Circus FAIL

I am probably the only mother who was not in a hurry to take the boys to the circus. Don't get me wrong I love the circus. I also felt like lil'G would love it as well, but dear, sweet, lovable W is very much susceptible to sensory overload. He always has been. He's never liked loud noises. He loves firetrucks but won't get near them. He was well over 3 before he would try inflatable bouncies or slides, because he didn't like the noise. He was overwhelmed by the crowd on the Quad before the UA/Penn State game. He loves, and I do mean *loves*, the Zoo and the animals, but if they even hint of coming up, he moves as far away as he can as fast as he can.

You can see why I wasn't in a hurry to take him to the circus. But also, I wanted him to love it when I did take him.

So, when I heard that they march the Circus elephants from the train to the Civic center, I thought that, perhaps, this would be something they would both love. Last Tuesday, despite the rain and cold, we went to see the elephants in a much more demurred setting and we had a ton of fun!

Where are they?

Snacks make the time go past.

And, the Cheetos make us look like clowns.

Here they come!

And, there they go!

After seeing the elephants, all W could talk about was going to the Circus. Oh my! I had my hesitations, but after scoring free tickets for the boys and getting discounted tickets for us, we were going to the circus!

I prepped W will all day regarding the noise and the crowds. He was prepared and so excited.

So excited to go in!

Enjoying the pre-show

See the clowns!

And we lasted all of 45 minutes - 25 minutes pre-show and 20 minutes into the show before asking me non-stop if we could go home. When the clowns juggled fire, we had our first mini-meltdown. S took him out to buy popcorn hoping to get him to calm down, but when they started walking back to our seats, W melted into the floor crying togo home. S got him to me and there I sat trying to calm him down.

Lil'bit, on the other hand, sat in his seat with the jumbo tub of popcorn (aka pop-pop as he called it), eating it as fast as he could, and yelling "YAY" every five minutes.

We had several more attempts to calm big boy down, including me walking him around the entire arena and culminating with him sitting close to me with my hands covering his eyes and ears. When the fire and cannons shot off signaling the men walking the hamster cages, the crying and hysterics reached epic proportions and I waved the white flag because I knew there would be no calming down and enjoyment after that.

With all of that said, I still have hopes of W one day loving the Circus. Perhaps, we will try again in a couple of years... or thirty.