They Grow Up So Fast

There was a time and place when I didn’t understand that line. Now here I am using it in casual conversation. How time seems to fly by. It feels like just last month Lexi was born, last week she started walking and yesterday she starting going up and down sets of stairs. At this rate tomorrow she will be starting kindergarten, next week she will be graduating high school, next month she will graduate from college and next year I will have a grandchild. It is almost a frightening thought.

Well here is where I am going with all this. After picking up Lexi from daycare yesterday we needed to go to a couple stores in order to pick up some items. First stop was Babies ‘R’ Us for diapers and wipes. As we drove down Sunset I missed the Stephanie turn and had to continue on Sunset in order to go around the block. This forced us to pass by Sunset Station casino where they had a pumpkin patch, similar to the one we went to with Grandma, in the parking lot. Of course Lexi caught sight of this and just started screaming and hollering. Being on a mission, we just kept on going so I could get our shopping done.

After finishing up at Babies ‘R’ Us we needed to go to Wal-Mart in order to get groceries. Instead of going straight there I decided that we would make a stop at the pumpkin patch we had passed along the way. Remember I had to go around the block in order to get back to Babies ‘R’ Us. Once we pulled up and stop Lexi started going nuts again at the sight of all the lights. We got out and she just started taking it all in. They had pumpkins, rides, jumpers and petting zoo. We walked the entire show in order to take in all that was available. Normally I wouldn’t entertain the idea of paying actual money to throw away on such thing, however as many of you know I am chump when it comes to my baby. So I grudgingly paid the attendants money for tickets to enjoy all there was to enjoy, everyone has a scam but me (wink).

With tickets in had we set off to explore and have whatever fun there was to have. I decided I would start off at the petting zoo. At first Lexi was somewhat afraid of all the animals. They had 4 goats, 2 chickens, 2 ducks, and 3 rabbits. It was funny to watch her just look and look but the minute that one of the goats would start coming her way she would start to get scarred and come running into my arms. This continued for nearly 5 minutes. As I started to demonstrate how it was alright to touch the animals she began to warm to the idea. It was just adorable. She was so gentle when it came to touching them. After being in the pin with these animals for nearly 15 minutes I decided that it was time to continue on. Great thing was right next door they had 5 miniature ponies they were using to give little kids a ride on. She thought that it was just great. Having seen her reaction to the goats I decided that it would be best to let/force her to pass on a ride. However the girl running the pony rides was nice enough to let Lexi and I go in and give them a nice rub. Again Lexi just loved it. Having finished with the animals we ventured out to the rest of the pumpkin patch. One nice feature of the animal features was at the edge of the tent they were using they had several instant hand sanitizers available for your hands. This was a god send as I just can’t seem to keep Lexi’s fingers out of various holes in her head.

The next stop was the choo chooo!! They had a riding lawn mower done up like a steam engine at the entrance to the pumpkin patch. Lexi had seen it earlier however at the time we passed it, it appeared that no one was running the thing. Because of this we decided to move on to the petting zoo. Well now we were back and I wasn’t leaving until my little girl got to ride on the choo choo. What helped my cause was that I wasn’t the only individual with a kid waiting to ride the thing. After about 5 minutes a gentleman appeared asking if we were waiting for a train ride and we all said, ‘Yes’. So we hopped on board and proceeded to ride the choo choo around the entire outer perimeter of the event. Lexi was just having a blast. I continuously told her to wave and say hi to everyone that we saw as we passed them by. She was great the entire ride, never stood up, never squirmed around just absolutely perfect.

The next ride that she insisted on was one which had several little cars that went around in a circle. Looking at these cars I knew there was no way that I was going to be able to physically get into one. I figured that I would take Lexi over put her into one of the cars, strap her in, start to walk away and she would immediately start crying and I would have to retrieve her. What the heck though lets give it a whirl. I gave Lexi three tickets and told her to give them to the nice lady and she would take care of her. So she did exactly as she was told. She took the tickets in hand, walked over to the nice lady and handed her the tickets. The girl then walked with Lexi until she stopped at a car and wanted to get up. Next the girl helped her into the car and made sure that she was all buckled in safely. To my amazement she just sat there. No crying, no wanting out, no…wanting…Daddy?? For a moment I was heart broken. This sadness was immediately replaced by uncontrollable laughter as the ride started moving. She was so excited!! She was driving that car with all her heart. She was go zooming past with just the biggest smile on her face!! Unfortunately for Lexi all good things must come to an end. Once the ride stopped she sat perfectly still until the girl came by, unstrapped her and helped her down. Once she was down on the ground she came and walked right over to me with her head held high and her shoulders thrown back. She was a big girl!!

You know what they say about adrenaline, it is a drug that is easy to get addicted to. Well isn’t that the truth. After the cars we walked around some more and saw another ride. This time it was one that had the swings that would spin around. Again my thoughts were I would take her in there, try to strap her in, start to walk away and she would start crying. Well she wasn’t going to have anything to do with that. She just sat there and was all ready to go. As I finished strapping her in I told her, ‘Now you hold on to this bar baby and don’t you let go.’ As you can barely see in the picture she didn’t. Actually the entire time that she was on the ride she never did. She did such a great job with this ride as well. She went round and round with just a smile from ear to ear on her face. Once the ride came to a stop she waited patiently for me to come get her.

Once we were through with the swings we had a couple tickets left enough for one more ride. I decided to let her go on the cars again as she seemed to have so much fun on them the time before. We finished the car ride and it was time to go. Of course that was a little fight as she didn’t want to leave. Can’t say that I blame her much as we don’t get the opportunity to go out and do things like this often enough. However after a talking to she settled down and we headed off for Wal-Mart in order to finish our shopping. I looked at the clock on my phone and realized that it was nearly 8:00. While at the store we called momma and told her about all the fun that we had.

About time I wrap this up. So here I am sitting here at the office when my phone rings. I take a look down at the screen and see, ‘Childtime Center’. Immediately thoughts start racing through my mind: ‘Did she bite someone?’, ‘Is she sick?’ or ‘Did she crack her head open?’. ‘Mr. Rowe this is (so and so) with Childtime we were calling to let you know that we have been placing Lexi in classroom 3 the past couple days to see how she would like it. It seems that she is doing good so we have decided to go ahead and move her up and we were calling to let you know.’

They grow up so fast.