"This is Amazing!"

Patrick was adopting a destroyer mode lately. It was as if every toy or art supply was asking him to destroy it, or throw it, or make an absolute mess with it just for the sake of it. He also likes to make his brother upset all the time -on his defense, it's quite easy (and funny) to upset Robbie, so I feel like he doesn't do it to be mean, but he just simply enjoys it in a fun way. Whatever the reason, I had been raising my voice more than usual and getting upset at him too often that I thought we needed a break, in the form of a mommy/son fun time.

So we went to Six Flags.

I figured if we went during the week, it would be less crowded (toddlers aren't fond of waiting 20 minutes in line for a 1 minute ride) so I had him miss a school day and instead I took him on a date to Six Flags. If you know Patrick, you know he doesn't like heights and hates uneven and narrow paths. He can get panicky if he has to walk on a balance beam by himself, or at the edge of a sidewalk. You can see the scare in his eyes when we have attempted to put him on a bike. Even though he is almost 5, he is still really really careful when walking down the stairs or getting out of the car.

Knowing this, we used to think he would hate amusement parks, but before making that call, we let him try and judge for himself. We have made a commitment to not put limits on him just because of his health condition, so I think he had just learned to walk when we took him to a fair for first time. While he hated the carousel (he used to be scared of animals, specially fake animals) he loved the other rides. My husband and I were really amazed at how much he enjoyed his time at the fair, so we take him to fairs or amusement parks every now and then.

I took him last Fall to Six Flags but we couldn't get into too many things as it was more crowded and he was younger. This time, however, he was tall enough to get on some more intense rides (as intense as they can be for children) and those were his favorite ones! There was hardly anybody at the park so there was no waiting time, and we got to ride 2 or 3 times on his favorite ones. We got on about everything that was aimed for his age (luckily there were many rides) spending about 6 hours on a wonderful date.

This is the first time we go on these rides since his vocabulary improved enough to share his feelings. Like I said, I knew he liked these rides, but it was a whole other story to finally hear from him things like "this is amazing!" and "this feels good, mommy!"  while on the roller coasters.

I loved every second of it, even the time when we got stuck on a ride and I imagined ourselves on the local news while being rescued (it was fixed few minutes later without news or rescue team involved!) The great panoramic view from above allowed Patrick to see all the rides near to us, so instead of panicking, he began to point at the rides he wanted to ride next. "I want to ride that one!" "I want that one, too!" "Look, mommy! That one! Thaaaat one!" As he was doing this, I couldn't imagine a better person to be stuck on the ride with.

I loved every second of it, even the time when he cried and cried because he wasn't allowed to go on the crazy big rides for adults. I was happy to see him so upset about it because I'm an adrenaline junkie, or at least I used to be when I was younger, and his father is not and never was. So seeing him so upset about not being able to get on those rides made me feel like he got that from me, that he is like me, and that we can have so much fun at these rides when he grows and is allowed to go on them. I look forward to it already!

It was lovely, refreshing, fun, peaceful, blissful, and all the positive feelings you can think of. Towards the end we played one of those games where you shoot a target with water, and we won 2 superhero capes. He was so excited to win and to wear his cape. As we were leaving, he looked at me and said "mommy, I want to run". I agreed, and he ran and ran so happy with his superhero cape pretending to be a superhero. As I was trying to catch up to his fast running, he came back to me and began to run around me. I told him he was my hero, then he stopped to ask me to put my cape on. I take that as his way of telling me that I'm his hero as well =)

Indeed it was amazing. Indeed it felt good, son. 

You made it so.