The first time, Namine went with my mom and sister. She got to see a chick hatching (she discovered they don’t come out all fluffy like on TV), rode some rides by herself, and got a cheese cowboy hat.
The second time, she went with Jessica, her cousin Olivia, and a couple of her aunts. She saw the pig races, got an iSacra temporary tattoo, and got lots and lots of sun.
Last night — the third time she’d been to the fair — Jessica and I took her. Even with having had three days to explore, there’s much more at the fair she wanted to see.
Shortly after arriving at the fair, we saw some poor soul in a full-body corn costume. (Roasted corn, indeed.) Namine wanted to get my picture with him (or her).
We sampled all kinds of food — some good, some not so good. It was pretty warm out, so we also explored the air-conditioned expo. Jessica rested her feet, and Namine rested her arms.
We visited my sister, working at the outside window selling potatoes. It was a pretty slow day, as far as potato-selling goes, so Namine visited with her aunt when there were no people.
After eating our baked potatoes (which, to our relief, were not laden with salt, the way potato skins sometimes are), we got some ice cream.
I do this thing whenever I give Namine a bite of my own food. As she opens her mouth, I open my mouth — it’s involuntary, and I find it amusing that she does it too.
As it was getting late in the day, there weren’t very many animals still out for people to see. Fortunately, there were still some calves, and Namine got to pet one. She said it was surprisingly fuzzy.
As the day wound to a close, we made our way to where the rides were. Namine had already gotten to ride quite a few, in her previous visits to the park, but that was no reason to skip them this time around.
Namine had told me that she wanted to ride the ferris wheel with me, but upon seeing it up close, she changed her mind. She opted instead to go on the rides that stayed on the ground.
One ride that I did accompany her on was the carousel. When she went with my sister, they sat on a bench. I, however, can lift Namine onto the horses. She held onto the bar, and I held onto her.
As it turned out, the carousel was much faster than the one at the zoo. Namine didn’t like that one bit. She didn’t cry, but she let out this wail. I told her I wouldn’t let any harm come to her, to focus on feeling my hands on her. She took some deep breaths, just like we’ve done other times she’s been scared. She calmed down, but she told me she still didn’t like it. I said that was fine.
Before we left the amusement area, we played some games. Jessica and I competed in one of those machine-gun games where you have to shoot out an entire picture. Neither one of us got it — although both of us nearly got it, we were not playing horseshoes or hand grenades, so we didn’t win anything.
Namine showed off her throwing arm by popping balloons. The vendor running the game went a little easy on her, giving her some extra free throws, but no one won her anything — she won the giant stuffed frog all on her own.
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