers bar. So, not that bad, but it was a lot of sugar for all of us, especially considering that we were only there for two and a half hours. Marc and I couldn't even finish the deep-fried Snickers bar, and I really didn't want Roman to have any of it... I thought that that may have pushed him over the edge.

After the funnel cake it was time for some carnival games. We played darts, and we sucked at it, but the guy gave Roman a prize anyway... it was actually a nice prize: a little cow faux-pillow-pet. Roman was so happy to carry that around, until we got to the next game where there were Thomas and Friends pillowy trains to be won. It's the easiest game ever; you just scoop ducks out of the moving water with a little net, and the size of your prize is indicated on the bottom of said ducks. I am guessing that the prize ratio is something like 85:10:5 for small, medium, and large, but hey, it's cheap and easy, so who am I to complain? Anyhoo, we played a quick game and won a medium toy and two small toys, but as we walked away, Roman saw the trains. We asked the guy how much it would take to win a train, and he told us to grab another small toy from the bin, and then come back. If we played the "7 ducks" level (purchasing seven ducks instead of three or five), then he could guarantee that we would win a train. So we did as we were told (thanks for the free small prize super helpful carnival worker guy!), and we walked away. Well, Roman would have none of that. He wasn't fussy or crying; he just kept making train sounds (Rome says "woo-woo" instead of "choo-choo") and making the train motion with his arm (we taught him to make the hand gesture that you make when trying to get a semi-truck to honk as his sign for "trains"), so we knew we had to go back. He just looked so desperate to go back and get a train. So we headed right back over and played again, the "7 ducks" version, and just like that, Roman was the proud winner of James the train from Thomas and Friends. He was so excited. So those were Rome's big winnings of the day: a cow pillow and a train pillow. And those toys made for a happy toddler, let me tell you.

Because we were in bit of a time crunch (Marc had to get back to work for a meeting, so we couldn't stay for more than a few of hours, and we lost an hour waiting for the fair to open), we quickly headed for the rides after we played a couple of games. There were only a few rides that Roman could actually go on, and he had to ride all of them with an adult. Since pregnant ladies are not allowed on the rides, this meant that Marc had to cram on to each ride with Roman. The first was a little train that went in a small circle, but it was big enough for them to sit side-by-side, so that wasn't too bad, but the next ride, which I think was Roman's favorite, was a lot smaller and had cars suspended in the air on these mechanical arms so that they could go up and down. The second Marc stepped into the car, it dropped down pretty far. He looked at me laughing and clearly unsure of whether it was going to work, and I said, "Just get on; they said it would be okay." And he did, and it was fine, but we would be lying if we didn't say that their car clearly had a harder time going up and down than the ones with only kids. I don't think it was really meant to hold an adult, but it worked, and Roman laughed and yelled and kept saying, "vroom!" the entire time. It was a hoot to watch him on that ride. So much fun. Next up was the helicopter ride, which was good, but Marc said that it was a bit nauseating, and then the last ride of the day was another car ride, which was more tickets, but clearly not as fun for Roman. I think it was just too loud for him, and the kids behind him kept turning the sirens on their cars, which is what you're supposed to do, but I think it was a bit overwhelming for Romey. So we finished up in the kiddie area, grabbed the rest of our crappy fair food, and went home. I wish that we had had a bit more time, because I would have loved to have let Rome get on a few more rides, but there's always next year.

I figure that while I am working on this entry, I need to mention a couple of things that did not make it into the June in Review post. 1. Roman told his first story. It was while we were eating at Stone for Father's Day; a fly came out of nowhere and hit Roman in the eye. He grabbed his eye and said, "boom," so I looked over and asked what had happened. Marc told me about the fly, and I asked Roman if he was okay because he was still holding his eye. He looked at me, and brought his hand down from his eye and then made a swirly motion with his hand, and then brought his hand back up to his eye and grabbed it and said, "boom!" I laughed and said, "Yeah. That fly boomed you in the eye, didn't it?" And for the rest of dinner he would recount the story of the fly through his gestures and "booming." It was really funny, and you could tell that it was quite an experience for Roman because he told us the same story for a couple days afterward. I was impressed by his story telling technique, but now he seems to have forgotten about it, which is why I really need to get better about recording these kinds of things.

2. Roman became a professional model. I had a study day planned with my friend Len a couple weeks ago, and Marc ended up having a three-day photo-shoot that started the same day, but he told me that he would just take Roman with him so that I could go work on my thesis. So Rome got to hang out on the set with Marc all day, eating, playing, getting into everything... you know, toddler stuff. I guess at the end of the day they were shooting pictures of this "family," and the photographer said something to the effect of, "Gee. I wish we had booked one more kid," and all eyes apparently turned to Marc. Marc realized that everyone was looking at him, and asked, "What?" and the photographer asked if Marc would mind having Roman in a few of the shots. Romey got cleaned up and had his hair done by the professional stylist and was put to work. The child-model-agent lady was still there and told Marc how impressed she was with Roman, especially since he hadn't napped all day long, and it was about 4pm by this time, so I guess Rome did his job well. And that's the story of how Roman became a professional model. Some of his photographs will be used in the new campaign for Ashford, but I don't know which or where or when just yet. I only have one of the professional photos right now, but as soon as I have more I will post them (as long as I get permission to do so). So here's a picture of Roman playing around the set followed by the professional one. He looks so adorable!