The Elephants go Marching One by One

We didn’t make plans to go to the circus when it was in our area earlier in the month so I decided that Charlotte might enjoy the elephant walk from the train to the arena.  When she woke up that morning I gave her the option of gonig to music or to see the animals.  She, quickly, replied, “Animals!”  So we got bundled up and headed to the parade route. 

We got there almost an hour before the scheduled time and I expected to be able to wait in the car or maybe drive to Sonic and get a drink after scoping out our best location but when I got there the roads were already packed with kids and parents!  I was thankful that I had dressed Charlotte warmly and brought a blanket along with snacks to keep her occupied.  We found a fairly unoccupied street and set up camp and waited for the elephants.

As you can see Charlotte didn’t really mind waiting and was perfectly content to be bundled up with some goldfish!

The police finally came and blocked off the street and we could see the elephants start to walk towards us.  At that point Charlotte’s happiness turned into wariness and quickly into fear.

As they got closer she tried to scoot farther and farther back into her stroller and started softly saying, “No.”  I reassured her that the elephants wouldn’t hurt her but I had to admit that they were pretty big and got really close!

Of course as they started moving away from us her bravery grew and she started leaning forward to see more of them.

As I turned her stroller around to head back to the car she started saying, “More, more elephants!” and as we got to the car her pleas turned into cries.  I heard “More, more elephants” the entire ride home until I could distract her with lunch.  At least maybe the shock will have worn off by the circus next year or in case we get to see an elephant in Tuscaloosa this year!