After the parade passed us, we all went to the playground to play. One minute, Ira was on the equipment, the next minute, he was nowhere to be seen. Andy, Marilyn and I calmly started looking around, knowing that he couldn't have gone too far because we had all just seen him. But we COULD NOT find him. We yelled his name several times and got no response. At that point my heart started pounding and I got really scared. There weren't very many people in the park yet, but there were enough people there, and enough tents set up with crafts and such, that you couldn't see very far, and we certainly couldn't see Ira. Finally, (after what seemed like forever, but I think it was only a minute or two at the most) I heard Andy yelling that he had found him.
Here's what happened. Ira was playing on this 4 person bouncy thing with 3 other kids and one of the kids' mom. She asked her daughter if she wanted to go see the caboose, and Ira tagged along with them. The caboose is across the sidewalk where all the vendors were lined up with their tents, so obviously we couldn't see him. Luckily when Andy found him, the mom was still with him and said that she realized that he was "lost" so she was going to stay with him until he found his parents. God bless her! We took Ira right home to figure out what to do.
Right or wrong, here is how we handled the situation: on the walk home, Ira just kept saying, "but mom I was on the caboose" - you could tell he didn't get what he'd done or how serious it was. So I asked Ira (about a block from our house) if he could see our mailbox (which is around the corner from our house and where we were walking) He said he could (right!) So I said, let me go to the mailbox, and you see if you can see me. So Ruby and I ran ahead to the mailbox, while Andy stayed with Ira. The whole way to the mailbox, Andy was asking Ira where I was "at the mailbox" was his response. Well, much to his surprise, when they got within sight of the mailbox, Ruby and I were nowhere to be seen. According to Andy, he could feel Ira's grip on his hand tighten and see his face get scared when he couldn't see me. We told him that that was just like how we thought he was at the playground, but when we looked, he wasn't there. And we got scared too.
Then we went inside and sent Ira to his room to think about what he did and why it was wrong. He stayed in there for a good while (and missed making pirate hats - which he'd really been looking forward to, and riding some rides in the meantime.) Finally, Andy and I went in and talked to him about it all. From my perspective, it seems like he understood the gravity of the situation as much as you could expect a 4 year old to. He decided that staying close to us for the rest of the day would be a good idea.
Something like that happening definitely knocks your confidence as a parent down to NOTHING, let me tell you!
When we finally met up with Andy's family at the park, Ira had missed a good hour and a half of fun, which Andy and I felt like was entirely appropriate for the situation.
We ate lunch, then I went home to put Ruby down for a nap while the kids rode the rides, so Andy took lots of pictures for me. Ira and Hayden had a blast riding the carnival rides. Much to all of our surprise, Ira was the daredevil on the "big kid" rides and Hayden was scared. (To give you some perspective, Hayden was the kid who at 1, thought it would be a good idea to jump off of Grandma Orpha's porch pillar- a good 7-8 feet off the ground.) So yeah, it was a surprise for all of us!
Ira and Hayden
Sara was nice enough to ride the "big kid" rides with the boys.
Andy even rode the Sizzler with Ira. (I had an opportunity to later in the day, but was afraid I would puke!)
Notice how trim Andy is getting! He has lost 25 pounds over the last 4 months! I am SO proud of him!
Ira and Hayden got their faces painted. Ira wanted a checkered flag, but the lady told him that she only knew how to make hearts, so he requested a red heart with a pink middle and an orange heart with a brown middle. Hayden got red and blue hearts.
Ira, Andy and I on the Tilt-a-Whirl
I know it's blurry (the camera focused on the bar) but it's the only picture of all three of us on the Tilt-a-Whirl. Have you ever tried taking picture of people on carnival rides? It is NOT EASY!
