A fair time

Yesterday my husband and I decided to take our son to Maker Fair.  I mean why not? It worked out fine last year, he should be better able to enjoy it this year right? Wrong!

Going out in public with a seven month old child is much easier than going to the same venue a year later.  A child who is a scant half year old or younger is likely to sleep though any outing as long as you keep moving which is much simpler to deal with than a child who is able to walk and unable to take a nap because they are over stimulated.

When a small child fails to take their nap in a stroller things can snowball quickly.

The day started out pleasant enough.  We held hands and walked around the fair grounds.  Occasionally holding him but mostly letting him walk.  He smiled at the ladies behind the booth and was basically an advertisement for all things baby.

But as the time for the midday nap came and went without him falling asleep things went to from heavenly to hellish.  We had calmed him down in the tent set aside for nursing babies.  The idea being he would drink some milk, fall asleep, and stay asleep while we pushed him around in a stroller.  Thus allowing us to continue enjoying the fair.

What actually happened was this: he started to drink his milk and make sleepy eyes at me, when another woman came into the tent with her baby.  This baby was crying the cry of a hungry baby.  (So they were in the right place.)  But when my son heard another baby crying he started to cry too.  And suddenly milk was no-longer being accepted.

So we removed our squalling child in hopes that we would be able to walk him to sleep...

Well we were able to walk him to calm.  But he was getting heavy and I needed a break.  So I handed him off to his dad.  At which point our son, who seems to think it's not nap time without mommy, lost it.

And so the rest of the day went. We got close to coaxing him into napping a number of times while at the fair.  But for the most part he was just grumpy about being there.  He eventually did nap... on the car ride home.  We called it early because going on an outing to have fun with a grumpy baby simply isn't fun.

So when it comes to this sort of activity infants are more fun to have around than toddlers.