The Carousel...A Tear Filled Saga

Since we celebrated Nikolai's birthday early, I figured we should do something special on his actual birthday.  I had planned an outing which included lunch with Anwar, the zoo and...the very special first carousel ride.

Lunch was nice (very good Vietnamese food), but the rest of the day did not go quite as planned.

It was crappy outside.  By crappy I mean it was overcast, grey and just on the verge of some huge storm.  I considered still going to the zoo, but figured that my luck with Murphy's Law is not that great.  To avoid the potential downpour, we decided on the mall for our birthday fun instead.

I am fortunate enough to live near a mall with an amusement park inside (yes, the great mall of america - which once you live here for a while is more annoying than anything else).  We got to the mall, purchased our ride tickets and headed for the carousel.  I mean, if we could not see zoo animals, I sure as hell was going to take Nikolai on his super special first carousel ride.

Well, somebody did not pass along the special carousel ride memo to Nikolai.  These are the only pictures I got of him before he started crying and wanted to get off.  Despite my attempts, he was done.  He did not care about the horse - or the ride - or my feelings apparently (haha). 

At least Noelle had a fun time, right?

Right....

Anyway, I went and bought the kids cookies instead. Nikolai seemed to like that much more.  And I did get a few smiles out of him that day too...just not on the carousel.

yes, that is totally drool.

and even more drool.

Love my 1 year old :)