Nolan’s Day at the Circus

Nolan made his second trip to the circus today. He’s been really bored lately because Mel and I have been distracted with all the house buying/selling fun. It was good to have something we could do just for him. He deserved it. He also got to see my side of the family this weekend. A visit from Gran & Poppy always cheers him up. Unfortunately, they always have to go, which usually results in what Mel has named Nolan’s “ugly” cry.

Where was I? Oh yeah. Circus. Right.

In addition to being a spectacle of sights and sounds, the circus is a modern marvel of consumerism. Vegas has nothing on the circus. From the moment you arrive, you are faced with booth after booth after booth of the loudest and brightest merchandise on the planet. The most brilliant thing I saw was a movable booth for selling programs. Rather than set up in a stationary spot, the guy selling programs wheels his booth to wherever the people are and barks at them, carnival style, through his ShamWow! microphone. We were the proud owners of a program and a plastic four-wheeler before we made it to our seats. (It’s worth noting that there are not any four-wheelers in the actual circus, but that fact did not deter Nolan a bit.) He held on to the four-wheeler throughout the circus and all the way home.

When asked what his favorite part of the circus was, Nolan responded, “the four-wheeler.” That being said, he really did have a good time, but started fading — just like his parents — toward the end. For the most part, he was glued to all of the acts. Oddly, the tigers were completely unable to hold his attention. He started reading the program to see what came next. He loved the clowns and the FLYING MOTORCYCLES OF DOOM (I don’t think that’s their official name, but that’s what I like to call them.).

Early in the show, my lifelong, paralyzing fear of clowns was put to the test when one of them appeared out of nowhere in the row in front of us. If Melanie hadn’t pointed him out, I wouldn’t have known he there. Somehow, he had managed to lie down across several seats in the empty row in front of us. Had the clown looked like the one from Stephen King’s IT, I might have died of a heart attack right there in my seat. Fortunately, he looked more like a Disney-fied version of a clown than the old Bozo-style clown, so I was able to keep my cool in front of my four-year old son.Hooray for small victories!

This was the first time all three of us were able to attend an event like this together, and it might be the last time before Griffin is old enough to join us at these things. I’m glad we got one more in with just Nolan.

Click here to see some pictures from the circus.