Fair Parade

As written earlier, later on Sunday the family went to my hometown to see its fair parade.  On the way to the parade Alyce feel asleep in the car about five minutes before we parked.  Mom and I thought she needed the nap so Mom loaded up the stroller with the folding chairs, baby bag, and Luke then pushed it all up a hill to the parade route while I carried Alyce.  In my opinion there is nothing cuter than a child that has fallen asleep on their parent's shoulder.  I don't get to enjoy that very much as Alyce always wants to see what is going on and rarely ever takes a nap while out in public.  Sadly, I had to wake Alyce up from her slumber.

I woke Alyce up because the parade had started and I didn't want her to sleep through the entire thing.  I figured the police cars, color guard, and motor cycles would have been enough to wake her but I was wrong; she slept right through.  Once I nudged Alyce awake she was wide awake and ready to go.  She was generally interested in all of the floats going by and even waved to a few of them with my encouragement.  This parade also held a new surprise for her, candy.  We gave Alyce a bag and she and I moved to the front of the spectators to await the surgery goodness that was sure to come.  When the first person dropped some candy into her bag Alyce didn't really know what to think about it.  She looked at the candy, at me, and then Mom not really sure what to do with it.  After a few handfuls we moved back to where Mom was feeding Luke.  We gave Alyce a tootsie roll from her bag of booty and a second.  Alyce did continue to ask for more candy but we kept her to two.  Her disappointment didn't last though as Alyce received another prize.

I don't think we were even close to the front row but a representative of a float for the local hospital seeked us out and gave Alyce a multicolor full size plastic slinky.  The parade could have ended at that point and Alyce wouldn't have minded.  She stretched, bounced, and swung her new toy all over creation.  Her toy time experience was enhanced because she was riding on my shoulders and six feet of slinky stretchiness is much more fun than two.  I enjoyed having Alyce on my shoulders.  It is one of those things that only dads get to do.  Before we even had Alyce I would see other dads hoist their kids on high and I knew that being a dad was for me.

As the parade drug on for 2+ hours eventually we closed up shop and met Grandma or as Alyce likes to call her (last name omitted) Grams for dinner.  We weren't able to see Grandma earlier as she was managing her own float in the parade.  By time time we met for dinner it was coming up on 8:00.  Alyce, bless her heart was a trooper.  She had an action packed day, limited naps, large gaps between meals, and didn't complain a bit.  Mom and I really enjoyed our day with her and days like these are why we became parents.