May & I spent mid-day Wednesday walking around the State Fair and sitting at the Strib booth. Unfortunately we didn’t get to meet any Cribsheeters. We did, however, hand out a LOT of maps, moist towelettes and made several motherly observations while we sat there on Carnes Ave:

Leashes:

They didn’t seem as prevalent as in years past. But kids on leashes are usually spotted at the Fair. The sight used to make me cringe pre-kid. Now as a parent, it still kind of does, but now I “get it”.  All it took was one harrowing moment at a store when Ben dashed under a clothing round and I couldn’t find him for a split second. That heart in my throat panic feeling really made me “get it.” Luckily our guy is still content in a stroller. The first thing we saw when we entered the grounds was a little girl with a “kinder, gentler leash”. More like a stuffed monkey harness. (see  this link from - SF Gate’s baby blog “the Poop” had quite the discussion last year on the topic here.  Stuffed monkey harness and all. What are your thoughts - tether or not?

Strollers:

We saw just about every version of stroller stroll on by as we sat at the booth. Umbrella strollers, wagons, dual sit-stand, dual facing eachother, dual side-by-side, dual stacked on eachother, the Bjorn/stroller combo. We even saw a stroller used for the sole purpose of food and condiment holder. Tubs of ketchup and sauce lined up - and of course those cup-holders come in handy for mini-donuts and the cups o’ fries. Also not a bad place to put the huge animals you spent $75 to win at the Midway.

Rides:

We saw many rides that we would not go on. Me, I was glad to have a built-in excuse not to. May, said she would bungee, or go on that big scary spinny thing in a previous life. But not now that she has kids. Hmm, maybe the big slide…

Miracle of Birth Building:

Of course we headed straight to this building as our first field trip. Walking through this barn - (btw: leave your strollers OUTSIDE it gets crowded) May and I both felt great empathy for the heavy breathing livestock. We could relate to the throngs of people watching us labor and deliver. I swear I had 12 interns on step stools shining a spotlight on my downstairs. And May had many relatives, doctors and nurses swirling around the room with her. The sheep and cows, they get crowds sitting in bleachers as they bellow and pant. No epidurals for these gals. We saw one ewe definately having contractions and doing some serious Lamb-aze breathing. It is an educational building - we learned gestational periods for various animals, and gosh a sheeps stomach sure is big. I don’t know, I think I’d rather just see nature specials than watching these births live and in person.

Butterfly House:

A sweet photo on the front page of the Strib featuring a butterfly on a little kid’s face intrigued me and I wanted to visit. But then I read the discussion on buzz.mn of it. I changed my mind. I thought the butterflies were lovely in theory but- best not to see the carnage. I’ll leave the Broken Wings to Mr. Mister. (sorry I will take any and every opportunity to make a bad reference to 80’s music).

We don’t have our photos yet but I’ll post them as soon as we get them. How about you any additional parental observations or tips you’d like to share from the Fair?

This entry was posted on Friday, August 31st, 2007 at 2:09 pm and is filed under Main, Things to Do. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.