I thought I had it all. I’ve become accustomed to thinking ahead. That’s what you do when you’ve got kids, or cranky adults. You prepare.
Festival of Books
The Festival of Books. It’s a huge event with massive crowds of book loving people who also like freebies and samples from the corporate sponsors. I’ve gone just about every year for the past eight years. But now that I have a three-year old and a nine-month old. The trip becomes more like a mission to avoid any meltdown from any child.
Coppertone Water Babies UVA/UVB Sunscreen 50 SPF.
Three Cuties oranges.
One container of Gerber Puffs.
Two juice boxes.
Three pacifiers.
Two sippy cups of water.
One bottle of milk.
One apple.
One banana.
One Clif Kid Bar Z Crispy Chocolate Chip.
Two Clif Kid Z Fruit Ropes
One peanut butter and banana sandwich.
One diaper bag filled with baby essentials.
I thought I had it all, but it was out of my control.
After a meltdown-free morning of construction, train, and dinosaur book exploring, arts and crafts doing, and music loving under a blistering heat for three hours, we encountered the balloon. We had it for five minutes. The red balloon from the Chinese Dragon stall. Then it popped. Thin layer I guess.
I saw it coming. I got the look and then the shoulders slumped. The eyes got watery, the lower lip did the I’m-about-to-cry pucker. Then his voice cracked, and I knew it was coming.
I forgot to pack an extra balloon.
The crowd at The Festival of Books.
No worries we’ll get another one. After fifteen minutes of weaving in and out through the crowds, we found the stall. Sweet. No one was in line. However no one was in line for a reason. No more balloons.
I got the look and the shoulder slump …
I saw someone with a purple Scooby-Doo balloon. We raced back through massive pedestrian traffic past the Mystery Machine and found the chick passing out the balloons. There was no red. Just Mystery Machine colors.
Scooby-Doo Balloon
“Green. Mom. Green is my favorite. Red is no good.”
So after three Cuties oranges, one banana, one apple, half a peanut butter sandwich, two juice boxes, two bags of Cheerios, one container of puffs most of which trailed behind us courtesy of the baby, one bottle of milk, one Clif Bar Z Crispy Chocolate Chip, and two Clif Kid Z Fruit Ropes, it was the green balloon to the rescue.
We lost one sippy cup and two pacifiers in the process, but the green Scooby-Doo balloon is still in tact.
The green balloon that saved us floats among the crowd.
Note to self: pack an extra balloon.
The Wish Factor 